In a skyscraper mansion beside Central Park in New York, Guardiola was sitting in front of the TV in the living room, watching the live broadcast of the upcoming Derby of the Century.
Under the leadership of the referee team, players from both teams walked out of the player tunnel one after another.
Tonight's referee is also very familiar to Guardiola. Carlos Delgado Ferrero is 42 years old and has rich experience.
On the live broadcast screen, the starting lineups of the two teams were printed.
Barcelona still plays its signature four-three-three.
Goalkeeper: Valdes.
Defence: Alba, Puyol, Pique and Alves.
Midfield: Busquets is deep, and Iniesta and Xavi are in the middle.
Forwards: Sanchez, Messi and Pedro.
Aguero did not play in this game, but sat on the bench, along with Fabregas.
Obviously, Vilanova still prefers to let Barcelona players start.
Real Madrid's starting lineup is also four, three, and three.
Goalkeeper: Courtois.
Defence: Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe and Arbeloa.
Midfield: Xavi Alonso deep, Toni Kroos and Modric in the centre.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Di Maria.
Before the game, many people were speculating whether Gao Shen would start Casillas in the Derby of the Century, but it seemed that he would still let Courtois play.
The Belgian youngster has performed very steadily this season. After Casillas made several mistakes before the season, he was directly suppressed in the competition and could not even play in such an important game.
It is not difficult to see that Casillas has gradually been at a disadvantage in this competition. If he wants to restore the situation now, he needs to rely on his outstanding performance in the Champions League. Otherwise, sooner or later, he may be defeated by Kurtu.
replaced by tiles.
In fact, there is nothing too surprising about the starting lineups of both sides. What really caught Guardiola's attention was the public opinion before the game and the various statements of both sides.
Especially Gao Shen's provocation against Barcelona at yesterday's pre-match press conference.
This is anything but simple!
…
"Dear, didn't you say you would never touch football again this year?"
His wife Cristina Serra walked out of the bedroom with a lazy expression as if she had just woken up.
The two children should still be playing with toys in the room now. At their age, they always have endless energy to waste.
"I'll just take a look and don't touch it." Guardiola turned around and said with a wry smile.
This is what he promised his wife before coming to New York from Spain, and he would take a good rest for a year.
The United States is known as a football desert, and football's influence here is very limited.
But it turns out that Guardiola seemed to have guessed wrong.
In fact, football is pretty good in the United States, especially the focus games like the Derby of the Century, and the depth.
He was really surprised. He didn't expect that his good friend would be so popular in the United States, especially on Twitter.
What doesn't Cristina Serra know about her husband?
After sitting down next to him, he glanced at the TV screen and found that it was a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The live TV camera just switched to the front of the coaching bench, giving a close-up view of Vilanova of the home team and the away team.
She immediately understood why Guardiola wanted to watch this game.
"How about it? Who do you think will win?" Sierra asked.
The game was about to start, and Guardiola's attention fell on the live TV broadcast, and he casually replied: "Excellent Real Madrid."
"So sure?"
"Um."
"But this is Camp Nou."
"The impact of home and away games has become less and less, especially for Gao Shen."
"But Barcelona have no chance?" Serra asked again.
Guardiola narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, and said: "From the moment the two sides walked into the stadium, it's gone!"
"Why?"
"I don't know, intuition."
Perhaps because he felt that this answer was perfunctory and unconvincing, Guardiola thought again, "Gao Shen is never reckless in doing things. He tried every means to provoke before the game and even made some violent remarks. It was obvious that he was
Want to piss off Barcelona."
"Then what?"
"Tito was fooled and he fought back. He wanted to prove himself too much. This emotion will also affect the Barcelona players."
"No, I don't understand. Why is it wrong to want to win?"
Guardiola was silent for two or three seconds before looking at his wife and said, "Barcelona football requires patience."
Cristina Serra had nothing more to say.
There is no way she is more familiar with Barcelona than Guardiola, and has a better understanding of the game.
"Gao Shen is different from me. He often says that he is a pragmatist with a little bit of idealism. That's why he launches psychological warfare before games."
Guardiola's analysis made sense, but Cristina Serra still couldn't believe it.
Can the result of a football match really be guessed the moment both sides enter the stadium?
…
Guardiola wasn't the first to guess.
In front of the visiting team's coaching bench at Camp Nou, Gao Shen also guessed it.
Because he had been playing for a while, but Tito Vilanova still didn't want to come over and shake his hand.
Interestingly, instead of feeling angry, he was actually enjoying himself.
"He should still be angry with me now." Gao Shen laughed.
Zidane, Carlo and Hierro all looked at each other, speechless.
Some of Gao Shen's remarks before the game undoubtedly struck a chord with Vilanova.
This summer, Barcelona changed coaches, and the brothers Vilanova and Guardiola broke up. This was Vilanova's Achilles' heel, but he would expose others' scars if he was too advanced. The key is that he would be offended to death.
