Chapter 845: Qualifying for Champions.h.i.+p

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Fernando Gago! He scored a crucial goal! That goal pulled Nottingham Forest back from the edge of the cliff!”

There was a loud cheer in the stands at the Emirates Stadium where the fans all jumped from their seats and cheered with their arms raised. a.r.s.enal’s players were a little helpless, with Arsène Wenger sitting in the manager’s box but only bent his head backwards, expressing his displeasure.

Twain’s celebration lasted only a short time as he pulled over Mitch.e.l.l when the crowd was still clapping and cheering. “The warm-up is over, boy.” Twain glanced at No. 9 in Nottingham Forest who was taller than him.

Mitch.e.l.l nodded, and the expression on his face was calm. It had already been three years since then, he was not the rookie who had just made his debut in the Champions League.

“Our replacement is a little early, the opponent must not have predicted this. I want you to go up there and play a bigger role, and not just scoring goals. Do you know what to do?”

“I know, coach. It’s not the first time I’ve played. ”

Twain laughed when he heard that, “Right, you’re not a rookie anymore. Also, go up and tell them, Sagna and Criscito are very active in a.s.sisting and let them take advantage of that.” He pointed to both sides of the field and said to Mitch.e.l.l. “Try to score another goal in a short time.”

Mitch.e.l.l went forward after receiving the orders, Twain whistled as he walked to the side of the field, he used gestures to direct the team to continue the attack.

Wenger really did not expect the early subst.i.tution made by Twain. Not to mention that after they have just scored, it was reasonable to say that the team was doing well, and they should try to ensure the integrity of the line-up, not interrupting the rhythm of the team. This adjustment should have been made after they lose the ball.

Mitch.e.l.l came on and replaced Şahin. Şahin was a little unhappy when he came down because it was too early. It was only fifty-five minutes.He had a dark look on his face as he clapped with Mitch.e.l.l. Twain did not say anything as Şahin walked by, only raising his hand to touch his forehead.

From that goal, Gago seemed to be in good form in the game, hence Twain got Gago to get more involved in the attack with Wood defending at the back.

Seemingly aware of Twain’s intentions, Wenger got up and issued the newest instructions. The two wing backs of a.r.s.enal then stop a.s.sisting the offense and stayed at the backcourt.

Twain saw this scene and called them “p*ssies” on the manager’s seat. The enemy was too cunning! He initially wanted to take advantage of a.r.s.enal’s instability and score another goal to take the initiative in his own hands, but now it would become a stalemate.

Fortunately, Mitch.e.l.l was able to control the ball on the pitch, so Nottingham Forest were able to play the possession game against a.r.s.enal. But Twain still seemed a little worried…

From time to time, he got up from the coach’s chair to walk to the sidelines, or raised his hand to look at his watch and the score on the big screen. Time went by minute by minute, and Nottingham Forest’s attack still did not gain much. And a.r.s.enal’s offense was not as active, it looked like Wenger was satisfied with taking a draw on their homecourt.

After all, they were six points ahead. Even if it was a draw, they would still be six points ahead. For a.r.s.enal, maintaining the six-point gap would almost certainly ensure that they would win the league in the end.

Wenger did not want to exert too much energy for this game as there would be another Champions League game in three days. That was the most important thing, where losing was absolutely unaffordable.

For that, after 65 minutes, Wenger began to make subst.i.tutions. First, he replaced Fàbregas. As the core of the team, the captain, the absolute main force, his task had been completed this game, Wenger did not want to see him getting injured or exhausted in the last 25 minutes. Fàbregas did not express any displeasure, but he was by no means thrilled, because he wanted to keep playing against Wood on the court….

So after seeing the fourth official raise the sign, he hesitated, shrugged and pointed at himself, questioning the side court. Wenger nodded. He then turned his head and glanced at George Wood who was a distance away, and then slowly walked down.

