champion godfather

Chapter 829 Volume [-] Crimson Pikui
The Barcelona dressing room was gloomy and Guardiola was desperately trying to cheer everyone up.It was a different story in the Nottingham Forest dressing room.

"Good job, guys!" Chris Lack took on the task of Tony Twain in the locker room, and he had to use words to continue to motivate the players.Tang is only responsible for explaining the tactical arrangements.

The players were as happy as the coach, they were happy with their first half performance.Almost completely blocked Barcelona's offense, dominated the field, and even had a chance to score another goal in the last 5 minutes.

Everyone sat down and started discussing the predicament of Barcelona in the first half, and they had a good chat.

Seeing that their discussion became more and more heated, Chris Lack had to show the majesty of an assistant coach to silence them, because Tang had something to say: "We did a good job in the first half. But we can't relax in the second half. I am worried about your second half. There will be pride and underestimation. You still have to watch what kind of opponent Barcelona is, if you give them too much space, once they adapt to the playing field, the situation will not be so good... "

The faces of the players became serious.They knew that what Don said was true.

As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse.For a team like Barcelona, ​​no matter what, the strength is still there.If you are not careful, you may indeed have bad luck.

"So in the second half we continued to press them all over the court, forcing them to make mistakes and unable to organize an effective offense. Forced their offense to rely on long-range shots and wide crosses to complete. Once they played high-altitude balls with us , their threat is much smaller."

"Our offense... just pay attention to improving the success rate a little bit. We got a lot of chances in the final stage of the first half, but we didn't score a single goal. This can't be the case in the second half. Tony always said that there will be retribution for wasting opportunities. A one-goal lead is also the most unsafe score in the world. I don’t think he would like to see you in the stands satisfied with 1-0 in the second half, right?”

In the end, Tang still wanted to use the image of Tony Twain to add a little more persuasiveness to his speech.He couldn't control these players, which was proven when Twain temporarily left work because of a heart attack.When the situation is good, everyone listens to him, and when the situation is not good, no one cares about him.Lifting out Tony Twain at this time is like a precious sword.Sometimes Tang also thinks that he may have been an assistant coach in Nottingham Forest all his life, because Tony's influence on this team is really far-reaching...

※ ※ ※

Tang En returned to the stands with his companions in a disposable cup filled with fruit juice. The second half was about to start. The players from both sides who were warming up on the court had already left. The fourth official and three referees appeared on the sidelines. They got together and chatted. what.Maybe talking about the course?

When Tang En appeared in the stands, there was a little commotion. Other fans who recognized him rushed up and asked loudly: "We will win, right, Tony?"

Tang En also replied loudly: "Of course!"

Then a group of people raised the wine in their hands and shouted: "Forest Forest! Nottingham Forest!"

They kept shouting until players from both sides entered the field.

When the Nottingham Forest players entered the field, they were cheered by the fans. When the Barcelona players entered the field, they were much quieter...

The situation of the two teams may be seen from the expressions of the players of the two teams when they played.The Nottingham Forest players were talking and laughing, while the Barcelona players were serious and frowning, from players to coaches without exception.

Messi, who was called "the world's new football champion" by the media before, also pursed his lips with a stern expression.He almost completely disappeared in the first half, contributing nothing at all.The majestic and unstoppable Argentine football leader and the ace of Barcelona's aces on the court seemed to be sleepwalking.

He was thinking about how to restore the situation in the second half and regain his state.

But this is a bit difficult, the venue is one reason, and the strict marking of Wood and others is also a reason.In this game, Twain did not only let the full-backs defend Messi like in the previous round. When George Wood was free, he would often take the initiative to come to Messi to "talk about his ideals in life."

The uneven field is already difficult to control the ball, and with Wood's personal interference, he can hardly really hold the ball well.

Maybe in the second half he should be more active in running, with a wider range of motion...

※ ※ ※

After the start of the second half, Puyol and Piqué went to defend Mitchell with all their strength, and the situation improved slightly.Mitchell's height, header, and jumping are really good, but he is completely at a disadvantage in terms of experience. When Piqué and Puyol team up to deal with him, he doesn't know what to do.

During this period, as Mitchell was marked to death, Barcelona gradually regained the situation on the field.They began to try to organize the attack.

Unlike the first half, Barcelona's offense began to rely more on the personal skills of the stars, rather than cooperation.Because the failure in the first half proved that their cooperation could not be played on such a field.

