The path to becoming a football legend began with being ousted from Carrington by Manchester United.

Lin Yi's early attack came just short of a goal, leaving Manchester City fans feeling incredibly disappointed.

However, this was Manchester City's only shot on goal in the first 15 minutes of the game.

The mighty Barcelona took over the game directly through their classic tactic "Tiki-Taka," a near-unsolvable possession-based style of play.

Statistics show that Barcelona had a terrifying 7% possession rate in the first 15 minutes.

The midfield trio of Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets, along with Messi who often dropped deep to receive the ball, and Fabregas, also a product of La Masia, firmly controlled the rhythm of the game.

With these players at the core, Barcelona players made it almost impossible for Manchester City to touch the ball through continuous and precise short passes.

This is their usual style of play, which not only allows them to firmly control the initiative in the game, but more importantly, it can psychologically wear down their opponents.

Once the opponent shows a weakness, Barcelona has the ability to instantly tear apart the opponent's defense.

Even if they make a mistake, they will quickly launch a high press as Guardiola instructed, neutralizing the opponent's attack in the opponent's half.

The one-sided situation that emerged after the start of the match was actually partly due to Manchester City's deliberate coordination.

Pellegrini fielded three defensive midfielders in the starting lineup for this match: Yaya Toure, Nigel de Jong, and Gareth Barry.

In addition, before the match, he instructed the players to retreat their defensive line to the edge of the penalty area, compressing the forward passing space for Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta, allowing them to easily pass the ball around on the outside, thus inducing Barcelona's formation to push forward as a whole.

Despite trailing by two goals in the first leg, Manchester City desperately need to break the deadlock at Camp Nou to close the aggregate gap.

But the astute Chilean engineer insisted that the players forget about the score and strictly adhere to his tactical plan.

His purpose in doing this was actually to test his patience with Barcelona.

Under normal circumstances, this approach will not work.

Since Barcelona is in the lead, they can leisurely control the ball and run down the clock until the end of the match, then advance to the quarterfinals without much effort.

Pellegrini's confidence to do this stemmed from only one thing: the fact that the match was being played at Camp Nou.

With years of experience coaching in La Liga, Pellegrini knows how demanding Barcelona fans are; they would never allow the team to play so conservatively at home.

The Barcelona players, who are hailed as the "Dream Team," would not waste time in this way; they don't take Manchester City seriously at all.

Sure enough, less than 20 minutes into the match, the picky Barcelona fans had already started to get impatient.

They created a huge wave of sound in the stands, encouraging the team to intensify their attack with songs and shouts. The fans couldn't wait to see the team's first goal.

The game is gradually unfolding in the direction Pellegrini hopes for.

As time went on, Barcelona, ​​gradually becoming more active, began to make more proactive attempts amidst the cheers of nearly 10 fans at Camp Nou.

Barcelona's starting full-backs today are both from the footballing powerhouse Brazil: left-back Adriano and right-back Alves, both of whom possess exceptional attacking abilities.

Seeing Manchester City adopting a defensive posture today, in order to compensate for the lack of attacking personnel, these two attacking defenders began to frequently push forward.

As Barcelona's attacking momentum grew stronger, almost the entire Manchester City team, except for Lin Yi, retreated to their own half to participate in defense.

Pellegrini stood up from his seat and paced anxiously back and forth on the sidelines.

Although the current situation is exactly as he had imagined before the match, he is unsure whether Manchester City's defensive tactics and fast counter-attacks will work first, or whether Barcelona's strong attack will break the balance first.

As the head coach, that's all he can do; the rest depends on the 11 players on the field.

In the 22nd minute of the first half, after a series of passes, Iniesta felt the time was right.

After receiving the ball, he stopped passing it across the box and suddenly turned, dribbling straight into the Manchester City penalty area.

This sudden change in pace caught Barry, who was marking him closely, off guard, and Iniesta successfully broke through Manchester City's first line of defense.

Not far from Bari, De Jong dared not be careless in the slightest when facing his old rival who had faced him head-on in the 10 World Cup final. He immediately abandoned his own defensive zone to come and help Bari cover.

Iniesta observed De Jong's movement and continued dribbling forward at a leisurely pace. When De Jong came from the side and came close to him, he gently flicked the ball between De Jong's legs with the outside of his right foot.

After dribbling past two Manchester City defensive midfielders, Manchester City could no longer maintain their defensive integrity, and center-back Lescott had to come out to meet him, preventing the opponent from getting a direct shot.

Iniesta showed no sign of slowing down and charged straight toward Lescott with the ball.

This dribbling style is very similar to Lin Yi's usual breakthrough style.

Having suffered many losses against Lin Yi in training, Lescott didn't dare to kick at all, trying his best to control his center of gravity and carefully retreating slowly.

Iniesta continued to dribble forward with small, quick steps, gradually closing the distance between the two players.

Just as Lescott was hesitating whether to continue retreating or press forward, Iniesta suddenly flicked his ankle as he touched the ball, no longer dribbling forward, but instead sending a cross to the side.

Messi had been waiting for a long time along his passing route.

Faced with the opponent's highly concealed pass, Lescott was shocked and quickly accelerated towards Messi, who was already in a shooting position.

However, Messi's move was just a feint. As his left foot landed, he lightly deflected the oncoming Lescott and continued to assume the bow and arrow stance.

Manchester City's other center-back, Richards, was unable to distinguish whether Messi's move was genuine or not. Out of concern for the goal, he had no choice but to make a sliding tackle to block any possible shot from Messi.

Unfortunately, Richards fell for it. Messi's move was just a feint. He continued to dribble the ball sideways, dodging Richards' tackle. There were no Manchester City players blocking his way anymore.

Messi, the "little flea," is making his shooting motion for the third time; this time he's serious.

He raised his left leg and swung it rapidly, seemingly preparing to curl a shot.

In a critical moment, a thick, black leg blocked Messi's left foot, which was about to shoot, and the ball, effectively stopping Messi's swinging left foot.

Don't be fooled by the small swing of Messi's leg; the force of that kick was considerable. Even someone as strong as Yaya Toure was knocked off balance by Messi's kick, and his right leg, which he used to block the shot, ended up kneeling on the grass.

The referee had his whistle in his mouth, ready to call a foul on the attacking team.

However, despite being kicked, Toure managed to keep himself from falling completely. He used his still-struck right leg to sweep the ball towards David Silva, yelling, "Quick!"

Before the match, manager Pellegrini repeatedly told Manchester City not to hesitate when they had the opportunity to pass the ball out. Manchester City's only chance in this match was to pursue the ultimate counter-attacking speed.

Without needing Toure's reminder, David Silva, upon receiving the ball, launched a long ball forward at the same moment Toure shouted.

At the same time, two figures that had been lying in wait for a long time ran towards Barcelona's half of the field, one after the other.