"Arsenal is in trouble," the commentator said. "They didn't seem to expect Nottingham Forest to suddenly go all out on their home ground …"
The Arsenal fans in the stands were constantly booing to disrupt the Forest team.
From the looks of it, Arsenal was indeed in trouble …
Just as Tang En said, Wenger did not expect Forest to uncharacteristically rush to attack on Arsenal's home ground.
Just five minutes into the match, Nottingham Forest had threatened Almunia's goal twice.
This caused Arsenal to panic, and the defensive line was full of holes during that time.
On the other hand, Nottingham Forest was firmly in control of the game.
The ball was under their feet, and Arsenal could only run for their lives. Because they were not prepared for Nottingham Forest's attack, they did not even know what to do. Some people wanted to continue attacking according to Wenger's strategy before the match, while others felt that the situation was urgent and they should first defend before counterattacking.
If both sides did not agree, they would not be able to work together on the field. If they could not work together, the opponent would have an opening to exploit.
Tang En could clearly see Arsenal's disjointed front and back from the field. This was a great opportunity for Forest to score …
He turned to look at Wenger in the manager's seat. The Frenchman was expressionless and had no intention of making any adjustments. Perhaps he believed in his team? Perhaps he had not figured out Nottingham Forest's intentions and did not want to act rashly?
Whatever, he could not change this fact no matter how he thought about it. The fact was that Nottingham Forest currently had the advantage.
Using the advantage gained in the opening five minutes, Nottingham Forest successfully turned the away game into a home game.
Next, they continued to attack Arsenal's hinterland. This was not a simple siege — in fact, besieging Arsenal's goal was not what Tang En wanted to see. Arsenal also counterattacked, and quite a few of them. Forest controlled the match to a situation where both sides attacked and defended. This way, they had more opportunities to attack. If the opponent did not attack, how could they charge in?
The initiative was not in their hands, so Arsenal had to work hard to snatch it back. Therefore, they had to attack. After ten minutes of panic, Arsenal had a unified idea — attack!
This was the scene that Forest wanted to see the most. Arsenal attacked, and they attacked.
The curtains of a beautiful and intense battle had been drawn …
※ ※ ※
"Fàbregas! A beautiful pass. Bella received the ball and shot! Oh, what a pity! "
Akinfeev held the ball tightly in his arms. Then, without waiting for the Arsenal players to return to defend, he threw the ball directly to launch an attack. Gago moved sideways and dribbled the ball forward. When he was intercepted by Wilshere, he didn't stop the ball to turn around and escape. Instead, he passed the ball directly to Cohen on the side.
Cohen, who had taken Fernández's place in the match, was better at passing the ball from the flanks than the Chileans. Tang En had also taken note of this point, which was why he had allowed him to start. This was because Forest's starting center forwards for this match were Ibišević and Mitchell. Both of them were good at headers.
But Cohen was not good at dribbling. Arsenal's full-back, Sagna, retreated quickly, and Cohen transferred the football directly to Bentley's feet on the other side. Bentley received the ball and passed it to the middle. Gago had already rushed up.
After receiving the ball, Gago gave it a push and the football rolled into the penalty area!
Mitchell rushed out from behind the crowd. He was about to receive the ball and form a one-on-one attack, but Almunia, who had attacked, snatched the ball away. Mitchell unwillingly leaped over his head. It would be great if he could move a little faster …
Almunia waited for Mitchell to retreat out of the penalty area before kicking the ball forward. Wood's advantage in headers was obvious. No one in Arsenal's front field could compete with him in the air.
The ball in the air was easily headed by Wood, who passed it to Pepe behind.
Fàbregas saw this situation and gestured to Almunia, who was behind him. He wanted him to use less of such big kicks in the future and use his hands to throw the ball more and launch attacks on the ground.
Such a kick-off was simply giving up possession of the ball to the Forest team on a silver platter.
Although the ball was intercepted by Forest, Arsenal did not give up on this attack. They used their aggressive scramble to finally snatch the football from Gago's feet and launched a counterattack.
Wilshere used his personal skills to dribble past Woodgate and pretended to shoot, but he passed the ball to Fàbregas, who had plugged in from behind.
Under the interference of Nottingham Forest's captain, Arsenal's captain swept a shot. The football went slightly above the crossbar, causing the Nottingham Forest fans to break out in a cold sweat.
