On the night of the game, the pubs in Nottingham city center were dismal. A number of pubs stocked up on beer to celebrate the victory, but almost did not sell any after the end of the game. Sales were slow moving — a tied game caused the team’s ranking to go from the first to the second, and nobody was in the mood to drink. Once the game ended, the fans who went to watch the game live went home, washed up, and went to bed.

Fortunately, the Nottingham Forest fans had not yet learned to shout “heroes” after a victory, so they also did not yell out “cowards” and accepted the outcome of a draw.

There were concerns on the team that Twain’s unexpected calm behavior after the game was a precursor to a storm. They were apprehensive at training the next day, but Twain behaved as usual and joked with everyone, without any signs of taking his anger out on the team.

By the end of the training session, during the analysis of last night’s game on the video, Twain reassured the entire team.

“You think I’m going to get mad? But why should I get mad? It’s common to win and lose, it’s even more normal to tie a game. I know this is a critical moment, but the more critical the moment is, the more we should stay normal, shouldn’t we? So let bygones be bygones. We should consider how to play the last few games. The strong opponents are here. It would not do us any favors to keep thinking about Reading, would it?”

Laughter burst out in the video screening room, and the matter blew over.

Of course they could not ignore the game against Reading. They had to review the game, so they still had to study the video of the game.

※※※

The strong opponents had indeed arrived.

Barcelona sent the strongest squad they could to Nottingham with the intention of eliminating Nottingham Forest in the away game.

Messi returned to the team after he recovered from his injury, and Ronaldinho was left in Barcelona, as expected. The Brazilian’s days in Barcelona were numbered.

Even on his own home ground, Twain did not intend to rely on momentum to attack and play a rip-roaring offensive against Barcelona. He would be a fool if he did that. Therefore, even though he had the home-field advantage, he intended to use the usual tactics of defensive counterattack.

That day in the empty City Ground stadium, Tony Twain told Dunn that he thought of a way to deal with Barcelona. It was actually very simple: rotation.

Generally speaking, no matter how powerful a team was, it would often deploy the strongest squad in the Champions League finals and use rotation for the league tournament. The difference between a powerhouse team and a wannabe powerful team was that the powerhouse team’s two sets of rotating lineups were similar in strength, while the two lineups of the wannabe team might have a large gap. Nottingham Forest was not yet considered a powerhouse team, but it was not a wannabe top-ranking team either. They were a top-rated powerful team. Therefore, the strength of their two sets of lineups were not comparable, but the gap was not very big. Even in rotation, they could still fight against Barcelona.

Twain was a bit helpless to consider a rotation in the Champions League. He saw the exhaustion and shaky state of the first lineup against Reading, so he was afraid to use the same squad in the second leg of the knockout Champions League semi final. Because the game against Reading was just three days before this game. He was not confident that the team’s first lineup could have a dramatic transformation in just three days. Fatigue and instability were the entire team’s biggest enemies.

The draw against Reading made Twain determined to rotate in the Champions League, and he was confident that the lineup would surprise Rijkaard.

As the first lineup was famous in Europe, everyone believed that with Twain’s conservative style, he would rely on the lineup in such a crucial game. Besides, what normal person would use rotation just because of a draw in a league game?

But Tony Twain’s mind was not normal.

He decided to rotate. The only question was how to explain to the players why they did not appear in the starting lineup against Barcelona. He valued the locker room atmosphere. A thing that could trigger divisive forces within the locker room had to be avoided.

Van Nistelrooy suffered a minor injury in the game against Reading, so that was a compelling reason to rotate him. The league tournament was equally important now that they were forced into a draw by Reading.

Eastwood would also be rotated. He was easy for Twain. Twain would tell him that it was okay for him to rest in the game due to the tactical requirements.

Van der Vaart also had to be replaced. He was limited in his help with the team’s defense when he was not in a good offensive form. Twain decided to take a gamble in this game. He was going to push George Wood to the position of the offensive core.

His partner in the midfield was Sidwell.

As for the Dutchman, he should know that his recent form was not very good.

There would not be any adjustments in the center-back positions. Neither Pepe nor Piqué had any issues with their physical condition. Otherwise, the Forest team would have conceded a goal in the last two games.

