"Now Barcelona is in the lead! And more importantly, they also have an away goal! How will Nottingham Forest fight back? Tony Twain is not in the technical area. He's always best at improvising … "
The commentator's worries were also those of the Nottingham Forest fans. Beside Twain, John, Bill and the others all turned to look at him, as if wanting him to take the lead.
Unexpectedly, Twain looked at the pairs of expectant eyes and laughed. "Why are you looking at me? I'm not on the sidelines."
"You can use our mouths, Tony," John said, pointing to his own mouth.
Twain shook his head. "We've considered all the possible scenarios before the match, including the situation of conceding a goal. Although I think the possibility is small … it looks like Piqué is in high spirits …"
"Then have you thought of any countermeasures?" the impatient Bill asked.
"No." Twain continued to shake his head.
"Tony …"
"Haha!" Twain laughed. "Actually, Barcelona's goal had some element of luck. They did not gain control of the match. Other than this corner kick, they had no real chance to threaten our goal. So, we have to make some adjustments. We just have to continue attacking at our pace. Barcelona's weakness in defense will not improve because of this goal. So, I'm not worried … "
"But if we want to directly advance now, we need to score two more goals, Tony …"
"Is it difficult to score two goals?" Twain asked.
This time, he managed to get everyone's attention. Two goals was indeed very difficult, but why was Tony Twain so confident?
Twain did not explain further. He wanted to watch the match now.
※ ※ ※
In fact, Barcelona's morale was greatly boosted after the goal. They surrounded Nottingham Forest's goal and attacked for a while, but they did not get any decent chances in front of Nottingham Forest's defense. Just as Tang En had said, this goal was just good luck.
Soon, Nottingham Forest chased Barcelona back. Now, for them, there were still 25 minutes left. They needed to score a goal to ensure that they would not be eliminated within 90 minutes. If they wanted to directly advance, they had to score at least two goals.
For a typical team, facing Barcelona, this might be an impossible task. But for Nottingham Forest, nothing was impossible.
They had the right timing, the right location and the right people. It would be inexcusable if they lost again!
After watching for a while, Tang En said to the people beside him in the stands, "Let them boldly press forward. Barcelona is at the end of its tether."
As a result, a song rang out from the north stands, "Forest, forest, charge forward! Barcelona is finished! Forest, Forest, Forest pressed forward! Barcelona can't do it anymore! "
They sang it over and over again. When the Nottingham Forest players knew that the singing came from the north stands, they all knew who it was …
When Joe Mattock and Nkoulou, the two full backs, boldly pressed forward, the singing finally disappeared.
Tang En high-fived the people around him and thanked them for their help. "Well done, guys!"
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest's oppressive attack forced Barcelona to have no time to worry about attacking. Perhaps they themselves thought it was better to defend until the end of the game under such circumstances. That way, they would eliminate Nottingham Forest with a total score of 3: 2 and advance to the top four.
Soon, Nottingham Forest was awarded a free kick in the danger zone. The Barcelona players were very nervous. They knew that set pieces were the key to this kind of game. As a result, the human wall that was lined up was deliberately very close to the football. When the referee was not paying attention to them, they slowly took small steps forward.
Tang En frowned in the stands. "They might as well just line up the human wall in front of the football!"
This time, without waiting for his instructions, the fans in the north stands began to shout in unison, "The human wall is too close! The human wall is too close! "
They did not care if the referee could understand them. In any case, they wanted to create some different sounds. Their shouts were accompanied by a lot of boos.
The Nottingham Forest players also noticed Barcelona's small movements. They pulled back the referee and motioned for him to pay attention to the position of Barcelona's human wall — it had moved forward about a meter from its original position …
The referee turned around and motioned for Barcelona's human wall to move back. The Barcelona players dilly-dallied and were unwilling to move. They also indicated that their position was correct.
The referee knew that words alone were not enough. He had to show evidence to prove that Barcelona's human wall was indeed not standing far enough. As a result, he began to walk toward the human wall from the penalty spot. One step was one yard. The distance between a standard free kick and the human wall should be ten yards (9.15 meters), which was ten steps.
As he began to walk, Tang En and the other fans in the north stands counted down for the Barcelona players who did not know how to count.
"One! Two! Three! Four! "
As they counted, more and more fans joined the camp, and for a moment, the City Ground stadium was filled with the loud sound of counting.
"… Five! Six! Seven! "
The Barcelona players could not hold it in anymore. Even if they did not understand English, they still knew what the simplest words, "One Two Three," meant.
Without waiting for the referee to walk in front of them, they began to retreat one by one.
This referee was really cute. Even if Barcelona's human wall moved back, he did not stop there. Instead, he continued to walk. So the Nottingham Forest fans in the stands also continued to count. They must embarrass Barcelona.
