Chapter 258: Winning the penalty kick

"George Wood received his third yellow card, so he will be automatically suspended in the next round.

If Forests...we mean that if Forests can really eliminate Arsenal and reach the final, then they will also lose an excellent defensive midfielder and a captain..."

A voice of comments came from the TV in the box, and Forest Club Chairman Evan Dogette turned his head and looked at the seat on the right.

There was George Wood's mother sitting there, staring at her son on the court below.

Can she realize what her son was thinking in his heart when he bumped into Henry?

"Madam..." Evan said to her, "Your son is excellent, very good. I regret this yellow card..."

Sophia turned her head and looked at him, shook her head, and replied with a polite smile: "It's okay, Mr. Chairman. This is just his job."

George Wood seemed to soon forget about the fact that he had just received a yellow card.

As Tang En said, the game is not over yet, and it is not time to be frustrated or painful for being missing the next game... I don't know if there is a next game. If you want to suffer, you must first have a reason for pain.

Arsenal's free kick posed no threat to Nottingham Forest's goal, and Henry's shot missed.

Next, the players of Nottingham Forest learned this lesson and no longer blindly pushed the attack. Instead, Arsenal mustered up the last strength and took advantage of the momentum just now to launch a continuous offensive against the Forest.

But this time, under the leadership of George Wood, the Forests' defense was very stable. Arsenal did not have many opportunities to directly threaten the Forests' goal, and more often they were forced to shoot from outside.

If you want to score a goal in such an offense, you may only count on two points: First, the defensive players of Nottingham Forest make mistakes themselves; second, God helps.

The first point is unlikely. Don’t think about the second point.

Wenger and Donn are now standing on the sidelines, while their assistants are busy behind them, both teams are preparing for the penalty kick.

After George Wood pushed Ashley Cole's cross out of the sideline, the referee finally blew the whistle to the end of the thirty-minute overtime.

"The whole game ends and officially enters the penalty kick decisive stage! No one of the two sides can defeat anyone in the 120-minute game, and they can only determine the winner through this cruel way."

The players were lying on the turf and hurry up and resting. The team doctors were giving massages to the players who were going to play for a penalty kick.

Wood sat on the ground. He was at the highest height now because everyone around him was lying down. He was not on the penalty list and he didn't need to undergo a massage to recover.

Tang En was busy in front of him. He was giving individual psychological counseling to everyone who was preparing to play penalty kicks to help them relieve stress and build confidence.

At the same time, the goalkeeper coach pulled Van der Sar to explain in detail to him the habit of every Arsenal player's penalty kick, perhaps because he felt that he might not remember it just by talking. He also stuffed a note into Van der Sar's hands.

"This is..." Van der Sar was puzzled.

"The boss's idea." The goalkeeper coach pointed at Tang En behind him, "He asked us to carefully study the characteristics of each opponent's penalty kick, and then write it on it, if you can't remember it, or you can't match the number.

Just look at this... Anyway, the rules do not say that you will not read the notes."

Yes, this is Done's idea, and it was Arsenal's landlord goalkeeper Lehman who thought of doing this.

Before this game, Donn had the "penalties" item in his plan. He was preparing to compete with Arsenal for a final penalty game, and asked the players to practice penalties during training.

Later, when he was looking at the Arsenal player list, he suddenly realized that Lehman was the German goalkeeper in the 2006 World Cup, and he squeezed out Kahn's main position.

From this point, Donn thought of the quarterfinals between Germany and Argentina in the World Cup. The final game was decided by a penalty kick. The secret to the victory of Germany was a small note given to Lehman by the goalkeeper coach.

The penalties of all Argentina players were written on it. Lehmann took the seat according to the characteristics written on this note. He then responded, saved the penalty kicks in succession, and finally sent the German team to the semi-finals.

After the game, the note became the target of big media scrambling to report and hype.

Don En remembered this "story". Now he decided to copy it intact and then use it to deal with Lehmann's Arsenal. For this reason, he asked the goalkeeper coach to study the penalty characteristics of all Arsenal players. Summary and summarize.

Write it on the note, if the penalty kick is really a final battle, I will give it to Van der Sar and let him do it.

This really comes in handy.

Van der Sar opened the note after listening to the goalkeeper coach's explanation, and sure enough... the above describes the penalty characteristics of almost every Arsenal player in very simple words.

He thought this was amazing and couldn't figure out what the boss thought. He didn't know if using small notes in the penalty shootout was considered cheating, anyway, he had never tried this method before.

In the past, everyone said that the goalkeeper's experience and reaction speed were tested. Now it has become a test of whether the coaching team did the preliminary work carefully. He just needed to follow the words written on this note, such as the lower left, upper right, and middle lane...

I really don’t know whether this is good or bad for the goalkeeper, but... I don’t care about so much now, victory is more important.

Van der Sar carefully put the note into the goal socks and dared not let others see it. He was not sure whether it was illegal to do so...

Donn finally finished the ideological work of every player on the roster. He stood up and saw George Wood resting on the grass.

He walked over and squatted down in front of Wood. "Well... George, you know, I wasn't angry at all when I saw you get a yellow card for a foul."

Wood looked at Done and said nothing.

"Thank you." Done patted Wood's legs, stood up and walked away.

As soon as he left, Albertini came over and sat cross-legged in front of Wood.

