Chapter 65: Good opponent

The away draw with Chelsea widened the gap between Chelsea and Manchester United to eight points. With eight rounds left in the league, these eight points are not easy to catch up.

The only good news for Mourinho may be the situation in the last eight rounds. Manchester United needs to face Nottingham Forest at home in the 33rd round. In the next 34th round, Manchester United will play Chelsea away.

These two games are related to the life and death of the two teams. If Manchester United can win two consecutive games, then with four rounds left, Manchester United's point advantage will be widened to 11 points. At this time, Chelsea is almost only theoretically likely to win the championship.

But if Manchester United loses to Nottingham Forest and then to Chelsea, the points of both sides are likely to be reduced to two points, and a loss in a game will lead to a comeback.

The league has officially entered the sprint stage. Now it is time for the bayonet to become popular, and no one will show mercy.

Nottingham Forest is not very strong, so it is unlikely to expect the Forest to have a big rotation when playing against Manchester United.

Arsenal and Forests are only six points away from the points, while Liverpool and Forests are only seven points away. The difference is not so big that Don can rest assured.

In the next 31st round, Liverpool defeated Arsenal at home, squeezing Arsenal to fifth in the league and fourth in the Reds.

Nottingham Forest defeated Bolton 1-0 away, and Manchester United beat Blackburn 4-1 at home, and Chelsea defeated Watford 1-0 away.

Several teams have won, except for the unlucky Arsenal.

The situation has not changed at all, and Don En must temporarily pull his attention from the league and throw it to another battlefield.

The quarterfinals of the European Champions League are about to begin. Compared with several other teams, Forest is particularly lucky. Their opponent is Eindhoven, the weakest among them.

Speaking of Eindhoven, there is another "old acquaintance" of Donn.

Sun Xiang, a Chinese full-back from Shanghai Shenhua, came to Eindhoven for three months.

Before he traveled through time, Sun Xiang was loaned to Eindhoven in January this year. At that time, because he represented the team in the European Champions League, he was known as "the number one Chinese player in the Champions League."

This title is very good, but Tang En feels very sad. Japanese and Korean players have already made appearances in the Champions League. Park Ji-sung can even play the main role in a giant team like Manchester United. What about Chinese players? It will be so popular when it appears in the Champions League. The gap between Japan and South Korea and Chinese football is no longer clear in one sentence or two.

However, in the world he is in now, the title of "the number one player in China's Champions League" has been given to Sun Jihai.

Sun Jihai has been with the Forest Team for more than two years.

I really benefited a lot. I was able to receive the most advanced training in the most advanced football environment. When I returned to the national team, I felt that it stood out, which also caused another kind of trouble - in the national team, Sun Jihai and other teammates were somewhat unable to cooperate.

Coach Zhu Guanghu is also very troubled about this matter now. Sun Jihai is very good at it, and he is there. But his cooperation with the team has always been a problem. Summer is the Asian Cup. Whether Sun Jihai is used or not has become Zhu Guanghu's heart disease.

Fans are very angry about using Sun Jihai, but Zhu Guanghu is a little hesitant.

Putting aside these national teams, the match between Nottingham Forest and Eindhoven was hyped by the Chinese media into a "China derby in the Champions League". The initiator of this matter was no one else. It was Tang En's "old friend" Tang Jing.

Tang En has always hated this boring hype. Tang Jing didn't even know whether Sun Xiang would appear on Eindhoven's list, so she couldn't wait to throw out the gimmick of "China Derby".

What's more, he has never mentioned this game on any occasion. Sun Jihai will also appear on the starting lineup.

He looks very much like looking at it. If Sun Xiang didn't even make the roster, or had not made a minute of playing time after entering, what would Tang Jing say?

Although Eindhoven is the weakest among the eight teams, Don En did not take it lightly. He and the coaching staff had done enough homework before, and now it is just the right time to put it in the venue.

After Tang joined the coaching staff, Tang En began to pay attention to pre-match preparations and do this. Tang was obviously more skilled than Tang En.

The coaching team will fully study every detail of the opponent, and then analyze the opponent's tactics based on these information and details, and formulate multiple plans. What do we do when the opponent is like this? What do we do when the opponent is like that...

After everything was ready, Donn brought the team to the Netherlands.

