At a time when Manchester City is invincible, Barcelona's performance cannot actually be said to be bad, but for the defending Champions League champions and a giant like Barcelona, a zero-to-one defeat at Camp Nou is still unacceptable.
The media rarely looks at issues from a professional perspective; they focus more on a certain individual.
For example, Daily Sports publicly questioned Mourinho, believing that the loss at Camp Nou was due to the head coach's conservatism.
"This is not the first time. Every time at a critical moment, Mourinho will adopt more conservative tactics. This was the case when he faced Bayern Munich before, and it is still the case now when he faces Manchester City. We can't understand it.
Barcelona's head coach, why can't he be more confident?"
Daily Sports believes that with players such as Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, Barcelona has the ability to compete with Manchester City in possession of the ball, but Mourinho chose to give up what Barcelona is best at and adopt a defensive tactic.
This is confusing to all of us.
Immediately afterwards, Daily Sports took aim at Mourinho's announcement of the lineup in advance the day before the game, believing that this was irresponsible to the team.
"According to some players in the Barcelona locker room who did not want to be named told reporters, this incident caused an uproar in the Barcelona locker room. Many people were surprised and confused by Mourinho's actions, and they were also deeply dissatisfied.
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"This is not the first time Mourinho has made such deviant behavior, but this time it has caused very serious consequences, and even many players who were originally neutral in the locker room have now begun to come to Mourinho's side.
On the opposite side, the internal divisions in the dressing room became particularly severe."
Daily Sports concluded that Mourinho should bear the main responsibility for the defeat at Camp Nou, but he did not seem to be aware of his own problems and did not have any attitude of reflection after the game.
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The reason why Barcelona's mouthpiece said this is because Mourinho publicly stated at the post-match press conference that the zero-to-one result at home was within his expectations, and he believed that the team could reverse the situation on the road.
"It's not a bad result."
"If Manchester City did not score an away goal, that would of course be the best result for us, but it is unrealistic because we faced Manchester City with Sudong and only conceded one goal. I think it is acceptable.
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"The real decisive battle will be in Manchester in the second round, where we will reverse Manchester City!"
Although Mourinho's words were sonorous and powerful, doubts were still overwhelming.
A reporter from the media asked him on the spot: If he didn't win at home, why should he win at home?
The media also asked him face to face what he thought of the performance of Busquets and Yaya Toure in tonight's battle?
There were even accusations from the media that he suddenly announced the roster the day before the game, giving Manchester City time to prepare in advance. This was irresponsible and even betrayal of Barcelona.
At first, Mourinho's tone and attitude were quite good, but gradually, as media reporters made things more difficult for him, he became impatient and even became angry.
In the end, he simply left the venue early without giving any face to the media reporters.
This made media reporters even more critical of Mourinho, and they wanted to directly drive him out of the position of Barcelona coach.
Even Mundo Deportivo commented after the game that Mourinho's gamble completely failed.
Strictly speaking, Yaya Toure's performance in the game was not bad, but that mistake completely ruined his contribution to the entire game because it directly caused Barcelona to concede a goal.
From a professional point of view, there is still a huge gap between this mistake and the goal, but the media and fans ignore this.
Cruyff, the godfather of Barcelona, commented in his column that this game well explained the reason why he originally opposed Mourinho's coaching of Barcelona. At the same time, he also reiterated his view that Barcelona's orthodoxy lies in Manchester City.
"In the eyes of many people, Yaya Toure's mistake is not enough to explain the problem. It was just an ordinary midfield goal conceded. It was only the subsequent outstanding performance of Manchester City's trident that caused Barcelona to concede the goal."
"But what I want to say is that this is not an accident, but a necessity."
"If necessary, I can list many of Yaya Toure's mistakes during his time at Barcelona in recent years, as well as his passing and receiving data, and then compare Busquets' data in the same period at Manchester City. We must be clear that the Premier League
The game pressure and pressing pressure faced are higher than those in La Liga, but Busquets is better than Yaya Toure in terms of passing, receiving and making mistakes."
"At this point, Mourinho will refute me. He will think that Busquets makes fewer mistakes and passes and receives more steadily. That's because he always stays in a very deep position, but Yaya Toure
, he often performs wonderful scenes of dribbling the ball through the midfield alone and passing the ball outside the penalty area to assist his teammates."
"Yes, it is undeniable that this is Yaya Toure's value, but does it meet Barcelona's needs?"
"What Barcelona lacks now is how to pass the midfield? Does it lack players for the last pass and the penultimate pass?"
