Chapter 801: One Goal and a Red Card

Guardiola stood outside the penalty area and shouted at the closed gate, “Tony Twain, you coward! Which man would hide inside! Have the courage to come out and fight with me!”

Twain hid behind the tall gate and replied, “You have no right to decide whether I’m a man or not. Didn’t you call yourself the best in the world? Come in if you can, then! What kind of a hero are you if you can’t do that much?”

“Have the guts to come out! ”

“Hmph, I just don’t want, are you going to bite me?”

“You’re a shameless old thief! Come out quickly and face me!”

“And if I don’t? What are you gonna do?”

“Ha! Don’t dare come out like a man to fight in the right way. The ladies who can only hide in their necks! ”

“Haha! Whether I am a man or not, do you want to come in and experience it for yourself? ”

” Well, you shameless Twain, if I count till three, would you still not come out? ”

“What would you do if I don’t come out! ”

“If you don’t come out… you don’t come out then I’ll force myself in ”

” Well, well, I still have that patience for you to try out! ”

“One!”

“Go on. ”

“Two!”

This time, he did not wait for Guardiola to count to three. The opposing suddenly opened the door, and a horde of troops rushed out, killing him with a surprise!

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“Pepe intercepted the ball that Bojan passed to Silva, and he got the position of the ball right and decided to cut into the way in advance! He passed the ball to George Wood who received him!”

It was George Wood who brought the ball forward. He relied on his body to lean on Iniesta, who had come forward to defend himself, and then deflected the ball to Lennon on the sideline. Lennon led Nottingham Forest’s quick counter-attack.

“Nottingham Forest have had few decent chances to counter-attack so far and their counter-attack is not a threat because of the lack of troops in front. Will it be the same this time?”

No, it was very different this time! After Wood passed the ball, instead of staying in the backfield ready to defend, he followed Lennon through the midfield.

“Lennon is very fast! Barcelona had collective pressure and the back was empty. This was a great opportunity to fight back!”

Lahm had just pressed up the attack and was now desperately chasing behind Lennon’s ass, but he could not keep up with Lennon’s dribbling. Pique, who is in charge of the centre-forward, was moving towards Lennon, aiming to block his former team-mate in front.

Pique knew Lennon and Lennon was as familiar with Pique, so when he saw Pique coming up he knew that the middle way was bound to be empty. At this moment, he had to see if he had that awareness and techniques to pass that ball.

Who was running the middle road? Ibišević!

Lennon passed the ball out when Pique rushed up to seal himself, but instead of stopping after the pass, he continued to run.

All Nottingham Forest players do not stop after they pass the ball on the counter-attack, but instead kept running. This was an important condition of the counter-attack – playing in place would not ever play a quick counter attack for a lifetime.

Lennon was running forward with Matías Fernández on the other side. He was also running forward along with Şahin and George Wood, and even Thiago was sprinting at full speed. This was their chance after waiting through the first half of the opportunity, they definitely could not let it go!

Ibišević received the ball and then Puyol forced him to pass it to Fernández on his right. With Alves’ assists too far ahead, at this time he was still chasing back behind Fernández, but in front of Fernández there was a clear pitch!

“Barcelona’s defence is completely empty! None of them thought that Nottingham Forest’s counter-attack would come so resolutely and deadly!”

Twain crossed his legs outside the field, a proud smile on his face.

“Now it’s three on two … No, four, five on four! ”

Rahm managed to get back, but he ran towards the middle instead of chasing Lennon. Nottingham Forest’s chances of hitting the ball to the left were too small at this time. The endpoint of the attack must still be in the middle road, so only returning to defense on the middle round was the correct choice.

Their full back Yaya Touré returned back to place as well. After Matías Fernández cut into the penalty area, Puyol ran over and Ibišević had Yaya Toure guarding him, and he could focus all his attention on Fernández.

Seeing how he was unable to shoot directly, Fernández sent the ball back with a quick stop. Ibišević took the lead and rushed to the front, the football was clearly not meant for him. Şahin received the football when no one was defending, and he did not hesitate to directly kick the shot!

