Chapter 1 The Focus

The English FA Cup was over, the English leagues were over, and across the European continent, the major leagues were all finished.

The entire European football world… no, the entire world football community, had their eyes focused on the Champions League final.

Although there was the Brazil World Cup this year, the brilliance of the Champions League final could not be concealed.

Even the most nostalgic fans had to admit that the Champions League had caught up with the World Cup in terms of quality and commercial value. The only area where it fell short was political significance. After all, the Champions League was a competition between clubs, while the World Cup was a confrontation between countries. Anything involving countries was inevitably linked to politics.

"Keep politics out of football" was just a beautiful slogan, and it would never be possible in reality.

The World Cup's immense influence was inseparable from its political significance.

The struggle between countries wasn't just reflected on the battlefield.

The Champions League, on the other hand, was purer.

Football was the only theme.

Before the World Cup arrived, the Champions League final was a major event in European football, and even in world football.

Everyone focused their attention on the two teams participating in the Champions League final.

Real Madrid and Liverpool.

These were the two highest-level teams in football today—Barcelona was eliminated, so they weren't worth mentioning.

Major betting companies had opened odds for the final, and judging from the odds, they generally favored Liverpool.

After all, the team's performance this season was convincing.

They had already won six championships, making this season unstoppable.

Even a team like Barcelona had ultimately fallen at Liverpool's feet, and had lost so miserably.

Liverpool's 6-0 thrashing of Barcelona in the home leg of the semi-final was impressive. It also changed many people's previous views. Before that, they thought that if Liverpool could reach the final and face Real Madrid, it would be an evenly matched game.

But as soon as the first leg of the semi-final ended, everyone changed their minds. They felt that with Liverpool's strength, if they went all out, defeating Real Madrid would be easy.

Betting companies also revised their odds for the four teams winning the championship after that game.

Although Real Madrid defeated Barcelona in La Liga to win the league title, their performance was normal, and the score by which they beat Barcelona was also normal. If Liverpool had also beaten Barcelona by a normal score, the odds for the two teams to win the championship would have been similar. But Liverpool's performance was just too heaven-defying, as if they had a cheat code.

Faced with such a terrifying Liverpool, no matter how well Real Madrid performed, they couldn't compare.

In fact, this was the case even within Real Madrid.

Liverpool had been in the limelight in both the European and English arenas this season. It would be blatant lying to say that Liverpool was not to be feared.

Mourinho was indeed known as the "Special One," and his style exuded arrogance. But he wasn't an idiot, so he wouldn't turn a blind eye to a strong enemy and say that Liverpool was no threat.

This kind of self-deception was useless for defeating opponents.

In fact, from the moment Liverpool entered the Champions League final, Mourinho had launched research and investigation work targeting Liverpool.

He wasn't worried that his team would get through the semi-final. He was confident that Real Madrid would definitely appear on the Champions League final stage. This was a manifestation of his arrogance.

But in preparation, he was not only not arrogant, but also very careful and meticulous.

He sent scouts to be stationed in Liverpool, tracking every game and observing the players' condition.

However, the effect was not great, because after eliminating Barcelona, Liverpool sent out a lineup of half first-team substitutes and half reserve team players to play the next game.

Therefore, the people who could be observed through this kind of tracking and observation were very limited, and the collected information was not very useful for reference.

Fortunately, television information was very developed now, and the internet was even more developed. Therefore, Mourinho could easily collect Liverpool's past game footage.

Since acquiring Chen Hero, Liverpool and Real Madrid had played against each other three times. Once in the European Super Cup, when Liverpool had just won the Europa League and met that year's Champions League winner, Real Madrid, in the European Super Cup. Liverpool eventually defeated Real Madrid in a penalty shootout to win the European Super Cup. Chen Hero scored twice in that game.

The other two times were in the Champions League. It was in the Champions League quarter-finals of the same season they won the European Super Cup. Liverpool faced Real Madrid and, thanks to Chen Hero's outstanding performance and Pepe's mistake, Liverpool eliminated the defending champion Real Madrid.

After that game, Pepe's personal fate also underwent earth-shattering changes. He was under tremendous pressure and then transferred from Real Madrid to Liverpool.

This year's Champions League final was the first time Pepe had met his old club since leaving Real Madrid.

There were only these three records of their encounters, and they were all a long time ago. In these three encounters, Real Madrid did not gain the slightest advantage, with two losses and one draw.

Therefore, Real Madrid's coach Mourinho attached great importance to their opponent, Liverpool.

