Chapter 818: A Last-Ditch Struggle

“Aaron Mitchell! He has scored the most brilliant goal of the match! No, the most brilliant goal of the Champions League! He went past 4 players on his way to score the goal! At 2.02m tall, his techniques remind us of Ibrahimović, who is also over 1.9m tall. But Mitchell is even taller than him…”

Mitchell’s team mates flung their bodies onto him after he scored the goal.

Mitchell’s father looked at the player who had been weighed down by the other Forest players absent-mindedly. He was not like the other fans around him who were screaming and dancing in joy.

A fan next to him patted his shoulder and yelled excitedly, “You have a great son! You have a great son!”

Mitchell’s father forced a laugh in response, but quickly averted his sight back towards Barcelona’s goalpost.

Is that man on the pitch really that foolish son of his?

That son of his who would always go ‘heh heh’ when he laughs?

That son of his who has a weird voice?

That son of his who, as a child, was suspected to be suffering from ‘gigantism’ due to how he could not stop growing in height?

The only reason why he had sent his son to Nottingham Forest’s football academy was because Mitchell enjoyed playing football. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect his son to score not just one but two goals in a top-level European match…

He was overjoyed for his son when he scored the first goal.

The second goal was also a brilliant goal, but he felt like his brain was unable to comprehend everything that had happened after that goal.

Number 9. Mitchell.

That’s right, that’s his last name.

He then took a look at the face that carried an exuberant smile. It was indeed his son.

This all feels like… A dream…

My son has just become Nottingham Forest’s hero in the blink of an eye!

I am now the father of a hero!

Guardiola turned his head to look at his assistants seated next to him. He realized that they all had blank looks upon their faces.

It seemed like none of them have recovered from the shock induced by Mitchell’s goal.

There was nothing that any of them could say against such a brilliant goal.

But, it was not like the match has ended, right?

He stood up from his seat and readjusted his emotions. He then called Carles Puyol over to him.

“There’s still 10 more minutes!” He told Puyol as he pointed at his watch. “Nottingham Forest would be finished as long as we can score one more goal! One more goal! I don’t need anything more than that! One goal is enough!”

Puyol nodded his head. He knew what he had to do.

“Tell the others to concentrate fully on offense. Don’t think about defense right now. We have to score another goal against them!”

Puyol did as he was told. He called all his team mates over to him and relayed Guardiola’s words to them.

“The match is not over yet! Now’s not the time for our heads to drop! As long as we can score another goal, it would be game over for Nottingham Forest! The initiative is still on our hands!”

Barcelona had not given up on the match, but neither did Nottingham Forest lose themselves in their euphoria either.

When the players were celebrating the goal, Dunn and Kerslake reminded them from the side of the pitch, “Don’t let your guard down. The match is not over yet! I need all of you to put aside your feelings of happiness right now and pay attention to the defense! We are going to change our tactic from here on out to defense and counterattack!”

After the match restarted, Barcelona launched a flurry of attacks towards Nottingham Forest’s half of the pitch. They knew that if they do not bestir themselves right now, there would be no chance of them winning the match.

Nottingham Forest responded to Barcelona’s attacks by making their defense compact and trying to find the opportunity to hit them on the break.

Both teams played as though they had tossed their midfield aside. Barcelona kept passing long balls towards the front of the pitch, and similarly, Nottingham Forest’s defenders also kept passing the ball to their forward at the front. The ball kept flying about in the air.

Barcelona was making use of a playing style that they were not good at. However, long passes were right down Nottingham Forest’s alley.

Mitchell was utterly exhausted after scoring his last goal. He could not even get off the pitch after the celebration of his goal due to a sprain on his leg. Hence, Dunn took him off for Ibišević.

As he hobbled to the side of the pitch under the assistance of the team’s medical staff, the fans in the stadium all stood to their feet and applauded his performance.

“Aaron Mitchell. He has scored a brace in this match. If Nottingham Forest were to end up winning Barcelona, then he is surely the biggest contributor to their victory. His performance in this match can be regarded as perfect. The media might not have given him a score for his performance yet, but the fans at the stadium have all given him a 10 for his performance today! Look at all the fans who have rose to their feet! Well done to the 20 year-old Aaron Mitchell!”