“Şahin shot from afar! ”

Fortunately, Valdes was quick-witted and focused and not fooled by Fernández’s neche.

While he was defending Fernández, he was also mindful of the players in the middle room.

Valdés wanted to hold the football directly, but when the football hit his fingertips, he found that the football had a strong spin and it was impossible to hold the football. At that moment he just wanted to hit the ball out. But the football hit his fingertips and bounced off!

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“Vedad Ibišević! He appeared where the ball was landing… and did a header! Goal! Goal! GOOOOOAL!”

Yaya Touré lost his target in the instant of Şahin’s shot as he turned his attention to the shot.” Ibišević overtook from his side and waited for Valdés’s chance to fumble the ball.

Barcelona’s players had doubts about Forest’s goal, believing that Ibišević might have been offside before Şahin’s shot, but in fact he moved forward after Şahin’s shot and did not go offside.

Twain stood up from his seat and clapped loudly, he was very excited. He finally got an away goal! Guardiola, on the other hand, waved a little helplessly. He knew Nottingham Forest would fight back, but did not expect it to happen so suddenly. Because that was when his team was at its best, it seemed like a step away from breaking the door. He did not expect Nottingham Forest to go against the flow and level the scores with a counter-attack.

Ibišević’s goal was followed by his celebration of slapping faces, while England’s narrator was particularly excited. “This was his 20th goal of the season! Hey, Mr Carl Spicer, are you watching this match? Are you ready to bid farewell to your hair? Haha!”

Although what Ibišević was targeting was Carl Spicer, but Barcelona fans who don’t know the inside story and took his actions as a provocation by the Nottingham Forest players as they jeered for a while .

Amidst the jeering, Ibišević changed his celebration. He put his finger to his lips and signaled everyone in the stands to shut up. This was really a provocation to the Barcelona fans.

“Well done, Super Ibi!” Nottingham Forest fans stood in solidarity with Ibišević in the stands, using their songs to fight the jeers of the Barcelona fans.

Forest’s players congratulated Ibišević on scoring his 20th goal and helping their Chief win the bet with Carl Spicer.

“Going back to England, we’re going to urge Spicer to deliver on his promise as soon as possible. It’s best if he just bring a shaver to the live stage, haha!”

Twain, who scored an away goal, was in a good mood and had begun to look forward to how to humiliate Spicer. Perhaps in the future, he would need to call the other person “Bald Spicer”?

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The scoreline was tied, giving Barcelona’s players a slight impact. Their attack afterwards was less aggressive as it had been before, as there were always fears of another sharp counter-attack from Nottingham Forest. Nottingham Forest’s attack was a bit exuberant and they were going to take the opportunity to go down again and score two goals to basically set the tone for the second leg.

Unfortunately, they were a little less fortunate and Barcelona’s defence was not as vain. Pique put the ball out of the penalty area twice in a row to defuse Nottingham Forest’s attack.

The game then returned to its former form — Barcelona’s successive attacks and Nottingham Forest’s shrinking defence. But there was a slight change: Barcelona began to pay great attention to their own backs at the same time as the attack, and Alves and Rahm’s assists were clearly reduced. Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, were more determined and willing to put in their forces when they fought back.

It seemed that no one wanted to end the game with a 1:1 score.

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Messi was back in the game after the 70th minute. He constantly and successfully broke through Nottingham Forest’s defenses to shoot at the goal, but they were both saved by Akinfeev. After a period of silence, Messi used these two shots to tell the Forest crowd that he was the most threatening player in the game and they would die if they ignored him.

One thing Messi knew was that Pepe, Barnes and Thiago in front of him now had a yellow card and, no matter what, he had to make sure that one of the three men was sent off, preferably the centre-back, if possible, o he cut in-ways from the side several times, looking for Pepe.

