At six o'clock in the evening on August 24, 1997, the players of Fiorentina and Barcelona showed up on time on the turf of the Stade Louis II, quietly waiting for the referee to blow the opening whistle.

Although Barcelona did not join Barcelona last season as in history due to the intervention of Zhuang Mingge, Ronaldo, which reduced the Spanish giant's attacking power to a certain extent, but Barcelona still defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the final last season with the courage of the veteran Stoichkov and the strategy of the old Robson and won a European Cup Winners' Cup.

Therefore, after Louis van Gaal took the helm of Barcelona this summer, the Dutch coach immediately made a drastic overhaul of the problems in the team!

The first to open the knife is naturally the forward line that Stoichkov is struggling to support alone, after all, Barcelona has to face a three-line battle this season, and only one reliable striker is obviously not enough.

At Van Gaal's behest, Brazilian attacker Rivaldo, who scored 21 goals in 41 games for Deportivo last season, arrived at Barcelona for $18 million. Van Gaal believes the Brazilian's excellent scoring ability could greatly enhance the team's attacking power; Moreover, Rivaldo, who is also quite technical and big-pictured, could also help Pep Guardiola and Figo take on part of the team's organisation.

At the same time, Van Gaal did not forget to promote his fellow Dutch countrymen: Hesp transferred from Roda JC club, the Dutch goalkeeper replaced the Portuguese Baia as Barcelona's main goalkeeper in the new season; Frustrated by the Rossoneri, Bogard and Reziger left Milan at the behest of their mentor and arrived in the Catalan capital for $4 million.

The two Dutchmen are also departing Christophe Dugarry, with the French centre-forward hoping to impress his national team head coach Jacques and earn a ticket to next year's World Cup in France.

After spending a lot of money to bring in so many players, Van Gaal naturally needs to use a trophy to show the club's management and the results of his coaching ability and transformation of the team, and this UEFA Super Cup is naturally a good stage.

Van Gaal is quite familiar with Fiorentina's team, after all, after the arrival of the Bosman era, it is this Serie A team that has dealt with Ajax the most. Not to mention the frequent player deals and deep cooperation between the two teams, Ajax's defeat in last year's Champions League final alone was enough to make the Dutch coach remember Fiorentina for the rest of his life.

No matter how you look at it, Van Gaal will have to do his best to win this UEFA Super Cup final: if he wins, he can not only further establish his prestige at Barcelona, but also avenge the revenge he made a year ago; Losing will mean that the club, including the fans, will not say much about it, but they will inevitably murmur something about the Dutch coach in their hearts.

Therefore, in this game, Van Gaal sent the strongest lineup in his mind: the starting goalkeeper is Hesper, and the four defenders from left to right are Sergi Baljuan, Miguel Nadal, Fernando Coutto and Ferrer.

In midfield, Pep Guardiola dragged the strings to organise, Serades to protect them, the all-round fighter Luis Enrique played as the central midfielder, and the technically talented Rivaldo and Luis Figo split the left and right wings.

In the forward line, newcomer Sonny Anderson played as a lone arrow, and last season's top scorer Stoichkov offended Van Gaal's authority with some crutches during the summer training camp, and the Bulgarian was directly pushed into the stands by the Dutch, who were about to make an example, and did not even make the 18-man squad.

From the perspective of formation, Barcelona's starting lineup should be called 4231, Rivaldo and Figo on the wings can either push to the forward line to participate in the attack, but also drop back to share the team's defensive pressure, and they and Luis Enrique are versatile in the frontcourt, and they can constantly switch attacks in the game, so that the opposing defenders are tired.

Such a magnificent starting line-up, coupled with Amor, Reziger, Bogard, De la Pena, Juan Pizzi on the bench...... Judging from the strength of the book alone, Barcelona is not inferior to Fiorentina.

Therefore, before the start of the game, many pro-Barcelona media were cheering for Barcelona in an attempt to create more pressure on Fiorentina.

But is that really the case?

Indeed, for many teams, Barcelona, as one of the two giants of La Liga, is a very difficult behemoth to play against. However, for the Fiorentina players, they don't think that Barcelona, the opponent in this final, is such a difficult character!

If we talk about psychological advantages, then almost all Serie A teams participating in European competitions have a huge psychological advantage against Spanish clubs - since Barcelona, who were in their heyday, were beaten 4-0 by AC Milan without Baresi and Costa Curta three years ago, Spanish teams have often looked a little lacking in confidence against the Italians. Atletico were cleanly beaten by Juventus in the quarter-finals) is proof of that.

Therefore, in the face of the psychological warfare provoked by the Barcelonans, the Fiorentina players were a little dismissive of these little tricks of the other party: now this Barcelona is not as good as the dream team of the year, Fiorentina's strength is much stronger than AC Milan at that time, not to mention that our head coach is Capello, who gave you 4-0 last time! With so many factors in our favor, Barcelona should really be worried, right?!

As for the overall strength, not to mention, with Fiorentina's current player configuration, Capello can almost send two sets of starting lineups of similar strength to deal with European competitions and leagues, can this Barcelona compare?

"Since the Barcelona people are so confident in the strength of their own team, let me give them another 4-0!" Before the start of the game, in the dressing room of Fiorentina, Capello said to the players, and the evil smile on his face that couldn't be hidden made everyone feel a sudden burst in their hearts, saying that their own coach is really dark enough, isn't it just that people shouted so many words before the game? I actually want to send Barcelona a second 4-0!

"Well, boss, if we can do it, we don't mind helping you." At the time of these words, the Fiorentina players did not realize that they had also been corrupted by Capello.