Chapter 172: The expected (Part 2)

Now it's a bit too far to consider such an illusory thing. Wood couldn't play, and Donn decided to give up too much defense away. He decided to let Albertini and Arteta partner with the starter in the middle of the midfield.

It is meaningless to have already been scored by the opponent at home. It is better to just let go of the attack and try to score more than two away goals, so that Sporting Lisbon's away goals can be offset.

Therefore, this week, Forests have been practicing offense, with Arteta as the core of the offensive, allowing him to organize the offense. Tang En took this opportunity to put his ideas into reality - allowing Arteta to take this opportunity to gradually establish his core position in the team.

Judging from his performances from the substitute in recent games, Don En has firmly decided that Arteta here is no different from the Arteta he knows. He still has the strength and talent, so he has the potential to become the core of the organization. Don En had previously worried that his arrival would change the abilities of other players. Now it seems that most of them have maintained their due level.

After three days of training in Nottingham, the Forest team flew to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. There, they conducted two days of adaptive training, became familiar with the venue, held a press conference... and so on.

From getting off the plane and stepping onto Lisbon's land, Donn felt all kinds of hostility from home. Who told them to destroy Sporting Lisbon's main midfielder in the last round and to ridicule Pacero so mercilessly at the post-match press conference?

Now, they are going to start their away journey under tremendous pressure.

Two days before the game, the Forest team's training always included Sporting Lisbon fans coming to the sidelines to harass them. Chris Lak had to ask Portugal to block the training ground.

On the day of the competition, the situation became even worse.

Alvarad Stadium is full, and from the beginning of Forest players' entry, harsh booing often sounds. In fact, more booing is aimed at Forest's head coach Tony Donn.

Now Tang En is no longer the football coach who was on the shelves and became a monk two years ago. It is not the first time that he has seen such a scene of being booed by all the fans. It is just that there are few people and many people, and there is no trick. He has long ignored it. Now he is all his mind in the game.

From the beginning of the game, the tactics that both sides insisted on in this game were very clear.

Because there were two away goals in hand and only one goal behind. Sporting Lisbon was not in a hurry, but they used the defensive counterattack tactics at home that surprised the commentators.

Nottingham Forest also unexpectedly set up an attack formation.

The two teams seemed to have changed home and away games.

The Forests took advantage of their kick-off opportunity from the first second of the game to launch a fierce attack on the hinterland of Sporting Lisbon.

However, without Roshenbuck, Sporting Lisbon has turned defense into a task for the whole team - everyone must participate in defense, first of all, not conceding goals at home. Then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

George Wood’s red card was a chain reaction, and Pacero knew this very well. The Forest team now dared not defend the advantage of that goal away game. As long as a goal was scored by Sporting Lisbon, they would be finished. So the Forest team will definitely strive for goals in this game, the more the better.

Pacero grasped the opponent's mentality and first defended it. After dragging the Forest team to become impatient, they suddenly launched a counterattack. Just one ball is needed to defeat the Forest team.

Tony Donn practiced the offense for a week, while Jose Pecero practiced the defense for a week.  They were considered a match.

By the end of the first half, Forest team tried their best but could not break through the home team's goal. Instead, Sporting Lisbon became more and more courageous as the cheers of home fans. The regular sneak attacks made Forest team's defense line panic, and Van der Sar was in a hurry.

After the half-time break, the Forest team continued to attack in the second half. However, they also began to pay attention to defense slowly. Tang En planned to use offense to suppress the opponent's attack, so that defense can also play a role.

The scores were always stalemate. The Forest's tide of offense made Sporting Lisbon devote more energy to defense. Time passed by minute by minute, just when everyone thought that Forest would win the quarterfinals in this way, when four minutes left to enter injury stoppage time, Sporting Lisbon scored a goal.

It was not Sporting Lisbon's defensive counterattack that lasted for 86 minutes, but a corner kick.

The Forests' defense loosened at the last moment, and Matthew Epson failed to follow his target, and a moment of negligence caused an irreversible result.

Sporting Lisbon leads Nottingham 1:0! This score remains until the end of the game. Sporting Lisbon will eliminate Nottingham Forest by relying on a lot of away goals.

Of course the Forests didn't want to.    The last moment.   Donn also used the third substitution spot, replaced forward Bentner, and replaced centre-back Epson.

Including the three minutes of injury time, in the last seven minutes, the Forests actually had only one defender on the court. Leiden Barnes and Zimbonda received instructions from Donn to tell them not to worry about defense and attack with all their strength.

The Forests' formation became a very, very strange 1333 - a defender. Two full-backs moved forward to become midfielders. They were on the same line as Albertini.

Tang En's way of playing hard is to stop defending at all, despite this. The Forest team did not get the result they wanted at Alvarad Stadium.

When the German referee blew the whistle to the end of the game, the cheers in the Alvarad stadium were shocking, and Sporting Lisbon players hugged each other to celebrate their difficult victory.

The players of Nottingham Forest fell on the court, gasping for breath, looking at the cheerful opponent unwillingly.

Donn was not dissatisfied with this or was sad or depressed.    When Eastwood was seriously injured and sent to the hospital, when George Wood was sent off with a red card for revenge and injury, the result had already appeared in his mind.

Watching the opponents celebrate the victory, listening to the cheers from the stands of the Alvarad Stadium, waves rise and waves.

Don turned his head and said to David Chris Lack next to him: "I think...you are right, David. I made a big mistake, a very, very big mistake... Now I'm failing."
Chapter completed!