Nottingham Forest fans were very unhappy with his move. He thought he was deliberately delaying the game and hence jeering at a.r.s.enal’s captain on the stands.

Francesc Fàbregas remembered that he was still wearing the captain’s armband after walking halfway, and then folded back and handed the sleeve to Senderos as the jeers became louder. But soon the boos were drowned out by the applause of the a.r.s.enal fans, who stood up to greet their captain.

On the sidelines, Fàbregas turned and turned to the pitch, raising his arms in response to the applause of the fans, but his eyes kept staring at George Wood who was standing near the center circle. He seemed to be looking at himself as well.

The two men met eyes as Fàbregas turned and walked back to the bench. He shook Wenger’s hand. Wenger patted him on the shoulder, signaling that he did a good job.

Twain was happy to see Fàbregas go off the field. He knew that there was hope for this game. Wenger has clearly chosen to be conservative as he switched to a defensive midfield——Denilson, the Brazilian who played the defensive midfielder.

Wenger’s idea was that even if Fàbregas were to go off-field, a.r.s.enal’s offense would still have Wilshere, thus he was not worried about anything.

But in Twain’s view, Wilshere was not yet able to compete with Fàbregas. It was not a matter of talent, but instead a gap in experience.

Wood alone was more than enough to deal with him, and after Wilshere got frozen, the likes of Walcott and Berra would not be able to play their full potential and Nottingham Forest would have more energy to put into offense, as they sought more chances to score goals.

In the remaining time, Nottingham Forest gradually took the initiative in midfield and began to put pressure on a.r.s.enal’s penalty area. a.r.s.enal were on the defensive.

Nottingham Forest were aggressive but they seemed to have forgotten the requests of Twain at half-time. Rafinha fired a straight-out shot after receiving the ball outside the penalty area twice in a row, with one kick deflected and one shot flying. That upset Twain, who was watching the game, as he rushed to the sidelines and yelled Rafinha’s name.

Rafinha became more patient after that and he no longer shot away blindly.

Twain then muttered as he walked back to the manager’s seat, “It’s a waste of opportunity….Do they still think they’re leading by at least three goals?”

Francesc Fàbregas was subst.i.tuted in the 75th minute five minutes later and Nasri was also replaced by Ramsey. Twain sneered at Wenger’s replacement, then he made his own adjustments. Bentley was replaced by Moke. Moke’s task on the pitch was simple, to use his technical skills advantage to create enough trouble for a.r.s.enal’s left-field defence. Since Lennon left, Nottingham Forest’s right side was dominated by Bentley. Moke was still a little immature, but on some special occasions he had more use than Bentley.

Breakthrough! Breakthrough! Breakthrough!

Before the game, Twain pulled Moke and told him to forget everything else, leaving only one thing in his head, breaking through a.r.s.enal’s defensive line after he went up. He did it very well. He was not fast, but his dribbling was really good as a.r.s.enal’s defenders could not intercept the ball easily.

For a time Clichy’s side became the focus of Nottingham Forest’s attack, with a.r.s.enal’s defensive core following the left, Nasri did not play long as he quickly became a defensive forward….

They managed to hold on against Nottingham Forest’s offense until the 80th minute.

Twain looked at the table. They were already at the eighty-minute mark and he had one last subst.i.tution left. Several people had some fitness issues and they seemed to need to be replaced for a rest. Bale, for example, was not efficient in his offensive a.s.sistance. After running forward, he no longer ran back actively to defend. Fortunately there was still Wood to make up for him at the back as he did not let a.r.s.enal seize the opportunity to score.

Twain only brought Leighton Barnes as a left-back to come to play in the away ground. If he went up, the offense will definitely be reduced, because he needed Barnes’ defense.

Should he let Bale rest for the Champions League match three days later? Or subst.i.tute into an offensive player and continue to strengthen the offense?

Twain considered for a while as he called Agbonlahor from the bench. He was going for an all-in.

