Chapter 1 The Beginning

It wasn't just the Barcelona players who found Liverpool's behavior a bit strange, but also the fans on both sides of the stands, and the audience in front of the TV.

Generally speaking, such situations are not unheard of in professional leagues, but most of them occur in lower-level leagues and lower-level teams, or in national team matches.

On the Champions League stage... it had been a long time since everyone had seen this scene.

Today's professional players are all stars, and they all have some temper and care about face. This approach is actually a blow to their ego, because no one thinks that they are still rookies who need the captain to lead them in a circle to boost morale...

So why did Liverpool suddenly do this?

No one knew the reason.

Amidst everyone's puzzled gazes, the Liverpool players dispersed and returned to their respective positions. Chen Hero and Sanchez stood in the center circle, the football already in place, waiting for them to kick off.

Chen Hero stepped on the football, then turned around. He saw that his teammates behind him were also looking at him.

Then he grinned at everyone and gave them a thumbs up.

The teammates looked at him and also gave him a thumbs up.

For a moment, eleven thumbs were raised on the field.

This scene naturally fell into the eyes of the Barcelona players and others.

They still didn't understand what Liverpool was up to today.

In their opinion, Liverpool was showing signs of weirdness everywhere today.

However, they didn't have time to think about why this was, and what was so strange about it. Because the referee had already blown the whistle to start the game.

Chen Hero gently tapped the football forward, and Sanchez followed up with a pass to Gotze behind him.

Then Chen Hero sprinted straight ahead, while Sanchez ran diagonally towards the wing.

Liverpool's offensive began.

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Liverpool's offensive would be very fierce after the start of the game. The Barcelona players knew this very well, because coach Guardiola had repeatedly told them.

Therefore, when Liverpool launched an offensive towards their goal at the start, they were not surprised. Although the offensive was particularly fierce, they didn't take it to heart.

Barcelona's countermeasure against Liverpool's opening offensive was not to shrink back and defend like other teams.

First of all, in terms of Barcelona's team spirit, they couldn't accept defending so stubbornly in front of their arch-rivals. Because it would be too humiliating...

Secondly, even if they were allowed to defend stubbornly, they wouldn't be able to defend well. Because they had never practiced this tactic at all.

Barcelona's gene is offense, not defense. Although their defense is good, it doesn't mean they are good at defending, especially good at defending stubbornly.

Allowing Barcelona to choose to defend stubbornly in the face of Liverpool's fierce offensive would undoubtedly be unwise.

Giving up what they are best at and choosing what they are worst at. Other teams' coaches might make this mistake, but Guardiola wouldn't.

The strategy he formulated for Barcelona was to use ball control to counter Liverpool's offense.

When many people hear about ball control, the first thing they think of is offense. In fact, ball control is also a means of defense.

When you always have the ball firmly under your control, the opponent can't get the ball at all, so how can they launch an attack?

Therefore, as long as you can maintain possession of the ball for most of the game, you can keep your defense away from danger.

This is Barcelona's defense.

In fact, this is not just a strategy against Liverpool, Barcelona defends this way at any time, against any opponent.

It is difficult to see them shrink in their own thirty-meter area, and then allow the opponent's players to pass the ball back and forth outside.

They always try to start controlling the ball from the first minute of the game, from the frontcourt to the midfield, and then to the backcourt. Their control is very strong.

At the same time, because of such strong ball control ability, Barcelona will not shrink their defense line. Therefore, they need a goalkeeper with a large defensive area, a large activity area, and a large control range. Reina, who is more skilled at goal-line techniques, was abandoned by Barcelona, and Valdes, who is not very skilled and not very stable, was chosen instead.

Although Valdes often makes various inexplicable mistakes, it must be said that he is the most suitable goalkeeper for Barcelona. Because many times, the role Valdes plays is not just a goalkeeper, but also a sweeper.

This is Barcelona's most accustomed defensive strategy.

They naturally used this set of tactics to deal with Liverpool as well.

In Guardiola's opinion, this was enough to deal with Liverpool's bombardment.

Because as long as the ball has a chance to fall to Barcelona's side, Liverpool's offensive will be unsustainable. And the initiative will fall into Barcelona's hands.

Barcelona will not wait for Liverpool to score a goal, or for the time to run out and the offensive to be automatically lifted, like other teams.

They will take back the ball control, then turn the tables, and then completely bury Liverpool!

Guardiola wanted to be unexpected. No team had ever done this when facing Liverpool before, that is, going against the trend!

