Mourinho was studying how to beat Liverpool, and Martin O'Neill was also studying Real Madrid.

He didn't know Mourinho's tactics.

But he absolutely didn't think Mourinho would go head-to-head with Liverpool in the final. From his understanding of Mourinho, this man was a typical pragmatist.

When dealing with problems, he would only choose the method that was most beneficial to himself.

So, in all likelihood, Real Madrid would choose a defensive counter-attack strategy.

Martin O'Neill remembered Liverpool's previous clashes with Real Madrid.

Real Madrid's chosen tactic was defensive counter-attack.

O'Neill believed that in this final, Mourinho would most likely choose this tactic again.

Since he was sure that Real Madrid's tactic was defensive counter-attack, O'Neill considered countermeasures for this tactic on his side.

If Real Madrid adopted a defensive counter-attack, should Liverpool press forward to attack?

Obviously not.

Mourinho was pragmatic, while Martin O'Neill was cautious.

He knew why Mourinho chose defensive counter-attack: he wanted Liverpool to press forward, leaving gaps behind for the opponent to launch a counter-attack. Real Madrid's counter-attacks were very powerful, and one counter-attack could result in a goal.

Since he knew what the opponent was going to do, choosing to press forward would be suicide.

So, the cautious Martin O'Neill chose the same tactic for Liverpool as Real Madrid: defensive counter-attack.

The main focus was on solid defense, with counter-attacks launched when conditions allowed.

Both teams focused on defense, with counter-attacks as a secondary option.

Such a match would certainly not be exciting to watch.

But in the face of the championship, who cared about the spectacle?

Martin O'Neill wasn't exactly pragmatic, but he was definitely not a foolish idealist either.

In modern football, defense wins championships, and offense wins fans. This is the truth.

He didn't think he could fight against it.

In fact, the decision on this tactic was made even before the FA Cup final, so Liverpool's training had been following this tactic all along.

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The training of both sides became more and more in-depth, and the time open to the media and fans became less and less.

Without looking at the calendar, everyone knew that the Champions League final was getting closer and closer.

Promotional videos for this match had been released as early as a week ago. In addition to the official promotional videos, there were also many self-made videos by TV stations and fans.

In their promotional videos, the clash between the two sides was like a Hollywood blockbuster.

The fans and media were so enthusiastic that they would probably spit out a mouthful of blood if they knew what the two coaches had in mind.

However, the players and coaches on both sides had no sense of guilt at all.

In addition to trailers and promotional videos, the media also focused on the war of words between the two teams.

After Ferguson's retirement, Mourinho was probably the coach who was best at doing this.

He would naturally not miss this excellent opportunity to show off his eloquence in this final.

The beginning of the matter was when a reporter mentioned in an interview that he had led his team against Liverpool three times and had not won once. Would this cause the players to have psychological shadows when playing against Liverpool?

Mourinho was furious at the press conference.

He scolded the reporter for not understanding football.

"...Past results cannot explain any problems! I don't think that's a shadow. But if you media keep hyping this matter, it may bring us some trouble. Aren't you trouble makers?"

Then he began to accuse the media of how much trouble they had caused him during his years coaching Real Madrid.

After he had scolded all the media, he got up and left the press conference, thus ending the weekly routine press conference of the Real Madrid team on Wednesday.

A group of reporters looked at each other, not expecting Mourinho's reaction to be so intense.

Even if their questions were indeed a bit harsh... it shouldn't have made Mourinho lose his temper like this, scolding all the media. It should be known that only one media asked the question, and many media were on the side of Liverpool and Mourinho, but this time they were shot while lying down.

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The news of Mourinho's angry departure from the press conference quickly spread throughout European football.

The media frantically hyped this matter. Because this was the biggest news before the Champions League final.

While hyping it up, they also strongly criticized Mourinho for being arrogant.

"If it weren't for our media, where would Mourinho be today?"

"Without us, he would at most be just an ordinary successful coach. There are so many coaches who can win championships, why is he the highest-paid in the world? Isn't it because we are promoting him? Now that he has achieved fame and success, he is ungrateful!"

Many media criticized Mourinho indignantly, but whether they really thought so was hard to say.

What they were doing was just trying to hype things up even more.

Chen Yingxiong also noticed the opponent's situation.

He just curled his lips at Mourinho's neurotic behavior.

