Chapter 802: The Second Red Card
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
However, they did not expect that after Woodgate was brought on, Twain had instructed the England center back to bring a new command to his teammates on the field.
“We need to attack. The boss wants us to find a way to attack.” Woodgate took advantage of a dead ball to gather everyone to announce the latest decision. He said, “He stated that Barcelona’s mind is full of how to score goals against us now and will never think that we have the strength to fight back, so their defense exists only in name. As long as we can seize the opportunity, the initiative will come to our side.”
The others nodded in agreement. Having been with the boss for a long time, they seemed to understand this principle—riches could be gained from danger. The more impossible the area was, the more likely it was, while the more dangerous it was, the safer it could be.
When the game resumed, Barcelona continued to focus on how to break through to take the lead. Their rear defensive line was, as Twain put it, existed only in name. Nottingham Forest first bunched themselves into a ball like a hedgehog, leaving Barcelona, desperate for goals, nowhere to go. Then those little eyes began to look for a path to victory in the midst of a tumultuous situation.
Heaven helped those who helped themselves!
Barcelona attacked so aggressively that it lost its sense of measure. Alves, Lahm and even Puyol all crossed the center line, with the intention to “fight and attack in half of the field” against Nottingham Forest. Even Valdés unwittingly moved his position outside the penalty area while he focused on his team’s offensive.
With one player short, Nottingham Forest had been acting like a stray dog during this time. Who would have thought such a team could still threaten the opponent’s goal?
Nottingham Forest, the “stray dog” managed to do it against reason.
Messi’s sudden shot from the penalty area was pounced on by Akinfeev. After Woodgate received the ball, he was immediately marked by Bojan. Barcelona wanted to counterattack after it counter press in the front field. Woodgate could not turn around and he pa.s.sed the ball to Baines on the sideline under extremely difficult circ.u.mstances.
Messi rushed up when he saw Baines take the ball.
Barcelona’s use of counter press in the front field made it hard for the Forest team to get the ball out. But it also created a problem—with every line pressed up, it caused their rear defensive line to press too far in front, leaving a large tract of empty s.p.a.ce behind the defenders. A long pa.s.s could penetrate and basically did not require any technical skills to do so.
Messi’s counter press was amateurish. After all, he was not a professional defender. After Baines guarded the football, he saw Alves rush up. He could not afford to delay and pa.s.sed the football to his own teammate, George Wood.
Reasonably speaking, he should pa.s.s the football to Fernández when Alves came up and open up the way from his side. Wood did not choose such an obvious method. He suddenly turned to send out an obliquely long pa.s.s and pa.s.sed the ball in the exact opposite direction.
Over there, Lennon was sprinting at high speed, ready to receive the ball. As for Lahm? He was already thrown behind him by his sudden start.
Wood’s long pa.s.s was precise, pa.s.sing from one sideline to another. He was even able to send the ball to Lennon’s front, taking full advantage of the latter’s speed.
Lennon lived up to expectations and caught up with the football.
Then Nottingham Forest fought back at full speed, with Ibišević, Fernández and even Tiago all rus.h.i.+ng up.
Nottingham Forest’s speed of counterattack was astonis.h.i.+ng. Barcelona’s run-back speed was simply not up to speed!
In the backfield, there were only both Piqué and Puyol. Piqué went to defend against Lennon, and Puyol was guarding from a distance while monitoring Ibišević’s movements.
Lennon saw Piqué again and glanced at the middle again. He saw that Ibišević was almost in place, and that Fernández was waiting at the far end. He was certain that his pa.s.s would be absolutely safe if he pa.s.sed it over. So, he lifted his feet while running and crossed the football out. The football flew over Puyol’s head and dropped to the rear.
Ibišević slightly slowed down and did not get the ball!
“Oh, what a shame…”
The Barcelona fans in the stands did not think so and their boos suddenly became louder.
Although Ibišević did not receive the ball, Fernández on the other side managed to catch the ball.
While receiving the ball, Fernández also turned the ball toward the middle and stopped the ball to adjust in one go.
Alves was still chasing from behind but Fernández was just one step away from the penalty area.
“It’s a one-on-one face-off with the goalkeeper! He burst into the penalty area!”
Valdés left the goal to strike but gave Fernández a chance to lob a shot instead. He lifted his left foot up in the run and picked the ball over Valdés’ head!
At that moment, the hearts of the Barcelona fans collectively stopped beating and their breathing froze. Everyone watched the football pa.s.s over Valdés’ head and crash into the goal…
The Nottingham Forest fans, who were overwhelmingly in the minority, erupted with volcanic-like energy at the moment. Their cheers resounded across the skies above Camp Nou.
“Incredible! Nottingham Forest reversed the score with one player short!!” The commentator was going crazy… He did not expect the game to turn out to have such an ending.
