Actually, what was giving Guardiola a headache wasn't just Chen Hero's strength.

Messi was no longer the unsolvable problem; Chen Hero had become an unsolvable bug.

Along with this change, the once invincible Barcelona team was no longer so fearsome. They were suppressed domestically by Real Madrid, and they hadn't tasted glory in the European arena for a long time. Last season, they reached the Champions League final, only to be defeated by Bayern Munich's wretched tactics. After the match, Barcelona players, extremely disappointed, even said that Bayern Munich didn't deserve the title because their style of play was a regression for football, drawing boos and ridicule from many neutral fans who accused them of being sore losers.

Barcelona's status was no longer as crazy as it used to be. People no longer looked up to them or feared them, so they encountered more trouble. It was like a snowball, turning into a vicious cycle.

One of the reasons why Barcelona was able to sweep the globe and conquer the universe was the fear that many teams had of them. They were afraid just hearing their name, let alone fighting them or defeating them.

Some teams were even busy chasing stars and had no intention of competing with Barcelona.

Bayer Leverkusen can certainly attest to this.

When the two teams met in the Champions League knockout stage, the Bayer Leverkusen players weren't thinking about how to beat Barcelona—which was normal, given the huge gap in strength between the two sides. But what was abnormal was that everyone was already thinking about how to swap jerseys with Messi after the match. The entire team scrambled to exchange jerseys with Messi. What was the difference between this behavior and that of fanatical groupies?

Could their behavior still be called professional?

If the two teams weren't in direct competition, if they weren't opponents in a match, then the Bayer Leverkusen players' actions would just be personal freedom. They had the freedom to chase stars; players can have idols, after all.

But in such an important match as the Champions League round of 16, was it really appropriate for players on the opposing side to display their star-chasing tendencies so blatantly?

Later, the Bayer Leverkusen club also realized the bad consequences of their players' actions. They severely damaged the image of the Bayer Leverkusen club. To prevent infighting over Messi's jersey, they simply bought more than twenty Barcelona jerseys with Messi's name on them before the second leg and gave one to each player.

However, this did not reduce the impact of this star-chasing behavior on the team's combat effectiveness.

In the end, Bayer Leverkusen was hammered for seven goals away from home, and the score of 7-1 permanently nailed Bayer Leverkusen to the pillar of shame.

Messi was in great form in that match, scoring five goals.

It could be considered satisfying for those fans, but one wonders how the Bayer Leverkusen players felt about having five holes poked in them by their idol...

This match was a typical example of how powerful Barcelona was at its peak. They had become so powerful that they could subdue opponents without a fight.

Because of their reputation, many teams would surrender as soon as they heard they were facing Barcelona, allowing them to win these unimportant matches without bloodshed and focus their energy on the most important matches.

But now that kind of treatment no longer existed.

Barcelona was no longer the team that everyone feared. Many teams dared to fight them to the death, and they had to pay multiple times the effort and price to win some matches.

Guardiola felt somewhat like people were kicking him when he was down.

Especially in the European arena, since he took advantage of Chen Hero's transfer to Liverpool and the opportunity to not participate in the Champions League to defeat Real Madrid and win the last Champions League title for Barcelona, Barcelona had never lifted the Champions League trophy again.

In the 2012-2013 season, Barcelona, as the defending champion, didn't even make it to the final. That season was also Barcelona's worst season, as they were completely suppressed by Real Madrid in both domestic and Champions League competitions. His assistant coach, Vilanova, proved that he could only be a qualified assistant coach, not an excellent head coach.

So Cruyff personally came forward to implore Guardiola, who was resting and recharging at home, to come out of retirement.

In fact, Barcelona's performance wasn't as bad as people thought, especially after Guardiola returned to the team. In his first season coaching the team, he led Barcelona back to the Champions League final. Unfortunately, they were helpless against Bayern Munich's all-out defense in the Champions League final and were eventually dragged into a penalty shootout, where they lost to Bayern Munich.

After that match, many Barcelona fans were unconvinced, believing that the title should have belonged to the better-performing Barcelona because Barcelona had far more possession time, shots, shots on target, and passes than Bayern Munich. Why should the weaker team have won the title in the end?

