Begiristan sat in the stands, his brows furrowed and his face solemn.
He didn't know that at this moment, not far from him, the area where Italian coaches gathered was heatedly discussing how tonight's game was similar to the classic decisive battle fifteen years ago.
.
But it was also true in his mind, he couldn't help but think of that game involuntarily.
Really similar!
And, it looks more and more like it!
Although he is a famous player in Barcelona and although he is now the technical director of Barcelona, Begiristain is not from Catalonia.
He comes from the Basque Country in northern Spain and started out at Real Sociedad. He played for Barcelona for seven years and experienced and witnessed the rise and fall of the entire Barcelona Dream Team. After that, he returned to La Coruna in the north. Later,
He went to Japan.
Many people think that he is the core main force and effective general of Cruyinf's dream, but in fact, many of his concepts and ideas are different from Cruyinf. What flows through him is still the northern Basque hero.
The blood of lions.
This allows him to see and feel more things.
In that battle at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Barcelona was completely defeated.
Although AC Milan's two main central defenders, Baresi and Costacurta, are absent, Barcelona's offense still has no way to deal with them. Through their meticulous overall defensive formation and suffocating pressure, Barcelona
It completely silenced Barcelona's offense.
Romario and Stoinchikov were more of individual performers, and the team couldn't find a familiar rhythm at all.
Yes, rhythm!
Whether it is Cruyinf or Guardiola, they are only good at playing in a special kind of game rhythm that they are familiar with. As long as they play in this rhythm, they can play smoothly and be invincible.
However, if there are external forces that force them out of the familiar track and rhythm, they will find that their ability to adapt is really poor, and they may not even know how to play football.
Capello's team completely blocked Barcelona's offensive firepower in the first half and scored two goals through two counterattacks.
This made AC Milan completely relaxed, but Barcelona was anxious.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Savicevic scored the third goal with a lob shot from almost no angle.
By that moment, Barcelona had completely collapsed.
Begiristain still clearly remembers that Cruyinf replaced Savicevic shortly after he scored.
He was replaced by Eusevio Sacristan, a short midfielder, in the hope that he could strengthen the team's midfield control and help Barcelona stabilize the midfield.
Ironically, a few minutes later, Albertini assisted Desailly to score a goal.
It was precisely the midfield that Kruyinf wanted to strengthen, but once again AC Milan completely destroyed it from the front.
That game can almost be said to be the most painful defeat in Barcelona's history. Begiristain also clearly remembers the powerlessness of all Barcelona players on the court.
Just like at this moment, when facing Naples at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Barcelona didn't know what to do.
Already two goals behind, we must attack.
But the rhythm of the game was not at all in the channel they were most familiar with. Napoli defended with ease, and at the same time, they were always ready to launch a sharp counterattack to penetrate Barcelona's defense.
Attacking is very risky; if you don't attack, you will die!
The most frightening thing is that as a pass-and-control team, Barcelona's most taboo thing is to be anxious.
Patience is a psychological quality that a passing and controlling team must have, but the problem is, now that we are two goals behind, how can we not be anxious? How can we not be nervous? How can we remain calm and calm?
The answer is, there is really no way!
Players are people too, they are not machines.
This becomes an irreconcilable contradiction.
Sometimes, Begiristain feels that Guardiola is very similar to Cruyff in many ways.
They are all like philosophers and thinkers, always thinking about various complex issues, and always persistently pursuing the best and most beautiful football in their minds.
The only difference is that before that final, Kruyinf was really dismissive of AC Milan and believed that Barcelona's victory was inevitable, while Guardiola was particularly unconfident from the beginning against Gao Shen tonight.
As for why he is not confident, Begiristan can understand.
Gao Shen has left an extremely deep imprint on him.
If he encounters another disastrous defeat tonight, then Guardiola will probably be stunned if he encounters a high level in his life.
…………
…………
After taking a two-goal lead, Napoli almost grabbed the Big Ear Cup with one hand.
This goal was a big blow to Barcelona, but Guardiola still had no idea of making adjustments.
In fact, he doesn't know how to adjust it now.
Returning to 433 is equivalent to returning to the style of play in the first half. The key is that the defense is missing Yaya Toure.
Once such an adjustment is made, it will have an even more severe blow to the team's morale.
The biggest problem now is in the midfield.
Barcelona's midfielder couldn't stop Naples, especially since Weber's enforcement of physical and foul laws was looser than La Liga standards, which in turn encouraged Naples to have more physical contact with Barcelona.
