793 Come out If You Dare

"Problems will naturally arise in Nottingham Forest's defense as their players receive more and more yellow cards for their fouls on Messi and the other players. Tony Twain will pay the price for his actions…"

The guest commentator had only just finished his words when there was a sudden change to the situation on the pitch.

During one of Barcelona's attacks, Xavi and Iniesta performed a feint in the midfield that fooled people into thinking that they were going to try and attack down the middle of the pitch. The next moment, they suddenly passed the ball over to Messi, who was positioned at the flank.

Their attack was no different from any of the attacks that Barcelona had launched in the past. However, Nottingham Forest messed up its defense this time. Baines had initially wanted to commit a foul on Messi, but he did not expect Messi to take advantage of him instead, and make his way past him with a turn.

Baines' mistake was a little too amateurish. He had rushed up towards Messi like a fool, but Messi easily got past him when he stuck his leg out, as though he was nothing but air.

Messi had already made his way into Forest's penalty box before any of the Nottingham Forest defenders had time to react!

"He has made his way inside!"

None of Nottingham Forest's defenders dared to act recklessly now that Messi had made his way into the penalty box.

Messi had a way to score a goal, no matter how small a space he was given, as long as the defenders didn't stick a foot out to kick the ball away. He skillfully made his way through the tight space within the penalty box, demonstrating his outstanding ball handling techniques. He got past Pepe with the ball still firmly at his feet.

"He has gotten past Pepe! He continues to control the ball at his feet!"

Kompany did not dare to stick a leg out to stop Messi, for fear of giving away a penalty.

George Wood did not share Kompany's reservations. He would never think about the consequences. He would always act first and think later.

Messi sensed danger as he was looking for a chance to shoot. He did not have time to contemplate whether he should pass the ball or shoot. He instinctively raised his foot and shot for goal!

Right as Messi kicked the ball away, Wood came at him with a tackle. Fortunately, Messi had jumped up into the air after he shot the ball, and it allowed him to evade Wood's potentially life-threatening tackle…

The entire incident had happened in the blink of an eye. All the spectators saw was Messi raising his foot to shoot for goal, and George Wood coming in at him a short while later.

The goal had happened too close and too suddenly. It did not matter how fast Akinfeev could react. He still wouldn't be able to get to the ball…

The ball flew past Akinfeev's feet and went straight into the corner of the net!  Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!" The Spanish commentator dragged out the word as he roared.

Camp Nou came alive. Everyone began chanting the name of the hero who had just scored a goal in unison.

Guardiola, who had been standing nervously by the side of the pitch all this while, jumped up with clenched fists.

He could finally let out a sigh of relief…

All the staff and players sitting on the bench to his side were locked in an embrace.

Messi's goal had come at just the right time. If it had come later, Barcelona would have gone into halftime with a score of 0:0, and that would have dealt a blow to their team's morale. Messi's goal not only boosted the team's morale, it also ensured that Nottingham Forest would not be able to play their 'defend and counterattack' tactic anymore, and that would shift the game in Barcelona's favor from there on out.

Messi's goal was extremely significant to the team. They had no reason not to celebrate to their hearts' content.

"F*ck!"

In contrast to the euphoria exhibited by the Barcelona staff and players, Tony Twain was upset, and had just shouted an expletive.

"Baines made an idiotic mistake! And those defenders at the back… If you don't dare to stick your foot out, then you should jolly well stick close to him! Why are you all just standing there ogling at his performance? Are you all watching a monkey perform tricks? Sh*t! Bunch of bastards!"

No one besides Twain dared to utter a word as he vented his frustrations. They were also feeling dejected over the fact that their team was one goal down. The team had not been able to maintain the goalless situation until the end of the first half, despite having held on for 40 minutes. How could they not be dispirited?

"Messi's solo performance was brilliantly done! He has allowed Nottingham Forest to realize one thing…You can't win even if you defend to the death against Barcelona! Messi's the fairy of football, and he's the player who has gotten the closest to the King of football, Diego Maradona! He is always able to find a way to pry open the door that his opponents try to seal on him, and bring victory to his team! Messi is in outstanding form right now! He continues to persevere and fight no matter how tightly his opponents mark him and how much they foul him! Well done!"

The commentator threw every compliment that he could think of at the Argentinian "shorty."To him, Nottingham Forest was the 'villain' who was only capable of using fouls to stop Messi. They were a team that was rotten beyond salvation.