"Eight! Nine! Ten —!! "
After counting to "ten," loud cheers rang out in the stands. The Forest fans were celebrating the victory in the battle with Barcelona. Even the commentator could not help but laugh at the scene.
Finally, the referee's position overlapped with the position of Barcelona's human wall. He walked back and signaled for the Forest team to prepare for a free kick.
Bentley's free kick bypassed the human wall and went straight to the top corner of the goal. It was quite threatening! Unfortunately, it was pounced on by the focused Valdés, forming a corner.
Kerslake waved his hand off the field to signal Woodgate and Kompany to both go up. Nkoulou, as a full back with a height of 1.88 meters, also squeezed to the front of the goal to fight for a header. Joe Mattock was the shortest in the rear defensive line, so he retreated to defend near the center circle.
After Nottingham Forest's corner kick was sent out, Nkoulou waited for the ball, but he headed the ball off course due to interference. The football brushed against the goalpost and flew out, scaring all the Barcelona people to the point of holding their breath.
※ ※ ※
"Barcelona is all back to defend and allowing Nottingham Forest to pass the ball back and forth in front of our penalty area. This is a very dangerous thing … I don't understand why Guardiola arranged it this way!" The Catalan commentator was very dissatisfied with the current situation. Barcelona was playing so pathetically that it was a disgrace to the Catalan people.
But he was the typical example of someone who stood and talked. If he went down to play, he would know that Guardiola had no choice but to do so.
On such a pitch, the Barcelona players simply could not play a good offensive coordination. If they relied on the star players' individual skills, it would be easy to fall into the quagmire of the Forest team's collective defense. If they could hold on to this one-goal advantage, why not?
When the game entered the 70th minute, Guardiola looked at the watch on his wrist. He was only twenty minutes away from victory.
Nottingham Forest launched another attack. The Forest fans in the stands were singing, "We need to score! We need to score! Our desires are not satisfied, quickly satisfy us with your goals!! "
When Bentley took the ball on the flank, he was still more than ten meters away from the penalty area and looked unthreatening. Therefore, Lahm did not rush up immediately because he wanted a place where Agbonlahor inserted diagonally behind him. And Yaya Touré and the others were also paying attention to Tiago and George Wood. In short, no one thought that Bentley, who was so far away from the penalty area, was a threat. If he wanted to go down, he would face Lahm's defense. If he passed the ball, Yaya Touré would defend in the middle.
Bentley chose a way that no one thought of to create a threat — he lifted his leg on the spot and directly passed the ball from near the midfield to the penalty area!
One must know that at this time, the player at the front, Aaron Mitchell, was still outside the penalty area. What was the point of his pass like this?
The football was not passed to the front of the goal. In fact, it was still as far as the penalty area from the goal …
Aaron Mitchell sprinted forward when Bentley passed the ball. Piqué followed closely behind him. This time, because of Bentley's sudden pass, Puyol did not follow in time. With only Piqué by his side, Mitchell was confident that he could win the fight for the top.
But even if he won the fight for the ball, what could he do? He did not have a teammate around him who could support him … Piqué began to focus on the defense of the second point of contact. He observed that Agbonlahor, who was closest to Mitchell, was on the right. Was he going to ferry the ball over?
After confronting for most of the game, Piqué believed that the big man did indeed have that ability. His header was really strong.
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
When Mitchell looked back to confirm the direction of the football, he turned his head to look at the situation around him. He found that there was no Barcelona defensive player in front of him except for the goal and the goalkeeper, Valdés. Is this not a good time to shoot?
The distance is too far? I don't know where I am now! All I saw was a huge goal and a goalkeeper who was standing slightly forward … …
Mitchell, who had made up his mind to shoot, sprinted high and opened his arms like a glider to block Piqué behind him. Now, no one could interfere with him …
"Mitchell's header … Is this a shot?"
The commentator could not believe it. Mitchell's position was still outside the penalty area. To be precise, he was at the top of the penalty arc.
Mitchell jumped very high. He even had time to adjust his body posture in the air so that he was facing the direction of the football. Then he swung his head hard to nudge the football. The football drew an arc in the air that could only be kicked by his feet. It bypassed Valdés, who was standing a little forward, and hung to the far corner of the goal …
Piqué, who was behind Mitchell, could not believe his eyes — Mitchell actually chose to directly head the ball to the goal from outside the penalty area!
What made him even more incredulous was that the ball actually went in!
Valdés stood a little outside when Bentley passed the ball. He originally wanted to intercept the pass. He did not expect Bentley's pass to have a wide arc. It turned into the penalty area and then turned out. He knew that the goal of the ball was Mitchell, but he did not expect Mitchell to dare to head the ball from so far away …
He could not react in time and jumped in a hurry. How could he stop the ball?
