48. Chapter 48
Barcelona locals, whether it is the media, the fans or the team itself, clearly do not take the upcoming visit to Dortmund seriously.
They comfortably beat Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season and went on to win the Champions League, and Dortmund are just a humble opponent for them.
Before the game, Barcelona's star Ronaldinho said in an interview with the reporter of "Daily Sport" that "there is no doubt that Barcelona will take the three points", and "except for Bayern Munich, the teams in the Bundesliga are not competitive in Europe".
The next morning, the interview was accompanied by a photo of Ronaltinho swinging in a nightclub. The man in the picture shows his trademark rabbit teeth, and there is no doubt that the Brazilian superstar of Barcelona is the one who is Barcelona.
Although what Ronaldo said is not unreasonable, although Barcelona is the most popular Spanish club in Germany, the German media and fans are still very unhappy with Ronaldinho's opinion.
What do you mean by "except Bayern, the Bundesliga team is not competitive in Europe"?
The first to contradict Ronaldo was Bild, who pointed out that Ronaldinho has become more indulgent since reaching the top of the glory list, and often clubbing at night and being late for training during the day. Barcelona's manager Rijkaard, however, has never punished Ronaldinho and has consistently indulged Ronaldo, which has caused dissatisfaction among some players in the dressing room. Compared with evaluating other countries' teams, I hope he can manage himself first.
After Bild's remarks, the Daily Sport newspaper immediately fought back.
-- A German newspaper reacted violently, and it was clear that Ronaldinho's words had poked them in the sore spot of the Germans, and they were speechless before they changed the subject to attack Ronaldo. Since the Champions League was restructured in 1998, apart from Bayern Munich, only Bayer Leverkusen in 2001-02 have reached the last four of the Champions League, but in the end they also lost to Real Madrid. It is a fact that German clubs have not achieved good results in Europe, and this can also be seen in the European points.
At the time of the fierce confrontation between the media of the two countries, Dortmund led by Yan Jing had arrived in Barcelona.
The external turmoil did not affect the more relaxed mood of the players. Including the first round of the German Cup, they have won four of the five games in September, with Barcelona being their final fixture in September.
In contrast, Dortmund is in the position of a challenger. Barcelona are the defending champions, and the media don't look good, and they are all expected.
Approaching October, the average temperature in Barcelona does not exceed 25 degrees Celsius in the summer, the air is already a little cool, and Yan Jing has changed back to his usual suit and leather shoes.
The team's training sessions went smoothly on their own, with the turf at the Camp Nou in good condition and the staff doing nothing to embarrass them.
But halfway through, there was a little accident.
Yan Jing was practicing the team's final targeted run when he suddenly heard a burst of Catalan laughter.
"Stop!"
Yan Jing immediately ordered the team to stop the training action, he turned his head to look, and the next moment the Barcelona players walked out of the players' tunnel, and they had already changed their jerseys.
Why are they here? Yan Jing frowned, the training time allocated by Barcelona to Dort has not yet ended, and it stands to reason that there should be no one else in the stadium.
The Barcelona players over there also looked a little surprised, they looked at the Dort players in the stadium who were all staring at them, and for a moment they gathered around and whispered to each other.
After a while, Yan Jing saw that Barcelona's Argentine genius Messi, who has been in the spotlight recently, was walking towards him.
Yan Jing glanced at them strangely, and then beckoned Di Maria, who was also an Argentine: "Angel, come here." β
Thanks to the help of the Borussia Dortmund team and Di Maria's own efforts, his German language skills have improved considerably.
When Di Maria heard Yan Jing's call, she hurriedly walked out of the team and acted as an interpreter between the two sides.
"Boss, they said they had agreed with FC Barcelona that they were going to use the pitch at eight o'clock tonight. β
Yan Jing felt that this was simply inexplicable: "But the end time of the step on the field they talked to me was half past eight, and that's what Barcelona informed me." β
Di Maria translated Yan Jing's words to Messi, who showed a blank expression on his face and repeatedly emphasized to Di Maria that they had indeed made an appointment with the club.
Yan Jing didn't think about it, so he said, "Angel, let them go back to the locker room and wait for half an hour before they come." β
What kind of international joke, I only told him today to understand something, and he didn't have the slightest reason to back down.
At this time, the other Barcelona players also came over, and they talked to Messi in Catalan for a while, and they obviously had no intention of leaving while standing on the sidelines.
