In the second half, it was just as Tang En had said. Arsenal continued their performance from the second half of the first half, using quick passes and cuts to try and tear apart Forest's defense.
After being criticized by Tang En during halftime, George Wood's performance in the second half was even more proactive. Fàbregas still wanted to control everything in his hands like he did in the first half, but he discovered that it was no longer that easy.
Wood was very good at closing in. He seemed to be completely unconcerned about his stamina as he madly ran after him. As for the defense behind him, it was left to Gago. In any case, the Forest team was leading by one goal. It did not matter even if they sacrificed Gago's offense. The key was to completely freeze Fàbregas.
"Fàbregas received the ball, and he intends to pass it out … Ah! Wood's tackle was very timely, he poked Fàbregas' pass! "
Fàbregas reacted quickly when he saw that the ball that had just been passed was kicked off by Wood. He immediately went to snatch the ball back. Unfortunately, Wood was faster than him. He rushed in front of the RCD Espanyol and blocked Fàbregas behind him. Then he kicked the ball out with a big foot.
Fàbregas angrily pushed Wood from behind. Of course, he did not push Wood at all. Wood turned around and looked at him expressionlessly.
After that, Wood seemed to be glued to Fàbregas.
Fàbregas realized that Wood was relying on his superior physical fitness to snatch the ball, so he adjusted his strategy. He would no longer pass the ball after receiving it. Instead, he would control it, make a few feints, and then pass the ball.
The results were good in the beginning, because Wood's habitual thinking always allowed him to easily get past Fàbregas. But it didn't work after that.
Wood had a backup plan.
He still threw himself at the first strike. But one of his legs was dragging behind, and his center of gravity was not completely thrown out. Fàbregas thought that he had gotten past Wood. When he adjusted his body and prepared to pass the ball, his center of gravity suddenly shifted and he fell to the ground.
When he looked again, it turned out that Wood's leg had hooked him.
He raised his hand to signal that Wood had committed a foul, and the referee's whistle was very cooperative.
Wood did not complain to the referee for his foul. He did not even pull Fàbregas up. He ran back to defend.
Fàbregas got up on his own. Wood's foul was not harsh, but it interrupted Arsenal's attack. He was helpless about this. He had fought with Wood many times, so he was already familiar with Wood's style.
It was only when he was giving free kicks that he could experience the feeling of freedom without Wood's interference.
Following that, fouls, small movements, reasonable collisions … Wood stopped at nothing, tormenting Fàbregas abnormally bitterly. Even though he wasn't completely frozen by Wood, for the sake of contending against Wood, he invested a large amount of energy, to the point where the success rate of his passes wasn't as good as in the first half, and his contributions in terms of offensive organization were also sharply reduced.
Not only that, but he had also consumed a lot of energy in the fight with Wood, and he was panting in the end.
On the other hand, Wood's face was not red nor was he out of breath. Everything was normal. His stamina was so good that it made his opponents despair.
Due to Wood's sudden burst of activity, Arsenal had no choice but to hand over the task of organizing the offense to Wilshere.
Gago was the one defending Wilshere. In terms of defensive ability, he was two levels lower than Wood.
As the most outstanding player in England's younger generation of midfielders, Wilshere still had a lot of room to perform under Gago's control. He sent out three wonderful passes in succession. Unfortunately, Arsenal's other attacking teammates didn't grasp the opportunity.
Wilshere's burst of activity caused the commentator to redirect the praises he had for Fàbregas in the first half back to him.
"He's truly worthy of being called England's most imaginative and skillful midfielder after Gascoigne! He made Gago feel exhausted and helpless! People often say that Manager Wenger has the habit of selling off players once they are over 30 years old. Fàbregas will soon be 27 years old. Perhaps Wenger will start to consider using Wilshere to take over Fàbregas' position in the team … "
Arsenal's fast-paced offense only paused for a moment before it started moving again. However, this time, their core had changed from Fàbregas to Wilshere.
Forest's goal was in danger once again. Tang En sat down and muttered, "Two cores, huh?"
He thought about it for a moment. Fàbregas's stamina was quickly depleted by Wood's torment, and he probably wouldn't be able to recover for a while. Wilshere's ability was indeed outstanding, and it was a little taxing for Gago to defend against him … After all, Wilshere was the future number one midfielder in England.
