super storm

Chapter 503 Battle at Camp Nou

While Liverpool were training in secret in Portugal for the Camp Nou battle, while also preparing for the second half of the competition, Barcelona played two rounds of the league in La Liga.

First at home against Racing Santander, Ronaldinho scored twice and Deco provided an assist.

The two Brazilian players performed very well and won unanimous praise.

Messi replaced Saviola in the 608th minute. This was his first appearance for Barcelona after two and a half months away. The entire Nou Camp stadium gave Messi warm applause and cheers.

After Messi played, Eto'o, who was also absent for three months due to injury, appeared on the sidelines to warm up. This immediately excited the fans of the Nou Camp.

With the comeback of Messi and Eto'o, Ronaldinho scored twice to regain his form, and Barcelona is expected to advance.

But when the game progressed to No. 807 minutes, when Rijkaard used the last substitution, he originally planned to replace Belletti with Eto'o, and when the Cameroon striker went up to find his status, Eto'o refused to play.

Soon, Rijkaard replaced Belletti with Oleg.

At the post-match press conference, when some media in Catalonia asked why Eto'o was not arranged to play, the Barcelona coach directly stated that this was the choice of the Cameroon players themselves.

"He didn't want to play, I don't know why, he didn't tell me beforehand, it made me unhappy and I regret it because every minute of the game is very important in my opinion."

At the same time, Rijkaard also responded to Valdes and Oleg's affairs.

The Barcelona goalkeeper performed well in this game and saved a penalty kick, which allowed him to successfully pass the crisis of confidence. Rijkaard said that the club will not sell Valdes because he is an important member of the team.

Oleg had previously written an article in the media criticizing the Spanish judicial system. His contract was terminated early by the club's sponsors and he became a political news figure. However, he still came off the bench in this game. Rijkaard said that he does not care about politics and only cares about football.

After scoring twice, Ronaldinho was in a good mood. When interviewed by the media, he said that he understood Eto'o's choice of refusing to appear on the stage during garbage time, but he also implicitly criticized it.

"Before doing everything, it depends on the players and the specific situation, but the most important thing is to consider what is best for the team."

After the game, the media in Catalonia unearthed the inside story. The reason why Eto'o refused to play was because Rijkaard promised him half an hour of game time before the game, but in the end he was only given 5 minutes. He was dissatisfied.

Because of Rijkaard's first substitution, it was given to French winger Giuly.

After the press conference incident, the media all over the world heard about it, and the incident intensified.

Barcelona up to the chairman, down to the ordinary players, have expressed their views on this matter, hoping that Rijkaard and Eto'o can reconcile and prepare for the upcoming Camp Nou battle.

But what was unexpected was that Eto'o then held a press conference and publicly bombarded Rijkaard and Ronaldinho, thinking that their remarks ignored the facts, deeply hurt him, and evaluated them as bad people.

At the same time, Eto'o also said that Barcelona has split from the management to the locker room.

The management is headed by Laporta, and the two gangs headed by the vice-chairman Rosell are fighting hard. In the locker room, some Brazilian players such as Ronaldinho are dissatisfied.

"Publicly saying at the press conference that I refuse to play is a villain's behavior. It's really not a thing. It's really shameful to say such words. In fact, every minute is important to me." Eto'o gave Rijkaard a counterattack.

As for Ronaldinho, Eto'o said, "If my teammates say I should consider the team, I think he is the one who should consider the team more. His behavior has always made many people in the locker room feel unacceptable."

Eto'o's press conference quickly caused an uproar all over the world. The Cameroon striker ruthlessly tore apart Barcelona's internal contradictions and exposed them to the world.

World Sports Daily used [Eto'o stabbed Barcelona! 】As the headline on the front page, I think that what Cameroon said made Rijkaard lose face and lose all his dignity as a head coach.

But that same day, Rijkaard and Laporta met in the restaurant.

The next day, Barcelona officials said Eto'o reached a settlement with Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.

……

A week later, Barcelona played away to Valencia.

Eto'o did not appear in the game squad.

After the start of the game, the game was very intense. It was not until 3 minutes into the second half that Valencia broke the deadlock on the field. Villa made a cross from the left side of the penalty area and Angulo scored a goal.

Two minutes later, Valencia further expanded the score, Angulo made a cross from the right side of the penalty area, and David Silva pushed and scored.

Two goals behind, Barcelona's players lost control of their emotions.

