Chapter 69 Wolf
Tony Don't En's Boy Scouts entered the semifinals, but eventually stopped in the semifinals and failed to go further. Don't expresses satisfaction with this result. Originally, the League Cup was used as a training ground, and being able to enter the semifinals was considered to have exceeded the task.
After entering the new year, the FA Cup has begun in full swing and the team has successfully passed through the first two rounds.
In the league, the Boy Scouts also performed very stably, fixing the team's performance between five and seventh places.
This season, Forests is not the protagonist of the Premier League. After the freshness of the beginning of the season, the media's reports on Forests are obviously much less than in previous seasons. In the eyes of the media, teams that can compete for the championship have a great value of attention. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea, the traditional Premier League semi-finals are fighting for a league championship. Reporting them is much better than the boy scouts who pay attention to Nottingham Forest.
When the Champions League reopened in February, everyone paid more attention to the performance of the four teams representing the Premier League. Who still cares about a forest?
In this environment where people are not favored and valued, Tang En's team got the atmosphere they want most, and could develop slowly according to their own ideas without being disturbed by the media.
Without most media, they have great pressure on first-year students, whether they lose or win. Every game is a progress for these people.
This season has passed very quickly for Donn. �
So when the media, fans, and other teams' head coaches came back to their senses, they suddenly realized that Nottingham Forest was only two points away from fourth in the league...
"Four consecutive victories, three consecutive victories, seven rounds of unbeaten... Nottingham Forest has quietly completed the task of catching up. When the Premier League semi-finals were still tortured by the competitions on the two fronts of the League Champions League and the Champions League, he lost the League Cup and the FA Cup. But he was already eyeing them.
"There are eight rounds left in the league, and nothing is possible for Tony Donn."
"Let's see who the team in fourth place is...Chelsea! Haha..."
"...Scolari has already felt the pressure. He will be very troubled about whether to play in the quarterfinals of the Champions League with his main players or the next round of the league. Because Chelsea's opponent in the next round of the league is Nottingham Forest!"
"Actually... I think even if Forest won the league championship this season, it shouldn't be impossible..."
Seeing the ranking of Nottingham Forest quietly climbing up, the media also became excited.
"Except for Arsenal, Nottingham Forest has not played against the other three teams in the second half of the season. This represents two possibilities - a. Nottingham Forest all lost in the fight with strong teams, and the league rankings have declined again; b. Tony Donn leads his scouts to beat these three direct competitors one by one, and then change the target to be the Premier League champion in the season!"
League champion? Tang En didn't think so much. Being ambitious and being unfounded arrogant are two different things.
Now he only considers how to defeat Chelsea in the league and pull Scolari down.
For him, the good news is all signs that Scolari will devote his main energy to the Champions League. Abramovich has been staying in Chelsea for nearly seven years, and has tasted the League Cup, FA Cup and league championships, but the Champions League championship is the pain in his heart. From 2007 to 2008, Grant served as the team's interim head coach. When Chelsea achieved the best results in the Champions League, they entered the finals but encountered Donn's Nottingham Forest. As a result, they returned with hatred again.
Scolari played two seasons at Chelsea, and he didn't give the season a chance to win the Champions League as his main goal. Unfortunately, he missed the championship every time.
This season is no exception. Abramovich mentioned more than once that he hoped to win the European Championship in Scola.
As for the league... Anyway, losing one game is not a big deal in the thirty-eight rounds. But after the Champions League enters the knockout stage, it is impossible to lose one game.
So in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with Bayern Munich. In the league before the semi-finals, Scolari did not send all the main lineups as Donn expected. Scolari thought that even if he did not send all the main teams, he was still at home, and the minimum requirement was to draw. This goal should not be difficult to achieve, right?
But he was wrong.
Compared with Chelsea who is looking forward to the front and back, Nottingham Forest, who has no other way out except to win this game, burst out huge energy from the beginning of the game, and used momentum to turn the away game into home court. They actively attacked and defended in an orderly manner, leaving Chelsea inadequate to take advantage of it.
At the eleven minutes of the game, Eastwood took the header from Jikic, setting the first record for the Forest. At the same time, this is Eastwood's 19th league goal this season, and he is currently the team's number one scorer. He ranks fourth in the league scorer list. The Gypsy, who has no injuries this season, reflects his amazing feeling in front of the goal, and has occupied a place in the league scorer list with a stable goal rate.
This goal completely broke Scolari's dream and told him that facing Nottingham Forest, even if you want to get a point at home, it is impossible!
After the lead, Don En slightly adjusted and Forest began their best defensive counterattack. Scolari stood up from his seat to command the team to siege the Forest. But until the end of the first half, he did not see a goal either.
The score is still 0:1, and the away team Nottingham Forest leads.
During the break, Scolari was still hesitating - whether to throw this game away? The Champions League quarter-finals were the top priority, or to send three main players in the second half, and then let the players go all out to fight Nottingham Forest to maintain the fourth best in the league?
Finally, he chose the former. Even if this game is eliminated, there are still seven rounds of the league. He doesn't believe that Tony Don't make mistakes, and he doesn't believe that he has no chance to return to the top four. But the most imminent thing is the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Central and Local Champions League next week. That game is a game that directly affects his destiny.
