Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tony Twain’s ‘juvenile footballers’ made their way into the semifinals of the EFL Cup, but they missed out on progressing to the finals and were unable to top their previous performance in the competition.
Despite their loss however, Twain expressed satisfaction at the results his team had attained. He had treated the EFL Cup as nothing more than a training ground to hone the skills of his ‘troop’ from the start. Therefore, being able to progress into the semifinals was already a feat and his players had performed above his expectations.
The FA Cup kicked off after the start of the new year. The team successfully made their way past the first two rounds of the competition.
His ‘juvenile footballers’ also performed consistently in the league and were generally ranked between fifth to seventh place.
Forest was not playing the lead role in the current Premier League season. After the novelty of them being a young team went away, the media began to produce significantly fewer articles about Forest as compared to previous seasons. To the media, only the teams who were vying for the champion’s spot in the league deserved a great amount of attention. The usual top four teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea were all in a heated battle to become Premier League champions, and it was much better to report about those teams than Nottingham Forest’s ‘juvenile footballers’.
When the Champions League kicked off in February, everyone started paying attention to how those four representatives of the Premier League were performing in the Champions League. Who would care about Forest?
It was in this environment of being looked down on and being disregarded by others that Twain’s football team was able to gain the atmosphere they were looking for all this while. They could finally be rid of the media’s disturbance and slowly develop themselves based on their own ideas.
There might not be immense pressure from majority of the media outlets, but the ‘juvenile footballers’ were still aware of how well they performed after each win or loss they obtained. They were improving with each and every match they played in.
The season passed by in a flash of the eye to Twain. That was because they competed in 25 percent less matches than last season.
When the media, fans and managers of other football teams snapped back to their senses however, they came to the sudden realization that Nottingham Forest was only two points away from becoming fourth-placed in the Premier League.
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“Four consecutive wins, three consecutive wins, seven matches undefeated… Nottingham Forest has silently finished their mission of catching up with their opponents. At a time when the top four are all in terrible shape after being tormented by the games they had to play in both the EFL Cup and the Champions League, Nottingham Forest, who had lost both the EFL Cup and FA Cup, has made their way right behind those top teams and is ready to pounce.”
“There are still 8 matches left in the Premier League. Everything is possible for Tony Twain.”
“Let us take a look at who is ranked fourth right now… Chelsea! Haha…”
“… Scolari must be feeling the heat. He will definitely suffer a headache over whether he should play his first team in the quarter finals of the Champions League or in the Premier League, because their next opponent in the Premier League is Nottingham Forest!”
“Actually… What I want to say is that it is actually not impossible for Forest to become Premier League champions this season…”
The media got thrilled after seeing Nottingham Forest creep its way up the ranking table.
“Nottingham Forest has yet to face any of the top four sides other than Arsenal in this latter half of the season. This could lead to two possibilities. A, Nottingham Forest will lose all their games against strong opponents and slip down the ranking table once again or b, Tony Twain will lead his team of ‘juvenile footballers’ to victory over his three direct rivals and then subsequently change his goal into becoming champions of the Premier League!”
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Premier League champions?
Twain was definitely not thinking that far ahead. Having ambition and being baselessly arrogant were two completely different things.
All that was on his mind right now was how to defeat Chelsea in the Premier League. He was going to pull down Scolari and his men and take over their spot.
The good news to Twain was that there have been numerous signs that suggested that Scolari was going to play his first team in the Champions League instead.
It has been 7 years since Abramovich bought over Chelsea. In this time, the team has been crowned champions in the EFL Cup, FA Cup and Premier League. Only the Champions League trophy remain out of their reach.
Chelsea’s best performance in the Champions League came during the 2007-08 season when Grant was in charge as a caretaker manager. However, they suffered bitter defeat at the hands of Twain’s Nottingham Forest in the finals that year and failed to lay their hands on that coveted trophy yet again.
Scolari has managed Chelsea for two seasons so far and he has always prioritised Champions League over other competitions every season. Sadly, things never worked out the way he wanted them to, and he missed out on becoming champions in the Champions League every single time.
This season was no exception. Abramovich brought up how he hoped to win the Champions League numerous times before Scolari.
As for the Premier League… It was still Matchday 38 after all. It was not a big deal to lose one match in the Premier League, but the team cannot afford to lose even one match after making their way into the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Thus, Scolari did not play most of his first team players in the Premier League game before their Champions League quarter finals match against Bayern Munich, just as Twain has expected.
Scolari thought it would not be hard for his team to go away with at least a draw even if they were playing without most of their first team players, considering that they were playing at their home grounds.