The full-back, Gareth Bale, was replaced by Grosso. After he gradually adapted to the Premier League, Grosso’s performance picked up slightly. Although there was still a gap between his form in the Italian national team, he could just about meet Twain’s expectations.

It was easy to tell “little monkey” Bale as they were familiar. He could say “tactical need.” Leighton Baines had a slight issue with his stamina, so it was normal to not bring him on.

On the right side, Twain decided to deploy Chimbonda, who had not played recently and was better at defense than Rafinha.

The goalkeeper remained the experienced Edwin van der Sar. Twain had originally planned for Akinfeev to gradually replace van der Sar, who was getting older, but he did not expect Edwin van der Sar to be tougher as he grew older and stay in an exceptional state. Faced with Edwin van der Sar, who was in a good and stable condition, experienced, and more familiar with the team’s defensive system, Twain naturally would not risk using Akinfeev. As a result, poor Akinfeev had a better time playing in Russia than after he was back there.

The midfielders were still Ribéry and Beckham. The two players had different characteristics, so the Forest team’s offensive tactics were richer and more diverse, an advantage during the game.

There was a slight physical advantage to rotating, but the main thing was the substitutes’ hunger for competition and eagerness to show their desire to win.

Due to the lack of appearances in games, they were like a bunch of crazy wolves that ogled every opponent with a glint in their eyes, as if hunting a fat piece of meat,, their white teeth bared as if they were grinning. It was a warning to their opponent:

This is our territory. It’s up to us whether we gobble you up or not. If we are not in a good mood, we will eat you, and we are not in a good mood most of the time!

※※※

“Compared to the first leg of the competition between the two teams, Tony Twain has replaced nearly half of his starting lineup, which is a little hard to comprehend. Van Nistelrooy may not be able to appear because of some minor injuries, but why did he replace van der Vaart? Can it be that Twain is not thinking about the offense at all in this game? If that’s the case, is it too conservative to cling obstinately onto defense at home?”

The guest pundit next to him chuckled. “He’s that kind of manager. As long as he can make it to the finals, an ugly game is nothing.”

“I think… it doesn’t work to blindly defend against Barcelona. I’m afraid that he may not manage to advance to the finals, and will also be criticized for the conservative play at home. Few people can accept losing the game with such a passive stance.”

“I have a slightly different view. Maybe his team can? He allowed Barcelona to attack for ninety minutes without a goal scored at Camp Nou…”

“That’s because Barcelona did not have Messi at the time.”

“Ah, Messi…”

Messi just took the ball.

The practice of finding a successor for Maradona had not stopped since his retirement. There had been a number of Maradona successors in Argentina, some of whom were picked by the king of football himself, and some of whom were dubbed as such by the media or fans. Riquelme, D’Alessandro, Aimar, Saviola, Ortega, Tevez, and Agüero had been “the Second Maradona.” As for the result, nobody could be certain.

For now, the most promising possibility to reach Maradona’s height was the diminutive man in front of him. He was no longer the eye-catching rookie. Now, he was Barcelona’s and Argentina’s “phenomenon.” He was also a “phenomenon” in international football world.

Rijkaard thought Tony Twain would make George Wood, the best in Nottingham Forest’s defense, defend against Messi, thereby saving the other defensive forces to contain Barcelona’s overall offense. However, the player who appeared in front of Messi surprised him. Even Messi was a little shocked.

The current Nottingham Forest team was no longer the dark horse that advanced into the Champions League finals two seasons ago. As their opponent, Barcelona had to have studied everyone on the team. There were two players they focused on: Franck Ribéry and George Wood, the core of the offense and the defensive core.

Before the game, Rijkaard told Messi that the man who would mark him was bound to be George Wood, because only George Wood was likely to stand up to Messi in a one-on-one face-off. It was just a possibility…

He instructed Messi to use his nimble positional play to get rid of Wood, while he lured Wood to foul with his quick footwork to at least to get him a yellow card. In that way, Wood would be afraid to get another yellow card that would cause him to miss the Champions League final and become timid for the rest of the game. That would be a good thing for both Messi and Barcelona.

Barcelona won that final match against the Forest team because George Wood was suspended, which led the Forest team to be utterly defeated. Leaving aside George Wood’s importance to the team, George Wood himself was reluctant to lose the qualification for the final again.