"As early as after the European Super Cup, I clearly stated in my column that the biggest gap between Barcelona and Manchester City lies in the fourth position behind. This made the management determined to introduce Fabregas, but in the end, Fabregas
After Gass joined the team, he was positioned in the frontcourt. This is because Mourinho is not good at adjusting the passing and possession system, and he does not understand Barcelona's football genes."
Cruyff said in the column that many people focus on announcing the squad one day in advance, but in fact this is of little use and more of disrupting the opponent's attention. The real problem in the game is that Manchester City is patiently waiting for Barcelona to make mistakes.
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"This is the most despairing thing."
"Guardiola knows Barcelona and Mourinho's Barcelona too well, so he is waiting because he is sure that in the 90-minute game, Mourinho's Barcelona will definitely make some mistakes, such as Alvi
Sri Lanka is too forward and forward, for example Yaya Toure will dribble the ball through the midfield, such as..."
"I can be 100% sure that Manchester City knew this would be the case before the game, so they were waiting. Unfortunately, Manchester City waited, even more than once. If it were not for the lack of opportunities to seize the opportunity, Manchester City would have completely failed.
To be able to score more than three goals is such a desperate reality."
Cruyff believes that the score of zero to one cannot fully reflect the problems reflected in this game. Barcelona under Mourinho is becoming more and more unstable. For Barcelona, it is
Very deadly.
"This is not just a game, but more importantly, it is like a demonstration."
"I can guarantee that Pellegrini will be sitting in the stands or in front of the TV and watching this game. He will see how to beat Barcelona because Mourinho's team has loopholes that cannot be closed.
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"For Mourinho, the most important thing now may not be the second round, but the battle against Real Madrid in midweek."
"First they lose to Manchester City at Camp Nou, and if they lose to Real Madrid again, Barcelona's morale will plummet. Then they will not only lose the Champions League, but also La Liga, and even lose Mourinho's future at Barcelona."
Cruyff's words in the column were very serious, but also very profound, pointing directly to the core crux that many people have not noticed.
You know, Real Madrid's offensive firepower is not inferior to Manchester City at all.
Barcelona made so many mistakes when facing Manchester City, but what about facing Real Madrid?
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While Catalonia and even the whole of Spain are criticizing Mourinho, the British media has given Manchester City overwhelming praise.
Also in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Chelsea held Bayern Munich to a difficult 0-0 draw at home.
Throughout the game, the Blues were at an absolute disadvantage, being pinned down by Bayern Munich in the half. Except for a few counterattacks, the Blues really played in a very awkward manner, but the whole team managed to hold on with just one breath.
Ninety minutes passed.
As the Italian head coach, Di Matteo's ability to organize defense is still very strong. Coupled with Chelsea's foundation, this allowed Chelsea to finally survive the first round.
But everyone can see that with the Blues' performance, the second round at the Allianz Arena will be doomed to be a disaster.
This season's Champions League will be held at the Allianz Arena in Munich. Bayern Munich hopes to reach the Champions League final more than anyone else, so when it comes to the away game, Bayern will definitely work hard. This will be a very worrying situation for Chelsea.
It is precisely because of this that Manchester City defeated Barcelona 1-0 in an away game and came out of the Nou Camp as an unusual surprise. The whole UK was very surprised by this and was also looking forward to it.
Everyone believes that based on their away performance in the first leg, Manchester City will definitely have a chance to win and reach the Champions League final when they return to the Etihad Stadium.
At that time, when Manchester City faces Bayern Munich, we still don’t know who will win.
Therefore, when Manchester City returned to Manchester, the entire UK was reporting and hyping this game. Everyone basically believed that as long as Manchester City returned home and continued to adopt the tactics of the first round, there would not be much problem in winning Barcelona.
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More importantly, Manchester City does not need to be distracted by the league now. Instead, it is Barcelona. There is also a focus game against Real Madrid in midweek, which will determine the La Liga championship this season.
In other words, Barcelona still has a must-win game in midweek.
It’s home court again, with an advantage in schedule, physical fitness, and even overall skills and tactics as well as player status and morale. There’s no reason to lose in such a game, right?
But when Manchester City was conducting recovery training the next morning, captain Su Dong was unusually low-key when interviewed by the media on behalf of the team.
"I have played in the Champions League for many years. I want to say that the more you are in this situation when everyone thinks you will win or must win, the more dangerous it is and the more careful you have to be. This is the scary thing about the Champions League.
Place."
Afterwards, Su Dong praised Barcelona fiercely, thinking that they were the strongest team in Europe. He also praised several of his Barcelona friends by the way, and finally said...
"We are confident that we will get our ticket to the Allianz Arena at home!"
