Chapter 16: The possibility of swapping jerseys

In the second half, as Donne said, Arsenal continued their performance in the second half of the first half, using fast passes to try to tear the Forest's defense.

After George Wood was criticized by Donne during the half-time break, his performance in the second half became more positive. Fabregas also wanted to take everything into his hands like in the first half, and he found it was not so easy.

Wood's close-fitting press was very powerful. He ran with him as if he didn't care about his physical strength at all. As for the defense behind him, it was left to Gago. Anyway, the Forest team is now leading with one goal, so it doesn't matter even if Gago's offense is sacrificed. The key is to completely freeze Fabregas.

"Fabregas received the ball, and he planned to pass it...ah! Wood's robbery was very timely, and he poked Fabregas' pass!"

When he saw the football that had just been passed, Wood was stabbed by the ball. Fabregas's reaction was really fast, so he immediately went to counterattack. Unfortunately, Wood was faster than him, so he rushed to the front of Espanyol and blocked Fabregas behind him, and then kicked the football out with his feet.

Fabregas pushed Wood behind with some annoyance, of course he didn't push Wood at all.  It made Wood look back at him, expressionless.

Then Wood seemed to stick to Fabregas.

Fabregas discovered that Wood was relying on his super physical fitness to grab the ball, so he adjusted his strategy. He no longer passed the ball after receiving the ball, but instead controlled it, made a few fake moves and passed the ball again.

The effect was very good at first because Wood's inertial thinking always made him easily shaken by Fabregas. But it didn't work later.

Wood left the last move.

He still swooped the first shot. But he still dragged one leg behind and the center of gravity was not completely thrown out. Fabregas thought he had swung past Wood and was about to pass the ball when he adjusted his body, but suddenly the center of gravity tilted. He fell to the ground.

After looking again, it turned out that it was Wood's leg that was dragging him down.

He raised his hand to signal Wood to commit a foul, and the referee's whistle sounded very well.

Wood did not appeal to the referee for his foul. He didn't even get up in Lafabregas and ran back to defend.

Fabregas got up by himself. Wood's foul was not ruthless, but it interrupted Arsenal's attack. He was helpless about this and fought with Wood many times. He had long been familiar with Wood's trick.

Only when he was serving a free kick could he feel the unrestrained feeling without Wood's interference.

Next, fouls, small moves, reasonable collisions... Wood did everything and worked extremely hard to toss Fabregas. Although he was not completely frozen by Wood, he invested a lot of energy to fight against Wood, so that his passing success rate was not as good as the first half, and his contribution in offensive organization also dropped sharply.

Not only that, he also consumed a lot of physical energy in the battle with Wood. He was already out of breath afterwards.

On the other hand, Wood's face was not flushed or breathless, and everything was as usual. His good physical condition caused his opponent to be desperate.

Due to Wood's sudden great activity, Arsenal had to hand over the offensive organization task to Willshere.

The person who defends Willshere is Gago, and he and Wood are two levels apart in defense.

As one of the young English midfielders with the best offensive ability, Willsheer still has a lot of room for performance under Gago's letting go. He sent a wonderful pass three times. Unfortunately, other offensive teammates of Arsenal were not sure.

Will Sherdi was active and asked the commentator to pass on the first half of the praise against Fabregas to him.

"It's really worthy of being the most imaginative and technical midfielder in England after Gascoin! He made Gago tired and helpless! People usually say that coach Wenger has the habit of selling once the player is over 30. Fabregas will soon turn 27, and perhaps Wenger will start to consider using Will Sher to replace Fabregas in the team..."

Arsenal's fast-paced offense just stopped a little and started running again, but this time their core was changed from Fabregas to Willshere.

The Forest's goal was in a hurry again. Tang En sat down and murmured: "Double core?"

He thought for a while. Fabregas was tossed by Wood and his physical fitness was consumed very quickly, and he should have been unable to recover for a while. Wilshere's ability is indeed very outstanding, and it is a bit difficult for Gago to defend him... After all, Wilshere is still firmly in the top spot in England's future midfield.

