633 Change in Dominion (1/2)
”The Champions League semifinal games are about to begin. England once again has three teams breaking into the top four this season. This is a great revival of English football. Although our national team was knocked out of the UEFA European Championship qualifier, the English Premier League teams are still strong, which shows that our league tournament is still the world's top league.” The Sun did a Champions League outlook and was back on track after some pointless compliments. ”Manchester United and Chelsea will stage an English derby in the semifinal game of the Champions League, and Nottingham Forest is not having it easy either. Their opponent is Barcelona!
”Chelsea's league title dream for this season is hopeless. They can put all their energies into the Champions League, which is bad news for Manchester United. In the league tournament, Nottingham Forest is close at their heels, and the two teams are only one point apart, with Manchester United temporarily in the lead.
”Nottingham Forest is challenging another powerhouse team from La Liga after they eliminated Real Madrid. Barcelona is suppressed by Real Madrid in their domestic league, and Rijkaard's only chance to save himself is the Champions League title. Not to mention, Nottingham Forest and Barcelona still have their old grudge?”
In the end, the Sun did not let go of Tony Twain's team.
Even though there were still a few days before the Champions League semifinal opener, it was apparent that the focus of the three English teams that had advanced into the top four had moved to the Champions League. Although the competition was fierce in the league tournament, there were still four rounds. The Champions League was based on the home and away matches elimination system. Making a mistake in any one of the games was likely to be fatal.
It was against that background that the 35th round of the Premier League went into an all-out battle.
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In the already-finished game, despite the impending Champions League, Chelsea won 1:0 against Moyes's Everton team in the away game by rotating the lineup.
Immediately after Arsenal's game against Reading, Arsenal got a home win of 2:0.
Before Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, and Manchester United played, the league table showed this:
Manchester United remained in the top spot with 80 points. Nottingham Forest was still number two with 79 points. Arsenal was in third place with 73 points. Liverpool remained in fourth with 72 points. Chelsea was in fifth place with 67 points, thanks to their win against Everton, and widened the point difference with the league's sixth placed Everton.
There had not been any changes in the rankings. Apart from Nottingham Forest and Manchester United, the point differences between the other teams were just one or two points. Although Arsenal won their game, there was still a gap of at least six points between the top two teams. Their hopes of winning were slim.
It had not been easy to be able achieve that result because of Henry's departure, changes in the club's top echelon, and the first season of generational change in the players.
The Forest players watched the first half of Arsenal's game against Reading on the bus and the second half in the City Ground stadium locker room.
The victory over Reading was not a surprise at all, and the players did not exclaim at anything. After they watched the game, Kerslake urged them to go warm up and get ready for their game.
Tottenham Hotspur was not considered a weak team. One of the more favorable things for the Forest team was that they were on their home ground this time.
It was April 19th. Nottingham Forest's away challenge against Barcelona was on the night of April 23rd. By all accounts, Twain should have used rotation like Chelsea, but he did not.
He did not know how Ferguson arranged his team. Manchester United's game would be held later than Nottingham Forest. Just as Forest's game ended, the kickoff would start over there. He had not yet gotten the starting list for Manchester United, but the Forest team had already sent someone to the scene. When there was any news, he would inform Kerslake via his phone, and then Kerslake would update him.
The intelligence gathering on the enemies was becoming more and more important in the league tournament.
Back to this game at the City Ground stadium, Tony Twain deployed the main force lineup on his home ground. If everything went according to plan, the squad would be the starting lineup that would go to Camp Nou stadium.
The goalkeeper was Edwin van der Sar. The center-back partners were Pepe and Piqué. The left-back was Gareth Bale, who was stronger in offense, and the right-back was Rafinha, who was equally strong in offense. The midfield parallel positions were occupied by George Wood and van der Vaart in the middle. One was focused on defense and the other one emphasized offense. The left midfielder was Ribéry, and the right midfielder was Beckham. The strikers were van Nistelrooy and Eastwood.
Rotation was used to give the players a better rest, but it did not mean they could put it all at stake when it was time. It was time because Twain did not want to lose the league tournament and the Champions League.
He believed the same was true of his players. Who would not want honor and money?
The Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jol, did not expect Tony Twain to send the entire main force to play in a home game in the face of a impending Champions League semifinal. He was caught off guard.
Nottingham Forest scored two goals in the opening twenty-five minutes. The Forest players were in a high fighting spirit. Making use of their advantage, they pursued and attacked amid the surge of thunderous cheers from the home fans. By the end of the first half, they were 3:0.
It was the second time that Jol had been surprised. After seeing Twain deploy his main lineup, he froze for a while, but he soon smiled again. He thought that if Twain had sent a rotated lineup, it was actually worse for him. At least that group of players would play to two hundred percent of their strength in front of the manager. If it was the main force, there would be players worried about getting hurt ahead of the Champions League semifinal and play at their minimum level. In that case, he would have a chance.
But how would he know what Tony Twain had said to his players before the game?
”Ah, I know you're going to worry about getting hurt before an important game, and I'm worried, too, but I don't want to lose the league title. So, what can we do? It is very simple. As soon as you go out, actively look for opportunities, and strive to end the game in the first half, so that the opponent does not have the idea of a deathbed struggle. We will be safe. The longer the game time drags on, the more we can't score to establish an advantage, the more the opponent will become threatening, and the greater their resistance will be, which is bad for us. So what would be the safest thing for us to do? We will not hide or evade, but as soon as you go out, use your mightiest force to crush them completely! The only ones in the world who won't pose a threat to us are the dead.”
Therefore, the poor Tottenham Hotspur team was beaten without the strength to retaliate in the first half. After a storm of raids, they realized with a shock that they were three goals behind.
Martin Jol was livid on the sidelines. Tottenham Hotspur was considered a traditional powerhouse team but played like a newly promoted, inexperienced team at the City Ground stadium. The club's top executives had invested a lot of money this season, but his results in leading the team was inversely proportional to the investment — thirty-four rounds of the league tournament had passed, and they ranked twelfth with more than twenty-one points from their UEFA Europa League goal. They were doomed to a dismal end this season — a fact that left the club's top brass very unhappy. He knew the upper echelon meant to fire him, and they were actively reaching out to Juande Ramos, the head coach of the La Liga elite team, Sevilla Football Club, with the intention to replace him at the end of the season. But he refused to quit, and still wanted to prove himself. How would he prove himself? He should at least win a few rounds so that he could leave on a high note, right? Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please clickfor visiting.
During halftime, he chewed everyone out in the locker room. He wanted to emulate Ferguson's or Twain's bellowing to stir up the players' fighting spirit and sense of shame, but he was an amateur. He was not that type of manager at all. Instead of motivating the players' fighting spirit, he made the locker room atmosphere even more awkward. Some people knew Jol's time at Tottenham Hotspur was not long, so they did not listen to the manager at all.
After the start of the second half of the game, Tottenham Hotspur still did not show any morale, skills, or tactics that could turn the game around. There was nothing at all. Besides Jol repeatedly getting up from the technical area and growling on the sidelines, he had no hope because he knew that he had lost control of the team. It was sad, and even more sad that he could only accept this fact.