Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 338 Yaya Toure's Revenge

Within Spain, the mouthpieces of Real Madrid and Barcelona are locked in a battle of wits.

The English media, of course, were not to be outdone, but they unanimously supported Shan Yongzhuo.

While Shan Yongzhuo, at the center of the storm, didn't seem to care much, Messi was different.

He felt a bit of pressure; Guardiola's words made him quite melancholy.

Am I really better than Shan Yongzhuo?

Messi fell into self-doubt.

To be honest, he didn't really think so. Although he hadn't played against Shan Yongzhuo yet, Shan Yongzhuo's goal-scoring statistics were just too terrifying.

Moreover, judging from the match footage, Messi doesn't think he's any better than Shan Yongzhuo.

The opponent's ability to seize opportunities is simply too strong. They either don't get the ball at all, or when they do, it's always a threat, and it's almost always a goal.

Messi knows very well how terrifying such a striker is.

However, he is still looking forward to playing against Shan Yongzhuo and also hopes that Barcelona will eliminate Manchester City.

Barcelona has always been considered UEFA's favorite, and their draws have always been subject to much scrutiny.

This time, no one said anything about facing Manchester City. After all, Manchester City is a recognized top team in the quarterfinals, having eliminated Real Madrid.

If Barcelona can eliminate Manchester City, then their title win this season would be truly significant.

Meanwhile, the Manchester City team has arrived in Barcelona and, after resting at their hotel for one night, will have a short warm-up match at a temporary venue the next day.

At 4 p.m., the whole team arrived at Camp Nou.

This time, the Manchester City players were much calmer.

After all, they had experienced a big battle against Real Madrid in the last round, so everyone wasn't as nervous about facing Barcelona this time.

It's worth noting that Real Madrid is currently dominating Barcelona in La Liga.

In some ways, this means that Real Madrid is stronger than Barcelona this season.

So, if the team has already eliminated Real Madrid, why would they be afraid of Barcelona?

This was also evident in their pre-match warm-up.

Despite playing away from home, Manchester City's players showed great fighting spirit during warm-ups, especially Yaya Toure.

Yaya Toure came to Manchester City after leaving Barcelona.

Moreover, he harbors a grudge against Barcelona.

He was once the core of Barcelona's defense, but Barcelona and Guardiola did not give him the respect he deserved.

Barcelona only saw him as a workhorse; they focused on developing Pique and didn't pay much attention to Yaya Toure.

Of course, Yaya Touré also had his own reasons for this.

Yaya Toure was a center-back at Barcelona, ​​but he had an attacking heart and was always thinking about making forward runs and scoring goals, which caused a lot of conflict between him and Guardiola.

At Manchester City, Mancini satisfied his attacking desires.

Mancini placed him in the defensive midfield position, which, while primarily defensive, gave him ample freedom to make forward runs.

Comparatively speaking, although Mancini's achievements are not as great as Guardiola's, in some respects, Mancini has been much more successful than Guardiola in developing players.

Mancini values ​​player autonomy in development, giving players a high degree of freedom within his basic tactical framework.

Shan Yongzhuo is a typical example. He was placed by Mancini as a free agent in the frontcourt, or even a free agent for the entire game. Shan Yongzhuo could play however he wanted.

And then there's Balotelli; Mancini was extremely tolerant of him, even though Balotelli often made blunders on the field. The same goes for Silva.

At Manchester City, Mancini placed Silva in the attacking midfield position, defining him as a wide attacking midfielder, allowing Silva to switch freely between the two positions and play flexibly.

This is one of Mancini's strengths, and therefore, Yaya Toure has been happy since arriving at Manchester City.

But Guardiola is different.

Guardiola is the former captain of Barcelona who once played for the Dream Team. During his playing days, he was the commander on the field, playing an important role in organizing and directing the team.

Therefore, he obtained his coaching certificate in 2006, while he was still playing on the football field.

In 2007, after retiring, he became the coach of Atlético Barcelona, ​​and then successfully led the team, which had been relegated the previous season, to the third division, achieving a record of 28 wins, 9 draws and 5 losses, and achieving an impressive record of 9 goals scored and 0 goals conceded in the play-offs.

In 2008, Guardiola officially became the head coach of Barcelona's first team.

In 2009, Guardiola led the team to their 25th Copa del Rey title, marking the beginning of the Barcelona dynasty.

In the 2008-2009 season, under Guardiola's leadership, Barcelona won an unprecedented sextuple.

In the 2009-2010 season, Barcelona won the league title with a high score of 99 points, surpassing Real Madrid and breaking the league record of 92 points held by Capello's Real Madrid.

Last season, Barcelona defeated Manchester United to win the Champions League title again.

It can be said that Guardiola's coaching career was brilliant from the very beginning.

The enormous success gave Guardiola immense prestige at Barcelona. To him, every Barcelona player was a cog in a tactical system, and no one except Messi could challenge his tactics.

Yaya Toure, having become the one to stick his neck out, naturally had no choice but to leave.

Now, Yaya Toure has encountered a less-than-friendly former club, and he is eager to prove himself at Camp Nou, ideally by scoring a goal and giving Guardiola a good slap in the face.

Not only Yaya Toure, but Shan Yongzhuo was also very excited.

He had finally acquired the new skill and now just wanted to test its power.

He didn't care that his opponent was Barcelona, ​​one of the strongest teams in Europe.

After the warm-up, the competition began quickly.

The stands were already packed with fans.

Although Manchester City fans only make up a minority, they are undoubtedly still the most eye-catching.

The Shan Yongzhuo Women's Cheerleading Team is renowned throughout Europe and even the world.

Compared to this women's cheerleading squad of up to a thousand people, the other fans were utterly unappealing.

At that moment, Guardiola, standing on the sidelines, focused his attention on Shan Yongzhuo.

The European Super Cup match at the beginning of this season saw Manchester City field a reserve team, with Shan Yongzhuo and many of the key players not yet back, so it doesn't offer much of a reference point.

Now, facing Europe's most fearsome killer, Guardiola is under immense pressure.

However, he has a lot of confidence in the team.

"We need to play more aggressively, and we need to score more goals than our opponents!"

"Shan Yongzhuo is indeed a terrifying killer, but he is just one person, while you are the strongest team. We will not be suppressed by one player!"

"You need to score more goals than him, then we can win!"

This is Guardiola's strategy: to rely on the team as a whole to score more goals than Shan Yongzhuo.

(End of this chapter)