His attitude was very correct.

Very, very correct.

Because he initially placed Liverpool in the position of a strong team, and regarded Real Madrid as challengers.

He was considering how not to lose to Liverpool, rather than how to defeat Liverpool.

Actually, it was the same thing. As long as he didn't lose to Liverpool, he would have a way to defeat Liverpool.

His method was very simple, but most people couldn't think of it.

In fact, someone had thought of it before Mourinho, and Mourinho's method was also based on the other party's.

He found it after watching massive amounts of Liverpool games this season.

At that time, he was watching the second leg of the League Cup semi-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. He found that Tottenham had drawn 2-2 with Liverpool's reserve team at home in the first leg.

Then, when they went to the away game, Tottenham chose to defend to secure a draw.

Mourinho, who had coached in the Premier League for many years, knew the rules of the League Cup very well.

The League Cup was not like the Champions League, there was no away goals rule.

That meant that even if Tottenham didn't score a goal in this game, as long as they didn't concede a goal, they would have a chance to drag the game into extra time, and then… a penalty shootout.

That's right, that was Tottenham's plan.

Tottenham clearly wanted to use a penalty shootout to offset Chen Hero's individual ability.

After all, no matter how powerful Chen Hero was, he was only one person. His one goal in a regular game could determine the final outcome. It could be said that one goal from him might be worth two or even three goals. But in a penalty shootout, one goal from Chen Hero was equal to one, it was impossible for his goal to count as two or three. Therefore, even if he could kick the football into the goal, it wouldn't mean anything, as long as his teammates didn't perform well, the victory would naturally belong to Tottenham.

After Mourinho figured out why Tottenham Hotspur was doing this, he realized that it really was a good way to deal with Liverpool.

Especially suitable for his Real Madrid.

Because Mourinho was a coach who liked defense in his bones.

His Real Madrid would play very unrestrainedly when facing weak teams, because he knew that weak teams could not truly pose a threat to his victory. So he didn't mind using offense against weak teams to please the picky Real Madrid fans.

But when he encountered a strong team that could truly threaten him, he would choose a more conservative strategy. First, he would solidify the defense, and then look for opportunities to counterattack.

Although such a game was still very good to watch, the core was still defense.

So if you want to defend to secure a draw, Guardiola's Barcelona couldn't do it, but Mourinho's Real Madrid was very handy.

In fact, Mourinho had done this once before when they last played against each other.

In the first leg of Real Madrid's away game against Liverpool, Mourinho's Real Madrid focused on defense and looked for opportunities to counterattack.

The two sides played cautiously in that game. Because they both knew that the other was good at defensive counterattacks.

Although it was very dull, Real Madrid did not change their tactics.

Martin O'Neill also learned from this the extent of Mourinho's control over the team.

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Mourinho's strategy was to drag the game directly into a penalty shootout.

Although this would not look good on the field, and might even look very bad, nothing was more important than the championship.

He helped Real Madrid win a Champions League title, and now he wanted to win a second one.

He had always been such a person, choosing the most suitable way for victory and championships. If offense could win the championship, he would insist on offense, just like at Chelsea, where the two-winged football was very good to watch. If defense could win the championship, he would decisively park a bus in front of the goal, just like when he led Inter Milan to win the Champions League.

Now, this penalty shootout was also, after analyzing it over and over again, considered the only way to defeat Liverpool.

His reasoning was the same as Tottenham's, Chen Hero had the ability to decide the outcome of a game on his own in a regular game. But if the game went into a penalty shootout, his advantage would be wiped out.

His scoring a goal would not affect others.

At that time, what the two teams would be competing for was not Chen Hero, but the abilities of the penalty takers and goalkeepers on both sides.

In this regard, Mourinho was confident.

Real Madrid had excellent penalty takers. At the same time, they also had the current world's number one goalkeeper, Casillas.

This was Mourinho's greatest reliance.

Plus, with preparation against unpreparedness. Liverpool would at most conduct some penalty training the day before the game.

And his Real Madrid? They would conduct penalty special training every day for a week before the game!

At that time, when the prepared Real Madrid met the unprepared Liverpool in a penalty shootout, Real Madrid's players would definitely have soaring morale and be full of confidence.

What is a penalty shootout about? Isn't it about psychology?

What is psychology?

Psychology is confidence and morale.

As long as he could drag the game into a penalty shootout, Mourinho was confident that he could defeat Liverpool and end their undefeated myth this season.

As for how to drag the game into a penalty shootout… that was exactly what Mourinho was best at.