At the same time. In the locker room of the Forest team, Donn was analyzing the psychological situation of Chelsea for the players: "Scolari will definitely give up this game because there are seven rounds left in the league. But if he tries his best in this game and loses the Champions League in the middle of next week, he may be dismissed by Abramovich in less than seven rounds. His boss is not a patient person. But we are different, we don't have to worry about any life-and-death battle in the middle of next week... although we will be in the future
We will also face this kind of trouble, but now the trouble belongs to Chelsea, which is our advantage. So I ask you to continue to put pressure on Chelsea in the second half. Try to score another goal. In this way, Chelsea will completely surrender. A goal lead will only make the Chelsea people suddenly change their minds and think that it is possible to draw at home... But for us, a point is absolutely unacceptable! If you still want to appear in the European arena next season, then this game must be won for me!"
In the second half, the teams of both sides were completely at different levels from the beginning. Chelsea players played against Forest, and their minds were full of the second round of the quarter-finals with Bayern Munich. And the Nottingham Forest players’ ideas were much simpler - except to win the game in front of them, they didn’t even think about what happened ten minutes after the game ended.
Different psychology will lead to different results.
Nottingham Forest, who was willing to give his all, performed better in the second half than Done expected. They scored two goals in the ten minutes from the 70th to the 80th minute. The scored by Skiic and Shahin respectively completely destroyed Chelsea's fighting spirit and desire to play.
Seeing that the game was hopeless, Chelsea players were more like running warm-ups on the court, and Scolari, the grumpy Big Phil, was rarely sitting in the coach's seat and silently.
Obviously, the head coach himself began to think about the "final" in three days - playing the Bundesliga overlord away. It was not that easy.
Winning this game brought Nottingham Forest back to the top four leagues as he wished.
Donne said he was very friendly at the post-match press conference that he was very happy to win Chelsea, so he wished Chelsea to go further and further in the Champions League. Not only that, he also wished two other Premier League teams in the quarterfinals - Manchester United and Liverpool to go further and further in the Champions League.
"It's better that they all meet in the semi-finals, and then the two teams from England are coming to the finals! I'm an Englishman. I'm eager to see this scene."
Some media believe that Don En's generosity proves that he is not as petty as some people say. He expressed support and cheer for teams from the same league. Such things reflect his "national belonging".
Only Carl Spike shouted in the column: "Why did he sincerely wish these three teams to enter the semi-finals of the Champions League? I think if Arsenal had not played the second leg of the league with the Forest before this, then the team he wished should add Arsenal! Look at his game with Chelsea... I know what the guy Tony Don is trying to make. The top three teams, you'd better be careful! Following you is a cunning wolf!"
So Spike was once again labeled as "to go against Don Eun", but it was a pity... This time he was completely right!
After a hard battle, Chelsea eliminated Bayern Munich and entered the semi-finals. Abramovich smiled so hard that he couldn't stop his mouth. Scolari could also breathe a sigh of relief and then turn his energy into - of course not to go to the league, but to continue to go to the Champions League.
Since he has reached the semi-finals, why not bite his teeth and eliminate Juventus to enter the finals? Although Juventus eliminated defending champion Inter Milan.
If you reach the final, you naturally need to continue to grit your teeth and defeat your opponent and win the Champions League.
The other one who entered the semi-finals was Manchester United. Their match against Nottingham Forest is not far away.
Before playing against Manchester United, Nottingham Forest met Liverpool, who had been eliminated.
Liverpool did not go further in the Champions League as Donne wanted. Although they still have the FA Cup final to play, there are still some days before the game with Forests and it will not affect them at all.
So this is a head-on game. No trick will work. The only thing that can determine the victory or defeat of the game is the strength of the two teams. And... that little bit of luck.
In this game, Don Eun sent all his main players. When he was against Manchester United in the first half of the season, he was a first-year student. At that time, he still had room for losses. But now is not the time to win the future of the season and be the first-year student trial field. They are all "veterans" who have been through the battlefield and are determined to compete with Liverpool at home to ensure their qualification for the Champions League next season.
In the end, Nottingham Forest, who had the advantage at home, narrowly defeated Liverpool 1-0 with a penalty kick before the final game, and scored a valuable three-pointer and continued to maintain a one-point lead against Chelsea in the standings.
At this time, there are four rounds left before the end of the league. Tony Donn's ambition is already obvious - perhaps the league championship has become a luxury, but he will have to decide on the qualification for the Champions League next season!
There are only four Premier League places in the Champions League. In the season without Nottingham Forest, the traditional semi-finals are all happy. It has become a "tradition" for their long-term quota to be occupied by the Champions League. And once Nottingham Forest rises again, there will inevitably be a team that will be in trouble. So who will become the sacrifice for the Forest team to rise again this season?
Now it seems that Chelsea has a great possibility. Scolari must rethink it. Even if he can win the Champions League this season, the defending champion will only play in the League Cup next season... What does that feel? The fourth in the league is his bottom line, but now his destiny is no longer in his own hands.
With four rounds left in the league, Manchester United is the strongest opponent on the road to the Forest.
Will Ferguson become Scolari's savior?
In the 36th round of the league, Nottingham Forest challenged Manchester United away.
Chelsea welcomes Liverpool at home.
The show of the strong show attracted everyone's attention.
William Hill opened the game for the results of these two games before the game. Generally speaking, they are more optimistic about Manchester United and Chelsea who play at home. The least optimistic is Nottingham Forest.
No one guessed that four teams would tie the game at the same time...
Yes, Nottingham Forest used defensive counterattacks to tie Manchester United 1:1. Liverpool and Chelsea played a high-scoring game - 3:3!
The last goal did not come until the injury time. Liverpool barely tied Chelsea and hugged his third place in the league. And Nottingham Forest and Chelsea are still one point gap... Nottingham Forest is fourth and Chelsea is fifth.
Chapter completed!