Chapter 850: Sprint

After they defeated Portsmouth in the away game, the Forest team overcame another obstacle. Portsmouth, fighting to avoid relegation, did not cause them much trouble.

Following which, Twain temporarily shifted his focus from the league tournament to the Champions League.

In the semi-finals, Nottingham Forest’s opponent was the France Ligue 1 dominant leader, Lyon.

Although it had always been the France Ligue 1 champion and a well-deserved overlord, this team was the weakest in the Champions League quarterfinals. Their strength was not in the same league as Nottingham Forest. There was some element of luck for them to reach the Champions League quarterfinals this time.

The immediate consequence of Lyon, the dominant team in the France Ligue 1 was the lack of competitiveness from the France Ligue 1 team in the European arena—how good could a team be if the league was not competitive?

There was a consensus in the media that the Forest team would make it to the final, and the English media even guarantee Nottingham Forest a ticket before the game. They were already introducing the finals venue to their readers.

English football world was also bullish on the Forest team. Some people felt that there was no need to use full strength to play against Lyon. Twain should save up the energy to play against their league rivals.

Even so, Twain did not dare take it lightly. Instead, he was even more worried due to the media hype—he was afraid that his team would be influenced by the public opinion and be conceited enough to underestimate the opponent.

To this end, he put on a grim face every day, as if he was worried that his team would be eliminated. During interviews, he also changed his past arrogant and condescending style to appear cautious and never brought up remarks such as “they are definitely in the final”, “book your tickets for Bernabéu in advance.”

His behavior was so strange that people wondered if Twain was kidnapped by aliens and had a brain transplant…

“… Against a team like Arsenal, he dared to say before the game that he wanted to win. Against the weakest team in the top four, he was afraid to mention the finals instead… Maybe it’s a ploy to deliberately confuse his opponents?”

Twain did not care how the outside media viewed his actions and words. He just did not want his team to lower their guard and not to be overly conceited to underestimate the opponent.

Due to his and Wood’s influence, the entire team did not appear to take the opponent lightly. Twain instructed the team to play against Lyon with the attitude that should be taken against a semifinal opponent. Wood trained and prepared for the game seriously to set a good example. Twain’s prestige in the locker room was highly regarded and the power of George Wood’s example could not be ignored. Twain had nothing to worry about before the game against Lyon.

The first leg would be played in the away game.

It was the first time in the history of the Lyon football club that they had reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League. They even hoped to reach the final and lift the trophy. Therefore, Lyon’s spirits was flying high and also had the home field advantage. They launched wave after wave of attacks against the Forest team’s core like raging waves beating against the shore, which made the Nottingham Forest fans watched with their hearts in their throats.

Twain instructed the team to use defensive counterattack tactic in the away game because he predicted that Lyon’s momentum at home would be strong. According to the military tactic of “avoiding the sharp edge”, Twain would not be foolish enough to go head to head against Lyon. It would be victory for this game if he could obtain one point. It would be better if they could score goals.

Lyon’s idea was simple: to use its home advantage to aggressively attack the Forest team, score goals and to win the game in the end to lay the groundwork for the next round. After all, it was hard to play in the Forest team’s home ground. If there was a win in hand, there might be more leeway. No matter what, Lyon was tired of being the reigning champion at home. They wanted to make a historic breakthrough—to be a European champion.

But Nottingham Forest clearly had more experience playing in the Champions League semifinals than Lyon. Twain’s handling of it was experienced. On the contrary, Lyon appeared to be overly anxious. They attacked ferociously from the start. What if they did not score? What if they overstrained themselves?

Twain asked the team to stay firm, slowly wear Lyon out. They would grind Lyon’s fighting spirit and physical fitness. The Lyon players were overexcited and galloping around the field. They looked good playing like this. Those fans who did not understand also blindly cheered, thinking that Lyon had the absolute upper hand and scoring goals was only a matter of time.

That was not the case at all in the eyes of the professionals.

The match was played in France. As a Frenchman, Wenger, the manager of the already eliminated Arsenal, accepted an invitation from a French television station to comment on the match. When he saw Nottingham Forest being beaten back into the penalty area by Lyon, he asserted that Lyon would be the unlucky one if they continued to attack like this.

