Chapter 531 Volume 4 Storm Thirty-Two Seconds, Hell and Heaven

The situation in this game was very simple, whether it was for Rijkaard or Tony Twain.

Without too many calculations and complicated and changing tactics, the situation is very clear-Barcelona needs to attack, needs to score away goals, and must win this game. Only in this way can they qualify for promotion.

It stands to reason that Nottingham Forest's 0:1 loss to Barcelona would also guarantee their entry into the quarter-finals, but this obviously doesn't fit Twain's character. Teams with this mentality must die miserably in the end. He used to be a Chinese fan. This kind of thing happened to the Chinese team too many times, and it has become a cliché that can no longer be clichéd. So Nottingham Forest's task is also very simple-to win this game at all costs and advance to the quarterfinals.

This was Barcelona's away game, but Rijkaard did not have the right to choose a defensive counterattack. He knew that Tang En would be conservative at his own home court and use his best defensive counterattack to deal with him, luring Barcelona to press forward and attack, and then waited for an opportunity Sneak attack. The Dutch coach is very clear in his heart, but what can he do? Now the choice is not in his hands. The defeat at home in the first round has pushed him to a desperate situation-the offense may die, but if he does not attack, he must die.

Amidst the endless boos and abuse at the city stadium, Barcelona launched a frenzied attack on Forest's goal in a somewhat tragic manner.

The initiative was in the hands of Nottingham Forest. Twain allowed the team to take their time and stabilize their defense, and then waited for an opportunity to counterattack. In the past few years, no matter what time it was, he never gave up the requirement of "defense first" in the team. At many critical moments, the indoctrination of this requirement saved his team and him.

Of course he likes to watch offensive football, watch matchups, and watch games like sparks hitting the earth. But that's because he's a fan. Now that he is the manager, he needs to be responsible for his team, for the fans who support him. He didn't teach Wenger's talent, let the players play beautifully, and still win, so he chose the most utilitarian way to win. He doesn't care what kind of infamy he bears, he has never been a person who cares about what others say.

To defend and counterattack, first stabilize the defense. Defense is the basis of offense, just like building a house requires laying the foundation. There is no defense and attack? This truth is actually very simple, but why are there so many people in the world who don't understand it? It's fine if the fans don't understand, the head coach can't help but understand, right?

After Barcelona has re-emerged on offense in the past few years, Rijkaard seems to have forgotten to defend. Most of the time we see that Barcelona's midfielders don't have a defensive player. When they play, they always rely on their strong offense to score a few goals first, so that the opponent loses their fighting spirit quickly, and then the game falls to them. track.

Their powerful offense and gorgeous star lineup can make most teams lose their fighting spirit when facing them and catch them without a fight. But when Rijkaard's set was well-known and well-studied by more and more opponents, he found that it became more and more difficult to play later this season. why? Because of the lack of change in his tactics, once it is thoroughly studied by the opponent, he will face great danger. Everyone found that Barcelona is not the incarnation of the invincible god of war. Although they have many stars, they cannot guarantee to be an ever-victorious general. They also have weaknesses, and there are things they can't do. What's more deadly is that their defense is not much better than that of Real Madrid. As long as the tactics are right, they can beat Barcelona.

After La Liga entered the second half of this season, Barcelona encountered more and more resistance. Their tried-and-true offensive tactics became less and less effective when facing old opponents. Rijkaard did not realize that the crisis was slowly approaching him and his team. He also believed that Barcelona was currently on the right track and advancing at a high speed. Not only him, but also the Barcelona players, fans, and high-ranking directors all think so.

Born in sorrow, died in peace. This statement is very suitable for the Barcelona of ​​the future... no, it should be said that this statement is applicable to all successful teams in the world.

Tang En doesn't need to worry about this, it's just because the current environment of the forest team is not "easy".

As mentioned earlier, Barcelona's biggest weakness is defense, and Twain will make full use of this in this game.

Compared with offense, Nottingham Forest's strongest defense is defense. This kind of defense does not rely on one person or a back line composed of four defenders. Forest's defense is an overall defense. On the contrary, Barcelona's defense is only a matter of four defenders and a goalkeeper, and the others are not responsible for defensive tasks.

