When Liverpool held a secret training in Portugal, preparing for the Camp Nou battle, and also preparing for the second half of the game, Barcelona played two rounds of the league in La Liga.

First, he faced Santander Athletics at home, Ronaldinho scored twice, and Deco contributed an assist.

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

Messi replaced Saviola in the 68th minute. This was his first appearance for Barcelona after two and a half months of separation. The entire Camp Nou stadium sent warm applause and cheers to Messi.

After Messi came on the court, Etoo, who was also out of the field for three months due to injury, appeared on the sidelines to warm up, which once again made the fans of Camp Nou feel excited. Everyone is looking forward to gathering the strongest troops before the team ushered in Liverpool's key battle.

With Messi and Etoho's comeback, Ronaldinho scored twice and recovered his form, and Barcelona is expected to advance.

But when the game reached the 87th minute, Rijkaard used his last substitution and originally planned to replace Beletti with Etoo and let the Cameroonian striker go up and find his form, Etoo refused to play.

Soon, Rijkald used Oleg to replace Beletti.

At the post-match press conference, a Catalonian media asked why Etoo was not arranged to play, and the Barcelona coach directly stated that this was the choice of Cameroonian players.

"He doesn't want to play, I don't know why, and he didn't tell me in advance, which made me very upset and regretful, because in my opinion, every minute of the game is very important."

Meanwhile, Rijkald also responded to the matter between Valdes and Oleg.

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

Oleg had previously been terminated by the club's sponsor for writing articles in the media to criticize Spain's judicial system and became a political news figure. However, he still came on as a substitute in this game. Rijkaard said that he did not care about politics, but only cared about football.

Ronaldinho was in a good mood after scoring twice. In an interview with the media, he understood Etoo's choice to refuse to appear in garbage time, but he also criticized it implicitly.

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

After the game, the media in the Catalonian region discovered the inside story. The reason why Etoo refused to play was because Rijkald promised to give him half an hour of game time before the game, but only five minutes were given, and he was dissatisfied.

Because of Rijkald's first substitution, it gave French winger Juli.

After the press conference, media around the world were in the news and things became more and more intense.

Barcelona, ​​from the president to the ordinary players, made statements on this matter, hoping that Rijkaard and Etoo could reconcile and prepare for the upcoming Camp Nou battle.

But unexpectedly, Etoo then held a press conference and publicly bombarded Rijcard and Ronaldinho, believing that their remarks disregarded the facts, deeply hurt him, and commented on them as bad people.

At the same time, Etoo also said that Barcelona has split from management to locker rooms.

The management team was headed by Laporta and fought with the two gangs led by Vice Chairman Rossel. In the locker room, some of the practices of Brazilian players such as Ronaldinho are unsatisfactory.

"It was a petty act that I refused to play at a press conference. It was a villain's behavior, it was really not a thing. It was shameful to say such things. In fact, every minute was important to me." Etoo fought back against Rijkaard.

As for Ronaldinho, Etoo said, "If my teammates say I should consider the team, I think he is the one who should consider the team more. What he did has always been unacceptable to many people in the locker room."

Etoo's press conference quickly caused an uproar around the world, and the Cameroonian striker ruthlessly teared the internal contradictions of Barcelona and exposed them to the world.

World Sports News used [Etoo stabbed Barcelona!] as the front page headline the next day, believing that Cameroon's words made Rijkaard lose all his face and all his majesty as the head coach.

But on that day, Rijkaard and Laporta met at the restaurant.

The next day, Barcelona officials said that Etoo, Rijcalde and Ronaldinho reached a settlement.

...

A week later, Barcelona challenged Valencia away.

Etoo did not appear on the roster.

The game started very fiercely. It was not until the 53rd minute of the second half that Valencia broke the deadlock. Villa made a cross from the left side of the penalty area, and Angulo scored.

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

The Barcelona players were feeling a little out of control after falling behind two goals.