Twain jumped from his seat and ran to the sidelines with his arms raised up. You sent off one of my men and I scored a goal against you. What a good deal this was!
“We’ve won, ah ha ha!” He laughed and said to Dunn and Kerslake.
Frustrated throughout the game, the elated Nottingham Forest players ran to the front field to hug Fernández and celebrate the goal.
But in such a joyous scene, the team captain, George Wood was yelling in the backfield. From his hand gestures, it looked like he wanted his teammates to hurry back…
What was going on?
“Wait, wait!” The commentator called out too, “Offside! The a.s.sistant referee raises the flag. When Lennon pa.s.sed the ball, were Fernández and Ibišević both in an offside position? Maybe we’ll take a look at the replay. But now… Barcelona quickly sends out a free kick as the Nottingham Forest players celebrate in front of the goal. Now it’s their turn to fight back! George Wood is beckoning his teammates to return to defend. Currently, the Forest team’s rear half of the field only has him, Woodgate and the goalkeeper, Akinfeev. It’s almost unguarded! What’s going on? Look at the Nottingham Forest players’ expressions. They are completely stunned and even forgot to return to defend!”
Only a few people were trying their utmost to run back. But by this time, Barcelona had already pa.s.sed the ball to the front of Nottingham Forest’s penalty area…
The referee did not stop Barcelona’s attack. He thought that Barcelona did not break the rules because the game had not been suspended.
Tony Twain could not believe his eyes on the sidelines, either. His hands, which had been held high to celebrate the victory, were now holding his head as he stared at what was happening on the field with an incredulous expression.
George Wood had only one way to save the team now. It was not to be a superman to keep all the Barcelona players out and then kick the ball out of bounds. But… it was to foul.
He was like a severely overloaded heavy-duty truck, charging toward Messi who was dribbling the ball at full force. This time, even if he broke both Messi’s legs, he was going to stop Barcelona from scoring!
Messi saw his intentions. Before Wood rushed up, he pa.s.sed the football out and then jumped to duck Wood. Despite this, he was still struck by Wood and rolled in the air before he fell to the ground. It looked vicious but his mission was completed.
The football was successfully sent to Bojan’s feet and he was not in an offside position!
Before Woodgate could come up and block, Bojan made a decisive kick, and the football flew over Woodgate and then over Akinfeev to accurately drilled into the goal!
This time, it was the Barcelona fans’ turn to cheer. And the a.s.sistant referee’s spoiler flag was not raised. He just ran toward the center line—which meant that the goal was valid.
“The ball’s in! It’s a game full of ups and downs! Nottingham Forest’s recent counterattack was ruled invalid, but Barcelona’s counterattack was effective. 2:1! Barcelona is ahead! With five minutes to go until the end of the game, Nottingham Forest was dealt a heavy blow!”
The Barcelona players began to celebrate the successful counterattack, while the Nottingham Forest players angrily surrounded the referee, demanding an explanation from the man.
“Why was our goal considered offside and their goal was not an issue?”
“Why did not you whistle when they kicked off so quickly?”
“The decision was so inexplicable! I’m definitely not in an offside position!”
“You sc.u.m…” This player’s mouth was covered by a slightly more sensible teammate.
But someone else helped him with his foul language.
After realizing that Barcelona’s goal was valid, Twain seemed ignited by TNT explosive off the pitch. At this point, even if the sky came falling down, it would not stop him from bursting into a string of obscenities at the referee.
“You motherf**king b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Where’s your d.a.m.ned conscience today?! What qualifications do you have to stand on the pitch in that suit?” He rushed into the field and pointed to the referee while shouting the abuses.
Instead of immediately confronting him, the referee showed a yellow card instead to Wood, who had just struck Messi!
The Nottingham Forest fans in the stands booed with all they had at the black-clad referee.
The move was nothing short of adding fuel to the fire on the angry Nottingham Forest players. A group of people surrounded the referee to tug at him aggressively. They opened up their mouths as if they wanted to gobble up the small statured referee in front of them. Fernández even received a yellow card for protesting the penalty. If someone had not pulled him away, he would have rushed up and punched the Italian referee.
“Ha!” Twain laughed instead of getting angry. He said, “You even gave my men yellow cards! If I were George and Matías, I would f**king give you a red card! You son of b.i.t.c.h corrupt referee!”
The fourth official came over once again and said sternly, “Mr. Twain! Please mind your language…”
“Mr. Fourth Official, please ask your referee to pay attention to his conscience!” Twain retorted with a bad att.i.tude, “What is this? What is this? You’re practically killing us! You murdered our goal and made a false countercharge! That’s just great! Is this UEFA’s must-kill tactic? Sent off my center back, blew up my goal to give a goal to Barcelona! That’s fantastic, just great! I must applaud you! I should be proud to have made you go through so much trouble to get rid of us! I’m so f**king proud!!”
