While Liverpool were training in Portugal in secret to prepare for the Camp Nou and preparing for the second half of the competition, Barcelona played two league games in La Liga.

First at home to Racing Santander, Ronaldinho scored twice and Deco provided an assist.

The two Brazilian players performed very well and won unanimous praise.

Messi came on in the 68th minute to replace Saviola, his first appearance for Barcelona after a two-and-a-half-month absence, and the entire Camp Nou stadium was greeted with warm applause and cheers for Messi.

After Messi came on, Samuel Eto'o, who had also been out for three months through injury, showed up on the sidelines to warm up, which once again lifted the Camp Nou fans, all looking forward to mustering their strongest squad ahead of the crucial game for Liverpool.

With the return of Messi and Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho scored twice to get back in form, and Barcelona is expected to advance.

However, when Rijkaard made his last substitution in the 87th minute, Eto'o refused to come on when he intended to replace Belletti with Eto'o and let the Cameroonian striker come up to find his form.

Soon, Rijkaard brought on Oleg to replace Belletti.

At the post-match press conference, when asked by the Catalan media why Samuel Eto'o was not arranged, the Barcelona coach directly said that it was the Cameroonian player's own choice.

'He didn't want to play, I don't know why, he didn't tell me beforehand, which upset me and regret it because in my opinion, every minute of the game is very important.

At the same time, Rijkaard also responded to the Valdés and Oleg matter.

The Barcelona goalkeeper put in an excellent performance to save a penalty that allowed him to weather a crisis of confidence, and Rijkaard said the club would not sell Valdés because he was an important member of the squad.

Oleg had previously been terminated early by the club's sponsor for writing in the media to criticize the Spanish judicial system, and became a political newsmaker, but he came off the bench in this game, and Rijkaard said he didn't care about politics, only football.

Ronaldinho was in a good mood after scoring a brace, and in an interview with the media, he said that he understood Eto'o's refusal to come on in garbage time, but also made a subtle criticism.

"Before you do anything, it depends on the players and the situation, but the most important thing is to think about what's best for the team."

After the game, the media in Catalonia dug up the inside story that Eto'o refused to play because Rijkaard was unhappy that he had promised him half an hour before the game, but only five minutes were given.

Because Rijkaard's first substitution gave French winger Giuli.

In the aftermath of the press conference, the media around the world became more and more violent.

Barcelona, from the president to the ordinary players, have expressed their views on the matter, hoping that Rijkaard and Eto'o can reconcile and prepare for the upcoming Camp Nou game.

Unexpectedly, Eto'o then held a press conference in which he publicly blasted Rijkaard and Ronaldinho, arguing that their statements had deeply hurt him in disregard of the facts, and calling them bad guys.

At the same time, Samuel Emu'o also said that Barcelona has been divided, from the management to the dressing room.

The management team, led by Laporta, and the two groups led by vice-president Rosell are at loggerheads, while in the dressing room, some of the practices of Brazilian players such as Ronaldinho are dissatisfied.

'It's a villain to say publicly at a press conference that I'm refusing to play, it's really not a thing, it's a shame to say that, in fact, every minute counts to me. Eto'o fired back at Rijkaard.

As for Ronaldinho, Eto'o said: 'If my team-mates say I should think about the team, I think he's the one who thinks more about the team, and what he does has always been hard for a lot of people in the dressing room. ”

Samuel Eto'o's press conference quickly caused an uproar around the world, with the Cameroonian striker ruthlessly tearing apart Barcelona's internal contradictions and exposing them to the world.

World Sports newspaper stabbed Barcelona the next day with [Eto'o! As a front-page headline, it was believed that Cameroon's words had made Rijkaard lose face and lose all his majesty as a manager.

But on the same day, Rijkaard met Laporta in the restaurant.

The next day, Barcelona officials said that Samuel Eto'o had reached a settlement with Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.

……

A week later, Barcelona travelled to Valencia.

Samuel Eto'o was not included in the squad for the match.

The game was intense from the start, and it wasn't until the 53rd minute of the second half that Valencia broke the deadlock, with a cross from the left side of the Villa penalty area and Angulo scrambled to score.

Two minutes later, Valencia extended their lead further when Angullo's cross from the right of the box was met by David Silva.

With two goals down, Barcelona's players were a little out of control.

In the 61st minute, Messi, who had just replaced Gudjohnson, was tackled to the ground by Valencia defender Albelda, but Deco quickly gave a retaliatory tackle and knocked Albelda to the ground.