Fàbregas was a little annoyed at losing the ball. He stood up and clapped his hands hard.
Tang En looked down at his watch. It had been 15 minutes since the start of the match. Forest had yet to score a goal, but overall, Forest had the advantage. Arsenal's offense appeared a little disorganized under Forest's strong attack, relying more on the individual play of their star players. The most important reason for Arsenal's current disadvantage was that Wenger had deployed a full attacking midfield lineup in order to use offense to crush Forest at home. He did not even use a defensive midfielder. As a result, they were being suppressed by Forest's midfield.
They still had to score as soon as possible. Otherwise, when Wenger came back to his senses, his strategy would not work.
Moreover, the team's stamina was indeed a problem. They could not afford to drag it out.
Tang En got up from his seat and walked to the side of the field. He did not say anything, but he believed that the players would know what he meant when they saw him standing at the side of the field.
We want to score, guys. What are you doing?
※ ※ ※
Arsenal was still working hard to regain the initiative in the match. They were already somewhat unable to care about defense. Or rather, they were focusing on one thing and losing sight of the other. Wenger had told them before the match that they had to score in this match. Scoring was the most important thing, so everyone's mind was now filled with goals, goals, goals …
As for defense?
Even though they knew that their defense was in a precarious situation in front of Forest's offense, everyone still had a sliver of hope in their hearts that they would be able to take down Forest before they could break through their own goal.
To put it bluntly, this match depended on who scored first. If Arsenal scored first, the match would enter Arsenal's orbit. If Nottingham Forest scored first, Arsenal would be passive.
That was why they were so focused on breaking through Forest's goal, to the point that they temporarily placed the safety of their own goal as a secondary priority …
Arsenal's attack was cut off once again. George Wood and Pepe cut off Fàbregas's passing route to Vela. After the ball was poked away by Pepe, Wood snatched the ball away before Wilshere could, and then he rushed forward with large strides. His dribbling movements were very accurate, and his coordination with the ball was very good. Fàbregas gave up his attempt to intercept the ball and instead harassed him from the side.
Wood only dribbled a few steps before he realized that Arsenal's defensive system had yet to be established. It was very chaotic. There were people in front to assist, and there were people who hurriedly returned to defend. There were also people who were hesitating on whether to snatch the ball or retreat to defend …
There were countless gaps.
He decisively stopped dribbling the ball, and instead distributed the ball to the side. There were no Arsenal defenders there, and the sky was wide open!
Cohen ran with all his might. His speed was not fast, but Wood's pass was too comfortable … He did not need to compete with others in speed. As long as he ran in a straight line, the path of the ball would definitely be closer to him. The opponents' defenders looked closer to the ball, but in reality, after a few steps, they realized that if they ran in a straight line, they would brush past the ball. If they ran diagonally, they would only get further and further away from the ball …
As Sagna was still in front and did not return to defend, this ball had to be filled by the center-backs. One of the two center-backs, Kolo Touré, strode to the side. Halfway through, he gave up his attempt to snatch the ball directly and changed to running diagonally along the path of the ball. He blocked the inside line and did not allow Cohen to directly break through. This was the best choice he could make under the circumstances.
Unfortunately, Cohen did not even think about cutting into the penalty area. He let the ball roll two meters in front of him, and then he made a feint to break through. This caused Touré to retreat a little, and after making space, he went around to the outside and directly raised his leg to pass!
Cohen had a set of passes. He was not like Wood's pass in the last minute of the previous game, which was high and floating. His pass was very flat, very fast, and the arc was obvious. The biggest part of the arc was almost close to the baseline. It looked like it was heading towards the goal, but when it really reached the goal, it suddenly turned into the penalty area. The curvature caught Almunia off guard. He wanted to go out and directly take the ball, but just as he took a step out, he saw the ball turn back.
So, he quickly retreated and prepared to guard the goal. Just as he raised his hand, he saw a black shadow in the air pressing down.
"Aaron Mitche — er!"
The commentator roared with a drawn-out voice.
The ball in the air seemed to be attracted by Mitchell, and it crashed head-on into him before changing direction and bouncing back. The ball flew past Almunia's side, but his reaction was completely unable to keep up. The force of the ball's pass and Mitchell's momentum twisted together, creating an effect of "one plus one is greater than two." With the ball so close to the goal, no goalkeeper could really react in time.
