The whole team of Barcelona hopes to achieve good results in the Champions League and strive to enter the Champions League finals and win the Champions League championship just like last season.

Therefore, everyone is looking forward to the Champions League semi-finals and Manchester City.

Messi is one of them.

But he is also the special one, because he is considered a key player in Barcelona's fight with Manchester City.

The Spanish media are talking about him, the British media are talking about him, the head coach Rijkaard talks about him, and his teammates support him in the media, and even the Manchester City head coach, who is an opponent, praises him strongly.

He became the focus of everyone.

This is not the first time that Messi has experienced the feeling of focus.

Since three years ago, at the age of 17, he has become the focus of Catalonia and Spain and Europe. Almost everyone thinks he will be the future big star. Barcelona's pillar. He has not disappointed everyone's expectations and has been growing up. Until now, he has completely replaced Ronaldinho and become Barcelona's number one star.

Despite this, Messi still enjoys the feeling of being praised by everyone and valued by everyone.

The day before the game began, the coach who was considered to be "good at nurturing young players" and "the youngest and most successful head coach" also praised him.

Messi has nothing on the surface, but he is actually happy in his heart, because the other party said that he will become a "great" player in the future. Those words can even be understood as he will become a star at the level of Argentina's senior Maradona.

Messi has long been tired of hearing those remarks that he is a genius. This is the first time he has heard this Chinese statement.

So Messi has a good sense of Wan Sheng.

In this game, Messi hopes to do his best to live up to everyone's expectations and lead the team to victory. At the same time, he also hopes to prove that he is indeed capable of becoming, as Wan Sheng said - "great player".

———

Barcelona's home match against Manchester City has officially begun.

Amid the cheers of Barcelona fans throughout the game, Barcelona and Manchester City officially started a competition.

As the core of the frontcourt, Messi's main job is to lead the team to attack Manchester City's halftime. Messi hopes that he can perform well, so he was very active at the beginning of the game, but soon he found something was wrong.

The game is a bit different from what I imagined.

Originally, both sides were in the test stage at the beginning of the game. Even if there were fast attacks and toughness, the pace of the game would not be too fast and the scene would not be too intense. But what Messi did not expect was that whenever he went to the frontcourt, he would encounter a very tough defense.

If it is once or twice, it is normal. Even in La Liga, some teams will defend themselves.

But it's like this every time, and there are problems.

Manchester City's defense against his own is not only as strict as it is. Just like the time just now, he dribbled the ball and just crossed the center line. The opponent's German midfielder was just a slippery tackle, leaving no room for defense. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and was not tackled. Messi was still in fear afterwards.

This time, Messi got the ball more than ten meters in front of the penalty area. Almost the moment the football rolled over, he saw the two opponents on both sides rushing towards him, as if he had a deep hatred with them.

Just grab a ball...as for that?

Messi thought bitterly.

But his reaction was very fast, and he passed the ball back to his teammate Deco as soon as possible, and there was no concealment of the ball.

This quick pass is enough to prove Messi's ability.

The commentator of the Camp Nou Stadium also praised Messi, "Messi reacted very quickly. As soon as the opponent ran over, he passed the ball back accurately, making the opponent's running useless work..."

But Messi doesn't think so.

He was not very complacent about his reaction at all, but instead he was a little worried about Manchester City's defense.

After only ten minutes of the game, Messi was sure that the opponent must have made some defensive arrangements for him. Otherwise, it would be impossible that every time he catches the ball, at least one player will come to defend. Moreover, the opponent's defense is very tough, fierce tackles and tough body collisions are common, and some annoying small movements are mixed.

Messi found the game was really difficult.

Messi is not afraid of the opponent's defense only when it is tight. The opponent's fierceness and toughness that he fears the most is, and he will definitely be easily injured when he conflicts with the opponent head-on.

Injuries are always the biggest enemy of professional players.

This season, Messi has experienced the trouble of injury. He has had two injuries. As Barcelona's star, he has only played 25 times in the La Liga, which is definitely not a large number.

Messi was a little afraid of being injured, so he dodged a little when facing Manchester City's defense.

———

Manchester City players, no matter whether Messi is afraid of injury or not, how should they defend or how to defend. Especially after seeing the opponent dodge in physical collisions, they become even tougher when defending.

Before this game, Wan Sheng formulated a strategy for playing, defensively targeting Messi.

Messi is Barcelona's frontcourt core and their star. Although he is only 20 years old and has not yet achieved growth into a future superstar, his importance in Barcelona is undoubtedly.

So far this season, Messi has helped Barcelona score six goals in the Champions League!

This goal number is comparable to Manchester United star C-Ronaldo, second only to Torres, who ranks first in the Champions League scorer list. This shows how threat Messi will be.

Before the game, almost all media talked about Messi. Messi will definitely be the most critical player at Barcelona, ​​so Wan Sheng also let the team make targeted defense. He requires every player to be tough in defense, especially against Messi, which is even more tough. This Argentine star must not be allowed to perform.

Players like Messi, let him play at will. After he really finds his state, the defensive threat to the team is too great. Therefore, at the beginning of the game, he uses tough defense and defends Messi's point without remembering the foul. This is the most important thing.

Manchester City players have implemented Wan Sheng’s request very strongly.

From the beginning of the game, they kept using tough defense to deal with Messi and Barcelona. As for what the media said before the game, "The two sides will play the most eye-catching offensive battle in the world", "This will be a confrontation of top football arts", etc., they did not consider it at all.

In this game, they either played offensive football or competed with Barcelona for skills, but they played defensive counterattack!