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Unlike Chelsea who had a lot to think about going into the match, Nottingham Forest only had their eyes set on winning the match the whole time. They displayed enormous energy the moment the match kicked off and managed to turn the momentum in their favor through their vigor. It was as though they were playing on their own home grounds. They went on the attack aggressively and was also organised at the back. There was nothing that Chelsea could exploit.
During the 11th minute of the match, Eastwood sent Žigić’s header into the back of the net and scored the opening goal for Nottingham Forest. The goal was also Eastwood’s 19th goal of the season. He was the top scorer in the team at the moment, and had also scored the fourth most number of goals in the league.
The Romanichal has not been down with much injuries this season and was able to display his impressive skills before the goalpost. His ability to score goals consistently in games was what landed him a spot in the top scorers’ list for the Premier League.
Eastwood’s goal completely shattered Scolari’s dream of getting at least a draw without playing his first team. It told him that it was impossible to get a point against Nottingham Forest even if they were playing on their own home grounds.
Twain made some slight tweaks to his game plan after they had taken the lead. Forest switched to the playing style they were best at, which was to defend and counter-attack.
Scolari stood up from his seat and started instructing the team to attack Nottingham Forest from all sides, but he never saw a goal up till the end of the first half.
The score remained 0:1. The away team, Nottingham Forest, was still leading by a goal.
Scolari continued to be torn at half time. Should he throw away the match at hand and prioritise the quarter finals of the Champions League, or should he play three of his first team players and get his team to give their all and battle it out with Nottingham Forest, so as to maintain a top four position in the Premier League?
In the end, he chose the former. Even if they lost this match, they still had seven more matches to play in the Premier League. He did not believe that Tony Twain’s team of ‘juvenile footballers’ would not slip up and commit mistakes, and he also did not believe that he has no chance of reclaiming fourth place later on.
The most pressing issue at hand was the second leg of the Champions League quarter finals match next week. It was a match that directly concerned his fate.
Meanwhile, in Forest’s locker room, Twain was analyzing Scolari’s mentality for his players.
“Scolari will definitely choose to throw this match away, because there are still seven more matches left in the league. However, if they were to give their all in this match and then lose the Champions League match next week, then he would probably be fired by Abramovich before he even gets to see through those seven Premier League matches. His boss is not someone with a lot of patience. However, things are different for us. We don’t need to worry about any life-or-death battles next week. Maybe in the future we would encounter a similar situation just like them, but right now those troubles belong solely to Chelsea, and that is the advantage that we have over them. So I want all of you to keep piling the pressure on Chelsea in the second half and fight to score one more goal. This would cause Chelsea to give up on the match entirely. If we were to only lead by one goal, the Chelsea players might suddenly have a change of heart and think it’s possible to draw the game… To us, just taking one point is unacceptable! If you guys want to play on the European stage next season, then you better win this match!”
Both teams were on completely different levels when it came to vigor and fight from the start of the second half. Chelsea players might be playing a game with Forest at the moment, but all they were thinking about was the Champions League quarter finals second leg match against Bayern Munich.
On the other hand, Nottingham Forest’s players were not thinking about anything besides winning the match before them. They were not even thinking about what would happen 10 minutes after the end of the match.
Different mindsets lead to different outcomes.
Nottingham Forest put in a performance that exceeded Twain’s expectations in the second half. They gave their all and played in a manner that suggested they definitely did not want to lose no matter what.
From the 70th to 80th minute of the match, in the span of just 10 minutes, the team managed to score two goals. The goals were scored by Žigić and Şahin, and they completely obliterated Chelsea’s fight and desire to continue playing in the match.
After seeing that there was no chance of them winning the match anymore, Chelsea’s players began playing as though they were doing warm-ups on the pitch.
Scolari remained speechless as he sat on the manager’s seat, which was a rare sight considering that he was known to have a bad temper.
Evidently, he had already shifted his attention over to the ‘finals’ that the team would play three days later against Bayern Munich. They were the away team and were up against the ‘overlord’ of the Bundesliga. It was going to be a very difficult match for them.
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Winning the match against Chelsea fulfilled Nottingham Forest’s wish of being in the top four of the Premier League.
Twain indicated amicably in the post-match interview that he was happy to be able to win Chelsea. He also wished for Chelsea to progress as far as they could in the Champions League.
Additionally, he hoped that the other two Premier League teams, namely Manchester United and Liverpool, who had also made their way into the quarter finals of the Champions League, would also be able to progress far in the Champions League as well.
“It would be for the best if they could face each other in the semifinals, and then we would have two teams from England in the finals! I am British myself, and I would love to witness such a scene.”