The ball was smashed into the goal by Mitchell, and it pushed up the net.
※ ※ ※
Standing on the sidelines, Twain clenched a fist and waved it towards the sky.
Then, he looked at his watch. The match had started 29 minutes ago, and it was finally time!
Sitting in the home team's technical area, Wenger slapped his thigh hard, his face full of annoyance. He really did not think that Forest's counterattack this time would actually score a goal. It looked like Nottingham Forest's previous offensive stance was not for show, but for real …
He had miscalculated.
He did not think that a gambler like Tang En would dare to bet like this in this game.
The Nottingham Forest fans in the corner of the stands burst into loud cheers, temporarily suppressing the boos against the fans.
Mitchell, who scored the goal, ran over to hug Chris Cohen, who assisted him. A group of people came up behind them and surrounded them, excitedly celebrating the goal.
Mitchell's goal not only gave Forest an away goal, but also led the overall score by 2: 0. If Arsenal wanted to advance, they would still be eliminated even if they won this game by 2: 1. They had to score three goals!
No wonder Wenger was so excited after seeing the goal concede. Fàbregas's face instantly darkened.
Anyone with a clear head would know that this game would be difficult for Arsenal …
※ ※ ※
The television screen was replaying the goal over and over again. The commentator was full of praise for Mitchell's positioning and header. "… He appeared behind Arsenal's Senderos just like that, completely unmarked. Touré was pulled to the side to defend against Cohen. Ibišević's positioning was too clever! His forward insertion pulled Senderos. Just as Cohen was about to pass the ball, Mitchell, who was still outside the penalty area, suddenly sprinted in and jumped high! He jumped higher than anyone else! The ball went in! It was done in one go, too beautiful! Forest's premeditated passing and positioning in this attack was the key to the goal. But Mitchell's individual ability is also admirable … "
Ever since Mitchell became a First Team player and was often able to score goals in the game, Mitchell's father became the happiest person in the stands. Every time his son scored a goal, the Forest fans around him would come up to congratulate him and chant his son's name. He liked this feeling of being a star.
The place where Mitchell celebrated his goal happened to be below the away team's stands. A group of people shouted, "Aaron! Ah Long! "Even his father's blood was boiling with excitement.
After celebrating the goal, the players ran past the front of the technical area and returned to their positions. Tang En shouted from there, "Continue to attack! "Continue to attack! Don't slack off, score as much as you can! "
Then he called George Wood to his side and quickly instructed, "Pay attention to Arsenal's counterattack. If they play long passes, there's nothing to fear. If they attack from the midfield, cut off their ball and directly pass long passes to the two flanks. We'll counterattack and try to score another goal in the first half! Go tell Cohen and Bentley to keep an eye out for opportunities to counterattack. "
Wood nodded and turned to run onto the field.
After doing all this, Twain turned back to the technical area and sat down to drink some water.
After drinking the water, he turned his head and smiled foolishly at Kerslake.
Kerslake asked, "Is the pressure in your heart lighter?"
"No, it's even greater."
"Ah?"
"My pressure won't lessen until the game is over. When we don't score, I'm afraid we won't score and the opponent will score first. Now that we've scored, I'm more afraid we'll be equalized by the opponent. I'll ask them to try to score another goal before the end of the first half. We may have more room to maneuver. "
※ ※ ※
After conceding the goal, Arsenal launched a crazy counterattack against the Forest team, almost completely abandoning their defense. They did not want to lose at home and did not want to be defeated by Nottingham Forest in one game, so attacking with all their might was the only way.
The Forest team performed very calmly. They first set up a defensive formation and handled the ball calmly. They used their advantage of having two defensive midfielders in the midfield to suppress Arsenal's all-attacking midfield configuration.
Next was the counterattack.
The Forest team was best at this.
In the 40th minute of the first half, Nottingham Forest took advantage of a passing error in Arsenal's attack and launched a quick counterattack. Ibišević dribbled the ball and forced a breakthrough before shooting. The ball hit the leg of the returning winger, Clichy, and caused the line to change. Almunia could not save in time and the ball was deflected into the net. With five minutes left in the first half, they led by 2: 0 and the total score was 3: 0.
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