808 Piqué

The mood in Barcelona's locker room was gloomy and miserable. Guardiola desperately tried to boost everyone's morale. It was a different story in Nottingham Forest's locker room.

"Well done, guys!" Kerslake had taken on Tony Twain's usual job in the locker room. He had to continue to motivate the players with words, while Dunn was responsible for explaining the tactical arrangements.

The players were as happy as the coaches. They were pleased with their performance in the first half. They had almost completely blocked Barcelona's offensive. They had the upper hand in the game, and had even scored a goal in the final five minutes.

Everyone sat down and started discussing Barcelona's predicament during the first period. They had a cheerful discussion.

When he saw that their conversation was becoming more animated, Kerslake had to use his imposing manner as the assistant manager to quiet them, because Dunn had something to say: "We played well in the first half. But we cannot relax in the second half. Right now, I'm worried that you will become arrogant and underestimate your opponent in the next period. You still have to keep in mind what kind of opponent Barcelona is. If you give them too much space, the situation will not be good, especially once they adapt to the pitch..."

The expressions on the players' faces became serious. They knew that what Dunn was saying was true.

As the saying went, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. A team like Barcelona was still strong, under any circumstances. They might run into trouble if they lowered their guard.

"So, in the second half, we will continue to fully press them, forcing them to make mistakes and preventing them from organizing an effective attack. Force their offensive to rely purely on long shots and crossing from the sides. If they're playing high-altitude football with us, they will pose much less of a threat."

"As for our offense ... we just have to pay more attention to our success rate. We had a lot of opportunities in the latter part of the first half but didn't score a single goal. We cannot play like this in the second half. Tony always says that there will be consequences if we waste our opportunities, and a one-goal lead is the least secure score in the world. I don't think he wants to see you acting satisfied with a score of 1:0 in the second half as he watches from the stands."

In the end, Dunn still had to evoke Tony Twain to make his speech more convincing. He could not control the players—a fact that had already been proven when Twain was absent from work with a heart attack. When things were good, everyone listened to him, but no one cared about him when the situation was bad. Evoking Tony Twain at such times was like having an imperial sword which gave its bearer certain powers. Sometimes, Dunn even thought that he might just be an assistant manager to Nottingham Forest for his whole life because Tony's influence on the team was so profound...

※※※

Twain was carrying disposable cup filled with fruit juice as he returned to the stands with his mates. The second half was about to begin, and both teams' players had left after they did their warm-ups on the pitch. The fourth official and three referees appeared on the sidelines. They were having a chat. Perhaps they were talking about the stadium?

Twain's appearance in the stands caused a small commotion. The other fans who recognized him got up in succession and shouted, "We're going to win, right, Tony?"

Twain also replied loudly, "Of course!"

Then a group of people raised the beers in their hands and shouted, "Forest! Forest! Nottingham Forest!"

They kept shouting until the players from both sides came out onto the pitch.

The Nottingham Forest players were cheered by their fans as they entered the stadium. It was much quieter when the Barcelona players followed right after.

The situations for each team could be gleaned from the players' expressions as they entered the field. The Nottingham Forest players talked and laughed, while the Barcelona team frowned and looked grave, with no exception from the players to the coaching staff.

Messi, who had previously been dubbed the "new king of the world" by the media, also pursed his lips and looked grim. It was almost as if he had ceased to exist in the first half, making no contribution at all. The unparallelled Argentinian football leader and Barcelona's ace of all aces, who was usually dominant on the pitch, played looked as if he was sleepwalking.

He was thinking about how he could salvage the situation and get his form back in the second half.

It would be a bit difficult. The venue was one problem, while his close marking by Wood and the others was another. Twain had not let the fullbacks defend against Messi in this game as they did in the previous round. George Wood would often take the initiative to "pop by to talk about life values" with Messi whenever he was free.

The uneven field made it inherently difficult to control the ball. In addition to Wood's close-marking interference, he could barely stay on top of it.

He reflected that, maybe, he needed to be more aggressive with his positional play in the second half and widen his scope of activity in order to improve...

※※※

After the start of the second half, Puyol and Piqué used their full strength to defend against Mitchell, and the situation changed slightly. Mitchell's height and header skills, as well as his jump, were indeed excellent. But he was at a complete disadvantage in terms of experience. He did not know what to do when Piqué and Puyol joined forces against him.

During that time, as Mitchell was being closely marked, Barcelona gradually regained control of the pitch. They began to attempt to organize an offense.

Unlike in the first half, Barcelona's attack now relied more on the individual skills of the star players than on coordination. After all, the first half's failure had proved that they could not play with their usual cooperation on such a pitch.

Almost any team with many star players would rely on their individual skills to determine the game under such circumstances. Barcelona's lineup had Messi, Silva, Bojan, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves, and many other all-stars. Any one of these players had the ability to decide the outcome of the game on their own. It would be wasteful in the extreme not to use them.