The French commentator was still doubtful and thought it was only a matter of time that Lyon breached the Forest team’s goal based on the situation in the field—“this is a passive defense. No matter how tight the defense is, there will be loopholes once the other side besieges. I don’t believe Nottingham Forest’s defense is impregnatable. The Forest team, not Lyon, will be under a lot of pressure if the game continues in this way…”

Wenger just laughed and did not speak. He could not argue with the commentator on the live broadcast, but he did not agree with the commentator’s words. He could only wait quietly until it was time to tell who was right and who was wrong.

Thirty minutes into the first half, it was mostly Lyon which besieged Nottingham Forest. The Forest team had only two shots, while Lyon had six shots and broken into the thirty-meters zone several times. Lyon was well ahead. The Lyon fans sang and danced in the stands in a happy and relaxed mood. They seemed to think that they had nothing to fear from Nottingham Forest.

Lyon’s rear defensive line also pressed closer and closer, with the center backs almost eager to dribble the ball into the opposition’s penalty area and shoot.

Just when everyone thought that Lyon’s next attack would be able to break the Nottingham Forest goal, the Forest team fought back.

Like a spring compressed to the extreme, once the pressure loosened up slightly from the top of the spring, then it would suddenly bounce up and its tip would pierce through the light in the night with chilling brilliance.

Akinfeev directly threw a handball to launch the attack, and Şahin quickly diverted the ball after he dribbled the ball to break through. After Agbonlahor, the starting right back used his own speed to force a breakthrough, he did not continue to dribble the ball on the sideline as the Lyon players thought, but suddenly cut inside and headed straight for the goal. He was going to shoot straight at the goal!

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Agbonlahor was too fast and the Lyon players were ill-prepared for the Forest team’s counterattack. When Agbonlahor cut inside, there was only one goalkeeper in front of him.

What happened next was unsurprising.

Agbonlahor burst into the penalty area. Just as he was about to shoot, he was knocked down from the back by a full back returning to defend. Agbonlahor’s fall was slightly exaggerated, but the other side did indeed foul. The referee promptly awarded the Forest team a penalty shot. Not only that, he gave the player who fouled a yellow card.

Off the field, Twain did not let it go and thought that he had gotten off easy with a yellow card. He should at least be directly sent off with a red card!

His protest “won” a lot of boos from the stands.

The Lyon players were ill-prepared for the penalty shot. After a moment’s pause, they gathered around the referee to demand an explanation. They think Agbonlahor had dived.

And on the other side, Agbonlahor was hugging and high fiving his teammates in celebration. He did make the penalty shot happen on purpose. Otherwise he would never have been able to be shoveled from behind by his opponent with his speed. He just needed to jab the ball out and accelerate to get away. But in doing so, he would also lose the best angle and timing to shoot. Under such circumstances, a penalty shot was obviously the most reasonable thing. So, he dragged a leg in the back, waiting for the other side to shovel and then fall. In that way, the penalty shot was in hand.

The player in charge to carry out the penalty shot was Şahin. He succeeded with one shot and sent the ball into the goal. The goalkeeper misjudged the direction. He only found out that the football came from the middle to land in the position he had stood earlier after he pounced.

Seeing that the Forest team had scored, the commentator on the French television station lost his voice for a moment. Wenger kept his smile as usual, making it impossible for others to see his smugness.

Finally, the commentator gave himself a way out and said, “This penalty shot was a bit controversial, but the referee insisted on his penalty decision… the Forest team was lucky to have taken the lead in the away game…”

Wenger thought: How is this considered lucky? You haven’t watched a Premier League game before, Mr. Commentator. This tactic is one of Tony’s most commonly used tricks. You think he’s being beaten passively. In fact, none of them are actually hit… He’s just waiting for the right moment to fight back. If I were the Lyon manager and saw the Forest team play like that, I would ask the defenders to watch the defense and then pull back to lure them out again.

Unfortunately, Lyon’s lack of experience with Twain and playing in the Champions League semifinals was entirely exploited by Twain.