Messi, on the other hand, was like a hero who always managed to get back on his feet to fight, no matter how heavy a blow he had been dealt. He was someone who earned everyone's respect.

Tony Twain and his team are just not likeable most of the time…

Contrary to the way Barcelona's players were celebrating without restraint on the pitch, Nottingham Forest seemed lifeless and despondent. Baines, who had committed an error, stood rooted to the spot, with his head hung low in vexation. Pepe had initially wanted to get back on his feet, but he had lain back down onto the ground and covered his face with his hands after seeing Messi shoot the ball into the net.

※※※

The Nottingham Forest players appeared dazed when the match restarted. Everyone had been emotionally affected by Messi's goal. They had worked hard for 40 minutes to no avail, because Barcelona had still managed to score against them.

With the Forest players distracted, the remainder of the first half swung in favor of Barcelona. There was a time where they nearly scored again. If not for the fact that Akinfeev was in good form and had pounced at the shot from Bojan Krkić as though his life depended on it, the first half would have ended with a score of 0:2.

Twain was very upset with how his players performed after the match restarted. He could not stop yelling and flailing his arms about as he stood by the side of the pitch. He looked like King Kong hitting at helicopters from the top of a building.

The players pulled themselves together after hearing his repeated yells. They fought to the end of the first half, and did not give Barcelona another decent chance at goal.

At half-time, Guardiola made his way away from the pitch with a contented smile on his face. Twain stayed behind by the side of the pitch and patted any Forest player on the shoulder when they walked past him.

Twain said nothing, and simply patted the players on the shoulder. They were well aware that their boss was very unhappy with their performance towards the end of the first half. They had all kept their heads low as they walked briskly back to the locker room.

Twain was the last to make his way into the locker room. However, he did not slam the door shut after him and admonish the players furiously.

"Don't think about the goal that you have allowed the opponent to score. What good can come of filling your minds with thoughts about it? Can it make the goal disappear? Can it help us score two goals in five minutes and make a comeback?" Twain was upset with the performance that the team put in after the match restarted, and so he focused on criticizing their performance during that period of time.

"The performance that all of you put in after we went one goal down was too awful! That wasn't a performance that any professional footballer should be putting in. Don't tell me that all of you are so psychologically weak?"

As a veteran player for Nottingham Forest, Pepe had the guts to say the words that no other player would dare to say to Twain in the locker room. They were not words that only he could say, but George Wood was reticent, and Eastwood had not played in the match, so he did not understand what the players were thinking during the game.

Right now, Pepe was the only one who understood what the players were thinking, and also had the courage to voice his opinions.

He raised his hand and indicated that he had something to say.

"What do you want to say, Pepe?"

"Boss, it was you who told us to play the match as though we were playing in the finals. When we thought that we had allowed the other team to score during the finals… We… Uh… Well, as you can see."

"Can any of you guarantee that you won't let the opponent score a single goal during the finals?" Twain was not angry. He laughed instead. "The finals are nothing more than a regular football match. If you let the opponent score a goal, then you just score one back. There's nothing else that needs to be said. We actually had a chance to get a goal back, if all of you had been in a better state of mind after Barcelona scored the goal."

Twain was not lying. Barcelona had gotten ahead of themselves after they managed to score a goal. They had pressed high up the pitch, hoping to find the opportunity to score another goal, but they had forgotten that Nottingham Forest had the chance to go on the counterattack due to the large space that they had left behind them.

Unfortunately, the Forest players were unable to get over the fact that they had allowed Barcelona to score a goal, and they even looked battered as they defended against Barcelona's attacks. A counterattack was the last thing on their minds…

"If you could score goals, then the people who would be dispirited right now would be the ones next door, and not us…But forget it." Twain shook his head. "There's no use crying over spilled milk. Focus on thinking about what you ought to do in the second half. Does anyone here think that we should press forward and attack because we are down by one goal?" Twain started laughing as he finished those words.

"I believe many of you would think that way, including those people next door. They think that being down by one goal is the end of the world, but sadly, that's not the case. We are still going to defend and counterattack in the second half. You guys need to think about it this way. The worst case scenario for us is that we lose this match, but even then, we would only lose with the score of 0:1. We still have a good chance of winning when we play at home. So, I want all of you to get your act together for the second half. We are going to stick with our plan of defending and counterattacking. Relax—the ones who will falter as the match goes on will be Barcelona. They know that winning by just one goal in their home game is a very risky thing. All you lot need to do is to be even more patient than them, and wait for the chance to counterattack. If you do that, you will definitely be able to score a goal. As long as we can score a goal, we can level the score, and we'll be able to seize the initiative in the match. If Barcelona keeps pressing and attacking us, we'll just continue to counterattack! We'll annihilate them at their home ground! There'll be no changes to our tactics.