Guardiola ignored these disturbances. He was sorry to have lost this final, but the final also gave him confidence.

He originally thought that he would be facing a mess when he came back and that it would be difficult to clean up.

Who would have thought that in the first season, Barcelona would make it to the Champions League final as if they had collectively taken stimulants... He had a relatively bold idea in his mind, which was to make Barcelona rise again in Europe and restore her dominance.

He wanted to make those people tremble again when they heard the name Barcelona again.

It didn't matter if they didn't win the championship in the first season; they had to win it in the second season!

To this end, he even gave up on La Liga. Because no matter how many La Liga titles they won, it would give people the feeling that the格局 (gé jú - scope; pattern) was too small. After all, no matter how bad Barcelona was now, it wouldn't be difficult to dominate La Liga. The twenty teams in La Liga were still divided into the two teams of the Super League and the eighteen teams of La Liga.

So regaining the La Liga title was necessary, but there was no need to rush. The Champions League title was the best way to illustrate the problem and had a shocking effect.

Only by regaining such an important title could they announce to the whole of Europe and the whole world—the invincible Barcelona of that year was back!

Therefore, he attached great importance to this Champions League final, even more than last season...

He hoped to win this title to prove Barcelona's rise.

But no matter how much he valued it, it was useless, because, unfortunately, Barcelona's opponent in this season's Champions League final was Liverpool. If it was just Liverpool, Guardiola wouldn't be afraid of Liverpool, but the problem was that Liverpool had Chen Hero!

If Barcelona wanted to rise again, they had to overcome the obstacle of Liverpool.

Was this God's test for Barcelona?

It really did make some sense... If Barcelona could defeat Liverpool with Chen Hero, then what other team in the world could stop Barcelona's resurgence?

None!

※※※

Guardiola studied the match videos of Chen Hero and Liverpool day and night, hoping to find clues in them. This life began on the day the final opponent was determined.

During this period, Guardiola was like an ascetic monk. A person who was originally quite trendy, fashionable, and concerned about his image had become unkempt, thinner, with sunken eyes and a haggard face.

He put all his energy into studying Chen Hero.

As a result, he still hadn't figured out how to deal with Chen Hero until the day before the match.

However, this would not hinder Barcelona's training. Because Barcelona's training wasn't targeted at Liverpool as a team. In attack, they only needed to play Barcelona's football to defeat their opponents.

The problem was defense, which was Guardiola's biggest headache.

The other Liverpool players weren't to be feared, but how could they stop Chen Hero?

Guardiola still had no answer.

As the match was about to begin, he still couldn't come up with a solution. In the end, he simply made up his mind—I'll attack Liverpool head-on!

Yes, head-on!

Since there was no way to compete in defense, it would be better to compete in attack.

The facts proved that defending against Liverpool was useless. Only Arsenal had successfully defended, and no other team had succeeded. Especially Newcastle United, the poor Magpies. They replaced all their attacking players with defensive players, and the entire team shrank back into the thirty-meter zone, but they were still hammered for five goals by Chen Hero...

Anyway, defense wasn't Barcelona's strength, attack was, so why emphasize weaknesses and avoid strengths?

Liverpool's attack was sharp, but our Barcelona's attack wasn't weak either.

You have Chen Hero, and we have Messi!

No one is worse than anyone.

After the thought process turned a corner, Guardiola's thinking immediately became clear, allowing him to think about how to attack, which he was best at.

Give full play to Barcelona's characteristics, keep the ball firmly under their feet, use their tacit passing coordination to tear apart Liverpool's defense, and then rely on Messi's personal skills to break into the penalty area and score.

As long as his team could keep the ball firmly in their own hands, they could offset Liverpool's attacking threat.

After all, the ball is safest in your own hands.

This is the creed of Barcelona football.

Without controlling the ball, you cannot control the match.

Without controlling the match, you cannot win the match.

Guardiola figured this out and suddenly stopped worrying about how to deal with Chen Hero.

He also felt a lot more relaxed.

Tonight, he could finally get a good night's sleep.

For Guardiola, this was really not easy.

This was the first time in the past half month that he had been able to sleep soundly, which was very important, because tomorrow's match would not be easy. He needed enough sleep to restore his energy and use a clear mind to cope with this match.