So Liverpool would never have thought that Barcelona could still organize an attack under their fierce offensive...

When they are caught off guard, as long as they score a goal first, the initiative in this game will fall into Barcelona's hands. Then what if Liverpool is playing at home? Aren't they still led by the nose by us?

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Liverpool's first offensive was launched by taking advantage of the kick-off opportunity.

But it didn't pose any threat to Barcelona's goal.

It looked like just an ordinary attack.

Barcelona kicked off a goal kick. Valdes didn't kick it directly, but passed it to the center back Pique in front.

Then Pique passed the football up layer by layer.

In fact, Barcelona also kicks long goal kicks, but for this game, Guardiola specifically told Valdes not to kick long if he could avoid it. Try to keep the football rolling along the grass, so that they can always keep the football under their control.

How could they allow the football to fly around in the air?

The tallest players on Barcelona's side are Busquets and Pique. Goalkeeper Valdes is only 1.83 meters tall.

Everyone knows that Liverpool has an advantage in aerial duels. Their defense line is tall, but their turning speed is slow. This is a good opportunity for Barcelona to give full play to its small, fast, and agile characteristics.

As long as they can keep the football at their feet... Barcelona is not afraid of anyone!

Barcelona began to advance layer by layer.

But they encountered huge resistance in midfield.

Liverpool did not retreat directly to the front of the penalty area as usual, but launched a crazy press in the frontcourt.

In order not to give Barcelona any excuses, Liverpool didn't even want the "defense" in the defensive counterattack. In this way, when Barcelona finally loses the game, I believe they will have no more excuses.

This was also unexpected for Barcelona.

Liverpool's approach caught them a little off guard.

Because of a lack of sufficient psychological preparation, when Busquets got the ball in the backcourt and wanted to pass it forward, he was double-teamed by Chen Hero and Gotze.

Even Chen Hero, who usually doesn't defend much, ran back to assist in the defense, which shows Liverpool's determination in this game.

Busquets was not prepared enough. Under the double-teaming of Chen Hero and Gotze, his pass went wrong.

He originally planned to pass it to Alaba on the side in front, but he didn't expect the final pass to deviate from the target.

The football flew directly out of the baseline, giving Liverpool a throw-in in the frontcourt.

Possession returned to Liverpool's feet.

The throw-in was thrown, and Liverpool reorganized their attack.

Of course, this attack eventually resulted in a shot, but it didn't pose any threat to Valdes' goal.

Everything looked no different from any normal game.

Except for that frontcourt press...

Of course, this may just be an accident.

The football was quickly passed to Busquets' feet.

This time, Busquets passed the ball immediately. The football was passed to Iniesta, who came back to support him.

Almost at the same time, two Liverpool players appeared next to Iniesta.

Of course, with Iniesta's outstanding footwork, it was not too difficult to get rid of these two Liverpool players.

But after he got rid of them, he realized that it wasn't that simple - he quickly fell into the defense of Liverpool players again.

This time there was only one person, but he was the most difficult to deal with... Inler.

Inler is strong and has a tough style, which is perfect for dealing with Barcelona's technical players!

Once he gets entangled, it won't be easy to get rid of him...

While Inler was holding Iniesta, the two Liverpool players quickly ran back and blocked the gap left by De Jong.

In this way, Liverpool's defense line did not have any loopholes due to this pressing.

At the same time, they were able to continue to maintain pressure on Barcelona's offense.

Under Inler's pressing, Iniesta was still able to control the ball, but it was difficult for him to pass the ball out.

Messi was originally in the frontcourt. Seeing this situation behind him, he had no choice but to retreat and support his teammates.

As Messi retreated, the other Barcelona players had to retreat as well.

Because Barcelona has very high requirements for the whole team, their passing requires players to maintain a distance of fifteen meters or even shorter from each other, which makes it easier for them to pass the ball on the ground. This distance is the most accurate for passing and the easiest to tear apart the opponent's defense.

As the core of the team, Messi retreated, so in order to maintain the distance between him and Messi, other people had to retreat as well.

In this way, Barcelona was further away from Liverpool's goal...

This is actually Liverpool's real purpose of attacking instead of defending.

Compressing Barcelona into a very narrow area, keeping them away from their own goal, and then as soon as they intercept the ball, they can launch an offensive in the place closest to Barcelona's goal.

If Barcelona wants to forcibly attack, the formation will be torn apart and many gaps will appear, which is exactly what Liverpool, who wants to play a counter-attack against Barcelona, wants.