A minute later, the fourth official signalled for Nottingham Forest’s subst.i.tution as Agbonlahor replaced Gareth Bale. Removing a wing-back and replacing him with a striker, this was Twain’s gamble. As he told his players at half-time: if we lose here, we would not be able to continue to qualify for the t.i.tle.

He wanted to use the replacement to remind the players that he had not forgotten his words, so he hoped the players on the pitch do not forget it. Victory would be their only goal.

Agbonlahor ran up onto the field, as the ball went out, he called everyone over as he raised his fist and shouted at his teammates, “The coach allowed us continue to attack, we must win!”

After hearing this, Nottingham Forest players all turned to look to the side of the field to look at Twain, with his stern face.

“What about defense? Bale’s down, Rafinha’s not made for a centre-back” Gago had some concerns.

“Don’t think so much. Think about it after a goal!” Agbonlahor cheered.

Wood said, “I would be in charge of the defense. You guys don’t worry about it. ”

He ended the argument as soon as he spoke and no one disagreed.

“That settles it. Be sure to score goals. Be sure to win!” Agbonlahor raised his fist to cheer up the tired players. “Guys, think about the triple champions”

Gago gasped as he nodded, “Ten minutes to go, find a way to get them a goal.”

The group of people set a goal and then dispersed.

After a minute later, Nottingham Forest attacked into the penalty area, but Ibišević collided with Almunia during the scuffle, and the latter fell to the ground with the referee summoning the team doctor to the pitch.

Nottingham Forest fans in the stands were still complaining that Almunia had deliberately delayed the game, as Twain did not have the effort to find the fourth official to reason. He took the time to call Wood to the sidelines and strategized.

“Cross! Pa.s.s the football through the air to the front of a.r.s.enal’s door and to Mitch.e.l.l! But it is not to let him score, he’s not the main striker, but instead let him grab the back spot and then swing the ball over. Do you understand? He’s not the main offense, but we want to make the opponent think that he’s the one who solves the problem.” Twain hurriedly used gestures to make up for the information.

Wood nodded, “I understand.”

“Tell them about the change, tell Gago if we succeed in a pa.s.s, then run into the penalty area and ignore the defense of the midfield. ”

“Do I defend?”

Twain nods, “Yes!”

“Okay, no problem.”

Wood ran back to the field and told the team about Twain’s adjustment.

Wenger called Senderos to the sidelines while Almunia was being treated to keep his eye on defending Mitch.e.l.l. Senderos was the only one on the pitch which was able to compete with Mitch.e.l.l for headers with his height in a.r.s.enal. At such times, Twain would certainly use the simplest approach — a cross into the penalty area, allowing Mitchel to fight for the header — to try to score, so he had to mark Mitch.e.l.l.

After the game resumed, Wenger began to take comfort in his previous arrangements. Mitchel did become Nottingham Forest’s main offense, as Senderos fought hard to get the top spot at the start and was not in the downswing.

But then things started to look different. Looking at his stamina, Senderos had been running for almost 90 minutes and could not keep up with Mitch.e.l.l at all, who only joined in the second half. Tactically, Mitch.e.l.l was not really the endpoint of Nottingham Forest’s offense.

When George Wood intercepted the ball successfully in the backfield, his position was on the right side. He did as he said he would, to guard the right-back as well.

At that time, Walcott was aiming to force a break with his pace against Wood. Unfortunately, Wood’s accurate position made it impossible for him to increase his speed, and the ball at his feet was easily tackled by Wood. He just tried to s.n.a.t.c.h Wood’s ball in front and ran back. But Wood did not pa.s.s the football to Gago in the midfield, as what the narrator thought, as he made a move that surprised everyone: he dribbled the ball straight through the sidelines!

Walcott did not expect Wood, being a temporal wing back, to bring the ball up like an authentic wing-back. He watched Wood run past himself as he was completely unresponsive.

