Chapter 26: Sprint

After winning Portsmouth away, the Forests passed another hurdle, and the relegation team Portsmouth did not cause any trouble to the Forests.

Next, Don En temporarily shifted his focus from the league and put it on the Champions League.

In the semi-finals, Nottingham Forest's opponent was Ligue 1 overlord Lyon.

Although they have always been the champion of the Ligue 1 domestic league and are well-deserved overlords. But this team is recognized as the weakest among the semi-finals of the Champions League. Their strength is really not on the same level as Nottingham Forest. It is also a lucky factor to be able to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League this time.

The direct consequence of the dominance of Ligue 1 Lyon is that the Ligue 1 team lacks competitiveness in the European arena. If a league lacks competitiveness, how good can the teams trained be?

The media unanimously optimistic that Forest team will enter the finals, and the English media even directly distributed the final ticket to Nottingham Forest before the game. They have begun to introduce the final venue to readers.

People in English football are also optimistic about the Forest. Some people also think that they don’t have to do their best to play against Lyon. Don Eun should stay in his power to deal with his opponents in the league.

Despite this, Tang En dared not take it lightly. On the contrary, it was precisely because of the hype of these media that he was even more worried - he was afraid that his team would be influenced by those public opinions and would be proud to underestimate the enemy.

For this reason, he has a gloomy face all day long, as if he is worried that his team will be eliminated. When he was interviewed, he changed his arrogant and arrogant style, and seemed cautious and never mentioned the words "to advance to the finals" and "booking tickets to the Bernabeu in advance".

His performance made people feel strange. He doubted whether Tang En was kidnapped by aliens and changed his mind...

"...For a team like Arsenal, he dares to say that he wants to win before the game. Facing the weakest team among the semi-finals, he doesn't dare to mention the finals... Maybe he is deliberately confusing his opponent?"

No matter how the outside media sees what he does, Tang En just needs to be careless. It’s good if the team is not proud and underestimates the enemy.

Under the influence of him and Wood, the team did not show any signs of underestimating the enemy as a part-time opponent. Donne asked the team to show the attitude they should have against a semi-final opponent to fight against Lyon. Wood was very serious in training and preparing for the battle to set an example. Donne's locker room has a high prestige, and the power of George Wood's role model cannot be ignored. Before the game against Lyon, Donne had nothing to worry about.

Go away first in the first leg.

This is the first time in the history of the Lyon club that has entered the semi-finals of the Champions League, and they even have the hope of reaching the finals and winning the championship trophy. So Lyon's morale is stronger, and then the home court advantage is better. They launched wave after wave of offensives to the heart of the Forest team, as if the waves were slamming, making the fans of Nottingham Forest beat wildly.

Tang En asked the team to counterattack away from home because he calculated that Lyon was very strong at home. The art of war said that he should "avoid his edge" so that Tang En would not be so stupid as to go out and fight Lyon head-on. If he could get one point in this game, he would win. It would be better if he could score a goal.

Lyon's idea is very simple, which is to use his home advantage to attack Forest and score goals. Fight to lead and finally win this game to lay a solid foundation for the next round. After all, Forest's home game is difficult. If there is a victory in hand, there may be more room for maneuver. No matter what, Lyon is tired of being the domestic overlord. They want to make a historic breakthrough - to be the European champion.

But Nottingham Forest obviously has more experience in playing in the Champions League semi-finals than Lyon. Donn handled it very well, but Lyon seemed too impatient. He attacked hard from the beginning. What should I do if I don’t score a goal? What should I do if I overdraw my physical strength?

Tang En asked the team to hold on, slowly grinding with Lyon, grinding out Lyon's fighting spirit, confidence and physical fitness. Lyon players were overly excited and ran all over the field. The scene was really good. If you don't understand, fans can follow them and think that Lyon has the absolute advantage and scoring goals is only a matter of time.

But in the eyes of professionals, that's not the case at all.