Aindhoven's head coach Koeman decided to fight the Forest at home, and of course he knew how his fellow countryman Rijkaard lost. But the Dutch's pride made him unable to do something like Tony and Don, defend to the death? If that's the case.

Without waiting for himself to lose, booing him will sound over the court. Dutch fans are idealists, and they would rather see their team lose the game in a gorgeous offense than win in an ugly defensive.

Tang En is very happy that he can meet such an opponent in the quarterfinals. The opponent wants to play against him, but he wants to do so.

What is Nottingham Forest’s favorite team? It is to push out the powerful people who want to defeat them with offense. The most troublesome ones are those weak teams who shrink their defense line and cannot shrink.

This season, Don Eun fell in the duel against the weak team, but did not have the advantage in the strong team. After the match against Everton, Don Eun made the team transform, but this was a long systematic project.

In the stage where the championship was knocked out with a very utilitarianism, Done still restored the team to the defensive counterattack they were best at.

The away game against Eindhoven began as scheduled. Eindhoven did actively seek attack as soon as he started, and what about Nottingham Forest? The commentators who are familiar with them can also see the defensive counterattack at a glance.

Sun Jihai did not appear, and Sun Xiang also sat on the bench. Tang Jing in the press conference looked at Tang En standing on the sidelines in disappointment.

"You just don't want to do what I want!" she said viciously.

Eindhoven's offense was very effective twenty minutes ago, and also gave Eindhoven fans hope to defeat Nottingham Forest at home.

With two attacks, they almost entered the Forest's goal. But as Moulinho said, "almost" on the court is equivalent to failure.

Eindhoven's morale has declined when he has been sieging the Forest goal but always missed the goal.

This is the opportunity for the Forest team. Tang En whistled on the sidelines and waved his hand to signal the team to press forward. No chance of counterattacking can be missed.

The Forest team's counterattack is about the word "fast". Usually they crouch in the backcourt to lure the opponent to attack. Once the ball is intercepted, the Forest team players are still cruising just now and immediately become pioneers.

In the Premier League, Nottingham Forest's counterattack speed is probably the fastest, because they have Ribery, Petrov, Ashley, Young, Allen, and Lennon, all of which are the top ten people who can rank in the "Premier Fast Horse".

With such a lineup, Tang En was at ease in counterattacks. Whether it was an individual raid or an overall advancement, their speed could make the opponent dumbfounded.

Don En spent two seasons to get his team to this level. Now facing Eindhoven away, he is confident that Koeman will suffer a lot.

Eindhoven initiated an offensive, but their intention to pass the ball was too obvious. For this infiltration of the middle, George and Wood got stuck in advance and cut off the pass.

The next thing was simple. Wood immediately passed the football to Van der Fate, and then Van der Fate decided the direction of the fast attack. At the same time Van der Fate received the football, the two wingers and two forwards of the Forest quickly changed direction.

You can choose from left, center, right, and three directions. Van der Fate looked at the situation. He decided to go to the left and passed the football to Ribery.

After receiving the ball, Ribery did not run wildly along the side. He let the Eindhoven player who was planning to block him on the side to save in the empty space. Ribery dribbled the ball and headed straight to the middle, while Van der Fate ran to the left. The two made a simple shift.

Seeing Ribery coming to the middle, Koku ran over to defend, and he followed Ribery closely and did not give him a chance to shoot.

When Eastwood saw Ribery running in the middle, he knew what to do. He stopped running forward and turned around to meet Ribery.

Ribery passed the football to Eastwood, who came to pick him up, and Eindhoven's defender Alex followed Eastwood closely. He did not let him turn around.

Eastwood never thought of turning around. After he took the ball, Ribery ran without the ball. Koku focused on Eastwood who was holding the ball. He planned to attack Alex and cut the ball off.

Unexpectedly, he just forced him up, but Eastwood suddenly passed the ball.

The football returned to Ribery's feet. At this moment, Ribery was at the front of the penalty area. But no one was on guard.

The Frenchman no longer hesitated. He shot...

"Frank; Ribery - the ball went in! Beautiful long shot! Gomez was not saved, almost a blind spot!"

The Philips Stadium, which was still noisy just now, suddenly became quiet. Eindhoven's fans did not expect that their team had been besieged for a long time without a goal, and the opponent succeeded in a counterattack.