Now at his own home court, Twain's strategy of letting the team shrink the defense, draw out Barcelona's offensive players, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack is aimed at the weakness of Barcelona's defense. Thuram is old. Although Zambrotta is omnipotent, he has not adapted to Barcelona and Spanish football since he came to Barcelona. Valdez's performance fluctuates a lot, and sometimes some inexplicable low-level mistakes will easily ruin him. After the team's 90 minutes of hard work, Puyol was the only one on the defensive line who could take a shot.

Tang En took aim at this point and unexpectedly dispatched Arnelka, a speedy counter-attack forward, to partner with Ruud van Nistelrooy on the front line, hoping to use his speed and personal ability to give Barcelona a fatal blow in the counter-attack.

Van der Vaart replaced Arteta as the starter in this game, and Twain also needed his long-range shots and organizational skills in offense. Frank Ribery is still on the left, and Ashley Young is replaced by Aaron Lennon on the right.

In terms of defense, left back Gareth Bale was replaced by Leighton Barnes who is better at defense, and the candidates for other positions remained unchanged.

Barcelona launched a fierce offensive against the Forest team's hinterland again and again, and Nottingham Forest held fast with the support of the overall defensive tactics.

Barcelona had the upper hand most of the time, but there was little thunder and rain. Their threatening shots were few and far between. On the contrary, the Forest team is at a disadvantage in all technical statistics—except for fouls—the few counterattacks are quite threatening, and every time they can make the Barcelona people break out in a cold sweat.

Of course Rijkaard knew it would be dangerous to hit his own goal like this, but what could he do? Learn how the Forest team defended firmly and then waited for an opportunity to attack? That way Tony Twain will be very happy, because he can play passively without any worries and run out of time. A draw is a failure for Barcelona.

The initiative is not in the hands of Rijkaard, and now he has nothing to do but to attack desperately and hope to score early to break the deadlock. Bad defense? Well, let's concede a few goals, let's score one more than this number!

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Before coming to Nottingham, Rijkaard and the Barcelona team did a careful study on how to deal with George Wood's defense. They imagined several plans to deal with what they should do if someone was completely frozen by George Wood.

But this time, Tang En didn't ask George Wood to mark someone specifically. His task was...to move freely.

Wherever he is needed, he will go there, and wherever the situation is dangerous, he will go to support him.

Anyway, Wood has good physical strength and runs fast, so he runs back and forth in the backcourt, not afraid that he will fall to the ground with cramps due to exhaustion.

Rijkaard originally planned to use the front trident to get rid of George Wood through frequent changes of positions. Unexpectedly, Twain made Wood a free man in the backcourt, which made Rijkaard's strategy completely ineffective.

Barcelona is facing a monolithic defense, and it will not make any difference because they change positions frequently. They face the same defensive force on the wing and in the center, which is really depressing.

To put it bluntly, offense is to use one's own running position to find loopholes in the opponent's defense, and then use these loopholes to create murderous intentions. The current situation is that no matter how Barcelona passes and moves, the Forest team's defense stands there like a mountain, unmoved.

The first half came to an end under such circumstances. The score of 0:0 will not satisfy the neutral fans, but it will make the Forest fans happy.

During the intermission, Twain highly praised the team's defense, but he also asked the team to work harder on the offense. If there is a chance to counterattack, they must not let it go, as long as it takes one time, it will kill Barcelona!

On the Barcelona side, Rijkaard was not satisfied with the team's offense. Forty-five minutes, so many opportunities, he failed to score. I am really sorry for the name Barcelona. In the second half, the offense must be strengthened, and the offense must not be slack. The reason why the Forest team has not scored at present is because Barcelona's offense has put tremendous pressure on them, leaving them no time to take offense. Once Barcelona cannot continue to maintain this pressure on offense, it will give the Forest team an opportunity.

Anyway, Barcelona is now riding a tiger.

After the start of the second half, the Forest team still put on a firm posture to welcome Barcelona, ​​and Barcelona did not intend to change at all and continued to attack.

As time passed, Rijkaard stood up from his seat again and walked to the sidelines. In the noisy stadium, the players could hardly hear what he shouted. He once tried to remind the players loudly to keep pressing. As a result, he was immediately overwhelmed by boos, and he couldn't even hear what he said when he opened his mouth, let alone those players.