The Barcelona players stood on the sidelines, and Yan Jing was bound to be unable to continue the team's training. The players of both teams stood in the stadium and the other stood on the sidelines for almost a minute.
Yan Jing had been learning Portuguese for a while, and his oral communication was barely okay, so he took the initiative to walk over to find the Portuguese Deco in the Barcelona team.
Yan Jing tried his best to make the smile on his face look natural: "Mr. Deco, your Barcelona staff told me that the time is until half past eight, if you don't believe me, you can call and ask." We have less than half an hour left, so please go back first. β
Deco pouted: "But we also have an appointment......"
"It's your club's lack of coordination, and it has nothing to do with Dortmund. Yan Jing raised his eyebrows, and his originally gentle tone immediately became unacceptable, "We have no reason to be affected by your club's work mistakes. You have interrupted our training and are still wasting our time, so please leave the pitch immediately. β
The Portuguese-speaking players in the Borussia Dortmund squad whistled inwardly.
Their manager really didn't give any face to the Barcelona players and told them to get out of the ...... Wow, that's cool.
Yan Jing's tone was heavy, the Barcelona players over there were not very happy, but there was no conflict between the two teams, because Barcelona captain Puyol called the Barcelona club staff.
After confirming that it was indeed a mistake in their arrangement, Puyol glanced at Yan Jing and didn't plan to say anything, and returned to the dressing room with the Barcelona players.
This one wasted at least fifteen minutes of Dortmund's training time, and now there are fifteen minutes left. Yan Jing simply stopped asking the players who were interrupted to pick up the training content just now, and instead emphasized to them again the things that need to be paid attention to in tomorrow's game.
After that, Yan Jing took Thuram to attend the pre-match press conference.
Juul Lambert was the first journalist to be picked up by BarΓ§a's press officer, and he received a call from Yan Jing before entering the stadium to learn the news.
"Mr. Rijkaard, did your players break in when they were training at Dortmund, was this intentional?"
Rijkaard had only learned about this from his team a few minutes earlier, and he couldn't help but glance at Lambert.
Did the media install surveillance at the Camp Nou, and the petty conflict between Dortmund and the Barcelona players was leaked so quickly.
'My players were not intentional, it was just a small mistake in the timing of the club. β
As soon as Rijkaard's official words were finished, Lambert immediately continued: "But Dortmund's training has been affected by your club's mistakes. β
"Black Swan" Rijkaard obviously didn't really want to talk about this topic that didn't matter to him, but he still graciously took the blame.
'I'm sorry for that, I should have checked with the club before informing the players. β
Rijkaard's attitude was not bad, and Lambert didn't dwell on it anymore. After he sat down, several Spanish media asked Rijkaard some questions that had nothing to do with Dortmund, and even mentioned their league rivals Real Madrid, which made Yan Jing think that he might be at the pre-match press conference of the Spanish national derby.
Eventually, Pieters, a reporter for Bild, was also called by the press officer, but his question was not asked by Yan Jing or Rijkaard, but by Ronaldinho, who was sitting next to Rijkaard.
"Mr. Ronaldinho, you said before that 'German teams are not competitive in Europe', do you have anything to say about that?'
The translator who gave Ronaldinho on the spot translated Pieters' words to Ronaldinho.
When Ronaldo heard this, he felt that Peters was really unself-aware - what else could he want to say? What he had said before was what he had in mind, and it was true.
Although Xiao Luo wanted to answer directly, "I don't have anything to say, just look at the results of the Bundesliga teams in Europe in recent years", but in front of many reporters, he still held back, and changed his previous statement to throw the black pot to reporters.
"That's a deliberate distortion of my words by a journalist, and I didn't say that. β
The reporter of "Daily Sports Daily", who interviewed Xiao Luo, was sitting in the press room, and after hearing Xiao Luo's words, he felt a sinking on his back, and a large pot was pressed on his shoulder.
Peters glanced at Ronaldinho suspiciously, but since everyone else had said so, he couldn't ask any more questions, so he turned to Yan Jing.
"Yan, Dortmund were eliminated by Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season. Are you going to see this game as a revenge fight?"
"I've never thought that way with our players. Yan Jing replied with a smile, "In order to attract more fans' attention before the game, it is normal for the media to create this kind of gimmick, but I believe that my players will not be affected by them." β
'Last season was last season and it has little to do with tomorrow's game. The players and I just treat it as a normal Champions League group stage and we don't have any grudges against Barcelona. There will always be winners and losers in the game, and if you have to say that, then the battle of revenge is not a bad street. β