Chapter 815: 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 took on Tony Twain’s job in the locker room. He had to continue 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 the performance in the first half. Barcelona’s offensive was almost completely blocked. They had the upped hand in the game and even scored a goal in the final five minutes.

Everyone sat down and started discussing Barcelona’s predicament in the first half. They had a happy discussion.

When he saw that their discussion was becoming more animated, Kerslake had to use the imposing manner as the a.s.sistant manager to keep them quiet, because Dunn had something to say, “We played well in the first half. But we cannot relax in the second half. I am now worried that you will be arrogant and underestimate your opponent in the second half. You still have to keep in mind what kind of opponent Barcelona is. If you give them too much s.p.a.ce, the situation will not be good once they adapt to the pitch…”

The expressions on the players’ faces became serious. They knew what Dunn said was right.

As the saying went, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. A team like Barcelona was still strong under any circ.u.mstances. They could get 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 not being able to organize an effective attack. Force their offensive to only rely on long shots and crossing from the sides. Once they play high-alt.i.tude football with us, their threat will be much reduced.”

“As for our offense … we just have to pay more attention to the rate of success. We had a lot of chances in the latter part of the first half but didn’t score a single goal. We cannot be like this in the second half. Tony always said there will be payback if we waste our opportunities and a one-goal lead is the least secured score in the world. I don’t think he wants to see that you are satisfied with a score of 1:0 in the second half in the stands?”

Dunn still had to evoke Tony Twain in the end to make his speech more convincing. He could not control the players, which was already proven when Twain was absent from work with a heart attack. When things were good, everyone listened to him, and no one cared about him when the situation was bad. Evoking Tony Twain at such times was like having an imperial sword which gave the sword bearer arbitrary powers. Sometimes Dunn would also think that he might just be an a.s.sistant manager all his life at Nottingham Forest because Tony’s influence on the team was so profound…

※※※

Twain held a disposable cup filled with fruit juice and 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-up 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 came 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 entered.

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

The situations of both teams might be gleaned from the players’ expressions when they entered the field. The Nottingham Forest players talked and laughed, while the Barcelona players frowned and looked grave without exception from the players to the coaching staff.

Messi, who was previously dubbed as the “new king of the world” by the media, also pursed his lips and looked grim. He almost ceased to exist in the first half, with no contribution at all. The unparallel Argentine football leader and Barcelona’s ace of all aces, who was 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.

But it was a bit difficult. The venue was a reason, while the close marking from Wood and the others was also a reason. Twain did not let the full backs defend against Messi in the game as they did in the previous round. George Wood would often take the initiative to “pop by to talk about the ideals of life” 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 manage the ball.

Maybe he should be more aggressive with his positional play in the second half and widen his scope of activity to make it better…

※※※

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

During that time, with Mitch.e.l.l being closely marked, Barcelona gradually regained the situation on the pitch. They began to attempt organizing the offense.

Unlike the first half, Barcelona’s attack began to rely more on the individual skills of the star players than coordination. Because the first half’s failure proved that their cooperation could not be played on such a pitch.

Almost any team with many star players would consider relying on their individual skills to determine the game under such circ.u.mstances. Barcelona’s lineup had Messi, Silva, Bojan, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves… and many other star players. Any one of these players had the ability to decide the outcome of the game alone. It would be too wasteful if they were not used.

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

Then Xavi came to 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 kind of shot. Twain had specially trained him in similar capacity. He pressed the ball firmly under his body when he fell to the ground and did not create a chance for Bojan to shoot.

It was followed by Messi.

He pulled the ball to the sideline and faced Joe Mattock’s defense. He did a feint to cross the ball but suddenly hook the ball to cut inside and shook off Mattock.

Messi would be more confident if he were at Camp Nou. Now he could only choose 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 really good to not lose the ball and still be able to control the ball under his feet in such a situation.

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

Messi also knew that once he was leaned on by Wood, he would have no chance to break through. So, he suddenly stopped, flashed past Wood, and then changed direction toward the side.

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

He pushed 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 he pushed the ball with his left foot, he had already seen through his intentions. He took a big stride first and cut across Messi’s path. Just when Messi hooked the ball to the front with his right foot, Wood separated him from the ball and successfully locked in his position!