This couldn't go on. He still had to contain Wilshere.
So, he walked to the side of the pitch and took a deep breath.
"Jorge!!"
His voice was really loud … Perhaps it was to match him, but at that moment, the singing in the City Ground stadium suddenly quieted down.
Wilshere's heart suddenly trembled.
Then, Tang En sat back in the technical area, and Wilshere found that the person in front of him had changed to George Wood …
Wilshere turned his head to look behind him, a little at a loss. He wanted to look for the captain, Fàbregas, but then he saw Fàbregas bending over and panting heavily, with Gago standing beside him.
He sensed that something was wrong …
In the subsequent match, the commentator deeply felt that there was still a gap between Wilshere and Fàbregas … He no longer brought up the topic of Wilshere replacing Fàbregas.
Under Wood's close defense, Fàbregas was still able to try his best to pass the ball to his teammates. Although his success rate was not as high as in the first half, he still managed to pass the ball. Under the tight marking of his national team teammates, it was difficult for Wilshere to even take possession of the ball. Under Wood's tyrannical collisions, the ball under his feet was always easily lost.
Fouls, small movements, and reasonable collisions that hovered on the edge of illogic …
Wood used the same tactics that he used against Fàbregas on Wilshere.
Not long after, Wilshere admitted defeat. He did not dare to let the ball under his feet for a moment longer. After receiving the ball, he passed it to Fàbregas. Without Wenger's instructions, he returned the core position to the captain.
Seeing that Wilshere had admitted defeat, Wood ran back to mark Fàbregas.
After struggling for so long, Arsenal's offense did not improve at all. It was all talk and no action. They did not manage to score a single goal. The score was still 1: 0. The home team, Forest, was in the lead.
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest forced out and snatched the ball for a while. Seeing that half of the second half had passed, they simply retreated.
This change was a little unexpected for Wenger. He had carefully studied Tony Twain and knew that he would never be willing to play conservatively when he was leading by one goal. Instead, he would choose to continue to pursue and score another goal before he could be at ease. Why did they retreat now when it was clearly 1: 0? Moreover, from the looks of the situation, Forest might not be at a disadvantage. Were they really going to give up the opportunity to expand their advantage?
In fact, Twain also had his own difficulties. He knew that Wenger wanted to use this kind of fast-paced play to wear down his team, because he had used it against others in the past. So, since they were now in the lead, he adopted a more conservative strategy to preserve some of his energy.
At the same time, he began to change players. Cohen replaced Fernández, and Moke replaced Bentley.
When the commentator saw this scene from the commentary box, he blurted out a word, "Defensive counterattack!"
It was so familiar that he could close his eyes and know how the next game would develop.
Nottingham Forest retreated to defend in their half of the field, occasionally harassing Arsenal's defense. Arsenal surrounded Forest's penalty area, but they lacked a better chance to score … The game quietly passed just like that.
In reality, it was not much different.
Nottingham Forest's shrinking defense made Arsenal a little uncomfortable. When the Forest players were crowded near the exception of the penalty area, their excellent passing and cutting coordination was somewhat useless.
Wenger realized that if they continued to surround Forest, they would be the unlucky ones in the end — Nottingham Forest only needed one counterattack to score another goal.
Thinking of this, he adjusted the team's tactics at the last minute. They no longer surrounded Forest, but slowly moved from the back, pushing forward layer by layer. They were not in a hurry to hit Forest's goal and force them to pull out.
Forest held back their attacks, but they were not very enthusiastic about attacking. Defense was still the number one task.
The game time passed quickly in the battle of wits between the two coaches. In the blink of an eye, it was already 80 minutes.
Now Wenger was faced with a choice: to let the game end with this result, or to strive to score a goal in the last ten minutes.
Even if Arsenal lost the first leg 0: 1, it would be acceptable. After all, it was only a one-goal difference, and it would be easy to recover when they returned to their home ground.
If they went all out to strive for an away goal, the score would still be 1: 1, and the team would be considered to be halfway into the semi-finals.
Both results seemed good …
Wenger was deep in thought.
