Chapter 28 Aftermath

After Martin O'Neill recalled the great ideal Chen Hero had told him, he stopped agonizing over whether or not he could completely finish off Barcelona in the first leg.

That's right, as far as O'Neill was concerned, the problem of Barcelona was a very boring one compared to Chen Hero's great ideal.

As for Real Madrid... he didn't even bother thinking about them.

These things were not important.

Because after coming to this realization, Martin O'Neill didn't even consider whether what Chen Hero said was true or not.

For him, the important thing wasn't whether it was true, but whether Chen Hero really intended to do it.

If Chen Hero really intended to do it, then all he had to do was do everything possible to mobilize the whole team to help Chen Hero achieve this goal.

He knew that if Chen Hero said it, he would definitely do it.

If Chen Hero failed to do it, it would be a slap in Chen Hero's face.

If Chen Hero lost face, he would be unhappy.

If he was unhappy... he wouldn't last long in Liverpool.

Martin O'Neill was very aware of this and was never ashamed to admit it.

*I'm* basking in Chen Hero's glory, so what? You bunch of gossips can't even get close to it!

After ending the conversation with Chen Hero, Martin O'Neill went back and kept thinking about how he could completely destroy Barcelona at home.

First of all, the definition of destruction was simple: completely defeat Barcelona.

Specifically, it meant winning by a large margin.

This score difference had to be large enough, so large that Barcelona would be helpless even when they returned to their home stadium, and they would not be able to catch up at all.

When they realized this, they would lose their fighting spirit and confidence, and then... the second leg would become a mere formality.

So how to win by a large margin at home?

Martin O'Neill began to analyze himself and his opponent point by point.

What were Liverpool's strengths and weaknesses? What were Barcelona's strengths and weaknesses?

How could these strengths and weaknesses interact with each other, and how would they interact?

For example, could our strengths overcome their strengths? Could our strengths take full advantage of their weaknesses? Could our weaknesses not be exploited by their strengths?

These were all questions that he, as the head coach, needed to solve.

Who said being Chen Hero's coach was the easiest job in the world?

Hero only knows how to shoot his mouth off in front of people and set goals. As for how to achieve them, I have to think of a way for him. Otherwise, do you think Chen Hero could have achieved today's achievements by himself, without everyone's help?

But you only see Chen Hero's glory, but you don't know what work I've done behind the scenes...

And you still mock me for just basking in Chen Hero's glory...

Damn it! Why don't you try it!

I'm afraid you wouldn't even last half a season!

O'Neill vented his resentment in his heart and then threw himself into his work.

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Chen Hero wasn't the kind of person who just threw the mess to others and went to enjoy himself.

He was also working hard in the training mode to improve his ability—in fact, his current ability was already very good, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was the number one player in world football.

But he still had to keep training.

Because he wanted to widen the gap between himself and all the other players in the world, so wide that they wouldn't even have the idea of catching up.

Only then could he truly become number one in the world.

※※※

After a night of hard thinking, O'Neill finally found a way.

According to his analysis, Barcelona was not the kind of team that liked to defend. Although their defense was actually not bad, and even when playing away from home, they would stick to their best tactics, which was attack.

This was more common in Guardiola's Barcelona. Even when going to Stamford Bridge, which was relatively difficult for them, Barcelona had never given up the idea of attacking.

This may be related to Guardiola's aristocratic pride. He always believed that this was Barcelona's tradition and pride, and the reason why Barcelona was different from all other teams.

If Barcelona abandoned this tradition for various reasons, then they would become mediocre and would they still be considered "Barcelona"?

Therefore, his team could never abandon this tradition.

O'Neill had known this for a long time.

So his original tactic was to directly defend and counterattack.

At the beginning of the game, he would attack Barcelona for fifteen minutes. If they could score a goal, that would be great. If they didn't score, it didn't matter. He would immediately retreat to defend, and then Liverpool would use defense and counterattack to deal with them.

As long as Barcelona didn't give up their attacking tactics, Liverpool would have plenty of opportunities to score in these ninety minutes.

Even if they only won by two goals in the away game, it would be a huge advantage.

Then, when they went to the away game, they would use the ultimate move of defense and counterattack from the first minute of the game.

If the score was 0:0, Liverpool would win.

