"Have you ever eaten toffee?"

"Of course. ”

"Do you like the smell?"

"Like. ”

"Why?"

"Because the content is very rich, and it is very sticky, and it is fragrant when you finish eating. What about you?"

"I've eaten it, and I don't hate it. But I don't have a preference for sweets, you know. ”

****

The little ball boy in the Everton shirt was held by the Barcelona No.7, and he felt a lot of happiness. He was on tiptoe and talked to him a lot when he was in the tunnel, and he responded politely with a smile. But the eight-year-old caddie wasn't stupid, and he could tell that the England superstar's mind wasn't on what he was saying.

They walked out of the tunnel at Goodison Park and Patrick Amber jumped and touched the turf, all of his signature moves. The only thing that surprised the little caddy was that Patrick's palms were a little sweaty.

The little caddy thought that one day, when I start for my club in the semi-finals of the Champions League, I will have sweaty palms. In fact, he's a Liverpudlian, he's a Liverpool fan, and it makes him feel awkward to wear an Everton shirt, but, oh fuck, if the Everton Academy wants him, he's happy to wear blue – and if mom can hear what is in his heart, she'll say, watch your words, young boy.

The Champions League song played, and the little caddie smiled triumphantly at the camera. Behind him, stood the best footballer in the world, tall and handsome.

The corners of Patrick's mouth curled slightly—

He never told anyone that he liked the pick, that he liked the opponent.

Tina has already won against the Spaniards, but he hasn't.

Why not?

The stadium is brightly lit and the home fans are buzzing.

The whistle is about to begin, Goodison Park, and the sky is full of singing in praise of Nicolas Flores.

Patrick glanced to the sidelines, where the Spaniard clapped his hands above his head and gave him a brief two clapps as he thanked the home fans.

****

When Pep Guardiola turned around, he didn't go to the dugout, but went straight to the sidelines.

How many years has he been coaching?

It's been a whole decade.

Ten years ago, he was with the young people on the other side, yes, the Catalans could call Nick Flores a young man, after all, he was only thirty-eight years old – he was about the same age as the Everton manager, if not younger.

At that time, Messi on the field was still a young talent who had not completely conquered the world, and Neymar and Patrick were still children. As for Nick, he should be a scout. And his current girlfriend, the head coach of QPR, the famous Kristen Lu, is still a college girl.

In the past ten years, how many coaches he has played against, well-known and not so well-known, too many. But these two people have the highest chance of winning against him, he scratched his bald head, it's good to be young.

Catalans are waiting for the whistle to blow.

He suddenly wondered if the Jazz had ever seen themselves that way when he and Sir Alex Ferguson met twice in the Champions League final years ago, or maybe he was too old in his mindset – football coaching is an age-eating profession.

Thoughts don't stay, the whistle blows.

It's a war and the manager has to give it his full attention.

****

The entire Goodison Park became a battlefield filled with gunpowder.

Amid the earth-shattering shouts, Barcelona struggled to move an inch.

Nicholas stood on the sidelines with his chest crossed, fully focused, pointing out the movements of the players on the field from time to time.

(See the author's words for the formation map)

The back five is working quite well, and the key to that is Colombian Spanish centre-back Antonio Rojas.

The 181-year-tall centre-back led Everton's tight defence in this game. On the left, Van der Bergh choked Patrick-Amber's forward lane, with Morry resolutely stepping up and Rojas defending from behind, creating a three-line defence. The same was true for Neymar on the right, with Rojas at the bottom of the three, while the rest of the squad was comfortable stepping forward to tackle.

Lu Ling watched the scene below in the live broadcast box. Rojas is a player she has learned before. In this game, he was the commander of Everton's defense, and it has to be said that it was the best defensive performance she had ever seen.

Extremely intelligent, like Ian, he is very reasonable and decisive in his judgment of the situation.

Moreover, Rojas is more physically gifted than Ian, so when Neymar and Pat want to contact Messi inside, Rojas can always get ahead of the crowd and choke the passing lane, or use his "death winding" to take out opponents one-on-one.

Rojas has managed to make two tackles on Pat and three times from Messi.

If the QPR defence is the most organised in the world at the moment, then Everton's defence is the most individual and at the same time, the organisation is not bad.

Lu Ling realized that what she couldn't do, Nick was doing.

He separated Messi, Patrick and Neymar with the outstanding individual abilities of the Everton defenders and midfielders, plus Rojas, a super defensive core with an almost flawless mind and body.

Twenty minutes into the game, Barcelona had only two shots on goal.