Messi could not stop in time and directly knocked into George Wood. He felt as if he had hit a wall. Fortunately, he had just started. If he had been running at a high speed, perhaps he would be immediately dizzy …

Messi fell to the ground, with the Barcelona fans and Nottingham Forest fans in the stands booing at the same time. The Barcelona fans thought that George Wood had fouled by blocking and they should have given a free kick, or a penalty kick—the exact spot where Messi had fallen was vague. It appeared to be outside the penalty area and also in the penalty area…

The Nottingham Forest fans booed because they thought Messi dived. It was exaggerated of him to fall to the ground at such a close distance 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 when Messi had failed, Bojan plugged in diagonally from behind and tried to intercept the ball. He thought Wood had focused 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 like they did, he did not fall to the ground, but lost the chance to grab the ball.

George Wood’s ability was fully reflected when he defended against Barcelona’s two top attackers on his own. Instead of blindly sending a shot out after protecting the football, he pa.s.sed it to Joe Mattock, who had already pulled to the side and let him get the football out to organize the attack.

The few successive attacks did not yield any results. It looked like Barcelona’s plan to rely on the individual skills of the star players to score goals did not work as well …

※※※

The game was interrupted in the 60th minute.

Someone was hurt!

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

At that time, Barcelona’s ball was intercepted in the front 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 had started running, he fell to the ground on his b.u.t.tocks!

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, which sounded like he took delight in someone else’s misfortune.

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

“We’ve been speculating about who’s going to get hurt from the 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…”

The replay appeared on the television screen. When he started running, the foot which the referee used to launch stepped on a bulge, so …

“Well, I don’t think it’s possible for this referee to enforce 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 he doesn’t sprain his ankle the moment he gets on that pitch. Ha!”

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

Even the two teams’ players who were fiercely fighting for the ball just now on the pitch, also put aside the compet.i.tion 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 can I be?”

The referee’s injury added some comedic elements 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 did the handover of the job, the referee specifically warned him repeatedly, “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 have done enough warmup? Be careful not to twist your leg——!”

“Ahhahahaha—” His shout triggered a burst of gleeful laughter.

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

※※※

When the game resumed, the ease shown by the players on both sides just now disappeared immediately. Kompany and Piqué did not have the warmth of chatting together with a smile. Everyone returned to the state of mutual hostility.

After all, it was the final game that would determine which team would advance to the quarterfinal and which team would be eliminated. They could not let their guard down.

Messi suffered a hard time with Wood, but he did not give up. He did not even get around Wood to seek another breakthrough point. It looked like he wanted to have a showdown Wood today.

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

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

Piqué rushed up to get ready to fight for a header and Kompany was ordered to keep an eye on him. As the two men leaned forward, Kompany smiled next to him, “Don’t even think about scoring, mate!”

“You’re so full of c.r.a.p…” Piqué gave Kompany a sideway glance and said, “Don’t pull my jersey!”

“I did not pull!” 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 be a little more chaotic…

Piqué was still competing with Kompany. Although his center back partner was frequently Pepe at Nottingham Forest, he also often partnered with Kompany because Tony Twain always did the rotation. Having trained and competed together for so many years, he knew Kompany well and 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 was not good for him to continue to be entangled. He gave a signal with his eyes to Puyol next to him. Puyol understood tacitly and suddenly inserted himself into the fight to separate the two men. Piqué, on the other hand, took the opportunity to get out and moved outside the line.

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

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

The football drew an arc and slightly turned outwards. Piqué who freed himself of Kompany’s close marking, dashed inward and have a powerful header!

With the distance too close, Akinfeev could not react in time. He just raised his hands and the football flew into the goal past his side!

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL—” The Catalan commentator yelled for a minute before stopping. Whenever people though he had exhausted himself and stopped, 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 expression. He was like a block of wood and let them hug and clap him on the back.

He scored the goal because he was now a Barcelona player and naturally wanted to play for his owner. But he rose to fame at Nottingham Forest and he loved everything there, even the fans who booed him in the stands. There was only sporadic booing in the stands. 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 to how Bendtner was treated.

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

“Barcelona is currently in the lead with the 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 best at meeting contingencies as the circ.u.mstances dictate ..”