Some media outlets believed that Twain’s words highlighted his generosity and tolerance. He was not as narrow-minded as others said he was. He was able to show support to teams who are also playing in the same league as he was, and his words demonstrated his ‘sense of belonging to the country’.
Only Carl Spicer wrote the following in his column, “Why would he wish for the three teams to be able to make their way into the semifinals of the Champions League so sincerely? In my opinion, if Arsenal had not faced Forest earlier in the league, then he would have made the same wish for Arsenal as well! Look at the match that he had with Chelsea… I know exactly what Tony Twain is plotting. The top three teams in the league need to be careful! There’s a sly wolf that’s right on your trails!”
Spicer was once again labelled by others as someone who ‘just wanted to go against Twain no matter what’ after his article was published.
Unfortunately for him, he got it all right this time round!
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Chelsea managed to eliminate Bayern Munich and make their way into the top four of the Champions League after a tough battle. Abramovich could not hide his big smiles after the match. Scolari could also take a short breather before he turned his attention; not back to the Premier League of course, but back onto the Champions League once again.
Since they have already made their way into the semifinals, why would they not force themselves to pull through and make their way into the finals by eliminating Juventus from the competition? Of course, it would not be easy to eliminate Juventus considering they are the team who kicked the defending champion Inter Milan out of the Champions League.
And if they make their way into the finals, then they must of course continue to endure all the hardships, defeat their opponents, and become champions of the Champions League.
One other team who also managed to make their way into the top four of the Champions League was Manchester United. Their match against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League was also imminent.
Before the match against Manchester United however, Nottingham Forest had to face Liverpool, who got eliminated from the Champions League, first.
Against Twain’s wishes, Liverpool was not able to progress further in the Champions League. They still have to play in the FA Cup, but that game will only take place several days after their match against Forest, so it would not have any sort of impact on their performance when they face Forest.
Hence, this match between Forest and Liverpool was going to be very tough. It would be useless for either side to play any sort of tricks during the match. The only things that would determine the winner of such a match would be skill and… a little bit of luck.
Twain played his first team for the match, contrary to how he mostly played his ‘new blood’ during the match against Manchester United in the first half of the season. At that time, there was still room for errors and it was all right for them to lose, but now was definitely not the time for him to be using the fate of his team next season as a training grounds for his ‘new blood’.
Most of the players he had sent on the pitch were ‘veterans’ who had fought in numerous battles before. They were going to defeat Liverpool at their home grounds and ensure they are able to play in the Champions League next season.
In the end, Nottingham Forest, with their home advantage, managed a narrow win of 1:0 over Liverpool through a late penalty. They were able to get three precious points from the match and continued to maintain a one point lead over Chelsea on the league points table.
There were four more matches to the end of the current Premier League season. At this point, Tony Twain’s ambition for the season was very conspicuous. Premier League champions might be a far-fetched dream, but he was definitely going to qualify for the Champions League next season!
There are only four teams that would be able to qualify for the Champions League. In the years before Nottingham Forest became a force to be reckoned with, it was a ‘tradition’ for the four big teams in the Premier League to dominate the four spots that would get them a place in the Champions League.
However, now that Nottingham Forest is staging a comeback, there would definitely be one unlucky team who would lose that precious spot. Which team would become the sacrifice for Forest’s comeback?
As of now, it would seem that Chelsea was the likeliest to become that very sacrifice. Scolari definitely had some thinking to do. Even if he is able to lift the Champions League trophy this season, but if the team is only able to play in the Europa League next season despite being the defending champion… How would that feel?
A top four finish was a must for him, but sadly, his fate was out of his hands now.
The strongest opponent that stood in Forest’s way in the four remaining Premier League matches was Manchester United.
Will Ferguson become Scolari’s savior?
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Matchday 36. Nottingham Forest faced Manchester United in an away game.
Chelsea faced Liverpool at home.
Two battles between top teams. Those two matches definitely attracted everyone’s attention.
The bookmaker, William Hill, leaned in favor of Manchester United and Chelsea. They believed those two teams would be able to win because they would be playing at their home grounds. Nottingham Forest was the team that they thought had the lowest chance to win out of the four.
However, no one would have guessed that the four teams would draw at the same time…
Indeed, Nottingham Forest drew with Manchester United 1:1 by defending and counter-attacking. On the other hand, a lot more goals were scored in the match between Liverpool and Chelsea. The final score was 3:3!
The very last goal in that match came during added time. Liverpool managed to draw with Chelsea and also retained their third placed ranking in the league.
There was still only one point that separated Nottingham Forest from Chelsea. Nottingham Forest was ranked fourth while Chelsea was fifth.
There were two matches left in the Premier League.
