When the Millwall fans in the stands saw the sorry sight of the Forest players hurriedly running out, they roared with laughter. It set the tone for the match—this was not going to be a civilized and friendly game, but a real fight-to-the-death knock-out match!
Moreover, the relationship between the Forest fans and the Millwall fans had been tense since Gavin's incident. So, the Millwall fans were more than happy to jeer at the nearly late Forest team.
Tang En came out of the passageway and stopped at the sidelines to look up at the stands. Large areas of blue color were interspersed with white color. And the red color was squeezed into a corner, surrounded by the blue and white colors, but tenaciously jumping. Those were the waving arms of the Forest fans.
An away match? Jeering? We'll give you something to laugh about later, Tang En snorted in his heart and walked to the technical area. On the field, Dawson was the captain, and he was in front of the referee with the other team captain to do the coin toss to pick a side.
That small-built man was the Millwall team captain, Dennis Wise, who had played for Wimbledon and Chelsea before.
Wise was an English player who Tang En had a deep impression of. Because a long time ago, roughly before 1999, Tang En was a Chelsea fan for several years. At that time, Chelsea was not known as The Ruble Army. With Zola, Vialli, Gullit, Poyet, Wise, de Goey, Flo... and so many star players, they played what Gullit termed as "sexy football." In the Premier League, they represented the blue force and Arsenal represented the red force, and they competed with Manchester United for several seasons.
The first jersey that Tang En bought was Chelsea blue jersey, and he especially liked that lion on the Chelsea crest. Later, with the departure of Gullit, Vialli, Flo, and other players, and as Zola grew older, Tang En also gradually became a "universal" fan with no favorite team. But that blue period of memory was left in Tang En's mind.
As the Chelsea team captain of that period, Wise was a player that Tang En was very fond of. He liked his bold style, his courage and daring to go up against Keane and Vieira.
When he cheered and pumped his fists in front of the television for this small-built man, he never thought that there would be a day where he would lead a team that was his opponent and enemy.
If the players on his team were defeated by his boldness, it was very likely he would curse him out instead of cheer for him.
Tang En shook his head and tossed the old memories out of his head. I'm Tony Twain, the Nottingham Forest manager; I'm Millwall's enemy and rival! I'll fight to the death with you today!
For getting the championship for the EFL Cup to qualify for the UEFA Europa League next season, this was the most feasible option that Tang En had chosen from countless options in his plan to promote the team's prestige and rebuild the team within a short period.
The FA Cup match schedule was too long and the odds of encountering strong teams were high. This option was discarded by Tang En first. The EFL Cup was the championship that the Premier League teams placed the least importance on within the three major championships. Many teams even used the EFL Cup as the place for their youth team and reserve team to warm up and condition. And the EFL Cup schedule was very short. The two semi-final games for the EFL Cup were held in January and the final match was in February. In other words, Tang En could focus his energy on maintaining the team's position within these three months and strived to take down the championship. And then they could concentrate all their efforts to qualify for the Premier League.
Tang En had a team building plan in mind and a list of players to buy. Since he had transmigrated to this world, he had an advantage that no one else could match. For example, he knew some players who were still unknown now but would become talents later on. Or he knew the right time to buy players in the future and when to spend the least amount of money to get the highest profits.
If the Forest team continued to remain in League One, then the chances of getting those players would be slim. He should at least get his team to the top 20 teams in the Premier League or qualify for a European tournament.
When he was a fan, Tang En did not place much importance on the UEFA Europa League, thinking that it was just an adjunct to the UEFA Champions League. But now he deeply realized the role of the UEFA Europa League.
This was the first coordinate of Nottingham Forest's getting back on track again!
Therefore, this match, no matter how bad the situation that they were facing was—the traffic jam, meeting the rival fans on the subway, the hard-nosed team—none of those could stop Tang En's conviction to seek victory.
A sharp whistle sounded, immediately followed by a surge of a tremendous earth-shattering clamor, and jolted Tang En awake, who had been lost in thought.
As he glanced around the stadium and looked at the crazy fans in the stands, he knew that the match with Crystal Palace was just a warm-up. The real game had only just begun now!
Rebrov had originally wanted to show off his personal skills in front of the Millwall players, but he had just move the football before it was kicked out by Wise. The referee's whistle rang and caused a hissing sound of dissatisfaction from the stands.