Almost any team with multiple stars on a team would consider relying on individual skills to decide games in this situation.Barcelona has Messi, Silva, Boyan, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves... and many other stars in the team. Any of these people has the ability to decide the outcome of the game alone.It would be such a waste if not used.

After receiving the ball, Silva chose to go it alone on the wing. He successfully broke through Nkuru, who is too tall and has a high center of gravity, but his cross was easily pushed out by Kompany.

Then came up to try Harvey.He shot directly from a long distance and deliberately hit a ground ball, just trying to use the uneven field to cause trouble for Akinfeev.

But the Russians who have trained on this kind of court for a week have already adapted to this kind of ball, and Twain has done similar training in training.He fell to the ground and pressed the football firmly under his body, without causing a chance for Bo Yang to take a supplementary shot.

Then came Messi.

He pulled to the side to catch the ball, facing Joe Mattok's defense, he feinted a shot to go to the bottom, but suddenly smashed the ball inside and threw Mattok away.

If it is at the Nou Camp, Messi is more sure.Now he can only choose to cut inside early.Unsurprisingly, George Wood pressed forward.

Messi struggled to keep the ball bouncing across the uneven turf.His technique is really good, he still has the football under his feet in such a situation, and he hasn't lost it yet.

Seeing that he was holding the ball very steadily, Wood was not in a hurry to make a move, but just leaned his body up.

Messi also knew that once Wood approached him, he would have no chance to break through.So he stopped suddenly, got out of the way of Wood, and then changed his mind to pull to the side.

He intends to kill a bloody path between Wood and Mattok, and go straight into the penalty area!

Dial with your left foot, buckle with your right foot!
He managed to get out of the way of Joe Mattock's tackle, trying to get out of the gap.But Wood's explosive power is amazing!When he dialed the ball with his left foot, he had already seen through his intentions, took a big stride first, and crossed Messi's route.Messi buckled the football forward with his right foot, and Wood just separated him from the ball, successfully blocking the position!
Messi couldn't stop the car and bumped into George Wood. He felt as if he had hit a wall.Fortunately, he has just started it. If he is running at high speed, he might feel dizzy right away...

Messi collapsed to the ground, and the Barcelona fans and Nottingham Forest fans in the stands booed harshly at the same time.Barcelona fans think that George Wood blocked a foul and should give a free kick or a penalty - the place where Messi fell to the ground is very ambiguous, it seems to be outside the penalty area, and it seems to be in the penalty area...

The Nottingham Forest fans booed because they thought Messi was diving.It was too exaggerated to fall to the ground in such a close collision.

The referee did not whistle Wood for a foul, nor did he signal Messi to dive.He did nothing and the game continued.

Although Wood stopped Messi's attack, Nottingham Forest was not out of danger, because Bo Yang came up.

When Messi failed, Bo Yang inserted from behind diagonally, trying to grab the ball.He thought that Wood's full attention was on Messi at the time, and he must have no time to pay attention to himself.But he was wrong.

After blocking Messi, Wood twisted around again and locked Bo Yang behind him.

Bo Yang and Messi collided like that. Although he didn't fall to the ground, he also lost the chance to grab the ball.

One person defending Barcelona's two major offensive masters alone fully embodies George Wood's ability.After protecting the football, he did not choose to blindly kick the ball, but passed it to Joe Mattock, who had already been pulled to the side, and asked him to pass the football to organize the attack.

Several consecutive attacks have not received any results. It seems that Barcelona's plan to rely on the personal skills of the stars to score goals will not work...

※ ※ ※

When the game reached No. 60 minutes, it was forced to interrupt.

Someone is hurt!

But this time it was not a Barcelona player or a Nottingham Forest player who was injured. The injured person was a little surprised.

At that time, Barcelona's ball was cut off in the frontcourt, Nottingham Forest launched a quick counterattack, and both sides were in high-speed motion.Naturally, the referee had to quickly run from the Nottingham Forest half to the Barcelona half, but he sat down on the ground just as he was just starting!
It wasn't until Nottingham Forest finished the attack that people noticed that the referee was still sitting in the middle circle, with one hand covering his ankle...

"Ha! What did we see? The referee is injured!" The commentator laughed, sounding gloating.

There was also a burst of laughter over the city stadium.This scene is really too funny.

"We've been guessing who's going to get injured on a bad pitch, maybe Messi, maybe Iniesta, maybe Boyan, maybe even Nottingham Forest's own ... but we just didn't expect the first one to get hurt. It's the referee...he seems to have sprained his ankle? Let's see what happened..."