In the 61st minute, Messi, who had just replaced Good Johnson, was tackled to the ground by Valencia's midfielder Alberda. As a result, Deco quickly gave a retaliatory tackle and tackled Alberda to the ground.

There was a dispute between the two sides, and the players of the two teams confronted each other and pushed each other. The referee each played 50 boards, sending Alberda and Deco off red cards.

Then, Barcelona scored a goal until the 92nd minute with Ronaldinho's direct free kick.

But in the end, they lost one-two away.

With a 72% possession rate, Barcelona never found the key to break Valencia's defense.

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

How to defeat the invading enemy at Camp Nou when the attack is weak?

…………

…………

When the haze gradually enveloped the city of Barcelona, ​​Liverpool was preparing for the battle comfortably in the Algarve region of Portugal, and everything that happened in Spain would be transmitted to Portugal as soon as possible.

Club chief scouts Edu Aldo Marcia and Frank McPallan are both following Barcelona's game and sending game videos and analysis reports.

Benitez and the coaching staff, especially tactical analyst Duff McDonov, would 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!

"There is no doubt that in the next battle at Camp Nou, we will face the best teams in the world."

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

"This is a team with superstars, Ronaldinho, Deco, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi... Even Etoho may be in this game. If we want to eliminate our opponents, we must devote ourselves to the game, and we must be everyone!"

After a week of training and adjustment, every player at Liverpool is full of energy and is full of desire for the game.

That is Barcelona, ​​the defending champion of the Champions League!

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

In the Champions League semi-finals last year, he and Ajax suffered a crushing defeat at Camp Nou and were eliminated.

In that game, Yang Yang was suspended for accumulating yellow cards, but he was sitting in the stands and witnessed his teammates being beaten very embarrassed by Barcelona, ​​but he was powerless, and he felt very painful and blamed for this.

Now, his chance to take revenge is here!

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 meet, and both players are counter-foot wingers, and their best skills are cutting inwards.

Ronaldinho is on the left, facing him with Liverpool's right-back Finnan.

Benitez reminded Finnan that Ronaldinho is best at creating murderous intent between the midfield and the defense, so he must focus on Ronaldinho and not give him any chance. He must keep a close eye on him and block his running position.

But in this way, Liverpool's wing was given up, and Zambrota would insert from the wing to launch an attack, so Kuyt needed to suppress Zambrota on the right.

As for Messi on the right, Benitez gave up Riser and Aurerio and chose Aveloa because the Spanish defender played the left back and he had his right foot.

The left back with the right foot can more effectively defend Messi's left foot when cutting inside, especially his emergency stops and breakthroughs.

Aveloa's mission is to keep close to Messi and make him have no time to look around.

But the Spanish defender is a newcomer, and this will be his first time representing Liverpool. Benitez and the coaching staff have spent a lot of effort to specifically study a series of methods for Aveloa to mark Messi and conduct targeted training for him.

For example, letting Yang Yang play the role of Messi and conduct one-on-one special training with Aveloa during the game, which made Aveloa suffer a lot, but from this special training, I also found some feeling of marking Messi.

In addition, Benitez also asked that when the ball is in the middle and backcourt, the passes to Aveloa should be minimized, because he kicked the left back with his right foot, which would be very dangerous when stopping the ball, and at the same time, it would also 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 middle is also very important, so Benitez also attaches great importance to the defense of Barcelona's midfield in the middle.

For the sake of caution, the coaching staff decided to let Mohamed Sissoko partner Gerald and Xavi Alonso.

The Malis has just returned from injury, but Mascherano is a newcomer. In contrast, Liverpool attaches more importance to the team's overall tactics in this game, so he chose the Mali midfielder.

After the tactics were formulated, Liverpool secretly trained in Portugal for two more days, and then arrived in Barcelona the afternoon before the game.

The Camp Nou battle is about to break out!
Chapter completed!