The advantage of the first option was that this game was safe. It looked like Nottingham Forest lacked the energy to score again. It would not be a problem if Arsenal wanted to lose by only one goal. The disadvantage was that the decision to advance or not was placed in the unknown future. It was not safe.
The advantage of the second option was to strive to take the initiative in the first leg. The disadvantage was that it was very likely that they would be scored instead of scoring. Although Wenger had studied Tony Twain for many years, there was one thing he still could not understand, and that was Tony Twain's capriciousness. This person's character was completely irregular, and it was the same with the way he did things. He could not be sure if Forest's previous show of fatigue was deliberately faked to lure him into a trap and press out … and then the opponent's sneak attack would succeed.
Just as he could not make up his mind, Twain made a substitution.
Wenger turned his head to look. The person standing on the sidelines and being checked by the fourth official was Aaron Mitchell, who was more than two meters tall.
And the person he wanted to substitute was …
The fourth official raised the electronic notice board:
Number 15 Nuri Şahin off, Number 9 Aaron Mitchell up.
Wenger cursed in his heart, "Cunning." If he had adjusted his strategy in advance and let the team attack, Twain's move was clearly prepared for him. Removing an attacking midfielder and adding a tall center forward would instead increase Forest's attack power. Simple and crude tactics like passing from the flanks or long passes could instead achieve miraculous results in the final moments of the game.
It looked like Twain could not hold back and wanted to increase the score in the final moments …
This substitution prompted Wenger to make the decision to defend steadily. Arsenal would rather lose by one goal in the away game than to lose by two goals in the final moments.
In the final ten minutes, the situation on the field was reversed. Forest actively attacked, while Arsenal retreated to defend. Indeed, as Wenger expected, Twain's team played high in the final ten minutes. The football kept flying towards Arsenal's goal, keeping Almunia and Arsenal's defenders busy. There was another time when Mitchell fell in the penalty area, causing a controversy. Nottingham Forest's players insisted that Arsenal's players had fouled while defending and pulled Mitchell down. Arsenal's players, on the other hand, thought it was nonsense. How could someone as tall as Mitchell fall with a light touch? It must have been a dive!
Both sides argued endlessly, and Arsenal's players intentionally stalled for time. The referee made the final call. It was neither a foul nor a dive. Piercing boos rang out from the stands.
Until the last second, Nottingham Forest's indiscriminate bombardment did not have much effect. The commentator blamed it on them breaking out too late. They only remembered to fight back in the final ten minutes, when it was too late. But from Twain's face, one could not see any dissatisfaction. It was as if he accepted the 1: 0 result.
When he shook hands with Wenger, the two of them were smiling. It was as if the game that had just ended was not a Champions League quarter-final, but a pre-season friendly match.
"See you at home, Tony." Wenger issued a "warm invitation" to Twain.
Twain only smiled and did not say anything.
※ ※ ※
After the game ended, Wilshere hesitated for a while. He decided to look for George Wood to change his jersey. Although he could not do anything under Wood's watchful eyes during the game, he still admired Wood as a player who also played for England. The reason why he hesitated was that he knew Wood had a strange temper, and especially did not like to exchange jerseys.
But just when he finally made up his mind to look for Wood to change his jersey, he was surprised to find that Fàbregas had already beaten him to it.
The Arsenal captain stood in front of the Nottingham Forest captain and made a gesture to exchange jerseys. Without saying anything, Wood took off his jersey and handed it to the other party.
Wilshere was dumbfounded to see his straightforwardness.
When Fàbregas returned after changing his jersey, he went up to him and asked in surprise, "Didn't you say that he …" He pointed to George Wood, who had walked away, "doesn't like to exchange jerseys with his opponents?"
Hearing this, Fàbregas also looked surprised. "Who did you hear that from?"
"Uh … That's what they all said." Wilshere could not tell where the rumor came from, but he did have an impression of it.
Seeing his expression, Fàbregas laughed. "He just refused to exchange jerseys with his opponents after Forest lost."
Wilshere breathed a sigh of relief.
Fàbregas saw through his thoughts and patted his head. "Don't be too happy, Jack. You won't have a chance this season. "
"Huh?" Wilshere still did not understand.
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