Silva chose to act alone along the wing after he received the ball. He managed to break through the tall Nkoulou with his high center of gravity, but his pass was easily headed out by Kompany.

Then Xavi gave it a try. He fired a long shot straight-away and deliberately hit a ground ball, trying to use the uneven field to cause trouble for Akinfeev.

But the Russian, who had been training on this kind of field for a week, had adapted to this sort of shot. Twain had specially prepared him in this capacity. He pressed the ball firmly under his body when he fell to the ground and did not give Bojan a chance to shoot.

This play was followed up by Messi.

He pulled the ball to the sideline and faced Joe Mattock's defense. He did a feint to cross the ball, and then suddenly hooked it to cut to the inside, shaking off Mattock.

Messi would have been more confident if he were at Camp Nou. At the moment, his only choice was to cut inside early. Unsurprisingly, George Wood rushed up.

The football bounced on the uneven turf, and Messi struggled to control the ball. His technique was well-suited to avoid losing the ball and, in such a situation, to still be able to control it under his feet.

Wood saw that he was very steady in his possession of the ball, so he was not in a hurry to make a move. He just leaned in closer to him.

Messi also knew that, once Wood leaned on him, he would have no chance of breaking through. Therefore, he suddenly stopped, flashed past Wood, and then changed his direction to head toward the side.

He was going to forge a way out of being hemmed in by Wood and Mattock, and go straight into the penalty area!

He pushed forward with his left foot, and his right foot hooked the ball!

He succeeded in shaking off Joe Mattock's interception and intended to charge out from this crack. But the power of Wood's breakout was amazing! By the time Messi pushed the ball forward with his left foot, Wood had already seen through his intentions. He took a big stride first and cut across his opponent's path. Just when Messi hooked the ball to the front with his right foot, Wood separated him from it and successfully locked in his position!

Messi could not stop fast enough, and ran directly into Wood. He felt as if he had hit a wall. Fortunately, he had just started forward. If he had been running at a high speed, he might have immediately started feeling dizzy.

Messi fell to the ground, and the Barcelona fans and Nottingham Forest fans in the stands booed at the same time. The Barcelona fans thought that George Wood had fouled by blocking and that they should receive a free kick, or a penalty kick—the exact spot where Messi had fallen was unclear. It appeared to be both outside and inside the penalty area.

The Nottingham Forest fans booed because they thought that Messi had dived. It seemed exaggerated for him to fall to the ground in such a close-quarter collision.

The referee did not whistle to indicate that Wood had fouled, nor did he signal that Messi had dived. He did not do anything, and the game continued.

Even though Wood had stopped Messi's attack, Nottingham Forest was not out of danger yet, as Bojan had come up.

At the same time that Messi had failed, Bojan had inserted himself diagonally from behind and tried to intercept the ball. He thought that Wood was focusing all his attention on Messi and certainly would not have time to focus on him. But he was wrong.

After Wood had stopped Messi, he twisted his body around and shuttered Bojan behind him.

When Bojan and Messi hit him, he did not fall to the ground, but he lost the chance to grab the ball.

George Wood's ability was on full display as he defended against Barcelona's two top offensive players on his own. Instead of blindly sending a shot out after protecting the football, he passed it to Joe Mattock, who had already pulled to the side to let him get the ball out and organize the attack.

These few successive offensives did not yield any results. It looked like Barcelona's plan to rely on the individual skills of the star players to score goals was not working, either...

※※※

The game was interrupted in minute 60.

Someone was hurt!

But it was not a Barcelona player who was injured this time around, nor was it a Nottingham Forest player. The injured party was a bit of a surprise.

At that time, Barcelona's ball was intercepted at the top of the field, and Nottingham Forest launched a quick counterattack, with both sides moving at a high speed. The referee naturally had to run quickly from Nottingham Forest's half of the field to Barcelona's half. Just as he started running, he fell to the ground and landed on his buttocks!

It was not until Nottingham Forest had finished the attack that people noticed the referee was still sitting in the center circle, with one hand holding his ankle.

"Ha! What are we looking at? The referee's hurt!" The commentator laughed, making it sound like he took delight in someone else's misfortune.

A burst of laughter could also be heard across the City Ground stadium. This scene was really quite comical.

"We've been speculating about who's going to get hurt by this terrible pitch. Maybe Messi, maybe Iniesta, maybe Bojan, maybe even the Nottingham Forest players themselves... But we never thought the first person to be injured would be the referee... Does it look like he sprained his ankle? Let us take a look at what happened at the time..."

A replay came up on the television screen. When he had started running, the foot which the referee used to propel himself had landed on a bulge, and so... Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

"Well, I don't think it's possible for this referee to monitor the game any longer..."