"But I want you to be careful not to pick up too many cards in the second half. If I were Guardiola, I'd let Messi, Dani Alves, and perhaps even Xavi and Iniesta attack our left flank. How many of our players have picked up yellow cards?" Twain started counting with his fingers. "Baines, Tiago, Pepe. It's not like you can only defend by committing fouls. What will we do if all of you get a red card? So, be careful with your actions. Of course, if you can commit a foul and somehow escape the referee's eyes, then I'd applaud you!"

※※※

In the second half, Guardiola strengthened his attack down the right flank, just as Twain had predicted.

Dani Alves became even more lively in the second half, and kept going forward to join in the attack. During one particular attack, he did not even return to his original position, choosing instead to wait in the front of the pitch for a second chance to attack. Messi kept trying to mess up Forest's defense and exert pressure on Pepe, Baines, and others by cutting into the middle from the flank numerous times.

Guardiola chose to ramp up their attacks down the right flank, after noticing that Nottingham Forest had no intentions of going on the offense and facing them head-on. He was going to let Forest pay the price for choosing to go all out in their defense against Barcelona.

Weren't you out to injure my players? I would make sure your players pick up a red card and disappear from the pitch first!

The Nottingham Forest players were more reserved with the way they defended due to the warning given to them by their boss at half-time. This allowed Barcelona to get more chances to attack Forest's goal.

Fortunately for Forest, Akinfeev was in good form for the match. He became the busiest person on the pitch in the second half. He had to pounce into the air and also get down onto the ground to block the numerous shots from Barcelona's players.

"Messi shoots! Akinfeev… What a wonderful save!"

"Bojan Krkić's header is easily stopped by Akinfeev. He might only be 1.84m tall, but he has amazing jumping abilities, and is also very accurate in his judgement as to where the ball will fall. It looks like Tony Twain is intent on going away from Camp Nou with a score of 0:1. That's not a bad idea, actually. If Nottingham Forest do manage to go away from this match with that score, then all credit goes to Akinfeev…

"Is Silva trying to pass the ball into the middle? No! He has actually shot for goal! Brilliant! Akinfeev pounces for the ball and sends it over the crossbar!

"There goes the corner, and Akinfeev gets the ball!"

Akinfeev did not just perform brilliantly during defense. He was also able to initiate an attack by throwing the ball forward. In fact, Akinfeev throwing the ball forward after saving a shot became one of the main ways for Nottingham Forest to switch from being on the defense to going on the counterattack.

Sadly, Nottingham Forest was unable to commit too many players to the counterattack each time, and their entire offense lacked power as well. Hence, Forest's counterattacks would always lead nowhere, and Akinfeev was not able to initiate a successful counterattack for the team.

Despite Akinfeev's outstanding performance, however, the Barcelona fans and the commentator continued to believe that Barcelona was the favorite to win the match, because they did not believe that an all-out defense would lead to victory.

Isn't Messi's goal towards the end of the first half enough to prove that such a tactic won't work?

No matter how well the goalkeeper performed, all Nottingham Forest was doing was playing passively and defending. There is no such thing as an impenetrable defense. As time goes on, Akinfeev is bound to commit a mistake that will lead to dire consequences for the team. The match will more or less be decided once Nottingham Forest goes behind by two goals. Then Barcelona would become the victor of the match.

This match between Barcelona and Nottingham Forest was beginning to take the shape of a battle between 'attacking football' and 'conservative football.'

The glory belongs to attacking football! though the Barcelona players. The victory belongs to attacking football!

Conservatism will just get buried by attacking football!

Tony Twain, your crude performance will not work at Camp Nou! There is not a single team in this world that has not lost by going all out in its defense against Barcelona!

Come out and face us if you think you have what it takes to beat us! Let us fight fair and square!

It was as though Twain was hiding behind a thick and sturdy rampart, and yelling at the top of his voice, "Barcelona! Don't get ahead of yourselves! If you think you are so good, then try getting in!"

"Come out if you dare!" shouted the Barcelona players.

"No way! Only a fool will go out…"

"We'll count to three. If you don't come out, then we're coming in!"

"If you think you have what it takes, then try it!"