Everton, on the other hand, have created three good chances on the counter-attack. At this point, thanks to Dembele's presence, coupled with a striker who is also of a high level, Bolasier, and Filipe Delgado's tough pressing, Everton's threat to Barcelona is real.

Ousmane Dembele got the ball, right behind Neymar. The two men faced off at the top of their game in Russia last year, but now it's a different battleground.

The French genius kicked in, shook off the two Barcelona players who wanted to chase after him, and then suddenly turned to the middle of the line, leaving Muñoz, one of the core of Barca's defense, nailed in place.

Dembele then jerked back the way he came, towards Pique's side. On Goodison's turf, a blue "Z" shaped trail appeared.

Pique was unable to get up and was forced to retreat.

Dembele stuffed the ball to Pique's other side, where Mexican Filipe Delgado was.

Lu Ling stared at the Mexican striker.

Last summer, he turned down an offer from QPR and eventually switched to Nick.

Of course, Michy Batshuayi, who was introduced behind QPR, and Phil, are both very talented centers. But if Lu Ling is evaluated from an objective point of view, she still thinks that Delgado is the most dominant center forward player today. His strong physicality and excellent handling skills reminded her of Kluivert's former goal, but he was even better than the Dutch legend in his ability to attack the goal.

Delgado came in right against Rakitic, who made a cameo in midfield today – an apparent tactic that Nick had arranged.

The Mexicans easily beat the Croats.

Delgado shoots and the ball hits the underside of the crossbar!

BT Sport's live commentator Ian Darker and guest Owen Hargreaves let out a burst of exclamation.

In the live broadcast box, Lu Ling and several other guests, as well as Lineker, all praised Everton's performance.

Is this something that people haven't thought of?

No.

Compared to Barcelona, Everton can indeed be regarded as a small club. But this "small club" has become a competitive team on the European stage under the leadership of Spaniard Nick Flores.

Football commentators predicted before the game that Barcelona would struggle to win at Goodison Park.

Judging from the odds offered by Bo/Cai, they are not optimistic about Barcelona winning away. However, overall, the probability of Barcelona advancing is higher than that of Everton.

****

For Nicholas, the beam was a pity, but it was also the beginning of his next plan.

Since Delgado's shot, Everton actually began to control the ball in front of Barcelona and play a positional battle.

In the first twenty minutes, Barcelona were the dominant side, but mental exhaustion caused them to lose their dominance.

The Everton coach made the team more intense at this time, and took advantage of the home advantage to really seize control for the first time.

Although Barcelona's front trident is full of firepower, defensively, Messi is not very involved in counter-attacking, while Patrick and Neymar cannot steal the ball from the feet of the skilled Everton backfielder.

Nicolás saw the Catalans on the other side constantly raising their arms and directing the players to press forward. However, the first wave of pressing that Barcelona struggled to form was easily broken by Everton with a pass, and then attacked Barca's half.

Pep, you're obsessed with something. And the timing of your return to Barcelona is not perfect.

The Messi who once made you feel lost is still there. He's a genius, but now he's not in your system. As long as the Argentine, who runs an average of 7,000-8,000 meters per game, exists, you will be missing a corner of high pressing.

And if you are asked to abandon your own system, it is undoubtedly self-castration/cutting for you.

That's the contradiction.

It's a contradiction that will end your Champions League journey, Pep.

Nicolás watched as his blue storm swept across Barca's penalty area.

The effort eventually forced Ter Stegen to make an effort save that resulted in a corner.

The camera then deliberately cut to the face of Everton captain Ross Barkley on the bench behind the Spaniard, who was expressionless.

Nicholas will not see this scene. That's not his concern now.

Rose is a good player, but he needed to be 100 per cent good in today's game, and Rose sometimes lacks intelligence in his options for handling the ball and doesn't have a good sense of position in defence. In his opinion, there is nothing wrong with this decision.

Now, with Everton's advantage, if they can't score for a long time, it's a problem.

****

"Pat, if you're going to be a coach one day......"

"Christine!" Patrick shouted the girl's name, not letting her continue. Today, when the weather was good at Southwark Park, he was in a hurry to start playing, and he didn't want to listen to her long speech, "I would rather think about what it will be like for me to play in the Premier League in the future." ”

"Well, well, if you can play in the Premier League or the Champions League one day, against Manchester United, Arsenal, or Real Madrid, Barcelona, whatever the big team, you have to remember: watch the game. ”

"Watching the game?"

"Yes. ”

"And then?"

"The more you observe, the more likely it is that the decision you make will be the right one. You're going to be a big star, and big stars have a lot of responsibility on the pitch. ”

"It sounds familiar, yes, ith greatest poergreat responsibility." Kristen, how do you know I like Spider-Man?"