The game was held in France. Arsenal head coach Wenger, who had been eliminated, accepted the invitation from a French TV station to comment on the game on the spot. When he saw that Nottingham Forest was beaten by Lyon and could not get out of the penalty area, he asserted that if Lyon continued to attack like this, they would definitely be the one who was unlucky in the end.

The French commentator was also a little suspicious, believing that from the situation on the field, it would be a matter of time before Lyon broke through the Forest’s goal—"This is a passive defense. No matter how tight the defense is, if the opponent sieges, there will definitely be loopholes. I don’t believe that Nottingham Forest’s defense has no flaws. If you continue to fight like this, the Forest is the Forest, not Lyon…”

Wenger just smiled and didn't say anything. He couldn't argue with the commentator during the live broadcast, but he couldn't agree to the commentator's words. He could only wait for time to tell them who was right and who was wrong.

In the 30 minutes of the first half, Lyon almost always besieged Nottingham Forest. The Forest team only had two shots, while Lyon had six shots and scored in the 30-meter area. Lyon was also far ahead. Lyon's fans sang and danced in the stands, and were in a happy and relaxed mood. They seemed to think that Nottingham Forest was nothing scary.

Lyon's defense line is getting higher and higher, and the central defender wants to dribble the ball into the opponent's penalty area and shoot.

Just when everyone thought that the next attack of Lyon would definitely break through the Nottingham Forest goal, the Forest counterattacked.

It seemed as if the spring was compressed to the extreme, and the pressure on it was slightly lighter, it bounced up suddenly, and the top was sharply thorned under the light at night, and a cold light shone brightly.

Akinfeyev directly threw the ball and launched an attack, and Shahin dribbled the ball and broke through quickly. After starting right forward Abang Raho, who used his speed to force the ball, did not continue to dribble the ball on Yanbian road as Lyon players thought, but suddenly cut inward and rushed directly to the goal. He wanted to shoot directly!

Abanglaho's speed was too fast, and Lyon's players were not prepared for the Forest's counterattack. When Abanglaho's cut, there was only one goalkeeper in front of him.

You can think of the next thing with your knees.

Abanglaho broke into the penalty area, and just when he was about to shoot, he was tackled from the back by the guard who rushed back. Although Abanglaho fell a bit exaggeratedly, the opponent did make a foul. The referee made a quick decision. He gave the Forest a penalty, and not only that, he also gave the foul player a yellow card.

Tang En was still relentless and thought it was too light to give only yellow cards, so at least he should be sent off with a red card directly!

His protests "winned" him a lot of boos in the stands.

Lyon's players were not prepared for this penalty kick. After a while, they gathered around the referee and asked for an explanation. They thought it was Abanglaho's fake fall.

On the other side, Abanglaho was celebrating with his teammates one by one. He did make a penalty kick on purpose, otherwise it would be impossible for his opponent to shovel from the back at his speed. He only needed to drive the football outside and accelerate to avoid it. But in this way, he also lost the best angle and opportunity to shoot. In this case, it was obvious that it was the most reasonable way to get a penalty kick. So he dragged one leg behind, waited for the opponent to come over, and then fell down. The penalty kick was obtained.

The person responsible for taking the penalty kick was Shahin. He scored the football into the goal in one go. The goalkeeper judged the wrong direction. He saved it and found that the football fell from the middle to where he once stood.

Seeing the Forest team score, the commentator of the French TV station disappeared for a moment. Wenger kept his smile as usual, making others unable to see his pride.

Finally, the commentator found a way out for himself: "This penalty is a bit controversial, but the referee insisted on his penalty... The Forest team was lucky to lead the away game..."

Wenger said: How could this be lucky? You have never watched the Premier League game, Mr. Nastor. This set is one of Tony's most common tricks. You think he was passively beaten. In fact, he was not hit by the vitals... He was just waiting for the most suitable counterattack opportunity. If I were coach Lyon and saw the Forest playing like this, I would ask the defenders to pay attention to defense, then retreat to pull them out again.

