Chapter 1 Philips Stadium Roars

Philips Stadium erupted in cheers, the stands seemingly trembling as if another earthquake was happening beneath everyone's feet.

Amidst this joyful scene, the Barcelona coaching staff and substitutes' bench were eerily silent.

The atmosphere was truly bizarre.

Vilanova was momentarily stunned by the scene.

"Uh... what's going on?"

But he was, after all, a battle-hardened assistant coach, and he quickly came to his senses—a goal had been scored, but not by Barcelona... by Eindhoven!

This realization shocked him. For a moment, he even forgot to stand up.

Barcelona was behind?

Even though this was an away game, the opponent was the weak Eindhoven, how could they be behind? With Barcelona's strength, they should be leading!

Even though they had replaced many of their key players, the youngsters from La Masia academy were all top talents, any of whom could be absolute starters and core players on any team. So even this Barcelona second team should be able to easily defeat the opponent.

Vilanova had been focused on listening to the radio broadcast since the start of the match, not paying enough attention to the game itself, so he didn't know that the game had been tight from the beginning, and that Barcelona didn't have the absolute ability to easily defeat Eindhoven.

If he had known this, he wouldn't have been so shocked, but would have had the same expression as Guardiola—ashen!

Because this goal meant that Barcelona would have to pay a higher price to win the game. And it also showed that Barcelona's performance wasn't as good as they had thought before the game!

Perhaps replacing too many key players at once and putting too many young players on the field, these players lacked experience in playing Champions League matches, let alone quarter-finals. Another step forward in this competition was the semi-finals, which was a completely different world. In all of Europe, only four teams could appear in the semi-finals. For Eindhoven, this was a very tempting opportunity.

In fact, even after being drawn against Barcelona, Eindhoven hadn't given up. Although the hope was slim, Eindhoven's coach, Cocu, hadn't abandoned hope.

He had been paying attention to Barcelona's movements since he knew the draw results.

He had played for Barcelona for many years and knew the team very well. He knew that the team's biggest characteristic was pride. They were proud of their team's tradition, they were also proud of their team's strength, and they were even proud of the Catalan region to which the team belonged, and proud that the Catalan region had been fighting for independence from Spain.

This kind of pride was ingrained in their bones.

Pride was naturally a good thing, but excessive pride became a bad thing.

For example, sometimes they would look down on teams weaker than them and would involuntarily develop a sense of complacency.

Just like this time.

His own team was too weak for Barcelona, and Barcelona was focused on avenging Liverpool in the semi-finals, so they naturally wouldn't focus on the game against Eindhoven.

In this way, he might have a chance...

Sure enough, the information that quickly came back told Cocu that he had gotten what he wanted.

Barcelona simply didn't take Eindhoven seriously. Not only that, but they also believed that Cocu being the coach of Eindhoven would make these two games easier. Because Cocu had played for Barcelona before, had served as the captain of Barcelona, and had a good relationship with the Barcelona media and fans. With Cocu's identification with Barcelona, he might even intentionally throw the game...

This statement was brazenly and smugly made by the Barcelona media.

This angered Cocu.

Cocu considered himself to be a very dedicated coach. Although he was young and his resume was not impressive, he respected football, and he would never do such a thing as intentionally throwing a game. In his opinion, being thought of as someone who would throw a game was simply an insult to him!

However, he did not express this anger.

Not only that, but he also wanted to express his goodwill towards Barcelona before the game, so before the game, he spoke to reporters at length about his days playing for Barcelona. He said that he still missed his Barcelona teammates and the fans. He liked the city of Barcelona, and he still said that he would always be a supporter of Barcelona.

He spoke with sincerity, and coupled with the fact that he had played for Barcelona for six years and held the record for the most appearances by a foreign player in Barcelona's history, no one believed that Cocu was lying.

Cocu was not lying, he was telling the truth.

But love for Barcelona did not mean that he would throw the game for Barcelona.

This was just to confuse Barcelona.

He succeeded. Barcelona sent more than half of their young players onto the field, and even Messi rarely got a chance to rest.

At the same time, Cocu constantly instilled a concept into the Eindhoven players before the game. That was, "Even if the whole world thinks you are doomed to lose, you cannot give up yourselves." He constantly relayed the Barcelona media's contempt for Eindhoven to everyone, gradually building up hatred and fighting spirit against Barcelona in their hearts.

Eindhoven was also a giant in Dutch football. If it were twenty years ago, would Barcelona dare to despise them so much? Now they were being humiliated by their opponents, who would feel good about it?

The flames of fighting spirit burned fiercely in the hearts of every Eindhoven player.

Then they took the lead against Barcelona in the game!

When his team scored, coach Cocu rushed out of the coaching area with his arms raised, his face changed with excitement.

All the efforts and contributions were worth it at this moment!

Didn't you say that this was just a warm-up match for the semi-finals?