After all this, you still expect others to look good on you?
Listen to the noise in the stands of Camp Nou, they are all verbally criticizing Gao Shen.
99345!
This is the number of fans attending Camp Nou tonight, 100,000!
"Seriously, you should thank Figo." Zidane also smiled.
"Because of the pig head?" Gao Shen asked.
Zidane and others all laughed. This kid still has some self-awareness.
After Figo was attacked by a pig's head at Camp Nou, the entrance inspection of the stadium became stricter. Things like pig heads can no longer be brought into the stadium.
Otherwise, Gao Shen might be crushed to death by debris thrown by fans, becoming the first head coach in history to be crushed to death on the coaching bench by visiting fans.
…
It wasn't until the players from both sides had already set up their positions on the court that Vilanova reluctantly came over to shake hands with Gao Shen.
From beginning to end, I just shook hands, said welcome to Camp Nou, and then turned around and left.
It's very perfunctory, but Gao Shen doesn't care.
The players from both sides formed their formations on the field. From the formations, Gao Shen could see Barcelona's determination for this game.
Iniesta and Messi stood in the center circle, preparing to kick off, while Sanchez and Pedro were on the wings.
Obviously, Barcelona wants to eat Real Madrid from the beginning.
"In last season's Champions League knockout round, our opening attack caught Barcelona a bit off guard. Obviously Vilanova also learned lessons, so he must directly take the initiative at the beginning of this game." Gao Shen turned around and said.
Carlo also experienced the Champions League last season personally, so he naturally has a very clear understanding of the thinking of both parties.
But in this case, Real Madrid did not intend to attack.
Gao Shen's focus tonight is on the organization of the defensive formation.
In his opinion, when facing Barcelona, as long as the defense is organized well and the counterattack is executed, it is almost a matter of accuracy.
Of course, defense must not be the kind of stagnant, that is slow suicide.
Therefore, Real Madrid's defense is still deployed in the area from the center line to the 30-meter area of its own side. If the situation is not right, it will gradually retreat.
…
With the referee's whistle, Messi kicked the ball to Iniesta.
The Barcelona midfielder quickly passed the ball back, directly to the feet of Busquets at the bottom of the center circle.
Benzema immediately rushed towards Busquets, who passed the ball across to Xavi, who was also near the bottom of the center circle.
It seems that Barcelona does not intend to pass the ball back to the central defender.
Benzema feinted a shot and seemed to be about to pounce on Xavi, allowing the Barcelona core to pass the ball back to Busquets again.
Ronaldo has always been on the left side near the center line, staring at the opposing Barcelona right back Alves, but it was Toni Kroos who immediately rushed towards Xavi.
Busquets passed back to Xavi, but then Toni Kroos approached and Xavi was forced to pass back to Puyol.
Benzema followed Busquets back to meet Puyol, while Toni Kroos followed Xavi and ran towards the center circle, preparing to return to his defensive zone and cutting off Xavi's receiving line.
But what surprised Barcelona was that after Benzema retreated with Busquets, he directly ignored Puyol who was holding the ball not far away and continued to follow Busquets. This actually surprised the Barcelona players.
We're so close, why don't you come and grab it?
According to Barcelona's usual practice, if Benzema attacks again, Puyol, Pique and Busquets can form a passing triangle and directly play with the French center.
But now, Benzema didn't even try to grab the ball, which made Barcelona feel like it had punched cotton in the face.
Especially when they saw Benzema slowly retreating as Busquets advanced, Puyol and Pique looked at each other and both realized that the trend of the game was not as they expected.
Real Madrid is different tonight!
As a last resort, Barcelona's defense could only push forward.
When advancing to the center circle, Busquets and Pique had a back-and-forth pass, but Benzema kept following Busquets, which made the Barcelona midfielder dare not let the ball stay at his feet.
As a result, Xavi retreated again, but Toni Kroos immediately followed suit, forcing Xavi to pass the ball with his back, and then knocked it back to Pique.
There was no other way, so Pique moved to his left wing.
Busquets began to look for Alba and Iniesta to cooperate on this side, but Benzema, Di Maria and Modric also actively moved, forcing Barcelona to pass back again.
The ball just circled around, passing Barcelona's defense and Busquets' feet for more than a minute, but it didn't even cross the center line.
"Real Madrid's defensive formation tonight was very meticulous and orderly."
"Barcelona's pass cannot easily advance past the halfway line."
There was no other way, Messi could only retreat to near the midline to respond.
Pique really couldn't find a way out of the ball. When he saw Messi retreating into the gap between Real Madrid's Toni Kroos and Ronaldo, he decisively passed the ball through, trying to find Messi and let the Argentine come.
Launch an offensive.
At this time, the pace of the game suddenly accelerated.