Unfortunately, Lyon's head coach lacked the experience of fighting with Don Eun and the experience of playing in the Champions League semi-finals, which was completely exploited by Don Eun.

The leading Forest team played more easily. Lyon continued to attack. The Forest team increased their counterattack. Before the halftime break, they almost scored another goal.

During the break, Wenger talked to the commentator about the game. In the second half, Wenger said that if Nottingham Forest leads in such a knockout match, the second half would be difficult for Lyon. This time, the commentator finally agreed with Wenger, after all, the coach is more familiar with Donne than himself.

The second half of the game was as Wenger said, and Don still used the defensive counterattack to lead Lyon's nose.

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

However, it is obvious that the physical fitness of the Forest team was indeed affected by continuous high-intensity combat. Their physical fitness began to occur in the second half. The counterattack was not strong. Although Tang En kept asking the team to attack and attack on the sidelines, the Forest team players were powerless. Later, Tang En also accepted his fate. He began to substitute players, replaced the exhausted starter, and replaced the substitute player, focusing on defense.

The last five or six minutes were a serious test for Don Eun's heart. He only led one goal, and Lyon pushed up a lot. If Lyon scored the goal, the hard work of the game would be in vain. Ten minutes into the game, he might accept a 1:1 result, but at this time he still led with one goal, then he would never accept any result except victory.

Fortunately, although the scene was thrilling, Nottingham Forest finally defended. The referee blew the whistle at the end of the game four minutes after stoppage time. Nottingham Forest won a valuable away victory and an away goal amid the boos of the home team fans.

The away win was also a away goal. It seems that Nottingham Forest has stepped into the Bernabeu with one leg. How terrible the Forest team is back at home, I believe it will not disappoint Lyon.

Three days later, Don Eun led the team to win Fulham at home in the 36th round. One day later, Arsenal also won away, with the difference in points between the two teams still three points, and there are two rounds left in the league. The odds of gambling companies such as William Hill are still optimistic about Arsenal's championship. In the odds of winning the Champions League, Don Eun's team is also the second-last among the four teams - except Lyon, the Forest is not favored.

Real Madrid has the first odds because they tied Barcelona 2:2 away in the mid-week Champions League, and got two valuable away goals, and had a great chance of entering the final. This year's Champions League final happened to be held at their home court, the Bernabeu Stadium. Once Real Madrid enters the final, they will get a real unreserved home advantage, and by then half of the championship will almost be Real Madrid.

No one can doubt Real Madrid's desire for the Champions League. They have always been one championship to achieve the great achievements of winning the Champions League ten times. This time, it was at their own home court again. Of course, there is no reason to miss such an opportunity. It can be seen from their away game and the semi-finals between them and Barcelona. Their momentum of their away game completely suppressed Barcelona. Although the score was 2:2, all those who watched the game would admit that Barcelona was so lucky to tie Real Madrid...

On both fronts, Don En faces the team of tigers and wolves, and they are teams with unlimited desire for championships. Real Madrid, as the world's number one club, has not been involved in this championship cup that they have won nine times in twelve years. Wenger's Arsenal also wants to win back its championship in the league. The Champions League has lost to Nottingham Forest. Will the league lose again?

Three more days later, Nottingham Forest defeated the invading Lyon 2-1 at the City Stadium and used a victory to bid farewell to the City Stadium in the Champions League. They advanced to the final with a total score of 3-1 and reached the final again after five years.

At the same time, Real Madrid also defeated Barcelona 1-0 at home, and eliminated their arch rival Barcelona 3-2 with a total score. Successfully made the home board of the Champions League final Bernabeu their real home court.

In the FA Cup, Nottingham Forest reached the final, their opponent was Tottenham Hotspur. In the Champions League, Nottingham Forest also reached the final, their opponent was Real Madrid. In the league, there are two rounds left, and they are three points away from Arsenal.

Did Nottingham Forest, who was sprinting on three fronts, return to Nottingham with three championship trophys after the end of the season, or did they collapse and gain nothing?
Chapter completed!