If this continues, Will Sher must be curbed.

So he walked to the sidelines and took a deep breath.

"Joe—Job!"

The sound was really loud... Perhaps in order to cooperate with him, at that moment, the singing of the city court suddenly became smaller.

Will Shell suddenly felt a trembling heart.

Then Done returned to the coaching seat, and then Will Sher found that the person in front of him was replaced by George Wood...

Willsheer turned his head behind him, looking at the captain Fabregas, and then he saw Fabregas bent over and gasping, while Gago stood beside him.

He realized something was wrong...

The commentator of the subsequent game deeply realized that Will Sher was still a little different from Fabregas... He would never ask Will Sher to replace Fabregas again.

Under Wood's close defense, Fabregas was able to try his best to pass the football to his teammates. Although his success rate was not as good as the first half, it was passed out after all. Wilshere was under his tight control of his teammates in the country. It was difficult to even get the ball. Under Wood's strong rush, the ball under his feet was always easily thrown away.

Fouls, small actions, reasonable collisions that hover on the edge of unreasonable...

Wood applied the trick against Fabregas to Willshere.

Not long after, Willsheer gave in. He didn't dare to let the ball stay under his feet for a while, and after receiving the ball, he passed it to Fabregas. Without Wenger's instructions, he returned the core position to the captain.

Seeing Will Sher admit defeat, Wood ran back to keep an eye on Fabregas.

After struggling for so long, Arsenal's offense has not improved at all. The thunder and rain are small. They did not score any goals. The score is still 1:0, and the home team Forest leads.

Nottingham Forest forced him out to grab it for a while, and saw that the second half had passed, so he simply recycled it.

This change was somewhat unexpected to Wenger. He carefully studied Tony Donn. He knew that when he was leading with one goal, he would never be willing to be conservative, but chose to continue chasing and scored another goal to be relieved. Why did he retreat 1:0 now? And from the scene, the Forest team may not be at a disadvantage. Could it be that they really gave up the opportunity to expand their advantages in vain?

In fact, Tang En also has his own difficulties. He knew that Wenger wanted to use this fast-paced style of play to drag down his team, because he had used this way of doing it to others before. So since he is now ahead, he will use more conservative tactics to preserve some physical strength.

At the same time, he began to substitution. Cohen replaced Fernandez and Mock replaced Bentley.

When the commentator saw this scene in the commentary seat, he blurted out a word: "Defense counterattack!"

I was so familiar that I could know what the next game would develop with my eyes closed.

Nottingham Forest retreated to the half and occasionally harassed Arsenal's defense. Arsenal besieged the Forest's penalty area. But there was a lack of better scoring opportunities... The game time passed quietly.

In fact, it's not much different.

Nottingham Forest's shrinking defense made Arsenal a little uncomfortable. When the Forest players were crowded near the exception in the penalty area, their excellent pass and cut cooperation was useless.

Wenger realized that if he continued to siege like this, he would be the only one who was unlucky in the end - Nottingham Forest could score another goal with just one counterattack.

Thinking of this, he temporarily adjusted the team's tactics. He no longer besieged the Forest team, but slowly stepped down from behind and advanced layer by layer. He did not rush to the Forest team's goal, forcing the Forest team to pull out.

The Forest team has reserved attacks. But they are not very enthusiastic about attacking. Defence is still the number one task.

The game time was very fast during the battle between the coaches of both sides, and it was already eighty minutes in a blink of an eye.

Wenger is now facing a choice: should we end the game with this result, or to strive for a goal in the last ten minutes.

Even if Arsenal lost the first leg 0:1, it is acceptable. After all, there is only one goal difference, so it is still easy to get back to home.

If you fight for one goal with all your might and get a away goal, the score is still 1:1, and the team will have half of their body to enter the semi-finals.

Both results seem to be good...

Wenger fell into deep thought.

The advantage of the first choice is that this game is insured. It seems that Nottingham Forest lacks the strength to score again. It is not a problem if Arsenal wants to lose with only one goal. The disadvantage is that it is not safe to decide whether to advance or not.