I will tell you how unusual this warm-up match is!

※※※

When the Eindhoven players realized that they were really leading Barcelona, they were ecstatic. Their celebrations were even a bit exaggerated.

But Barcelona did not protest. At first, it was because they hadn't recovered from the shock—their mighty Barcelona, was actually being led by Eindhoven? Being led by such a team?!

They could accept being led by Liverpool and Real Madrid, after all, these two teams had the same strength as them, and it was normal even if they were leading them.

But Eindhoven and them were worlds apart! They could actually lead Barcelona only twelve minutes into the game!

This reality was too cruel and too demoralizing.

And when they finally recovered from the shock and began to gradually accept this reality, there was another thing that made them a little flustered.

Guardiola was, after all, the team's coach. He wasn't as fragile as the others. He quickly calmed down and accepted this reality. Now, what he should be thinking about was how to fight back, not thinking "This is impossible! This is impossible! How is this possible!"

So, after regaining his senses, he naturally noticed Vilanova next to him. He remembered that when Eindhoven scored, Vilanova suddenly stood up with a strange expression on his face.

But now Vilanova was frightened by the fact that the team was behind and had no reaction.

He turned to look at Vilanova: "Tito, you seem to have something to tell me?"

Hearing Guardiola's words, Vilanova realized: "Uh... yes..." He remembered what he was supposed to do.

But just thinking about this, the expression on his face became even uglier.

Guardiola looked at the change in expression on his face: "What's wrong?"

"Uh... Liverpool scored. Chen Hero scored, just when we conceded a goal... Liverpool are leading!"

Guardiola was also stunned.

Then he realized—this was really too bad!

His own team was behind, but Liverpool was leading. He was too familiar with Liverpool. After taking the lead in their home game, even one goal was enough. In the future games, Liverpool would become smoother and smoother, while Dortmund would have no power to fight back. Maybe Liverpool could end the suspense of the two-legged match in their own home game.

In that case, no matter how terrifying and hellish the Westfalenstadion was, what threat would it pose to Liverpool?

Guardiola then realized the problem that he had been ignoring.

He only saw the advantages and disadvantages of the schedule, but forgot that Liverpool, who played the first leg at home, could completely crush Dortmund and end the suspense of the quarter-finals with their equally strong home advantage. After all, Dortmund was far behind Liverpool in strength, and this possibility was not nonexistent.

In this way, he might not be waiting for work at his leisure!

So now what he should be thinking about is how to quickly defeat Eindhoven in the away game, and like Liverpool, make the second leg of the match meaningless!

Thinking of this, he nodded to Vilanova: "I know, Tito. You continue to pay attention to the movements over there, and tell me if there is any situation."

After assigning the task to Vilanova, he took a few steps forward and walked to the edge of the coaching area.

Many of the main players did not come to the Netherlands with the team. This was to deal with Liverpool and to allow them to get better rest to the greatest extent.

However, some players still came to Philips Stadium with the team.

Messi, as the team's trump card, was sitting on the bench at this time.

If Messi were sent on, this game could be ended soon.

But... if they ran into Eindhoven and had to send out their strongest players, wouldn't that make them seem too incompetent?

Guardiola also had his troubles.

His troubles were the same as Martin O'Neill's before, that is, some people would always think that his success was not due to his ability as a coach, but due to talented players like Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta. Didn't Ibrahimovic say? "What is Guardiola capable of? If I were the coach of Barcelona, I could also win the championship!"

This sentence was like a thorn, stuck in Guardiola's heart.

And he himself knew that he still had some shortcomings, so after leading Barcelona to win so many championships, he decided to leave temporarily. His reason was "I need to recharge," this was not an excuse, this was a genuine reason.

He led Barcelona to win a Champions League title after his return, but this was not enough. After Xavi gradually grew old, Guardiola won fewer championships than when he first coached Barcelona. Although compared to other coaches, it was still considered a success, Guardiola's opponent was never someone else, but himself.

How could such a proud person allow himself to be inferior to his former self?

He had recharged for a year, and should be better than his previous self.

The championship was the only standard for measuring all this.

He wanted the world to know that he, Guardiola, could achieve success not because he had top players like Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta, but because he, the coach, coordinated them well!

So now he had this hesitation.

The reason why it was said to be the same as Martin O'Neill before was because Martin O'Neill had already figured it out. He was not from a famous family like Guardiola, and he achieved dazzling results enough to blind others as soon as he debuted.

So his mentality was closer to that of a normal person, more peaceful.

Since Chen Hero was worth relying on, then he relied on him.

There was nothing great about this.

As long as he could win the championship, anything would do.

Some things were just false names, meaningless, and the heavy gold medals and trophies were the most practical.

Once he saw it clearly, Martin O'Neill stopped dwelling on those illusory things.

But Guardiola had not reached his level yet...