"I didn't know before, I know now. Okay, you go play football. No, warm up first!"

****

Patrick was running and thinking.

Watch the game.

So, what's going on with the game now?

In the first 20 minutes, perhaps in the eyes of many, Everton were the side that was passively beaten, but in fact, it was the side that took the initiative to recycle the defense.

Those few minutes of play have shown that Everton can do it whenever they want to do it, they just wait for their moment.

This made Patrick uncomfortable.

At the same time, he also sees an opportunity for Everton to create. His instincts tell him that his opponent is getting closer to the goal.

I should do something. Patrick thought.

He's well aware that he's restricted, he's uncomfortable to play, but he's going to have to find a way.

Patrick Amber drops back deep to get on the ball.

Everton's players immediately came in the pack, and the first to rush forward was the long-bodyed, fast-moving Congolese winger Bolasie.

The opponent is tall and has long legs, so it is not easy to get around it directly. But Patrick gently supported his opponent with his right arm, maintaining his delicate balance, and then burst into the ground and took two steps past his opponent.

He then moved forward at high speed to unravel Everton's oppressive encirclement. He handed the ball to Neymar, and the Brazilian dribbled past Gueye, but was dropped to the ground by Jimenez.

This time, the Everton central defender kicked Neymar's ankle with a very ferocious force.

The atmosphere immediately became tense.

Barça's players, especially the young and vigorous short midfielder Muñoz, rushed up to question Jimenez.

Boos rang out from the crowd at Goodison Park, which was given to Neymar and Muñoz.

The referee didn't get a yellow card.

Pep Guardiola kept protesting to the fourth official on the sidelines.

Neymar was pulled to the sidelines for treatment. Barcelona have one less player for the time being.

Messi retreated this time and motioned for Patrick to move forward.

This was a bit of a conflict with Patrick's thoughts, but Patrick still followed Messi's instructions and was ready to move forward.

Messi was immediately surrounded by two people, especially Van der Bergh's kick was very fierce, and the Dutchman with pigtails was about to cut off Messi's ball.

Messi barely managed to pass the ball back, and Everton's encirclement immediately stepped forward and continued to press Rakitic who had the ball.

Patrick shouted at the front and thrust forward at high speed.

Rakitic plays a long ball along the touchline. Following Patrick was the difficult Rojas.

It was Patrick's first time playing against the prestigious guy – Rojas didn't play Barcelona last season due to suspension in La Liga. Patrick felt that this creature was indeed able to move quickly and wrap tightly around like a cunning octopus.

Together, the two jumped into the air near the touchline and fought for the landing spot of this high ball.

Under the floodlights, the shadows of the two stacked on top of each other on the turf.

"The height of these two guys off the ground, it's terrifying......" was the unanimous thought of the fans in the nearby stands.

Like two acrobats, both of them lift their legs in the air to the extreme to reach the ball.

Both of their feet touched the ball at the same time. The ball fell from the air, but not out of bounds, less than a metre from the touchline.

The physical fitness of these two guys is like monsters, and once again they start with all their strength, and after their feet just hit the ground, they jump towards the ball in unison.

A contest for every inch of land.

Another spark collision, their legs bumping together, and once again kicking the ball at the same time - the ball popped up again.

Patrick scrambled to hook the ball in with his left foot, and Rojas reacted within a short time and immediately kicked again.

The third time the ball touched the feet of both men almost simultaneously and then went out of bounds.

The linesman was also hesitating for a while, which side to award the ball to?

The ball rolled right at the feet of the Everton boss.

Nicholas hooked the ball with his leather shoe, and the ball fell into his hand. His series of movements was beautiful.

In BT Sport's live broadcast room, Lineker was jokingly asking the QPR coach: "Christine, does Nick like to show off his skills in private?"

Lu Linggang wanted to speak-

The next scene made her swallow the phrase "ohis just like that".

Nicholas is holding the ball and preparing to give it to his players. Patrick had jumped up from the ground. He rushed to the Everton boss and was about to take the ball out of his hand without even looking at him, but Nicolas blocked it with his arm and threw it to the side, right at the feet of his own player, Gaya.

Patrick took advantage of his inertia and slammed the Everton manager in the chest. Nicholas staggered, and immediately walked over to Patrick.

Suddenly, there was chaos on the sidelines.

Members of Everton's coaching staff, as well as substitutes, rushed over. At the same time, the players on both sides of the field also gathered around, and the referee and linesman ran at full speed, trying to separate the personnel on both sides.

Looking at it from Lu Ling's point of view, Pat yelled at Nick loudly, and was immediately stopped by Ross Barkley who rushed up. 166 Reading Network