"What a beautiful goal! How incredible! A long-range header outside the penalty area! From Aaron Mitchell — This is his first goal of the season! It was also his first official goal for Nottingham Forest! "
This time it was the English live commentator's turn to be crazy. Earlier on, the Catalan commentator had dragged out his voice and shouted "GOOOOAL" next to him, which made him very unhappy. This time he finally found a chance to take revenge. His mouth was like a Gatling gun. All kinds of overflowing praise kept popping out.
"Valdés is completely dumbfounded in front of such a goal! Piqué, Barcelona's best player in the whole game, can do nothing in the face of such a beautiful goal! I bet he did not even think that Mitchell would choose to directly shoot! A genius idea! Mitchell has this extraordinary confidence in his header. He did it! Congratulations to him! This young player, who is only twenty years old, pulled Nottingham Forest back from the edge of the cliff! Tony Twain definitely did not let him start in a moment of insanity! "
Seeing the football fly into the goal, Mitchell was stunned for a moment. He was not sure if he had really scored the goal …
It was not until he heard deafening cheers in his ears that he realized he was not dreaming — this time he was not fantasizing in his bedroom. No matter how much he shouted, his father would not break the door and rush in to teach him a lesson.
“GOOOAL！ GOOOOAL！！ GOOOOOAL —!! " This action had been rehearsed many times. He opened his arms and roared as he rushed to the corner flag where the camera was.
"2.02m, excellent header, excellent jump! Where did Tony Twain find this monster? It is said that his explosive power is not weak … It's terrifying! We see another aerial tyrant! Look at his goal. Who would have thought that he had played as a goalkeeper and center back in the previous eight years? "
Aaron Mitchell was previously unknown, so much so that most of the Forest fans could not call out his name at once. They could only shout when they cheered, "No. 9! No. 9! Our aerial tyrant No. 9! "
Mitchell's father was so happy in the stands that he almost fainted. He kept shouting, "That's my son! That's my son! I'm his dad! I'm his dad! Hey! Son, I'm here!! "
"You have a good son!" The fans next to him came up one by one to hug him and congratulate him. "Also, what's his name again?"
"Aaron! Aaron Mitchell! Hey, guys. Remember this name. I promise you'll need to shout it often in the future! "
"I hope so, old man!"
Soon, the "No. 9, No. 9! Our aerial tyrant No. 9 "in the stands became" Aaron! Aaron! Our aerial tyrant Aaron! "
Next, the fans on the spot made up a song for the goal scorer. Of course, it was sung from the north stands first.
"Aaron! Aaron Mitchell! If you still don't know this name, you're already behind the times! Behind the times! "
※ ※ ※
Seeing Mitchell use his head to "rub" the football into the goal guarded by Valdés, Tony Twain, who put him in the starting lineup, stood up from his seat and raised his arms to cheer with the fans around him. It was an indescribable sense of accomplishment to see the success of a player he had unearthed.
Kerslake, who was in the technical area, also shook his head and admitted his failure after the celebration. "Tony really has a good eye for people. Fortunately, I didn't bet with him back then … Aaron did well!"
※ ※ ※
Unlike the jubilant Nottingham Forest technical area, on the Barcelona side, Guardiola, who had just picked up a bottle of water to take a sip, did not have time to put the water into his open mouth before he threw the bottle in his hand out.
"Who the f * * k is this kid?!" He could not help but swear.
When Bentley passed the ball, he absolutely did not think that Nottingham Forest could actually score a goal …
They were too lucky to be able to head the ball in from such a distance!
The manager issued an angry question, and the people around him could not help, because they also did not know who the f * * k this kid was …
There was no information about this person in the intelligence on Nottingham Forest. He seemed to have fallen from the sky, brought along a gust of wind, and blew Barcelona's flame of hope to the verge of collapse.
※ ※ ※
PS: Recently, there have been people complaining in the book review section about dragging out the story to make up the word count. I can understand your feelings about waiting for the serialization. If I had the ability, I would not have published one chapter a day. This game is really important. This is the most important game for the Forest team this season. I have to write in detail, write well, and use the game to highlight some characters. In this case, the length of two or three, or even four or five chapters is definitely not enough. What's more, in order to more highlight the key character of this game, I also overturned and rewrote the first two chapters, just to make the character look more three-dimensional, more real, more memorable, and more likable.
Everyone reads very quickly, but it really takes a lot of energy to write. It is not that they do not want to, but they really cannot. Please forgive me for making everyone unhappy.
Finally, the climax of this game that has been foreshadowed for ten chapters is finally coming. Everyone, if you have the monthly tickets, just spend them!
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