There was an argument between the two sides, the players of the two teams confronted each other and pushed each other, and the referee played 50 boards each, sending off Albelda and Deco with red cards.

Then, Barcelona did not score until the 92nd minute with Ronaldinho's direct free kick.

But in the end, they lost 1-2 away.

With 72 per cent possession, Barcelona could not find the key to break down Valencia's defence.

Many media reporters and fans are also very worried because the team will face Liverpool in three days' time.

How do you repel an incoming enemy at Camp Nou when the attack is weak?

…………

…………

While the gloom looms over the city of Barcelona, Liverpool is comfortably preparing for the game in the Algarve region of Portugal, and everything that happens in Spain will be transmitted to Portugal as soon as possible.

The club's chief scouts, Edu Aldo Macia and Frank McPallan, were both following Barcelona's game, sending in footage and analysis reports.

Rafa Benitez and his coaching staff, especially tactical analyst Duff McDonoff, will be the first to analyse the situation at Barcelona and immediately make a prediction to develop a targeted strategy in the subsequent training.

For example, Rafael Benitez is pretty sure that Messi will start!

'There's no doubt that in the next game at Camp Nou, we're going to face the best team in the world.'

On the training ground, Benitez admonished his players very seriously.

'It's a team with a lot of stars, Ronaldinho, Deco, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi...... Even Samuel Eto'o could start this game, and if we want to knock them out, we have to be fully focused and everybody! ”

After a week of training and adjustments, every player in Liverpool is in good spirits and eager to play.

That's Barcelona, the reigning champions of the Champions League!

Yang Yang stood in a row with his teammates, and his eyes were full of desire and fighting spirit.

In last year's Champions League semi-finals, he and Ajax suffered heavy defeats at the Camp Nou and were knocked out of the competition.

In that game, Yang Yang was suspended for accumulating yellow cards, but at that time he was sitting in the stands, witnessing his teammates being beaten by Barcelona very embarrassed, but he himself could not do anything, and he felt very painful and blamed for this.

Now, his chance for revenge has arrived!

Liverpool are stronger this season than Ajax last year, so he is more confident as well.

……

In Barcelona's tactics, the wings have a very important task.

Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi will start, and both players are backfoot wingers who are best at cutting inside.

Ronaldinho is on the left, and he is opposite Liverpool's right wing-back Finnen.

Benitez reminded Finnan that Ronaldinho's best thing is to create a killing force between the midfield and the backline, so he must focus on Ronaldinho, not give him any chances, and must keep an eye on and jam his movement.

But in this way, Liverpool's wide flank is ceded, and Zambrotta will attack from the wing, so it will be necessary for Kuyt to press Zambrotta on the right.

As for Messi on the right, Benitez gave up Rise and Aurelio in favor of Arbeloa, due to the fact that the Spanish defender played at left wing-back and he was right-footed.

A left-sided full-back with the right foot can defend Messi's left foot more effectively when cutting inside, especially with his quick stops and breaks.

Arbeloa's task is to stay close to Messi so that he has no time to take care of it.

But the Spanish defender is still new to the game, and this will be his first start for Liverpool, with Benitez and the coaching staff working a range of Arbeloa's ways of keeping an eye on Messi and training him on a targeted basis.

For example, let Yang Yang play the role of Messi and conduct one-on-one special training with Arbeloa during the game, which made Arbeloa suffer thoroughly, but also found some feeling of staring at Messi from this special training.

In addition to this, Benitez also asked that when the ball is in central midfield, the pass to Arbeloa should be minimized, as he is playing at left wing-back with his right foot, which can be dangerous when stopping the ball, while also reducing the team's counter-attacking speed.

Barcelona's attacking style is very erratic, because their players are very individual and special, in addition to the wings, the middle is also quite crucial, so Benitez also pays great attention to defending the middle of Barcelona's midfield.

To be on the safe side, the coaching staff decided to start Mohamed Sissoko alongside Steven Gerrard and Xavi Alonso.

The Malian has just returned from injury, but Mascherano is a newcomer, in contrast, Liverpool is more important to the team's overall tactics in this game, so they chose the Malian midfielder.

After working out the tactics, Liverpool trained secretly in Portugal for two more days before arriving in Barcelona the afternoon before the game.

The battle at Camp Nou is on the verge of breaking out!

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