Mitchell could not believe that the scenes he fantasized about that very night had actually turned into reality.

He lifted his head to look at the stands before raising his two hands slowly to thank the fans for their applause.

Tears welled up in his eyes. He felt like he was the happiest man alive in the whole wide world right now…

“Well done, Aaron.” Dunn stood before him and looked at him with a smile on his face.

Mitchell took a step forward and gave Dunn a hug.

“Rest up. Everyone’s waiting to give you a hug.” Dunn patted him twice on the back lightly.

Mitchell noticed his team mates on the bench who were winking at him. A smile emerged on his weary face.

The scenes at Forest’s bench might make one feel warm inside, but the scenes on the pitch would fire one up instead. Nottingham Forest and Barcelona were still having a heated battle with each other.

Barcelona’s offense might look ferocious, but it did not rattle Nottingham Forest’s defense in the slightest. They kept attacking Forest from all directions, but their attacks did not lead to any results. Instead, it was Forest who nearly scored another goal due to the void left behind in Barcelona’s defense after their players moved forward to attack. If not for the fact that Forest was unlucky during their attacks, the score would definitely not remain 3:1.

Guardiola stood by the side of the pitch and watched the match nervously. He would become very enraged every time Forest went on the counterattack. There was nothing else that he could do besides feeling enraged.

Barcelona has to press forward and attack, and it is only natural that Forest would try to go on the counterattack. Forest were no fools. With all the Barcelona players moving forward to join in the offense, it was the perfect opportunity for them to go on the counterattack. How could they not make full use of it?

All he could pray for was that his team would score a goal quickly.

His team just needs one goal to pronounce Forest dead…

Unfortunately, Barcelona were not able to get their wish. Nottingham Forest did not give them the slightest chance to score a goal.

Five minutes had passed since the match restarted.

Barcelona was a team that took pride in its offensive prowess, but right now they were being kept outside of Nottingham Forest’s penalty box, and were only able to attempt long shots at goal.

The Barcelona players started becoming more and more agitated as the end of the match drew near. The players from both teams started to have physical contact with one another more often as well. However, there was something different about the physical contact that the players shared. There seemed to be a note of anger in the players’ actions every time they had physical contact with an opposing player.

Bojan Krkić was pushed to the ground by Wood when he tried to maintain possession of the ball before Forest’s penalty box.

The Barcelona fans started booing to show their displeasure towards Wood’s actions, and the Barcelona players all gave up playing in the match as well. They raised their arms into the air to indicate that Wood had committed the foul. Every single one of them waited for the referee to blow on his whistle, but the referee did not react at all!

Nottingham Forest did not care about what the Barcelona players were doing at the moment. Wood passed the ball over to Lennon, and Lennon initiated a counterattack by bringing the ball forward.

Their actions snapped the Barcelona’s players back into the game. Yaya Touré charged towards Lennon and tackled him from behind as revenge!

Lennon fell to the ground and rolled about as he clasped onto his ankle. It looked like a serious injury.

This time, the referee blew his whistle. He deemed that Barcelona had committed a foul!

The Barcelona players had initially intended to rush over to the referee to question his decision over not penalizing Wood’s actions as a foul earlier. However, they changed their target en route to the referee and dashed towards the spot where Yaya Touré had fouled Lennon instead.

That was because Yaya Touré and George Wood both had their hands on each other’s necks over there.

“Ah! Look at what’s happening on the pitch! George Wood and Yaya Touré have gotten into a confrontation!”

Sergio Busquets, who was 1.89m tall, ran up and shoved Wood on the chest. It was unclear if he did what he did to stop the fight or to vent his frustrations.

“Take off your hands, bastard!”

The Forest players were not willing to take things lying down after seeing their captain get humiliated. Kompany bumped his head against Busquet’s, and the two looked like two angry bulls in a fight. Their eyes were bloodshot and there was hot air being emitted from their nostrils.

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“Do you f*cking want to die? You bastard!” Kompany chastised Busquets.

