Chapter 454: Volume 3: Red Forest, No Choice

"He's the king of Arsenal, he saved the team, he's Thierry Henry—!"

The Arsenal players ran to their captain, the goal was so timely and so important. With six minutes to go into stoppage time, Arsenal tied the score for the game and the aggregate score for both sides.

Wenger jumped up from his seat and hugged Patrice with open arms.

The 2,000 Arsenal fans who followed the team to Nottingham also burst into loud cheers. Amidst their cheers, the Nottingham Forest fans fell into a brief silence.

Tang En's heart fell from the clouds to the bottom of the valley, the feeling is really indescribable. He bit his lip and stared at the Arsenal players celebrating on the pitch.

Seeing that they were about to win and advance to the final, Henry scored a goal at the last moment! fucking...

At that moment, what are your players thinking? Did they think they had won? At the moment of transition from offense to defense, his reaction speed was as slow as that of a ninety-year-old man!

The Forest players held their heads in frustration, watching each other celebrate.

George Wood looked down at his feet.

When he shoveled at Henry from the side and rear just now, Tang En's warning suddenly came to his mind. With two yellow cards on his back, he is very likely to get a third yellow card for this foul, or even a direct one. red card. So he retracted his feet reflexively.

It was just such a small distance that made Henry dodge...

He shouldn't have stopped, he should have shoveled the opponent's striker to the ground so that he couldn't break through and shoot, but his body didn't obey at that moment.

What a jerk, beautifully spoken and a coward at the end...

He raised his head again and saw the dejected teammates around him. The depression caused by his performance turned into anger, and he blurted out: "What are you doing? We haven't lost yet!"

Arteta looked up at Wood, who clenched his fists and roared loudly, and everyone turned to look at him.

"We haven't lost yet! We don't know who is eliminated, what are you doing?!"

Then he walked towards Arteta: "Don't protect me, it's not necessary."

"But George..."

"Let's talk about it after we reach the final." He turned and ran towards the goal, fished the football out of the net, then ran all the way to the middle circle with his arms in his arms, and put the football on it.

"kick off!"

Tang En, who saw this scene off the court, turned his head and said to Chris Lark: "Regardless of whether we can reach the final or not, what makes me feel less depressed is that at least we have gained a real captain."

Chris Rack smiled, not knowing what to say.

※ ※ ※

The game restarted, Arsenal wanted to seize the last moment and then lore the Forest team, and the Forest team hoped to score another goal in the remaining minutes to put the advantage back into their hands. The two sides refused to give in to each other and fought fiercely in every corner of the court.

As a result, when the referee blew the whistle to end the 90-minute game, the score between the two sides was still 1:1.

"The total score is 2:2, both sides have an away goal, and they are tied. Now they need to go through 30 minutes of overtime to decide the winner... If they still can't, then they need a penalty shootout. This is true. A game full of drama, when Nottingham Forest thought they had won, Henry equalized at the last minute..."

The two teams will not enter the locker room to prepare for overtime. They will either sit or lie on the sidelines, get a massage from the team doctor, and listen to the latest instructions from the head coach.

"We are running out of time, so I won't criticize you for being distracted at the last moment." The Nottingham Forest players formed a circle, and Twain squatted in the middle with a serious expression. "In overtime, defense is still the primary goal, and we have time to counterattack. Fortunately, we prepared a penalty kick before the game... If the battle cannot be resolved within 30 minutes, it will be delayed until then."

On the other side, in Arsenal's half, Wenger stood in front of the players, pacing back and forth, and said to them: "Overtime, rest half, attack half, try to score. If you can't, don't force it. They hit penalties."

※ ※ ※

There is only a short five-minute break before the 90-minute game and overtime. Many players only have time to catch their breath before re-entering the court and entering the game.

George Wood stood up from the ground, Dunn looked at him, and then watched him return to the court without saying anything. Because he doesn't know what to say... It's meaningless to say "don't get another yellow card" now. It's even doubtful whether he can reach the final. What's the use of reminding him not to get a yellow card ?

Everything, let nature take its course.

※ ※ ※

After the start of the first half of extra time, Arsenal took advantage of their momentum to equalize the score and launched a siege to Forest's goal, as if they wanted to settle the battle within 30 minutes.

And Nottingham Forest put on their best and most familiar defensive formation to meet Arsenal's stormy offensive.

Tang En made the last substitution. He replaced Layton Barnes with Gareth Bell. Barnes was running cramp, and Bell was in good physical condition. Let him go up and defend firmly.

Throughout the first half of the extra time, the Forest team's counterattack was basically invisible. Anelka wandered alone in front for a while, and found that the football could not be passed at all. He looked at the tense situation behind him and hesitated. All of a sudden, he decided to go back and participate in the defense.