"George, I'm curious about what you thought in your heart at that moment... No, don't tell me.

"He reached out to signal Wood not to speak, "That's the way you chose... Do you know how many players in this world dream of participating in the finals of the Champions League? Even when I was playing football in AC Milan, I had many excellent teammates around me, who were superb and were world-class stars.

But there are still many people who can't even get into the finals of the Champions League."

"Yes, sorry, Demi..." Wood stuttered a little when he saw Albertini with a serious face.

Unexpectedly, seeing him like this, Albertini laughed: "What are you afraid of? You bastard boy who is not afraid of anything... If it were me, in that case, I would have made the same choice as you. Good job, George.

"He touched Wood's hair and looked at the young man in front of him and smiled. It was like seeing a child growing up day by day. His heart was filled with pride and sense of accomplishment that outsiders could not understand.

The assistant coaches of the teams of both sides handed over the list of penalty kickers in their respective places, and the referees compared them one by one. After confirming that it was correct, irrelevant personnel would be cleared out of the stadium.

George Wood stood up from the ground again and walked towards the referee with Henry. They were going to have a "spectator" about which team played the penalty first.

While he and Henry were guessing the coins, his teammates walked towards the middle circle, where they hugged each other's shoulders. They leaned tightly together, conveying strength and belief between their hands, and facing the unknown future together.

Wood won the game with Henry and chose to play a penalty first.

The first person to play in Nottingham Forest is Eastwood. The Forest team is not short of a penalty kicker, and Eastwood is the first pick. As long as he is on the court, he will definitely take the penalty kick in the game.

Facing Lehman Eastwood was very calm in the middle and hit the ball in.

The city court cheered as Eastwood swung his fists.

Arsenal's first appearance was defender Lauren.

Although the first penalty kicker in Arsenal is Henry, Henry has a habit - he never plays the penalty kick he created, so most of the time, Arsenal's actual first penalty kicker is the Cameroon defender.

In the penalty shootout, putting Lauren first and Henry last is double insurance.

Van der Sar saw Lauren appear. While the opponent was lowering his head to place the football, he took out the note and glanced quickly, then stuffed it back.

"Laurent took the penalty... the ball went in!"

Two thousand Arsenal fans cheered. Van der Sar punched hard on the ground. Based on the note, he judged the right direction, but he was only a little short of being able to dial the football...

However, this also strengthened his idea of ​​playing the ball as written on the note.

The second player to play in Nottingham Forest was forward Anelka. He pushed the ball into the lower left corner, and the football rolled over quickly against the turf. Lehman judged the right direction, but the angle was too clever. The football hit the post and bounced into the goal!

"Now the score is 2:1! Nottingham Forest is temporarily leading..."

After scoring the goal, Anelka waved his fist to Lehmann protestingly and then retreated.

Van der Sar took out the note again. The second person to Arsenal came up was Dutch young player Van Persie. He looked up at Van Persie, then looked down at the note, which read: Lower right.

The right side of the goalkeeper is the left side for the goalkeeper.

Van der Sar stuffed the note back and he knew what to do.

Standing in front of the door and staring at his compatriots, Van der Sar slowly spread his arms, and he was like a wall.

Van Persie glanced at the referee, heard the whistle and started running up and then shot! Van der Sar instantly flew to the left when he kicked the football. As expected, the football shot by Van Persie flew straight towards him...

"Van der Sar! He saved Van Persie's penalty!! So beautiful!"

Don Eun, who was watching nervously in front of the goal, jumped up. Their work was successful and his ideas worked! The most important thing is that Nottingham Forest now has the advantage in the penalty shootout and has also taken the lead psychologically. The balance of victory has gradually shifted towards him.

Van Persie looked frustrated as he saved his penalty kick. Unlike Henry, he often lacked changes in his penalty kick.

He would not shoot a spoon and shoot a spoon, nor would he deceive the opponent's goalkeeper with fake moves. His shot went straight like his temper... This time he caught Van der Sar, or the coaching staff of the Forest team.

The third player to play in Nottingham Forest was Frank Ribery. The Frenchman was also calm in the face of Lehman, and his shot directly made Lehman judge the wrong direction.

"The ball has entered! The pressure is coming to the Arsenal players..."

The third person to appear in Arsenal is Fabregas.

The Spanish young player calmly kicked the penalty kick in, but Van der Sar judged the right direction, but was a little slower. He let the football get in from his hands.

But this time, Van der Sar was not so upset that he went to beat the ground because he had confidence.

The fourth player Gareth Bale was the fourth player who played in such an important game. This was his first time in such an important game. His expression seemed a bit too serious.

This little kid who can make a breakthrough in the game against Chelsea was nervous when facing the penalty kick in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Bale placed the football twice, and when he saw him doing this, Tang En couldn't help but open his mouth. He could even hear his heartbeat in this noisy environment. An ominous premonition slowly emerged...

Bale assisted and shot! Lehman judged the right direction, but he couldn't reach the football, so the difference was too far...

"Ah--the young Bell kicked the ball directly into the stands! He lost it!"

A cheer came from the Arsenal bench, and it was obvious that their joy must be based on the pain of their opponents.

Bell raised his hands and grabbed the hair on the back of his head. Tears shone in his eyes. No matter how he looked at him, he was still a child who had not grown up.
To be continued...