When Wood crossed the middle line, the a.r.s.enal defenders was still thinking he would pa.s.s the ball to Gago in the middle, or Fernandez in front. So everyone’s defensive attention was on the two at the back, so they watched Wood continue to dribble the ball along the sideline.

“Ah, ah! George Wood’s still dribbling the ball! There’s not a single a.r.s.enal player going up to defend, they’re defending Gago. Some were focusing on Fernandez, some even on Mitch.e.l.l. But no one were going up to defend George Wood. He was still dribbling!”

The narrator got excited, because whenever Wood did something unusual, things would get interesting.

“Don’t leave him alone!” Wenger roared as he got up from his seat, abandoning his calm facade. As an experienced veteran coach, he sensed danger from Wood’s unusual move.

Like him, Fàbregas got up from his seat as he got nervous. He has changed his clothes as he sat on the bench with a towel, chatting with his teammates. At this moment, he could not help but leave the bench, as he walked to the sidelines, staring intently at George Wood dribbling crazily on the sidelines.

He really has a lot of stamina.

That was Fàbregas’s first thought in mind. The second was: This is bad!

The manager’s loud reminder made a.r.s.enal’s players change their minds, just before Sagna was preparing to leave Fernandez to go to defend Wood, Wood pa.s.sed the ball. He pa.s.sed the football to Fernandez.

When he saw this pa.s.s, Sagna suddenly had this wonderful feeling. He finally pa.s.sed the ball!

Then he threw his head coach’s words away to Java as he turned around to pounce on Fernandez. In the inertial thinking of a lot of players, George Wood would never run to the sidelines.

But they were wrong.

Fernadez discovered that Wood, after pa.s.sing to himself, did not stop running. Instead he continued to speed forward. He did not make any gestures to ask for a pa.s.s, but Fernandez felt that he should pa.s.s the ball instead of dribbling it himself.

So when the football came over, Sagna was still following from behind. He did not hesitate to pa.s.s the ball out again, the goal was to the s.p.a.ce on the sidelines, Wood was running through at high speed.

“One-two?” The narrator’s tone was visibly surprised. Apparently he did not expect Nottingham Forest to play the game from there. Since Bale stepped down, the narrator repeatedly said that Tony Twain wasted one sideline. But the situation he was looking at now embarra.s.sed him.

Wood’s style of play was very simple, the focus now was on handling the ball. He was not like other wingers who received the ball and pa.s.sed it again, even though he had lost his best pa.s.sing opportunity at that time. No one knew exactly what habit it was, perhaps it was simply to get the football to stay at his feet for a little longer. He was also not like other wingers who like to break through from outside.

He watched the football roll towards himself, as he did not stop the ball but instead immediately kicked the ball towards the goal.

Until this moment, many people at a.r.s.enal were still counting themselves lucky. None of them went up to defend Wood, because they thought Wood’s pa.s.sing technique would definitely be bad, because no one had seen him have any decent pa.s.s….

This time Wood’s pa.s.s still seemed quite bad….

It was very high.

Twain raised his head outside the field, as he squinted his eyes to stare at the silver-white football that was high in the dazzling light.

The people below even had enough time to compete for positioning.

Senderos looked up at the ball while he was grabbing Mitch.e.l.l’s uniform to prevent him from slipping away.

Wood, who had pa.s.sed the ball, lost his centre of gravity and fell down, sitting on the ground as he watched the ball fly past a.r.s.enal’s goalmouth.

“Watch out for his header!” Almunia nervously reminded his teammates in front of the goal. “Watch Out for Ibišević!”

There were two center-backs, one of which was to defend Mitch.e.l.l, and the other to defend Ibišević. Senderos and Mitch.e.l.l jumped at the same time. The Swiss centre-back felt like he was stuck in position, but it was only half of it. Mitch.e.l.l still found a little s.p.a.ce, twisting his body in the air and pus.h.i.+ng Senderos aside.