———

Defensive counterattack is not just about shrinking and defending, and then allowing frontcourt players to attack. Such a style of play is too simple and does not have much practicality.

Weak teams play against strong teams, and this style of playing is still very effective.

When weak teams compete with strong teams, defensive counterattack is naturally a magic weapon to win. Because when fighting head-on, weak teams have poor strength and do not have a great chance of winning, so stable defense will not allow strong teams to score goals, and then let the frontcourt players find opportunities like "touching luck", so the chance of winning will naturally be higher.

Generally, defensive counterattacks are not only used by weak teams. For example, Italian teams cannot be said to be weak teams, but their national teams and even some domestic club teams use the tactical tactics of defensive counterattacks.

Therefore, the tactics of defensive counterattack are not the patent of weak teams, and strong teams can also be used.

Manchester City is not a weak team.

Not only is it not a weak team, but it is even said that Manchester City is one of the most powerful teams in the world. Even compared with Barcelona's "Dream 2" in front of them, Manchester City is only strong and not weak, so Manchester City's defensive counterattack is not that simple.

Manchester City left a impression of smooth offensive football, but in essence, the team is actually playing the 'os-f' control system football.

The 'os-f' control system is the origin of football tracing that Wansheng used to coach Derby County. The most basic thing about that system was still Wansheng's initial coach Derby County and led the team to complete the tough "pressure defense" that relied on when he relegated.

The reason for the initial formulation of the defensive tactics of pressing the whole game was very simple, because Wan Sheng had a defensive coach skill "resolute interception". Now this skill has been upgraded to "coach max perfect skill", and the skill effect has been greatly improved compared to the beginning.

"Resolute interception, defense, coach max perfect skills.

When your team is in the game, the steal success rate increases by 20%.

When your players are in the game state, all defensive attributes are increased by 1.

When your player completes a steal, the ‘pass’ attribute evaluation is increased by 5.”

Among this skill, the effect of "increasing the success rate of steals by 20%" is the most fundamental.

Based on this skill, Wan Sheng formulated the tactical style of "full-game pressing", and then based on the "full-game pressing", he formulated the "Derby County offensive football style", and then Manchester City's "os-f" control system football was established.

Therefore, the origin of Manchester City's tactical system lies in the "resolute interception" skill. The team's offensive football style also relies on the defense of pressing the whole game.

Many fans think that Manchester City is good at attacking, but in fact, the concept of "full-game pressing" is deeply rooted in the minds of Manchester City players. Every player knows that the first thing they have to do on the court is to keep running and pressing the opponent.

The defensive counterattacks that Manchester City plays on the field now rely on "pressure". However, Wan Sheng adjusted the area to his own half, which means that the players pressed in the half, doubled the range and increased the defensive intensity a lot, which also allows the players to have the energy to defend against individual players on the opponent.

This is Manchester City's defense.

After defense, of course there is also a counterattack.

Manchester City's counterattack is to run open spaces, and opportunities come out. Their original offense is to use the run open spaces to find opportunities, so there is no need to say much about this. Manchester City is already very good at fast attacks.

But no matter how different Manchester City's defensive counterattack play is from other teams, defensive counterattack is defensive counterattack, and the core point is still defense, so Manchester City's game is very ugly. Barcelona encountered a tough defense and was stubbornly blocked in offense, which shows the game scene.

The media and fans did not see the kind of "art football" and "offensive battle" they imagined. They saw the scene of sleepy game. It can be said that apart from the toughness of confrontation and fighting, there were almost no highlights at all in the game.

Morris and Messi, the core players of both teams, have almost no shining performances.

Some Catalan media have begun to worry about Messi.

In the past 20 minutes, Messi's performance can be said to be a mess. He only touched the ball a few times and was stolen twice in the middle, making any contribution to the offense.

The commentators of the Camp Nou said, "Marcelona's strict defense has left Messi a little helpless. It seems that his condition is average today..."

Some Spanish media have also begun to criticize Manchester City.

They believed that the ugly game scene was caused by Manchester City. Manchester City did not play the offensive football they imagined, and did not fight Barcelona in a head-on battle, but instead fought an ugly 'British defensive football'.

The commentator of Spanish Sports TV criticized, "Many people say that Manchester City is the most technical team in England. They are no worse than Barcelona at all, but the Manchester City we see now is a rude and barbaric team. They used fouls several times to stop Barcelona's offense, and their offense is not very technical. At least we have not seen it yet..."

Even the British Sky Sports commentator said tactfully, "Manchester City's defense today is very targeted..."

———

Wan Sheng stood on the sidelines and watched the game with a smile.

He doesn't care what the media thinks, the important thing is always victory.

The winner will be respected by everyone, and the loser has no say. The world of football is so simple, so how to win with the most hope is the most important thing.

Wan Sheng believes that the team has great hope of winning against Barcelona, ​​but it is definitely not greater than the current hope.

Using tough defense, Barcelona cannot play, and then their team will launch a counterattack and attack, so that they can walk out of the Camp Nou Stadium with the most steadily and eliminate Barcelona with the most hope.

So Wansheng did this.

He lets the team play defensive counterattacks and makes the team play ugly football.

Just as some media analyzed, "Wansheng hides a pure utilitarian football heart under the appearance of gorgeous offensive football..."

Their analysis is correct. Wansheng is indeed very utilitarian, but the correct statement is that he has a 'heart that yearns for champions'.

How can he win the championship? He will do it.

If he can definitely win the championship, he doesn't mind making the team play a better game. For the current game against Barcelona, ​​the process is not important at all, victory is the most important thing!

———

ps: a little card, please forgive me for being slow to update~

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Chapter completed!