Don Eun stood up from his seat and raised his fists. He has threatened even more since Ribery was consciously placed in the middle by the coaching staff. This is a comprehensive midfielder and should not be restricted on one side.

After the deadlock is broken, things will be much easier.

Eindhoven, who concedes the ball, desperately wants to get it back. In this case, the Forest's defensive counterattack has more room to play.

The first goal is here, the second and third goals are still far away?

The second half of the game changed sides and the Forest team scored one goal by Van Nystrue and Van der Fate. When Van der Fate scored the third goal of the Forest team, some fans had already left the court early.

Head coach Koeman looked at the scoreboard with a stern face.

What does it mean by being fed three goals by your opponent in his home game? The opponent has already reached the semi-final goal with one foot.

If it is just 0:1 or 0:2, then you can still compete in the next round. Now you lose three goals, and the probability of turning around in the away game is too low.

Look at this dazzling score again. Koeman lowered his head.

Six days later, Eindhoven arrived in Nottingham from the Netherlands with a tragic tragic look. Because they had to score at least three goals away and not even make Nottingham Forest miss a goal to have a chance to play overtime.

If you want to advance directly, you have to score more than four goals. This is really difficult for Eindhoven...

Yes, it's really hard.

Nottingham Forest fans let Eindhoven taste the taste Barcelona had before. In an almost fanatical home atmosphere, the Forest unexpectedly did not choose to defend and counterattack.

Instead, he held high the banner of offensive football and fought against Eindhoven, who was struggling with the dying struggle.

Perhaps it is because Tang En feels that his team's promotion is a foregone conclusion, and it doesn't matter whether he needs to defend or counterattack. It's better to use offense to please more audiences, and at the same time test how much energy the team will have if the team attacks with all their strength.

The 3:0 score is indeed reassuring.

This game was very good. Both sides fought back and forth, and the attacks were very lively. The fans were also very happy to watch. The goals of both sides were scored one after another. As the goals continued, Koeman's mood was also wandering back and forth between hell and heaven.

When Eindhoven scored, he raised his arms and shouted, feeling that the situation was developing in the direction he hoped. Nottingham Forest scored. His face immediately became dark, and his hope of advancing was moving away from him...

Eindhoven scored the first goal. After all, the Forest team, which has full strength, cannot be as solid as usual. It has no weaknesses. This goal gave Eindhoven people hope, but just five minutes later, the Forest team equalized the score.

Anyway, everyone is attacking, and there are many loopholes in the back line, so it depends on which side can seize as many as possible.

Next, Forest continued to work hard and scored another goal, leading Eindhoven with a total score of 5:1. It has basically been announced that the game has ended early.

Eindhoven did not give up, they were still working tirelessly to seek goals.

At the end of the first half, they used a pass error in the forest team's backcourt to intercept the ball and launch a counterattack, setting the total score to 5:2.

During the halftime break, Tang En criticized the performance of the defense line. In his opinion, even if the team focuses on offense, it is not a reason for the defense line to make mistakes.

In the second half, both sides continued to attack, but this time the Forests' defense performed slightly better. They did not give Einho any more chances.

In the 80th minute, substitute Van Nystruey appeared in the second half, Bentner scored the third goal for Forest with a header, locking the total score of both sides at 6:2.

Although there are still ten minutes before the end of the game, Koeman has no choice but to face this score.

He knew that he had failed.

When the final whistle sounded, a huge cheer burst out from the city court.

The commentator had to raise the volume of his speech in this noisy environment: "In an unforgettable match, Nottingham Forest reached the semi-finals for two consecutive years! This was a great result! Tony; Donne seemed to be a coach who was good at playing cups, and his first trophy was won in the English League Cup.

Last season, they reached the Champions League final and almost became the champion. This season, they have the opportunity to attack the final again! But first of all, they have to defeat Chelsea, which is their opponent in the semi-finals!”

"Chelsea? That's really a good opponent." Don said to Don and Chris Lack next to him after the game. "We have a psychological advantage in playing against them."

Chris Lack laughed, and Tang smiled slightly. Everyone knows what this psychological advantage is.

After saying this, Donn turned his sight to the stands. He knew Moulinho was watching the game in the stands, but he didn't know if Moulinho was still there at this time.

Meanwhile, in the stands.

Moulinho and his assistant were waiting in line to leave, and he did not forget to look down.

He saw Tang En looking up here.
Chapter completed!