Now he can only take advantage of the dead ball to pull the players who are close to the coach's bench to give them face-to-face instructions.

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If we count Barcelona's indiscriminate bombing and Forest's hold on as a balance. Then in the 68th minute of the game, this balance was finally broken.

Barcelona organized a high-quality attack. Through consecutive passes, they finally tore apart the impenetrable defense of the Forest team and exposed a big hole.

Ronaldinho once again pulled out his "smack" feinting to break through, but surprisingly sent the ball through the crack, Eto'o sped into action, he received the ball behind Forest's defense, and Forest The players thought Eto'o was offside, but the linesman did not intend to raise the flag.

"Not offside, bastard!" Tang En jumped up from below anxiously.

George Wood chased back desperately, trying to stop the goal.

After all, he was still a step too slow, and Eto'o took a shot before he tackled it!

At that moment, Tang En's heart almost stopped beating. It wasn't just him. At that moment, the boos at the city stadium seemed to have stopped. Everyone held their breath and stared fixedly at the football flying in the air.

Even the Barcelona fans, whether they are on the scene or in the city of Barcelona, ​​dare not take their eyes off the football at this moment.

The football flew from Eto'o's feet, over George Wood's shoveled feet, and over Van der Sar's palms. Fly straight to the goal behind.

Going to score?

With a "bang", the football hit the lower edge of the beam, hit the ground, bounced up again, and flew back. Van der Sar's second reaction was very quick, and he jumped up and took the football off the air with both hands!

Did the goal go in or not?

The Barcelona players immediately raised their arms and jumped up to celebrate the goal. Even Eto'o ran towards the corner flag with open arms, followed by Ronaldinho and Messi, etc. people.

The Catalan commentator couldn't wait to roar loudly: "GOOOOOOOOOOOAL——!"

The subtitles of Barcelona 1:0 Nottingham Forest were played on the TV broadcast, and it seemed that the goal was indeed scored.

But...but!

The ecstatic expression on Eto'o's face in the TV camera suddenly froze. He pushed Ronaldinho away and looked at the linesman standing next to them with a puzzled expression.

After the goal is scored, the linesman should run to the center line, and at the same time the referee will blow his whistle and point his finger to the center circle to show that the goal is valid.

But this time, the line referee didn't run, so what about the referee... The Barcelona people turned their heads to look at the referee, but saw a scene that stopped their hearts-

The Nottingham Forest players have taken the football to the center circle, clearly playing on their tradition of quick counterattacks...

The referee did not stop this behavior, but ran along with it... What does this mean? It means that the Forest team did not foul in doing so, and Barcelona did not score the goal just now!

Puyol also wanted to run up to celebrate, but in the middle of the run, he suddenly saw Van der Sar throwing the football forward, and Van der Vaart immediately launched a quick counterattack after receiving the ball.

Barcelona's captain retreated in the middle of the run, and at the same time shouted for his teammates to return to defense. Unfortunately, the stadium was too noisy at the time, and the teammates far away at the corner flag could not hear it at all.

The Barcelona players who reacted faster began to throw down the confused Eto'o and turned back to the defense.

Of course Van der Vaart knew that his dribbling speed was slow, which was disadvantageous at this time. So he didn't take more, but immediately passed the football to Anelka, who ran faster.

"Ah... This is really an unexpected situation. Eto'o's shot did not result in a goal, but gave Nottingham Forest a chance to counterattack! Because the football did not go out of bounds, this is not a dead ball...Barcelona is in big trouble!"

The commentator is right, now Barcelona is in big trouble.

Because they were busy celebrating the goal just now, most of the Barcelona players are not in their respective positions now, and the Forest team's counterattack was very quick, which did not give the Barcelona people a chance to reorganize the attack. Two or three passes reached Anelka At the foot, the French striker got the ball and turned on the motor and ran towards the gate of Barcelona.

After forcibly breaking through Puyol with speed, Anelka has followed the restricted area. Valdes can only abandon the door and attack, and the next thing will be easy to handle.

Anelka made a gesture to pass the ball, tricked Valdes away, and after shaking the angle, he shot without hesitation, and the football flew into the net without any suspense.

The city stadium finally stopped the boos this time and changed it to cheers.