No.601 minutes, Messi, who had just replaced Good Johnson, was shoveled to the ground by Valencia midfielder Albelda. As a result, Deco quickly gave a retaliatory tackle and shoveled Albelda to the ground.

There was a dispute between the two sides. The players of the two teams confronted each other and pushed each other. The referee each played [-] boards and sent off Albelda and Deco with red cards.

Subsequently, Barcelona didn't score with Ronaldinho's direct free kick until the No.90 two minutes.

But in the end they lost [-]-[-] away.

With a possession rate of 70.00%, Barcelona has never been able to find the key to break through Valencia's defense.

Many media reporters and fans are also very worried, because in three days, the team will face Liverpool.

In the case of weak offense, how to repel the invading enemy at Camp Nou?

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When the haze gradually shrouded the sky over the city of Barcelona, ​​Liverpool was preparing comfortably in the Algarve region of Portugal, and everything that happened in Spain would be passed on to Portugal as soon as possible.

The club's chief scouts, Edu Aldo Macia and Frank McParland, are tracking Barcelona's games and sending game videos and analysis reports.

Benitez and the coaching staff, especially the tactical analyst Duff McDonough, will analyze the situation in Barcelona as soon as possible, and immediately make predictions and formulate targeted strategies in subsequent training.

For example, Benitez is very sure that Messi will start!
"There is no doubt that we will face the best team in the world next time at Camp Nou."

On the training ground, Benitez warned his players very seriously.

"This is a star-studded team. Ronaldinho, Deco, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi...even Eto'o may start this game. If we want to eliminate our opponents, we must concentrate on the game, and it must be everyone!"

After a week of training and adjustments, every Liverpool player is in high spirits and full of desire for the game.

That is the defending champion of the Champions League Barcelona!

Yang Yang stood in a row with his teammates, and his eyes were full of desire and fighting spirit.

In last year's Champions League semi-final, he and Ajax suffered a disastrous defeat at the Nou Camp and were eliminated.

In that game, Yang Yang was suspended due to accumulating yellow cards, but he was sitting in the stands at that time, witnessing his teammates being beaten very embarrassingly by Barcelona, ​​but he himself was helpless, and felt very painful and blamed himself for it.

Now, his chance for revenge has come!
Liverpool this season is stronger than Ajax last year, so he is more confident.

……

In Barcelona's tactics, the two wings undertake very important tasks.

Ronaldinho and Messi will start, and these two players are reverse-footed wingers, who are best at cutting inside.

Ronaldinho was on the left, facing Liverpool right-back Finnan.

Benitez reminded Finnan that what Ronaldinho is best at is to create murderous intent between the midfield and the defense, so he must focus on Ronaldinho and not give him any chances. He must keep an eye on him and block his running position.

But in this way, Liverpool's side will be given up, and Zambrotta will attack from the side, so this requires Dirk Dirk to suppress Zambrotta on the right.

As for Messi on the right, Benitez gave up Riise and Aurelio and chose Arbeloa. The reason is that the Spanish defender has played left back and he is right-footed.

The right-footed left back can more effectively defend Messi's left foot when cutting inside, especially his sudden stop and breakthrough.

Arbeloa's task is to stick to Messi so that he has no time to look around.

But the Spanish defender is a newcomer, and this will be his first start on behalf of Liverpool. Benitez and the coaching staff have spent a lot of time studying a series of Arbeloa's methods of marking Messi and conducting targeted training on him.

For example, let Yang Yang play the role of Messi and conduct one-on-one special training with Arbeloa during the game. This made Arbeloa suffer a lot, but also from this special training, he somewhat found the feeling of marking Messi.

In addition, Benitez also asked that when the ball is in the midfield, the pass to Arbeloa should be minimized as much as possible, because he plays the left back with his right foot, and it will be very dangerous when he stops the ball. At the same time, it will reduce the team's counterattack speed.

Barcelona's offensive style is very erratic, because their players have outstanding personal abilities. In addition to the two wings, the center is also very important, so Benitez also attaches great importance to the defense of Barcelona's midfield.

For the sake of safety, the coaching staff decided to let Mohamed Sissoko start, partner Gerrard and Harvey Alonso.

The Malian has just returned from injury, but Mascherano is a newcomer. In contrast, Liverpool's game is more about the team's overall tactics, so they chose the Mali midfielder.

After formulating the tactics, Liverpool trained secretly in Portugal for another two days before arriving in Barcelona the afternoon before the game.

The Nou Camp battle is about to start!
(End of this chapter)