A replay picture appeared on the TV screen.When starting up, the referee stepped on a bump with his kicking foot, so...

"Well, I think it's impossible for the referee to enforce the law in this game..."

Just as he was talking, the TV showed a shot of the fourth official warming up on the sidelines.

"We wish the fourth official the best of luck and hope he doesn't sprain his ankle as soon as he comes on. Ha!"

Tang En also saw the scene in the stands, and he laughed happily like other fans.Due to what happened at the end of the first leg between the two sides, Nottingham Forest fans did not like the UEFA referees.

Even the players from both sides who were fighting fiercely on the field just now let go of their confrontational emotions and gathered around the referee to watch the excitement, with playful smiles on their faces.

Kompany even took the opportunity to catch up with Piqué.

"Hey man, how's your day?"

"Hey, that's it, what else..."

The referee's injury added some comedy to the tense game and eased the atmosphere a little.

Then the injured referee stood with the support of the staff, and the fourth official went into battle.When the two handed over work, the referee specifically told him: "Be careful with the turf near the circle..."

A fan shouted at the fourth official from the stands: "Hey man! Are you sure you warmed up! Be careful, don't sprain your ankle-!"

"Ahahahaha——" His shout was greeted with a burst of gloating laughter.

After the original referee came down, he was still asking people around him to describe how bad the turf of the city stadium was. He spread his hands, shook his head and shrugged, with a helpless expression on his face.

※ ※ ※

When the game resumed, the ease shown by the players on both sides disappeared immediately. Kompany and Piqué also lost the warmth of smiling and chatting together, and the tense atmosphere returned to everyone.

After all, this is the last round of the quarter-finals that is related to who can advance and who will be eliminated.Don't be careless.

Messi suffered from Wood, but he didn't give up. He didn't even bypass Wood to find another breakthrough point. He seemed to have to compete with Wood today.

This time he managed to shake Wood away, but he still couldn't break into the penalty area easily, and could only shoot long shots from the outside.

Akinfeev saves the ball from the baseline and gives Barcelona a corner. Maybe it's a victory for Messi?
Piqué rushed forward for a header and Kompany was ordered to mark him.When the two of them approached, Kompany smiled beside him: "Don't try to score, you boy!"

"You talk so much nonsense..." Piqué glanced back at Kompany. "Don't pull my clothes!"

"I didn't pull!" Kompany raised his hands.

Huddled in front of the door, Piqué kept changing positions, he was hiding from Kompany.

Xavi runs to take the corner, he's waiting for more chaos in the box...

Piqué is still wrestling with Kompany.Although at Nottingham Forest, his central defender partner was mostly Pepe, but he also wanted to cooperate with Kompany, because Tony Twain was always in rotation.After training and playing together for so many years, he is familiar with Kompany and how Kompany is used to defending corner kicks.And Kompany is also familiar with him, knowing his habit of fighting for the top and his position.Piqué knew that it would be bad for him to continue entanglement like this.He winked at Puyol next to him.Puyol understood, and suddenly inserted into the battle group, separating the two.And Piqué took the opportunity to get away and retreat to the outside line.

At the same time, Harvey kicked the football towards the goal!
Kompany knew that this was Barcelona's tactic, but there was nothing he could do. He desperately wanted to get rid of Puyol's defense, but it was still a step too late.

The football draws an arc, turns slightly outward, and Piqué, who has escaped Kompany's marking, sprints inward and jumps in, a powerful header!

The distance was too close, and Akinfeev had no time to react, he just waved his hand, and the football flew into the goal from beside him!
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL—" the Catalan commentator yelled for a full minute before stopping.Whenever you think he's going to run out of steam, he'll just raise his voice a notch higher and keep on yelling.

"Pique's powerful header! He opened the door of his former club!"

After scoring the goal, Piqué didn't celebrate. His teammates rushed to hug him, but he didn't say anything, just like a wooden stake, allowing them to hug and slap him.

The goal is because he is now a Barcelona player, so naturally he has to play for the master.But he grew up at Nottingham Forest and loved everything, even the fans who booed him in the stands.There were only sporadic boos in the stands, and most of the Forest players still couldn't feel bad for Piqué.The treatment he received when he returned to the city stadium was completely different from that of Bendtner.

But if Barcelona eliminated Nottingham Forest because of their own goal, how will the two sides feel then?

"Barcelona is leading the total score now! And more importantly, they also scored an away goal! How will Nottingham Forest counterattack? Tony Twain is not on the coaching bench, so he is always the best at improvised work..."

(End of this chapter)