This time the referee finally sounded the whistle to confirm that the goal was valid.

From when the Barcelona people thought they scored a goal to when Nottingham Forest actually scored a goal, all this transformation happened in only 32 seconds. It all happened too fast and too suddenly, and many people hadn't fully reacted yet.

Rijkaard, who had jumped out to celebrate the goal with his arms outstretched, was now watching with his head in disbelief.

Tang En originally looked annoyed, but now he jumped up and down, cheering non-stop.

The changes before and after the two head coaches are a good illustration of the situation of the two teams.

"This...it's so dramatic...who would have thought that the Barcelona people were so happy about that goal that no one even checked whether it was really a goal. Nottingham Forest is really cunning and doesn't give Barcelona a chance, This quick counterattack is so clean and neat, it makes people speechless..."

The Barcelona people recovered and surrounded the referee, protesting to him, they were sure that Eto'o's shot must have been a goal.

So is it really in? Thanks to advanced technology, we can see more clearly.

The slow motion of Eto'o's kick began to be played repeatedly on the TV screen: the football hit the crossbar and bounced to the ground... This is the most important moment. Was the football within the goal line when it landed?

The slow motion is played repeatedly, from different angles, so that everyone can see it more clearly. This is not an unsolved case like the 1966 World Cup final. It is very clear in slow motion that the football fell beyond the goal line, and it was indeed not a goal.

No matter how unwilling the Barcelona team is, they can only accept this result. They were deceived by their own ideas, and suffered a huge loss.

"It took only thirty-two seconds for Barcelona to go from heaven to hell. This huge gap is really unacceptable. Look at their confused eyes..."

The impact of this goal on the Barcelona players is not as simple as being behind by one goal. I thought I was the one leading, but I didn't expect to become an enemy in an instant. Originally, it was possible to equalize the total score, but now they are behind by two goals. If they want to make a comeback in the away game, at worst they have to score two goals for the Forest team in the next game to equalize the total score. So, go to overtime.

But the mental state of the Barcelona players... can they really do it?

For Nottingham Forest, this bargain was picked up by the Forest team, and Tony Twain naturally "smiled and accepted" without any hesitation. After taking the lead, the Forest team's tactics remained unchanged, and they still insisted on defensive counterattacks. Barcelona, ​​which was behind, would naturally attack even more frantically. The Forest team's defensive counterattacks could be used more easily.

※ ※ ※

Sure enough, the next game was like this. Barcelona's offense, which was eager to equalize the score, had no rules at all. The stars all planned to rely on their personal abilities to save the defeat. The result? Nothing but wasted time.

Instead, the Forest team's sharp counterattack kept Valdez busy.

In the 85th minute, the Forest team once again scored a goal from Van Nistelrooy through a quick counterattack, which completely declared the end of the game.

"...The game is over! After two games of 180 minutes of fierce fighting, the last Champions Cup champion Barcelona was pulled down by the last runner-up Nottingham Forest. To be honest, after watching the first game, this result did not It was amazing, but the first goal of the game was dramatic."

"Tony Twain completed his revenge. Nottingham Forest not only eliminated Barcelona, ​​but also achieved a double win at home and away!"

Twain in the TV camera was standing on the sidelines, raising his arms and waving to the Forest fans in the stands, thanking them for their support. A bright smile bloomed on his face like a flower. This time he did not rush forward to shake hands with Rijkaard first. Twain felt that thanking his supporters was more important than paying respects to his opponent.

George Wood walked over and saw Twain thanking the fans. He was going to go straight to the locker room, but Twain stopped him: "George, how do you feel about the final?"

"It's a pity that there is no trophy for winning." Wood said.

Tang En laughed happily: "It's coming soon." He stretched out his palm, "Eight into four and two games, four into two and two games, and one in the final. There are still five games left, and you can hold that trophy with your own hands. "

Wood looked at Tang En's outstretched five fingers, turned and walked towards the corridor without saying anything. Tang En continued to raise his hands to thank the fans in the stands who called out the name of Nottingham Forest.

He clenched his fist and waved it vigorously in front of the fans.

Those fans who were still unwilling to leave the stadium followed Tang En's gestures and shouted.

Looking at the distorted faces of these fans who were so excited, Tang En smiled very contentedly.