The advantage of the second choice is to try to take the initiative in the first round. The disadvantage is that it is very likely that the goal will not be scored instead. Although Wenger has been studying Tang En for many years, one thing he still cannot study thoroughly is Tony Tang En's capriciousness. This person's personality has no rules at all, and the same is true for doing things. He is not sure whether the fatigue shown by the Forest team before was deliberately pretended to be pretended, just to lure himself into a fool, and then he was successfully attacked by the opponent.

Just when he was unsure of his mind, Tang En made a substitution.

Wenger turned his head and looked. The person standing on the sidelines being inspected by the fourth official was Aaron Mitcher, who was more than two meters tall.

And he wants to replace the landlord...

The fourth official raised the electronic sign:

No. 15 Nuri Shahin, down. No. 9 Aaron Mitcher.

Wenger cursed "crawling" in his heart. If he adjusts his strategy in advance and lets the team attack. Tang En's move is obviously prepared for him. Removing a front midfielder and adding a tall center will increase the attack power of the Forest team. At the last moment of the game, simple and rough tactics such as crossing from the wing or long passes can actually achieve miraculous effects.

It seems that Tang En couldn't bear it anymore, he wanted to expand the score at the last moment...

This substitution prompted Wenger to make a stable decision. Arsenal would rather lose one goal away than turn a small loss into a two-goal defeat at the last moment.

In the last ten minutes, the situation on the court reversed. The Forests actively attacked, while Arsenal retreated to defend. As expected, as Wenger expected, Donn's team all played high in the last ten minutes, and the football kept hanging towards Arsenal's goal, leaving Amunia and Arsenal's defenders busy. Another time, Mitchel fell in the penalty area and caused controversy. Nottingham Forest players insisted that Arsenal players fouled down Mitchel while defending, but Arsenal's players thought this was nonsense. How could a person as tall as Mitchel fall down with a light touch? It must be a fake fall!

The two sides argued endlessly, and the Arsenal players deliberately delayed the time. The referee made the final penalty, which neither fouled nor fell. A harsh boo suddenly rang in the stands.

Until the last second, the bombing of Nottingham Forest did not work. The commentator blamed them for the outbreak too late, and it was too late to remember to counterattack until the last ten minutes. But from Don Eun's face, you could hardly see any dissatisfaction expression. It seemed that he also accepted the 1:0 result.

When they shook hands with Wenger, the two of them smiled and friendly as if what had just ended was not a Champions League quarterfinals, but a pre-season warm-up match.

"See you at home, Tony." Wenger sent a "warm invitation" to Donne.

Tang En just smiled and said nothing.

After the game, Willsheer hesitated for a while and decided to go to George Wood to change his jerseys. Although he was stared at him in the game, he still admired Wood as a player who also played for England. The reason why he hesitated was that he knew that Wood's temper had always been strange, especially he didn't like to exchange jerseys.

But just when she finally made up her mind to find Wood to change her jersey, she was surprised to find that Fabregas had already taken the lead.

Arsenal's captain stood in front of the captain of Nottingham Forest and made a gesture of exchanging jerseys. Wood raised his hand and took off the jersey on his body and handed it to the opponent without saying a word.

It was so straightforward that Will Sher was stunned.

After Fabregas came back from changing his jersey, he leaned over and asked in surprise: "Didn't he say he..." He pointed to George Wood who had walked away, "Don't you like to exchange jerseys with your opponent?"

Hearing this, Fabregas also looked surprised: "Who did you hear?"

"Uh... they all said that." Will Sher couldn't say where the rumor came from, but he did have this impression.

Seeing him, Fabregas laughed: "He just refused to exchange jerseys with his opponent after the Forest lost the ball."

Willshere breathed a little relieved.

Fabregas saw through his thoughts, so he patted his head: "Don't be proud, Jack. You have no chance this season."

"Ah?" Willshere didn't understand yet.
Chapter completed!