The leading Forest team played better and more easily. As Lyon continued to attack, the Forest team stepped up its counterattack. They almost scored another goal before the halftime interval.

During the halftime interval, Wenger chatted with the commentator about the game. When they touched on the second half, Wenger said that it would be difficult for Lyon in the second half if Nottingham Forest was given the lead in such an elimination game. This time, the commentator finally agreed with Wenger. After all, this manager was more familiar with Twain than he was.

In the second half, as Wenger had stated, Twain still used a defensive counterattack tactic to lead Lyon by the nose.

Lyon was desperate to equalize the scores, which gave the Forest team more chances to counterattack.

But it was clear that the Forest team’s fitness had indeed been affected by a series of high-intensity games. Their fitness in the second half also started to show problems. The power of the counterattack was modest. Despite Twain’s on-field demands for the team to attack repeatedly, the Forest players were lacking in strength even though they were willing. By then, Twain was resigned to the situation. He started to make substitutions and replace the exhausted starting players. He replaced them with the substitute players and focused on the defense.

The last five or six minutes were a tough test for Twain’s heart. With only one goal ahead and Lyon still pressing hard, all the efforts in the game would be wasted to him if Lyon were to score a goal— perhaps he might have accepted a 1:1 result at the opening ten minutes of the game. But at this time, he still had a one-goal lead, so he would never accept any result other than victory.

Fortunately, although the game was thrilling, Nottingham Forest finally held on. The referee blew the final whistle after four minutes of injury stoppage time. Nottingham Forest secured a precious away win and an away goal amid the home fans’ hissing.

With an away win and an away goal, it looked like Nottingham Forest had one foot in the Bernabéu stadium. The Forest team would be formidable and definitely not disappoint Lyon once it was back in its home ground.

Three days later, Twain led the team to a home win over Fulham in 36th round. A day later, Arsenal also won an away game. The gap between the two teams was still three points and there were only two rounds left in the league tournament. The bookmaker, William Hill was still bullish on Arsenal winning the title. And in the odds for the Champions League, Twain’s team was the second-to-last out of the four teams—with the exception of Lyon, they were the least optimistic about the Forest team.

Real Madrid was at top of the table as they tied 2:2 in the mid-week Champions League game with Barcelona. They scored two precious away goals and a good chance of reaching the final. Moreover, this year’s Champions League final was being played at their home ground, the Bernabéu. Once Real Madrid reached the final, they would unreservedly have a real home advantage. By then half of the championship title would almost be Real Madrid’s.

No one would doubt Real Madrid’s desire for the Champions League trophy. They had already been one title short of fulfilling its magnificent record of ten Champions League titles. This time it was also at their own home ground. There was certainly no reason to let go of such an opportunity. As it could be seen from their away game against Barcelona during the semifinals, their ferocious momentum completely suppressed Barcelona. Although the score was 2:2, everyone, even the Barcelona fans, who watched the game from the start, would admit that Barcelona was lucky enough to tie with Real Madrid…

Twain faced two fearsome teams in two tournaments, with both teams having an unlimited desire for the titles. Real Madrid, once the world’s number one football club, had not won the Champions League which they had once won nine times in twelve years. Wenger’s Arsenal also wanted to regain their title in the league tournament. They had already lost the Champions League to Nottingham Forest. They would not want to lose the league tournament to them again.

Three days later, Nottingham Forest crushed Lyon by 2:1 at the City Ground stadium and bade farewell to the City Ground stadium with a victory in the Champions League. They advanced to the final with a total score of 3:1, and then reached the final again after five years.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid beat Barcelona1:0 at home, edging out its archrival, Barcelona with a total score of 3:2. They successfully made the Bernabéu stadium, the main ground in the Champions League final, their true home ground.

Nottingham Forest reached the final against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. Nottingham Forest also reached the final in the Champions League and their opponent was Real Madrid. With two rounds remaining in the league tournament, they were still three points behind Arsenal.

Would Nottingham Forest, which was in the final sprint in all three tournaments, return to Nottingham with three championship trophies at the end of the season or would they collapse and ended up empty-handed in the end?

All would be revealed half a month later.