“Shameless son of a b*tch!” Busquets did not reply in English but in Catalan instead.

In truth, the Barcelona players have been fuming over the terrible state of the pitch for a while now. Their actions have started becoming rough when Messi was taken off the pitch due to an injury earlier. The fact that their team was now a goal down only added to their frustrations.

They were looking for a way to vent their vexation all this time, and now they finally found one. Nottingham Forest has given them the chance to vent when Wood committed a ‘suspected foul’ on their player earlier. None of the Barcelona players were willing to let this chance slip away.

“Hey! Stop fighting!”

The Barcelona players might be shouting that, but they were secretly punching Wood behind his back.

“Are you guys going to get rough after seeing that you can’t win? I’m not afraid of you!”

“Pull them apart at once!”

“What do you want to do?”

The players from both teams were at each other’s throats. The scene was utterly chaotic.

The Forest fans at the stands started booing the Barcelona players. There were even coins, lighters and other objects being thrown towards the pitch.

The security officers at the stands were on high alert. They were afraid that the more ‘extreme’ fans would rush down from the stands to join in the fray on the pitch.

That would be terrible…

Dunn did not expect the situation to go out of hand. He was dumbstruck and did not know what to do.

Kerslake was the one who was shouting by the side of the pitch, “George! You are the captain! Calm down right now!”

No one on the pitch could hear what he was shouting about. All the players were lost in their anger, and the only thoughts in their heads were how to teach the opposing players a lesson.

Gerard Piqué from Barcelona and Jonathan Woodgate from Forest were the few players with a clear head. They threw themselves into the fight that was going on between their team mates and tried to pull as many players away from the brawl as possible.

Wood appeared to be livid. He did not utter a single word and just glowered at Yaya Touré. He looked to be trying to find an opportunity to grab hold of Touré.

If Yaya Touré were to be caught by Wood, he would definitely get punched in the face.

Piqué was well aware of the kind of temper that Wood has. He had seen him throw his temper numerous times during his time as a player at Forest. Wood would always be the first person to get in their opponent’s face whenever his team mates got fouled.

Perhaps that is his way of protecting his team mates…

Between the two troublemakers, Piqué chose to run up to Wood first. He wrapped his hands around Wood’s waist and forcefully dragged him away from Yaya Touré.

“George! George!” He shouted. “You need to calm down! You are the captain! You can’t be the one getting into fights! Calm… down!” With concerted effort, he dragged Wood away from the fray.

Wood continued to struggle in his arms. He wanted to rush back towards Touré to teach him a lesson.

Meanwhile, Puyol was the player to drag Touré away. He had also wrapped his arms around Touré just like Piqué had done to Wood.

Both Puyol and Piqué believed that Wood and Touré would likely fight to the death if they were to loosen their grip.

Twain swore after he saw what was happening on the pitch. However, none of the angry fans seated around him understood what he said, because he had sworn in his Sichuan dialect.

“F*ck your mother!”

He was not reprimanding the Barcelona players. He was reprimanding his own players instead.

John and Bill’s faces had gone red in fury. They kept yelling and scolding the Barcelona players at the top of their voices.

Twain wished he was at the technical area rather than the stands. If he were at the technical area, he would have rushed onto the pitch and stopped the fight between the players.

Nottingham Forest was most likely going to progress to the next round of the competition. A wise thing to do at a time like this was to rile the Barcelona players up and let their players get penalized with yellow cards for committing fouls.

Forest should not be the ones getting riled up as well!

What are Dunn and David doing?

Pepe is not able to play in the next match! How are we supposed to play in the semi-finals if any other player on our team picks up more yellow cards and gets suspended?

F*ck, are all of you bastards on drugs or something? Why are you all so damn agitated?

The referee kept blowing on his whistle to signal for everyone to calm down. The conflict abruptly started again just when things looked under control, but eventually the players were able to calm down and stop fighting. However, both Wood and Touré still had to be held back by another player, because the looks on their faces still suggested that they were not ready to walk away from the fight just yet…

Forest’s medical staff had already run onto the pitch to treat Lennon during the confrontation between the players.