Pepe also found Messi’s intentions, but there was nothing he could do about it because he could run away due to the yellow card he was holding. He had to do what he usually does, he just needed to pay attention to his defensive action and not give Messi the possibility of success. Even if foul was the only way to stop his opponent, the location of the foul could not be in the penalty zone.

In the 77th minute, Messi forced a break through George Wood. Wood wanted to stop it with a foul, but he was was so flexible that a little bit of the gap allowed him to break through. Now he could face Pepe directly and if he could pass by Pepe, the only person in front of him would be only Akinfeev.

Pepe stretched his foot to intercept the ball but Messi pulled the ball away. Messi, who had flicked the football, did not follow to run from Pepe. In that moment, his body seemed to have become awkward, as if he did not dodge and hit Pepe head-on, rolled over and fell to the ground, not forgetting to clutch his ankle.

The referee’s whistle was heard along with boos from The Barcelona fans.

“That was a foul! He even kicked down Messi! Pepe looks to be in trouble…”

Pepe pulled Messi up, constantly waving his hand to signal to the referee that it was not a foul. The reason he was so anxious was because he had seen the referee put his hand towards his chest pocket.What did that action mean?

“No!” Twain also shouted when he saw this scene. “This was not a foul! It’s definitely not enough for a yellow card foul! You f*cking referee, you’re doing this on purpose, huh!”

His shouting and swearing did not prevent the referee from showing Pepe a second yellow card, and the Brazilian was sent off! A group of Nottingham Forest players swarmed up and surrounded the referee as they could not accept the result.

“In fact, there is not much to argue. If Pepe did not foul, Messi will pass by him, and then directly to the goalkeeper Akinfeev. He was the last ball! It’s not wrong to give a yellow card!”

When Twain saw the referee pull out a red card, he jumped like a flash lightning onto the pitch. The score line-up was levelled and, as the game wore on, the situation should have become more and more favourable to Nottingham Forest. Now the main centre-back was sent off, and in the face of Barcelona’s wrath, how could Nottingham Forest play?

In a contest with a team like Barcelona, it was very different to have one person fewer. There would never be a situation where that one person did not make a difference.

The fourth official came up to call Twain to stop a little, and only then did Twain stop scolding to turn and walk back. Pepe’s penalty was immutable, and to be fair it was a foul, so he could only accept it.

The referee dispersed the crowd and urged Pepe to leave the scene quickly. The Brazilian defender left with jeers from the home fans. But instead of returning to the locker room, he stood at the mouth of the aisle and continued to keep an eye on the game.

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Pepe was sent off and Twain was forced to replace him. Using Woodgate to replace Şahin. When Şahin came down, Twain came up to shake his hand and comforted him. There was really no choice… Şahin’s performance was not bad, and he indirectly assisted Ibišević’s goal. But in this case the two backs certainly could not change, the striker as well because Twain still wanted to fight back. If he changed one side, both sides would not be balanced, then the person who could be substituted out was the front midfielder Şahin.

“You did a good job, Nuri. There’s nothing to be frustrating about, it’s just our luck … It’s a little bad. …”

Twain said it for Şahin and himself.

It was a difficult match… keeping this goal might have become his highest target.

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“Barcelona stepped up their attack against Nottingham Forest who was lacking a player, and they were on full-back attack to end their opponents by taking the opportunity! Pepe’s unexpected departure has caused Nottingham Forest a lot of trouble. Maybe Tony Twain should consider to take the score 1 : 1 away from Nou Camp Stadium being his biggest victory. But will Guardiola give him that chance? This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Barcelona! I think Nottingham Forest is in danger. ”

“That’s well said, Calvin. But I don’t think it’s unacceptable that Nottingham Forest to lose to Barcelona on 1 : 2, they still had a home game and what happens then would not be easy for anyone to say. If Guardiola think he wins for sure, he would regret going to England. With about 12 minutes left in the game, Barcelona would have preferred to score two more goals so that Nottingham Forest’s promotion hopes could be wiped out! With Barcelona’s offensive ability, I doubt it’s an impossible task…”