The more Twain scolded, the more furious he became. Beads of spittle sprayed the face of the fourth official, and the fourth official’s face gradually darkened.
“There’s no problem with our goal. You’ll see that there’s no problem with a thousand replays! Barcelona’s goal shouldn’t have happened! You bunch of UEFA robbers! Utterly shameless! You robbed us of our champions.h.i.+p t.i.tle in Paris in 2006. And what else do you want to rob this time? You don’t want us to advance? Don’t be too pleased with yourselves! Don’t be too happy too soon!”
Twain held his head against the fourth official and scolded.
The fourth official pressed the microphone attached to his ear and informed some men to deal with the mad dog in front of him.
It was not easy for the referee, who was heavily surrounded on the field to break out, so the fourth official was abused by Twain for almost a minute. The game simply could not continue during this period. The Barcelona players waited for Nottingham Forest to kick off after they finished celebrating the goal only to find that they all surrounded the referee for an explanation. While the Nottingham Forest manager on the sidelines was up against the fourth official. The Barcelona fans in the stands continuously booed at Nottingham Forest.
It was a mess!
Guardiola stood on the sidelines and happily to watch the show. Anyway, he had nothing to lose from the delay. It was Nottingham Forest which was unlucky. They got so many yellow cards during this game and now it appeared as if Tony Twain did not want to stay in the technical area… Although the next round was at the Forest team’s home ground, Nottingham Forest was no longer a threat.
He now specially hoped that Twain would scold more viciously and even directly punch. Although he had no grievances with the UEFA, it would have ensured that Twain would be sent off.
The referee finally broke through the siege of the Nottingham Forest players and ran toward Twain. The Forest players chased behind him and continued to protest along the way. But the referee turned a deaf ear.
He ran to the sidelines. The fourth official turned away from Twain’s spitting range and lowered his head to say a few words to the referee. Then he saw the referee walk up to Twain and point to him to speak in a stern tone, “You need to take responsibility for everything you say, Mr. Manager.”
Twain looked like he was still bantering and said, “Of course I’ll be responsible. You want me to repeat what I just said in front of your face? I’d love to, Mr. Referee.”
“I’m warning you, Mr. Manager…”
“Don’t pretend, Mr. Referee. You blasted one of our goals and then helped Barcelona score the winning goal. You robbed us of our victory by holding a knife to my throat. And now you dare come here and point at my nose to warn me? What do you want to warn me about? You want to warn me for telling the truth? You want to warn me for accidentally p.r.i.c.king your soft, tender heart? Oh, baby, that must have been my intention…” Tony Twain eloquent and fast talk rebuked the referee till he could not say a word for a long time. But he also had his way.
He put his hand into his chest pocket. When he did this action to a manager, he certainly would not immediately show a yellow card.
Twain began to clap while his mouth still provoked nonstop, “Well done! F**king well done! Mr. Black s.h.i.+rt, why don’t you just sent off my entire team? You see, half of them already have a yellow card. You just have to find any excuse and they will all go!”
The referee ignored Twain’s provocation and showed him a red card.
The stands behind the Nottingham Forest technical area sounded with gleeful cheers and laughter.
“Look at what just happened on the sidelines! Tony Twain was sent off with a red card for contradicting the referee! For Nottingham Forest, it’s really… terrible, terrible! They have a center back sent off, are trailing by 1:2 and the manager is now ejected from the pitch…The game can be declared over early, right?”
“But it is truly a ‘wonderful’ game. One climax after another toward the end, wave after wave…”
Twain turned and walked toward the tunnel. The fourth official shouted to his back, “I will put all these down in detail in the report of the game, Mr. Twain!”
“Whatever, Mr. Robber of the UEFA.” Twain waved without care.
“I’ll write that remark down too!”
Twain did not pay any more attention to him. When he walked to the mouth of the tunnel, unable to quell the anger in his chest, he decided to do a move to vent.
He held up his right hand and did a money-counting action under the attention of several cameras and more than eighty thousand people in the stadium…
The smiles on the faces of the mocking Barcelona fans froze, while Twain turned his face and did not want to watch any more.
After a brief uproar, lighters, coins, mobile phones and everything else that could be thrown, rained down at the mouth of the tunnel.
But Twain had long since disappeared into the tunnel while they were in still in shock.
“…..” The commentator spoke up after a moment of shocked silence. “I dare say that Tony Twain’s actions will cause him a lot of trouble after the game. This is not just a matter of a suspension for two games with a red card… Does he know what he’s doing?”
The guest commenter replied, “Of course he knows. He is setting himself against the whole world.”