Looking at Wise with a fierce look on his face and gritted teeth and listening to the endless stream of hissing and abuse, Rebrov realized today's match was far more difficult than he'd imagined.
Tang En, who witnessed this scene from the technical area at the sidelines, muttered to himself, "The hard-nosed Wise, the hard-nosed Millwall team, the hard-nosed Millwall fans…" He now felt more and more how awful it was that he could not give the team specific tactics because they had encountered the rival fans on the subway.
If football could be paused like basketball, he would make changes accordingly. Unfortunately, he could only wait until the halftime interval and hope that their opponents did not score a goal in the first half.
For the defensive counterattack, the two defensive midfielders were the key, and he hoped that Eugen Bopp and Gunnarsson would be able to hold on.
"Fifteen minutes have passed! The match is going at a speed of a hundred miles per hour and the ball is zipping over the heads of the players. Under the leadership of their captain 'The Roaring Mouse' Dennis Wise, the Millwall players have launched a frenzied offense and attack against the Forest team. Any footwork tricks and tackles were crushed by the ruthless closing in of the 'Double Lions'." Motson summarized the 15 minutes of the match in such a way that was both accurate and vivid.
In the first half of the season, under the leadership of the Forest team's new manager, Collymore, who used to play the forward position, the team once again returned to the tradition of paying particular attention in containing the situations and the fondness for playing with meticulous coordination. With regard to the failure of Collymore's coaching career, the tactical side of things only accounted for a tiny fraction of the reason, but it could not be overlooked.
He asked the players to do more ground coordination, even in front of the penalty area, they must pass the ball as far as possible into the goal area before shooting a goal. At that time the commentator's appraisal of the Forest team's style of play was, "Collymore hopes that his striker will be able to get past the goalkeeper and then shoot the goal when the goalmouth is empty."
This style of play looked very good, but it was too complicated and difficult to score a goal.
In order to take on this characteristic of the Forest team, Alan McLeary, the Millwall manager, specifically designed the offense tactic of pressing on and tackling the opponent. At present, he was quite successful.
The kind of momentum that the Millwall players were showing at their home ground totally intimidated the Nottingham Forest players who were exhausted and tormented from having to switch to riding the subway because of the traffic jam, then encountering a group of seemingly vicious fans, and battling and fighting them. Plus they had to deal with the tension and panic of having to run hundreds of meters in a hurry to quickly change and get ready for the match and only pathetically emerge on the field three minutes before the start of the match.
Yes, that was exactly what was happening in the match now. The Forest team was gradually losing it. It was almost impossible to say that the things which had happened before the match did not affect the team. But what could Tang En do? This was luck. He only hoped the team would be able to make it through this period until the halftime interval when he would have plenty of time to adjust the team. He still believed there was no problem in defeating Millwall.
The key to it all was the Forest team must defend its core against the wave after wave of offensive from Millwall.
The situation was not good. Gunnarsson and Eugen Bopp were overwhelmed and in a frenzy. The pressure on Michael Dawson and Wes Morgan was also very high.
Within the Millwall formation, besides Dennis Wise, there was another player which Tang En recognized, an Australian attacking midfielder wearing the number 4 jersey, the 23-year-old Tim Cahill.
Tang En knew him through the 2006 World Cup in Germany in the Australia versus Japan match where Australia had a remarkable massive reversal at the final moment. Cahill alone scored two goals and became a hero. It was also that match that made Tang En an Australia fan during the World Cup. Unfortunately, they lost to Italy in the end.
At the present moment, Cahill was not as mature as he was at the World Cup, but his offensive ability was enough to give Tang En a headache.
Nottingham Forest finally had a chance to counterattack after great difficulty. The ball had just been passed to David Johnson's foot, and it was intercepted by the Millwall midfielder, an Australian player, Kevin Muscat with a ferocious tackle.
"Foul!" Tang En leapt up from his seat in the technical area. It had been a tackle from the back!
But the referee ignored his shout, and David Johnson fell to the ground in pain. But Muscat kicked the football to the captain Wise, who returned to assist, before Wise organized the offensive again.
"B*stard! He didn't even whistle at a tackle from the back!" Tang En waved his fist and cursed. But other than the fourth official who paid a little attention and glanced at him, no one else heeded his complaint.