355 Who Had the Red Card? Part 1 (2/2)

The commentator was right. Everton's goal made the Forest team return to reality. After they conceded a goal, the Forest players calmed down. They were not anxious and knew how to win the game.

In terms of strength, Everton could no longer compete with the Forest team throughout the season. Moyes knew this. Twain's team had made rapid progress. But he hoped to win a victory in this local campaign, which was also to get even for last season's match.

Moyes might think so, but Twain would not let him succeed.

Just before the end of the first half, the Forest team equalized the score. Anelka was the one who scored. The Frenchman had become the Forest team's core striker, and the team's offensive tactics were built around him.

Twain kept his word. As long as Anelka continued to score, he would be the core of the Forest team's offense.

And Anelka repaid Twain's trust with a steady number of goals.

It looked as if he and the manager were still in their honeymoon phase.

At the beginning of the second half, Anelka was given a yellow card for a foul, which was an unwarranted foul. When the opponents took possession of the ball in the center circle to do a cross, the eager Anelka rushed up and tackled the Everton player, Tim Cahill, who had already sent out the ball.

The referee presented a yellow card to Anelka, and no one took it to heart. The striker's chances of getting a yellow card were not high. One yellow card would not affect his future.

Moyes adjusted his tactics in the second half. He withdrew the team's formation, but the pressure remained. The Forest team offense was not very smooth. Arteta often faced two Everton players closing in on him alone and often lost control of the ball. Under the circumstance, Anelka had to withdraw from the penalty area and actively return to the midfield to get the ball.

The minutes of the game ticked by and the score was fixed at 1:1. For the repeatedly defeated Everton, tying the away game with the Forest team was not an unacceptable thing. However, for the ambitious Twain, it was not good enough to be equalized by Everton, with their recent poor performances, at the home ground.

He let the team press forward and increase the force of their offense.

Anelka became more active. His dribbling and speed caused trouble for Everton.

As time slowly approached the end, the singing in the City Ground stands did not stop as they continued to cheer on the team. The Forest team also did not let up on the offense at all. Everton completely withdrew and did not attack.

They made up their minds to keep their one point.

Anelka would not let them get what they wanted. At the thought of the next game against Arsenal, he was full of inexhaustible power and would not be satisfied with just one goal. He wanted to score more goals in this game. He wanted to demonstrate ahead of time to Arsenal, Arsène Wenger, and David Dein, the Arsenal vice-chairman, and announce with more and more goals:

I, Nicolas Anelka, am back! I've returned to Highbury! This time, I will score in your goal and score plenty!

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”Anelka has the ball now, and he's on the move to swerve past Lee Carsley! Right to the goal!”

There was a huge cheer in the stands. The fans knew that Anelka was going to dribble the ball again to get past the opponents. That was one of the things the Forest fans looked forward to.

The Nigerian center back, Joseph Yobo, dared not make a hasty move. He could only follow at the heels of the advancing Anelka and try to block the angle of Anelka's shot. Then he could leave it to his other teammates to besiege him.

Anelka could tell what Yobo had in mind. He certainly was not stupid enough to push himself to the point of being besieged. So, he suddenly started again and planned to rely on his speed to get rid of Yobo, knowing that Yobo did not dare to make the wrong move because they had entered the penalty area now.

Just as he blew past Yobo like the wind, the Nigerian man put his foot out.

Anelka saw the football roll over, and somehow his foot was obstructed. He staggered and tumbled to the ground.

”Penalty kick!!” Over twenty thousand Forest fans in the stands gave a deafening roar.

Twain jumped up from his seat with his fist clenched.

The referee blew his whistle.