Chapter 249: Angel of the North Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This was the 2004-2005 season that Tang En was familiar with. But now, because of his and Nottingham Forest's participation, the future would change; and whether the changes would be major or minor would depend on the extent of his and the Forest team's involvement.
Tang En certainly did not want to end up empty-handed this season. He was not enlightened enough to sacrifice himself to protect the consistency of history.
On November 4, Nottingham Forest was playing against their second opponent in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League: the Serie A team, Lazio, in the City Ground stadium. The City Ground stadium was ushering in the UEFA Europa League tournament once again after eight years. On the day of the match, not only was the stadium full, but even most pubs and bars in the city were crowded with people.
The fans of Nottingham Forest let the Italians, who had traveled from afar, witness their fervor. From the beginning of the game to the end, the Forest fans' singing and shouting did not cease once. The City Ground stadium was a standard football field with no track separation between the field and the stands. Such a small stadium obviously could not be compared to the opponent's Stadio Olimpico in Rome. However, it had one advantage: it allowed the visiting team to feel the force of the home fans and caused them to feel an enormous sense of oppression.
Coupled with the rather unique style of the English fans, playing in an away game here could almost give a person a heart attack.
Since this was his home ground, the tactics that Tang En used here were not conservative at all. The intense style of offensive playing in the entire field made Lazio feel suffocated. The Italians had not expected a newly promoted English team to be strong enough to leave them unable to retaliate; they were beaten.
When the game finally ended, the score was set at 2:0. Nottingham Forest had defeated the Italian Lazio team with its home advantage.
As the visiting team was leaving City Ground, the Forest fans were still gathered in the square outside the stadium, brandishing their fists at the visitors' bus and singing "We've Got the Whole World in Our Hands." The song had originally accompanied Clough's Forest team across Europe, and now it was back!
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Now that they had defeated Lazio in the UEFA Europa League home game, Nottingham Forest had won two consecutive victories in the group stage. There were two games left: an away game against Villarreal CF, and a home game against Partizan Belgrade. As long as they did not commit any major mistakes, their situation for qualifying in the group stage was excellent.
After their victory in this game, the Forest team seemed to lose their momentum all of a sudden, as if they lost their spirit due to their fear of peaking, despite having more than half of their long journey to go.
Three days later, in an away match on November 7, Nottingham Forest faced Liverpool, which was not in good condition. It was a good opportunity to gain points in an away game. However, the Forest team performed poorly, which was incomprehensible to everyone.
Twain's best motivation was totally useless in this game. His constant emphasis on the spirit of never giving up had not come in handy, and his tactics were firmly suppressed by the tactical master from Spain, Rafael Benítez. He did not stand a chance. Whatever arrangements he made, they would be perceived by the other manager. No matter what substitute adjustments he made, he could not escape the trap that Benitez had set for him.
He could only watch his team lose at the Anfield stadium by 1:4. It was Nottingham Forest's second defeat in the league this season and its biggest loss.
How painful it was to see this as the manager of the team… The greater pain was not the terrible score, but that Tang En felt powerless to stop the loss, and far less capable than the Spaniard in his tactical ability. It was not luck that had allowed Liverpool to reverse the second half of the game against AC Milan and win the UEFA Champions League.
When Tang En had been only a football fan, the reversal had not deeply affected him. However, after playing against Benítez, he found that he was far from being a world-class manager.
At the post-match press conference, the media was waiting to see what reasons Twain would give for the loss. The troublemaking reporters did not expect Twain's opening remarks to disappoint them.
"I have nothing to complain about; we've lost. I don't want to make excuses for our failure, like our physical fitness not being good, or that there was too much pressure, or that the opponent was too strong, or that this was an away match, or anything like that. There's no excuse. Losing is losing." Twain sat beside Benítez and just focused on his speech. "The only reason that we lost was because we did not do well enough. Congratulations to Benítez and his team. Liverpool played better than us in this game and they deserved to win."
Right after he finished, someone could not wait and raised his hand. "Manager Twain, what is your evaluation on your team's performance?"
Twain glanced at the person. "I never comment my team and players at a press conference." Obviously, he was talking nonsense. He had praised his players on many occasions after games. He only refused to comment because he had lost.
The reporter also knew that Twain's words were false, but what could he do if the man refused to comment? He could only sit down in frustration.
Another reporter stood up and asked, "Excuse me, Manager Twain, since you are not willing to comment on your players, can you remark on the Liverpool players? What do you think of their performance in the game?"
Twain felt that the reporter was obviously undermining him, so he asked, "Are you a journalist for Liverpool media?" Seeing the other man nod, he went on to say, "Very good. I think some of the Liverpool players played very well, and some of them were average. You can fill in the blanks yourself and replace 'some of the players' with the name of any Liverpool player. It's up to you to fill it in." He spread out his hands.
Even though Twain said that he had nothing to complain about at the beginning, it did not mean that he could chat with the reporters here and smile. After giving perfunctory answers to a few questions with a gloomy expression, he got up and left the conference. He left the leading role to the victor, Rafael Benítez. Twain did not care how his opponent evaluated the game.
No one knew how many times Tony Twain had left a press conference ahead of time, but they knew that this time would absolutely not be the last.