In general, overtime in football games does present an interesting phenomenon, although there are no rules saying it has to be. That is, the 30-minute overtime divided the performances of the two teams into two extremes due to the first half and the second half. Take this game as an example. Now that Arsenal is attacking wildly in the first half, then after the second half, Arsenal There must be no spare power to carry out any offense, and it is Nottingham Forest's turn to attack.

This may be related to the fact that the physical strength of both sides does not allow them to attack for 30 minutes at this point in the game. They can only choose to rest for half time and attack half time.

Arsenal attacked for 15 minutes without gaining anything, and the Forest team's defense was very well organized. The score was still 1:1, and the Forest players knew their chance had come.

There is no rest time between the first half and the second half in overtime, and the venues are exchanged directly. The players can only buy themselves a rest time by slowly walking across the field.

At this time, whether it is the Arsenal players or the Nottingham Forest players, they have reached their physical limits. The intensive schedule and continuous battles make everyone exhausted. They moved slowly on the court. There is only one exception...

George Wood ran to the other half with his head held high. When he passed by Fabregas, the Spaniard could even feel a gust of wind brushing his cheek!

※ ※ ※

After the start of the second half, the Forest team pressed forward to attack as usual. No one really wanted to drag the game to a penalty shootout, which was a decisive method with no safety factor at all.

Everyone went up, and Gareth Bale frequently participated in the attack. Only George Wood remained behind, protecting everyone's rear.

Almost everyone believed that after fifteen minutes of indiscriminate bombing, Arsenal would no longer have the strength to pose a threat to the Forest team's defense. George Wood's appearance of watching others' performances at the back was a bit silly. Look at Nottingham Forest's offensive momentum now. Arsenal will exhaust all their remaining physical strength just to defend. How could they endanger the Forest team's goal?

Eastwood's shot was held by Lehmann. Instead of the inefficient method of kicking forward, the German goalkeeper throws the ball... to attack!

The football went to Cesc Fabregas's feet in a blink of an eye. Before the Forest players could react, Fabregas transferred the football to their captain, the most reliable striker Henry.

Then, while most of the Forest players were still in a daze at the sudden change in the frontcourt, Henry had already adjusted the direction of the football and began to rush towards the Forest goal with the ball!

"This is Arsenal's counterattack! The Forest team attacked too hard, they forgot about Arsenal and Henry, this extremely dangerous man with top speed!"

"Damn it!" Tang En jumped up from the sidelines, "I told them to take the time to counterattack! It's not to press the siege!"

"Don't worry, Tony. George is behind..." Chris Lark reassured.

"That's what I'm most worried about..." Tang En murmured.

※ ※ ※

Henry looked back, his teammates couldn't run anymore, and there were not many people following up. At the same time, although the Forest team was desperately returning to defense, looking at their running posture, it was obvious that they were exhausted. So to say……

Henry turned his head and looked at George Wood directly in front of him.

Just the two of us?

"Thierry Henry, George Wood! The collision of the two captains..."

Wood knew what was going on without looking around. Apart from him and the two central defenders, there was no one else on the defense line. When the Forest team was on the offensive just now, everyone rushed forward without hesitation, hoping to become the hero who helped the team to the final at the last moment.

He didn't go up, not because he couldn't run anymore, nor because he was not interested in attacking, but because he saw Henry cruising near the middle circle. When everyone returned to the penalty area to defend, why didn't Henry, the only captain, not lead by example?

He thought of a possibility, and soon it might become a reality-Henry is the ultimate weapon for Arsenal's counterattack, and his return to Arsenal is tantamount to giving up.

The cunning Wenger still hoped to use this opportunity to score a go-ahead goal until the last moment!

Henry is well aware of George Wood's interests. Once he gets close to him, he will be entangled. He doesn't know what the attack will become. So the key to this counterattack is to absolutely never get close to Wood, and not let the opportunity to entangle himself.

Wood knew that Henry was fast and had good physical strength. Looking at his running posture and swinging his legs still powerfully, he knew that he could still accelerate and forcefully break through himself with speed. You must not distance yourself from him. Once you let him distance yourself, he can use his speed to force a breakthrough. I have to lean up and wrap him around...

Henry flicked the football to the left, trying to make a diagonal breakthrough. George Wood moved sideways to meet him.

Henry started to speed up, and Wood also started to speed up, following Henry closely to prevent him from escaping from his control.

Suddenly Henry stopped abruptly, as if about to break through from another direction. Wood slammed on the brakes, carefully guarding against the opponent's next move. Henry didn't change direction, it was just a change in speed and rhythm. When he saw Wood slowing down, he immediately speeded up, trying to get rid of him.

But Wood's physical condition is very good, and he started almost at the same time as Henry. The escape was unsuccessful this time.

"Henry is going to be entangled by Wood! The distance between the two is very close. Nottingham Forest's players are returning to defense. As long as Henry is held back, Wood's defense will be considered a success... Wow!"