The football fell. Almunia gave up the idea of jumping straight into the air and competing for the ball. With a center-back, he did not want to risk a foul.

While in the air, Mitch.e.l.l felt like he was flying, he always felt it whenever he jumped, and he enjoyed it. He saw the football in the air and he also saw Senderos’s forehead, then he discovered himself jumping a little higher than his opponent…

He was looking for someone. Ibišević was blocked, so he could not pa.s.s there.

Gago. Where was Gago?

A yellow figure appeared at the corner of his eye.

Whoever it was

Mitch.e.l.l swung his head with much effort. Senderos. .h.i.t nothing with his header at the front. Instead of flying towards the goal, the football flew in the opposite direction.

In the crowd, the yellow figure ran out. Even under the pull of Denilson, he still struggled forward, stretching his legs back and kick!

Gago felt he had kicked football, but what happened next, he was not sure.

Almunia realised he had made a mistake. He should not have put Senderos and Mitch.e.l.l, two big men, to be in front of him, as he could not see what was happening in front!

When he saw the football flying over, his brain was still blank. He did not make any actions to dive for the ball, he just stared as the ball flew past him, and scored.

Was the ball in?

a.r.s.enal’s players and fans were surprisingly calm in their heads at this moment, as they were just asking themselves. Did the ball really go in? When the match still had a minute before injury time and the ball scored?

The ball’s in! How could that be!

The Emirates Stadium, which had been dormant for a moment, suddenly became a crater of eruptions.

“Unbelievable! Unbelievable!” The narrator presses both his hands on the soundproof headphones and roared, for he was about to be unable to hear his own voice.

Twain rushed out of the coach’s chair with the screams of a.r.s.enal fans behind him, his arms open, his teeth clenched and waved. He looked like deranged; it was hysterical.

Immediately behind him, more Nottingham Forest players and coaches rushed out of the coaching staff, hugging and kneeling on the ground to thank G.o.d.

Eastwood was crying with excitement, his eyes red, as he grabbed onto his clothes and roared. No one could hear clearly what the Romani was shouting about.

Gago, who was pulled down by Denilson, took a peek at the goalmouth by habit, when he really saw that the football was lying in the goalmouth, he went crazy.

His eyes were wide, with his pupils shrinking, as blood surged from his neck and into his head, dyeing his face red.

He clenched his fist as he felt himself grabbing onto fate by its throat.

“If we give up here, we won’t be eligible to win the champions.h.i.+p! If we don’t win a.r.s.enal, we can’t win the league! If we lose here to a.r.s.enal, we won’t win the Champions League match three days later! If such an opportunity is not worth our whole team to grit their teeth to fight, what else is there in this world that we’re fighting for? What else!”

The pa.s.sionate voice of their coach rang in every Nottingham Forest player’s eardrums. Now they could proudly claim to be the team that qualified for the t.i.tle.

He got up from the ground, shook off the entanglement of his teammates behind him, and ran to the corner flag, taking off his jersey and throwing it to the sky. He did not care if the referee would give him a yellow card, as this time he was like venting everything he had. Gago was usually elegant, but this was the first time he stripped as a celebration after a goal, it really seemed that the Argentinian was really very excited.

Even George Wood, who had rarely let his emotions out, stood up from the ground, as he raised his fist and waved. Then he was hugged by Mitch.e.l.l, who rushed forward.

At the Emirates Stadium, in front of 60,000 a.r.s.enal fans in front of the enemy a.r.s.enal, Nottingham Forest’s players were celebrating their last-minute goal, completely ignoring the home team’s mood and feelings, and venting as if they were the owners of the stadium.

The Emirates Stadium was silent. On the coaching seat, Arsène Wenger had his head in his hands, he held his head low as he did not want to see this scene in front of him.

He had nothing to say about the result. But there was still a thought in his heart: Champions League.

After three days, let us have a battle to decide it all, Tony, This time, it will be a true death battle!