Once the situation was completely under control, the referee called Touré and Wood over to him. Both players carried looks of hostility on their faces when they stood next to each other, but they did not get into a fight before the referee.

The referee fished out a deck of cards from his pocket. Then, he flashed the red one at Yaya Touré to penalize him for his malicious tackle from behind.

Touré protested against the referee’s decision, “Why have you not penalized their player for committing a foul on us?”

The referee paid no heed to him. He turned around and flashed the red card at Wood!

Wood knew he was going to get shown a red card. He had already walked to the side of the pitch before the referee flashed the red card at him.

The fans at the stands applauded him when he walked off the pitch. They saw him as a hero who stood up for his team mates.

He helped us take our anger out on those Barcelona players!

Kerslake chased after Wood when he saw him leave the pitch. He personally walked him back to the locker room because he was afraid that Wood would get into another fight with Touré on the way back.

On the way over to the locker room, Kerslake kept patting Wood on the head to chide him for being too rash earlier. The managers clearly saw things from a different perspective than the fans.

Dunn hung his head by the side of the pitch. He did not know what kind of expression he should make after all that has happened.

Guardiola, on the other hand, was very upset with the referee’s decision. He felt that the decision was biased against his team, and that they were ‘unfairly treated’.

He pulled on the fourth official and questioned him, “Why have there not been any penalties given to their team for the fouls they made on our players? Why are we the only ones who got penalized? And we even got a red card for it! Why was only one player penalized for their team? What about Kompany?”

He soon found out why Yaya Touré had to be given a red card and why George Wood was so indignant.

Aaron Lennon was carried off the pitch on a stretcher. He was badly injured and would not be able to continue playing in the match. Gary Fleming, Forest’s medical doctor, gestured to the managers to make a substitution as he walked off the pitch alongside Lennon.

“That was one nasty foul. The referee has made the right decision to show Touré a red card!” The British commentator was furious.

“This match has really been… Horrible.” There was a twinge of helplessness in the Catalan commentator’s voice. He knew the match was over for Barcelona. They were not going to qualify for the next round…

Wood and Touré were both penalized with red cards for their actions. Kompany and Busquets were also shown yellow cards for their involvement. Numerous other players were all given verbal warning as well.

The entire confrontation had lasted for 5 minutes. When the situation was finally brought under control, the match was already at the 90th minute and was about to enter stoppage time.

The fourth official was able to shake off Guardiola after a moment of struggle. He raised the board to indicate the number of stoppage time that would be added in the game:

Nine minutes!

Deafening boos erupted in the City Ground Stadium once again.

“Why don’t you f*cking add 45 minutes to the game? Rotten referee!” The Forest fans chastised the referee’s decision at the stands.

“The confrontation from earlier lasted 5 minutes. That’s why the stoppage time is exceptionally long… Is there still a chance for Barcelona to win the match?”

Not a chance.

Dunn put Rafinha on the pitch to replace the injured Lennon, and he also reassigned Nicolas Nkoulos to play as the center back.

With the addition of Nkoulos, Forest’s defense was now made up of five defenders. It was just like a bulky iron chain that had completely sealed up Akinfeev’s goalpost.

The Barcelona players were all affected by the confrontation from earlier. Their emotions and movements were erratic, and they were not able to perform at their best. They chose to do long passes to the front of the pitch instead of building up their attacks slowly from the back during their offense.

The boos from the stands turned into cheers the moment the referee blew on the whistle to signal the end of the match.

All the Forest fans celebrated their victory. They had triumphed over Barcelona 3:1 at home. They not only exacted revenge on Barcelona with this victory, they also proved that Nottingham Forest, who was the two-time defending champion of the Champions League, was still a strong team.

“The match is over! Nottingham Forest has just eliminated the 2009-10 Champions Barcelona after eliminating the 2008-09 Champions Inter Milan! Those two teams were the champions in the two seasons where Nottingham Forest failed to become champions in the Champions League! They have now eliminated both of those champions… Nottingham Forest is truly the ‘Champions Killer’! Tony Twain said at the start of the season that we would know how good a champion team is by letting them play a game against Nottingham Forest! His team has certainly shown what they are capable of!”