Just when everyone thought Henry had nothing to do, he suddenly pushed the football diagonally between Wood's legs!

Immediately afterwards, he stopped abruptly and turned around, breaking through from the other side of Wood's body!

"The human ball is divided! Beautiful!"

Wood was not prepared enough for Henry's action. When he reacted, the opponent had already passed by.

What would it mean if Henry was allowed to break through like this?

There are Pepe and Piqué behind, maybe the situation is not so bad that it must be done. Thinking so, Wood looked up and saw Fabregas and Van Persie who were desperately running forward.

Three against two? !

Wood knew what this meant.

He turned around quickly and saw Henry's back. It seemed that the other party hadn't completely let go of him. This is his last chance... He saw Henry preparing to speed up.

As soon as Wood gritted his teeth, he rushed up, and before Henry could pick up his speed, he slammed into him from the side and rear!

Unprepared, Henry lost his center of gravity when he was hit. He staggered and kicked the football ten meters away. Then his body could no longer maintain his balance, he stumbled and ran for a few steps and fell to the ground!

There were boos from the Arsenal fans in the stands, and they tried desperately to silence the shouts of the Nottingham Forest fans.

After Dunn saw Wood knocking Henry to the ground, he stood up from the coach's bench. Even more nervous than him was assistant coach David Chris Lack, who kept swearing unintelligible swear words. .

"This is a foul! There is no doubt about it!" the commentator shouted, "Facing Henry's sharp breakthrough, George Wood could only stop it with a foul..."

Henry sat helplessly on the ground, while Cesc Fabregas ran to the referee and made a gesture of playing cards to remind the referee.

The Forest players ran back and surrounded the referee. Arteta even pushed Fabregas out a little rudely, and Arsenal players came forward to fight for Fabregas.

The scene suddenly became a little chaotic.

Wood stood outside the crowd. He looked at Henry, who was still sitting on the ground arranging his socks, and at the crowded and arguing teammates and opponents. He didn't step forward to defend himself, he didn't do anything, he just stood outside and watched, as if this matter had nothing to do with him, he was just an indifferent spectator.

It was not easy for the players on both sides to separate, and Henry also stood up from the ground. Wood's collision did not hurt him.

Chris Lak was still yelling obscenities that no one could understand beside Tang En, but Tang En calmed down instead. Like Wood, he was fully prepared for what was about to happen.

This cannot be escaped, whether it is to attack the referee, accuse Cesc Fabregas of adding fuel to the fire, or swear, it will not change.

The referee separated the crowd and saw Wood standing outside. He lowered his head and took out a yellow card from his trouser pocket, showing it in front of Wood.

Wood raised his eyelids and glanced at the yellow card, then turned and walked away.

The close-up shot of the TV broadcast followed Wood's back, and the subtitles were printed at the bottom of the screen: "George Wood, yellow card, missed the next game."

※ ※ ※

Chris Rack stopped cursing, he covered his face. Tang En was still standing on the sidelines, with his hands folded around his chest, his face sullen, as cold as an ice sculpture.

When a bad thing can happen, then it will happen - Murphy's Law.

Tang En has this premonition, and has always had it, but he doesn't want to admit it, doesn't want to think about it, for fear that just thinking about it in his mind might become a reality. So he tried his best to think about the good side of things, but this bad result still happened.

"George Wood succeeded. He prevented Henry's fatal breakthrough. But... the price he paid was the absence of the next game. If the Forest team can really beat Arsenal and advance to the final, it has nothing to do with him. Judging by his expressionless face, doesn't he know that he has already received his third yellow card?"

How could he not know? But this is the path he chose, since he did it, why should he regret it, why should he be so excited? He chose to accept the price calmly.

He certainly hopes that he can have the opportunity to appear in the finals, after all, that is the highest pursuit of a professional player besides the World Cup. But if he had to choose between "the Forest team lost the final ticket" and "he personally lost the final ticket", he chose the latter. If the whole team lost the qualification for the final, it would be meaningless for him not to receive a single yellow card. This is not actually a multiple-choice question, obviously, this is cause and effect. Without team eligibility, there is no individual eligibility. Abandoning the interests of the team for their own interests can only get a ridiculous result of nothing.

Tang En sat down. He turned his head and saw Albertini punching the seat back.

"Demy." He beckoned Albertini over. "Don't spread your emotions to other people. You see, George is very calm. The game is not over, this is not the time to be distracted by this."

Albertini sat next to Dunn, watching Wood on the court. "Boss, do you know what the European Champions Cup final means to a professional player?"

"Of course I know...but, you should tell George this sentence." Tang En said without looking back, without any emotion in his tone. "Demi, I have to thank you. You are an excellent captain, and now you have brought out an equally excellent captain for the Forest team."

Albertini was not at all happy about Tang En's praise, he bit his lip tightly and stared at the court. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in

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