While he spoke, the camera gave a close-up to the fourth official who was warming up on the sidelines.

"We wish the fourth official good luck and hope that he doesn't sprain his ankle the moment he gets on that pitch. Ha!"

Twain also saw the scene from the stands. He laughed happily like the other fans. Due to what had happened in the first round between the two teams, the Nottingham Forest fans did not have any warm feelings toward the UEFA referees.

Even the two teams' players, who were fiercely fighting for the ball on the pitch just then, also put aside the competition at this moment and surrounded the referee to watch the lively scene with amused smiles on their faces.

Kompany even took the opportunity to catch up with Piqué.

"Hey, man, how's it going?"

"Hey, it's okay. How else could it be?"

The referee's injury added a comedic element to the hostile game and eased the atmosphere a little.

Next, supported by the staff, the injured referee left the field and the fourth official got ready to go into battle. As the two men handed over the job, the first referee specifically and repeatedly warned the second, "Be careful of the turf around the center circle…"

A fan in the stands shouted at the fourth official, "Hey, mate! Are you sure you've warmed up enough? Be careful not to twist your leg—!"

"Ahhahahaha—" His call triggered a burst of gleeful laughter.

After the original referee came off the field, and having been asked by the people around him, he described how terrible the turf was on the City Ground stadium pitch. He spread his hands and shook his head as he gave a helpless shrug.

※※※

When the game resumed, the ease that the players on both sides had just shown disappeared immediately. Kompany and Piqué lost the warmth with which they had chatted together and smiled. Everyone returned to a state of mutual hostility.

After all, this final game determined which team would advance to the quarterfinal and which team would be eliminated. They could not let their guard down.

Messi had been given a hard time by Wood, but he did not give up. He did not even try to get around Wood and seek another breakthrough point. It looked like he wanted to have a showdown with Wood that day.

This time, he managed to bypass Wood, but still could not easily break into the penalty area. He could only shoot from outside.

Akinfeev threw the ball outside the end line, which gave Barcelona a corner kick. Could this be considered a victory for Messi?

Piqué rushed up and got ready to fight for a header, and Kompany was ordered to keep an eye on him. As the two men leaned forward, Kompany smiled at the man next to him and said, "Don't even think about scoring, mate!"

"You're so full of crap..." Piqué gave Kompany a sideways glance and said, "Don't pull my jersey!"

"I didn't pull it!" Kompany raised both hands.

Crowded in front of the goal, Piqué kept changing positions. He was dodging Kompany.

Xavi ran to serve the corner kick. He was waiting for the situation in the penalty area to get a little more chaotic...

Piqué was still competing with Kompany. Although his center back partner on Nottingham Forest had usually been Pepe, he had also often partnered with Kompany, because Tony Twain always rotated them. Having trained and competed together for so many years, he knew Kompany well, and knew how he was used to defending corner kicks. Likewise, Kompany knew him well, too. He was familiar with his habits of competing for headers and standing positions. Piqué was aware that it would not be good for him to stay this entangled. He gave a signal with his eyes to Puyol next to him. Puyol understood tacitly and suddenly inserted himself into the fight, trying to separate the two men. Piqué, meanwhile, took the opportunity to get out and moved outside the line.

Meanwhile, Xavi kicked the football toward the front of the goal!

Kompany recognized Barcelona's tactic, but he could not do anything about it. He tried his best to get rid of Puyol's defense, but, in the end, was a step too late.

The football flew in an arc and bent slightly outwards. Piqué, who had freed himself from Kompany's close marking, dashed inward and made a powerful header!

The distance was too close for Akinfeev to react in time. He just raised his hands, and the football flew right past his side and into the goal!

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL—" The Catalan commentator yelled for a full minute before stopping. Whenever people thought he had exhausted himself and had to stop, he would immediately raise his voice and keep yelling.

"A powerful header from Piqué! He blew his former team's goal wide open!"

Piqué did not celebrate after the goal. His teammates came up to hug him in a rush, but he did not show any emotion. He was like a block of wood, letting them hug him and clap him on the back.

He had scored the goal because he was now a Barcelona player and naturally wanted to play for the owner of his contract. But he had risen to fame at Nottingham Forest and he loved everything there, even the fans who booed him in the stands. There was only sporadic jeering from the crowd. Most of the Forest players were still unable to harbor any ill feelings toward Piqué. The way he was treated in his return to the City Ground stadium was completely different from how Bendtner had been received.

But, if Nottingham Forest was knocked out by Barcelona due to his goal, how would the two parties feel then?

"Barcelona is currently in the lead in terms of overall score! And, more importantly, they also have an away goal! How will Nottingham Forest fight back? Tony Twain is not in the technical area. He's always the best at handling contingencies as the circumstances dictate..."