Rijkaard felt that his move was a stroke of mastery, until this moment.

The man in front of Messi was not the number 13 wearing the captain’s armband, but Sidwell.

The man defending against Messi was not George Wood!

Messi turned his head to look and found that Wood’s position was in the middle. He did not intend to come up and defend, except to throw glances to the side.

What’s… What’s going on?

Hey, do you underestimate me, Messi? How can you find such a player to defend against me?

He looked at George Wood again. The two men had a staring contest. George Wood was tall and sturdy. He stared down at the short but plucky Messi.

Wood still had no intention of coming up to help.

Messi decided to break through on his own. He did not know what Nottingham Forest meant by that. But since you will not use the strongest defensive player to mark me, don’t regret it when I break through your defensive line and let Barcelona score a goal!

As it turned out, Iniesta outflanked from behind and Sidwell’s attention was distracted by Iniesta’s positional play. Messi grabbed ahold the empty gap and made to look like he was going to pass, which deceived Sidwell into shifting his center of gravity, and then he suddenly launched a breakthrough in the opposite direction!

It was too late for Sidwell to stop him. The two men were too close, and he could not react in time.

Nottingham Forest’s defensive formation contracted tightly, and the distance between the midfielders and the rear defenders was very close. The defensive formation could fully compress the space in front of the penalty area when dealing with most teams and not give the opposing forwards the chance to take the ball easily. Additionally, due to the contraction of the formation, the distance between the three defensive lines was not far. When there was the need to fight back, they could quickly and accurately send the football to their teammates and not have the predicament of blindly kicking. Just like a spring, the tighter the compression, the stronger the recoil. It was one of the hallmarks of Nottingham Forest’s defense.

But now, it had become the best stage for Messi’s showdown.

Because the defensive players were so close, once someone broke through and entered, then the defensive players in the back often had to tackle the ball or block instantly. A moment of hesitation might let the opponent penetrate. That was to the benefit of Messi, who was very swift. He could rely entirely on his own reactions to maneuver and duck out of the opponent’s encirclement to forge a bloody path ahead.

After he brushed past Sidwell and faced Grosso, who came up to tackle the ball, his right foot gently clipped the ball and his body moved crosswise to dribble the football away from Grosso’s feet. He made an emergency stop to lock down his position to block Sidwell, who gave chase behind him. Piqué came up to block and defend but made the incredible choice to knock the ball past him within the narrow space. The football shifted to the right, and he moved to the left and cut around in the narrowest radius to flash past Piqué, who just locked in his position and could not adjust his balance in time. Since the back of Nottingham Forest’s entire line of defense received the football he had just kicked, he did not hesitate to shoot vigorously!

Fortunately, Edwin van der Sar’s blocking angle was timely, knocking Messi’s narrow angle shot out of the end line. Otherwise Nottingham Forest would have conceded a goal in the first three minutes of its home game.

Sound of gasps could be heard in the City Ground stadium. They were alarmed by the magical performance of the diminutive player. A single player went up against three Nottingham Forest defensive players. Furthermore, the distance from his starting point to the shooting location was not more than ten meters. The technique shown in the small space was fantastic!

Even the commentator repeatedly marveled that Messi, who returned after his recovery from an injury, was without a doubt Barcelona’s number one player.

At the same time, the doubt in everyone’s mind loomed larger. What was Tony Twain thinking? Why did he not let George Wood come up to prevent him?

Although the shot was blocked, Messi did not show how annoyed he was. He did not even look at Edwin van der Sar. Instead, he turned his head to look at George Wood.

Just like before he broke through, George Wood looked at him. After a stare down, George Wood averted his gaze and ran back to get ready to defend against the corner kick. His face did not show the expression that Messi wished to see. He neither looked surprised nor annoyed and then afraid. His face was calm.

※※※

Twain laughed after he noticed the two staredowns between the two men on the field. He did not let George Wood defend against Messi because he obviously had his arrangement. Messi, you can guess all you want. If you are enraged by it, then it is an unexpected bonus.

Anyway, Rijkaard, don’t even think that George Wood will mark Messi this time because he has a more important task to fulfill. It’s just that these few minutes are for Barcelona’s offense. He hasn’t had a chance to flaunt his mission yet…

Defend to the death? Which bastard said I was going to defend to the death at home?