He knew what Mourinho was doing, because they were the same kind of people. What Mourinho did was actually what Chen Yingxiong often did.

Mourinho wasn't really ungrateful or suddenly had a mental breakdown and offended the media.

He just wanted to attract all the attention to himself before the Champions League final. In this way, the pressure on his players would be much less.

And bearing pressure was originally the job of the coach, but Mourinho could bear more pressure than the average coach.

Chen Yingxiong was the same. The reason why he kept provoking verbal battles was because he wanted to transfer the pressure to himself.

Mourinho gave such a dedicated performance, taking all the pressure on himself.

How could Chen Yingxiong be willing to lag behind?

He also appeared on the scene.

Chen Yingxiong did not comment on Mourinho's performance. He didn't even say a word in front of the media, and he attracted all the media's attention to himself.

A week before the start of the game, Chen Yingxiong went to a tattoo shop.

This was the same shop where he had tattooed the Champions League trophy on his arm last time. He was considered a "regular customer." In addition, he himself was famous, so how could the tattoo shop owner not know what Chen Yingxiong was here for?

Of course, it was for a tattoo.

But there was something special about the tattoo.

The request he made surprised the tattoo shop owner, who was stunned for a long time without saying a word.

Seeing that the other party didn't say anything, Chen Yingxiong asked, "What's wrong? Is it too difficult?"

The tattoo shop owner then reacted and quickly shook his head, "No, no, it's not difficult to tattoo a Champions League trophy. I'm just... are you blessing yourself with good luck, Hero?"

Chen Yingxiong shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, "No, this is my victory speech."

The tattoo shop owner, who was a Liverpool fan himself, was instantly excited after hearing Chen Yingxiong say this.

Because he knew that Chen Yingxiong never went back on his word!

So this time, he could really start looking forward to Liverpool defending their Champions League title!

With full enthusiasm, the tattoo shop owner tattooed a new Champions League trophy on Chen Yingxiong's arm with the most pious attitude.

This way, he would have three Champions League trophy tattoos.

Each trophy had the season in which the championship was won below it.

The first trophy was tattooed with 2010-2011. The second was 2014-2015. The newly tattooed third trophy had 2015-2016 below it.

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A day later, photos of Chen Yingxiong with his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, sweating profusely on the training ground, appeared on the front pages of many newspapers.

The photographer didn't want to tell everyone how hard Liverpool's top star was working in training.

Instead, he wanted to tell everyone to pay attention to Chen Yingxiong's arm.

To make it easier for readers to understand at a glance, a small photo was attached next to this photo.

The photo showed Chen Yingxiong's same arm, with the focus on the tattoo on his arm.

In the small photo, there were two European Champions Cups on the tattoo.

In the latest photo, everyone could clearly see that there was an additional Champions Cup trophy on Chen Yingxiong's arm, and the numbers below this trophy clearly told everyone which Champions League trophy this was.

It was this season's!

"It seems that Hero is determined to win this season's Champions League!"

"Hero used a tattoo to announce his attitude towards this game!"

"Chen Yingxiong can't wait to tattoo his personal third Champions League trophy on his body. If he doesn't succeed in the end, what I want to know is, will Chen Yingxiong have to wash off this tattoo?"

……

The media made various speculations and comments on the intention of his tattoo. Some said it was confidence, while others said it was arrogance. Chen Yingxiong's approach was disrespectful to the final opponent. How could he announce the victory of the game before it even started?

Whether they were praising Chen Yingxiong or criticizing Chen Yingxiong, the topic of discussion was Chen Yingxiong. As for Chen Yingxiong's teammates, no one paid much attention to them.

From beginning to end, he didn't say a word. With just a tattoo, he let the media help him say what he wanted to say, and also focused their attention on himself.

In this way, he achieved his goal.

The team could prepare in a relatively relaxed environment, without interference.

This could be seen from the fact that the media was interviewing Chen Yingxiong. All kinds of tricky and strange questions were thrown at Chen Yingxiong.

These questions made the other Liverpool players feel difficult to answer.

But Chen Yingxiong handled them with ease. If he really encountered a difficult problem, Chen Yingxiong would simply act shamelessly.

Anyway, it was the media who begged him to be interviewed, not him who begged the media to interview himself.

Chen Yingxiong was qualified to put on airs in front of the media, and the media was not qualified to pick and choose.

In such an environment, Liverpool prepared "quietly."

The Champions League final was getting closer and closer.