Guardiola himself has played in Serie A, so he knows very well how Serie A players use the rules and how to control the scale of fouls.
The most obvious one is that so far, more than 60 minutes have passed, and there has been only one yellow card in the game.
That was obtained by Pique's foul on Cavani. In addition, Napoli committed a lot of fouls, but the card?
nonexistent.
Yes, Napoli didn't even get a single yellow card, which is simply outrageous.
But that’s the truth!
If Weber really favors Naples, it would be unreasonable. The most important thing is that Naples is very good at understanding the referee's standards of law enforcement. They know when to take action and how to avoid getting cards for fouls.
In this regard, Barcelona is indeed inferior to its opponents.
In this regard, Barcelona really has no good solution other than protesting and putting pressure on the referee.
And Guardiola had a vague feeling that Weber didn't seem to like the way Barcelona players protested.
Thinking of this, Guardiola also felt helpless.
What's even worse is that time is still on the opposite side of Barcelona.
It's not like Guardiola has never thought about risking his life to fight Naples, but he is not too sure.
With his advanced ability to train defense, once Barcelona presses hard, it may be able to seize the advantage in the situation, but it is not easy to break through Naples' goal, but it is his own defense...
…
Just when Guardiola was troubled, Messi in front retreated to get the ball and was immediately trapped by Thiago Motta.
The performance of the Brazilian midfielder tonight was very eye-catching. Although Messi did not concede the ball, he was forced to pass it back to Iniesta. However, Rakitic also blocked Iniesta at the first time, forcing Xiaobai to
He had to pass the ball across to the left wing to find Sylvinho.
But just when Sylvinho received the ball, Sanchez suddenly jumped out from behind and intercepted the ball first.
Silvinho and Iniesta were both shocked and immediately fought back on the spot.
But after Sanchez took a step back, he quickly passed the ball to Rakitic, who immediately ran to the gap to receive the ball, and then turned and rushed forward.
Iniesta no longer cared about Sanchez and immediately rushed towards Rakitic.
The Croatian midfielder crossed the ball to the middle. Thiago Motta stepped forward to catch the ball. After stopping, he glanced ahead and directly kicked the ball half high to the middle of the top of the arc in the penalty area.
Cavani has Pique on his right, Busquets behind him, Puyol on his left, and Xavi chasing back in front, surrounded by Barcelona defensive players.
But the Uruguayan center seized the most advantageous position and stopped Thiago Motta's pass with his chest. He still used his body to block Pique and Busquets behind him, and before Xavi came back, he took the ball with his foot.
He stopped to his left, which was Puyol's side.
Puyol immediately rushed towards Cavani and was about to surround the Uruguayan center.
But after Cavani stopped the ball with his right foot, with his side facing the goal, he swept the ball into the penalty area with his right foot.
The ball was sent into Barcelona's penalty area by Cavani.
Almost at this moment, Sanchez, who had just returned to defense to grab the ball, passed by Puyol at the fastest speed, like a gust of wind, making it too late for Puyol to turn around and catch up.
I saw the Chilean winger rush into Barcelona's penalty area from behind Puyol, and before Valdez could attack the ball, he took the ball and managed to avoid Valdez.
After passing through Valdez, the rest is much simpler.
Sanchez caught up with the football in front of the baseline and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"
"Three to zero!!!"
"Three to zero!!!"
"It's Naples' quick counterattack again, and it's the cooperation between the center and the wings!"
"Sanchez scored the third goal of the game for Napoli!"
"It was definitely a great goal!"
Sanchez rushed out of the stadium, slid to his knees under the stands where Naples fans were, and laughed loudly.
Behind him, Naples players chased him out one after another. Even the players on the bench rushed out crazily, surrounded him, and celebrated the goal wildly on the sidelines.
Three to zero!
The game has been almost seventy minutes.
Naples can basically be said to be a sure winner!
The fanatical Naples fans are cheering crazily and cheering crazily!
They first shouted Sanchez's name, then Cavani, looked at each player's name, and cheered for them.
When they saw Sanchez and others walking back, they ran to the home team's coaching bench to high-five and hug Gao Shen. The nearly 30,000 Naples fans in the audience were shouting for Gao Shen crazily.
Three to zero!
This is definitely something no one thought of before the game.
But it just happened.
The ball possession rate was just over 30%, but Napoli used sharp counterattacks to tear apart Barcelona's defense again and again.