Even if the opponent scored a goal, it didn't matter. Martin O'Neill had absolute confidence in his team's counterattack ability. He believed that Liverpool would definitely score an away goal at the Camp Nou, it was just a matter of how many.

But this plan could not be used now.

Because Chen Hero wanted the team to completely destroy Barcelona in the first leg.

So Martin O'Neill planned to attack Barcelona throughout the entire game at home!

This idea was actually very simple, not creative, and not novel at all.

Many people might curl their lips in disdain—attacking? You thought of that after a whole night!

But it was not just about attacking.

First of all, no football coach in the world would dare to make the decision to attack Barcelona for the entire game.

Because everyone knew that attacking Barcelona was a dead end. Attacking them for half the game would leave you battered and bruised, let alone attacking them for the entire game.

So, the fact that he dared to make this decision was enough to show Martin O'Neill's courage… Of course, some people might think this was stupid. He might have spent a large part of the night gathering courage and making up his mind about whether or not to attack Barcelona. After confirming this, he considered an even more difficult question, which was how long to attack Barcelona.

Finally, he made the decision to attack Barcelona for the entire game.

You must know that even Liverpool, in the Champions League final last season, did not attack Barcelona for the entire game. They only attacked for part of the time.

Now it was the entire game, from the first minute of the game until the referee blew the whistle to end the game. They would not stop their advance, attacking, attacking, and attacking again. Apart from attacking, they would still be attacking!

And once they had a slight mistake in this attacking battle, they might lose all their previous efforts.

This was only one aspect.

Secondly, everyone knew that Liverpool would launch a fierce attack at the beginning of the game, but this was not an attack. This attack was to prepare for the defense later. Once they scored a goal, they would quickly retreat and shrink into their shells, and then begin their despicable defense and counterattack…

So when Barcelona thought that Liverpool would shrink back to defend after scoring a goal, and then hand over the ball control to them honestly, they would be very surprised to find that Liverpool in this game was not the same as before.

And this difference would bring them some confusion, and it would also make them have some unadapted situations in the game.

The so-called strategy, that makes people rack their brains, is all for the sake of the last "surprise"?

So now Barcelona would definitely not think that Liverpool would attack frantically in their own home stadium, completely reckless attack. This madness was actually in stark contrast to what they had expected, and then it would begin to shake Barcelona's morale…

Catch them off guard, attack them unprepared!

The last point was to maximize the exploitation of Chen Hero in the attack. He must raise the banner of the team's attack, and he was the core of this tactic.

If they wanted to completely destroy Barcelona, then Chen Hero had to work harder than in any other game and maximize his ability.

Of course, Martin O'Neill was not worried about this point.

This was something Chen Hero proposed, and he would definitely go all out. Otherwise, he would not be Chen Hero.

In this way, Martin O'Neill decided on the final tactic.

Then, three days before the game, he announced this decision to his players in training.

"In this game, we must completely destroy them at home and make the second leg completely without suspense!"

When the team members heard their coach Martin O'Neill say this, they all turned to look at Chen Hero.

They knew that Chen Hero had said this in front of the media, and now O'Neill's meaning was the same as Chen Hero's, which meant that Hero had persuaded the boss again?

Faced with everyone's gazes, Chen Hero kept a smile on his face and said nothing.

O'Neill coughed, and everyone turned their attention back to him.

"So, in this game, I decided to attack Barcelona at home!"

There was no incredible uproar.

Everyone was just stunned for a moment, and then they accepted this fact.

Looking at the calm players, O'Neill suddenly became a little annoyed—he didn't have as much courage and determination as these players!

Damn it!

Of course, he didn't know that it wasn't a day or two since Liverpool players wanted to defeat Barcelona, completely defeat them, and destroy them.

Being able to attack Barcelona was exactly what they wanted!

Only Chen Hero showed an even brighter smile on his face after hearing what O'Neill said.

He knew why O'Neill chose to attack, because his idea was the same as O'Neill's.

Use the means that Barcelona was best at and most proud of to kill Barcelona, so that Barcelona could die without regret and could rest in peace.

This time, you shouldn't say anything like "we took more initiative, we had a high possession rate, we had more shots, we had a high pass success rate... so we should have won the game. Liverpool's victory is unfair to us..."