The whole Barcelona team is hoping to do well in the Champions League and try to reach the Champions League final and win the Champions League just like last season.

So, everyone is looking forward to the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City.

Messi is one of them.

But he is also the special one, as he is considered a key player in the clash between Barcelona and Manchester City.

The Spanish media are talking about him, the British media is talking about him, the manager Rijkaard is talking about him, his teammates are supporting him in the media, and even the Manchester City manager as an opponent is praising him.

He became the center of attention for all.

It's not the first time Messi has experienced the feeling of focus.

Since three years ago, at the age of 17, he began to become the focus of Catalonia and even the whole of Spain and Europe, almost everyone thought that he would be the future star, the pillar of Barcelona, he did not live up to everyone's expectations, has been constantly growing, and now, he has completely replaced Ronaldinho and become the number one star of Barcelona.

Despite this, Messi still enjoys the feeling of being praised and valued by everyone.

The day before the game, the man who was considered 'good at developing young players' and 'the youngest and most successful manager' also praised himself.

Messi doesn't have anything on the surface, but he is actually beautiful in his heart, because the other party said that he will become a 'great' player in the future, and those words can even be understood as that he will become a star at the level of Maradona, the Argentine predecessor.

Those words that say he is a genius, Messi has long been tired of hearing, this Chinese statement, he heard for the first time.

So Messi has a good sense of Wansheng.

In this game, Messi hopes to play his best, live up to everyone's expectations, and lead the team to victory, and at the same time, he also hopes to prove that he is indeed capable of becoming, as Wan Sheng said, - 'great player'.

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Barcelona's home game against Manchester City has officially begun.

In the cheers of the Barcelona fans in the stadium, Barcelona and Manchester City officially started the competition.

As the core of the front, Messi's main job is to lead the team to attack Manchester City's half, Messi wants to perform well, so the game is very positive at the beginning, but he soon realizes that something is wrong.

The game is a little different than I imagined.

Originally, at the beginning of the game, both sides were in the tentative stage, even if there was a fast attack and toughness, the pace of the game would not be too fast, and the scene would not be too intense, but what Messi didn't expect was that whenever he went to the frontcourt, he would encounter a very tough defense.

If it's once or twice, it's normal, even in La Liga, some teams defend against themselves.

But every time it's like this, there's a problem.

Manchester City's defense of itself is not only as simple as being tight, just like the time just now, he just crossed the halfway line with the ball, and the opponent's German midfielder was directly a sliding tackle, leaving no room for defense at all, but fortunately, he reacted quickly and was not shoveled down his legs, and Messi still had palpitations after that.

This time, Messi took the ball more than ten meters in front of the penalty area, and almost at the moment when the football rolled over, he saw two opposing players on the left and right, all rushing towards him, as if he had a deep hatred with them.

Just take a ball...... As for this?

Messi thought bitterly.

However, he reacted quickly and passed back to teammate Deco as soon as he received the ball, and did not concede the ball.

This quick pass is enough to prove Messi's ability.

The commentator at the Camp Nou also praised Messi, "Messi reacted quite quickly, and as soon as the opponent ran over, he passed the ball back accurately, making the opponent's running useless......"

But Messi doesn't think so.

He was not at all complacent about his quick reaction, but rather a little annoyed by City's defence.

Only ten minutes after the game, Messi was already sure that the opponent must have made some defensive arrangements for himself, otherwise it is impossible to have at least one player come to defend every time he receives the ball, and the opponent's defense is still very tough, fierce tackles and tough body collisions are commonplace, mixed with some irritating small actions.

Messi found the game really difficult.

The opponent's defense is tight, Messi is not afraid, he is most afraid of the opponent's fierceness, toughness, and head-on conflict with the opponent, it must be easy to get hurt.

Injuries are always the biggest enemy of professional footballers.

This season, Messi has already experienced the pain of injury, he has suffered twice, and as the star of Barcelona, he has only made 25 appearances in La Liga, which is definitely not a lot.

Messi was a little afraid of injury and was a little dodging when facing the Manchester City defense.

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Manchester City players don't care whether Messi is afraid of injury or not, how they should defend, or how to defend, especially after seeing that the opponent is a little dodging in terms of physical collisions, they are tougher defensively.

Before this game, Wan Sheng's playing strategy was mainly aimed at Messi defensively.

Messi is the heart of Barcelona's front line, their star of the game, and although he is only 20 years old and has not yet completed his development into a future superstar, his importance in the Barcelona team is undoubted.

So far this season, Messi has helped Barcelona score six goals in the Champions League!

This goal figure is on par with Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, second only to Fernando Torres, who is ranked first in the Champions League scorer list, which shows how dangerous Messi will be.

Before the game, almost all the media will talk about Messi, Messi will definitely be the most critical player in Barcelona, so Wansheng also asked the team to make targeted defense, he asked every player to be tough in defense, especially for Messi's defense, it must be tough, and this Argentine star must not be allowed to play.

A player like Messi, let him play at will, and after he really finds his form, the defensive threat to the team is too great, so at the beginning of the game, it is the most important thing to use tough defense and keep Messi's point without remembering fouls.

The Manchester City players have been very strong in their execution of the Wansheng demands.

From the very beginning of the game, they kept using tough defense against Messi and against the whole of Barcelona, and as for what the media said before the game, 'the two sides will play the most eye-catching offensive battle in the world', 'this will be a clash of top football arts', etc., they didn't think about it at all.

In this game, they are not going to play offensive football, to fight with Barcelona, they are playing defensive counterattacks!

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Defending and counterattacking is not just about shrinking the defense and then letting the frontcourt players attack, that kind of play is too simple and does not have much practicality.

The weak team plays the strong team, and this style of play is still very effective.

The weak team and the strong team compete, the defensive counterattack is naturally the magic weapon to win, because the front fight, the weak team is poor, and the chance of winning is not large, so the solid defense does not let the strong team score, and then 'try the luck' like let the front-court players find opportunities, and the chance of winning is naturally greater.

For example, the Italian team, the Italian team cannot be said to be a weak team, but its national team and even some domestic club teams use the tactical style of defensive counterattack.

Therefore, the tactic of defensive counterattack is not exclusive to weak teams, and strong teams can also use it.

Manchester City are not underdogs.

Not only is it not a weak team, but even Manchester City is one of the most powerful teams in the world, even compared with the Barcelona 'Dream II Team' in front of him, Manchester City is only strong and not weak, so Manchester City's defensive counterattack is not so simple.

Manchester City give the impression of smooth attacking football, but in essence, the team is playing 'OS-F' control system football.

The 'OS-F' control system football can be traced back to the offensive football system adopted by Wansheng when he coached Derby County, and the most basic thing of that system is still the tough 'pressing defense' that Wansheng relied on when he first coached Derby County and led the team to complete relegation.

The reason for formulating the full-court pressing defensive tactics at the beginning is very simple, because Wan Sheng had a defensive coaching skill 'Resolute Interception' at that time, and now this skill has been upgraded to 'Coach MAX Perfect Skill', and the effect of the skill has been greatly improved compared to the beginning.

"Resolute interception, defensive gear, coach Max's perfect skills.

When your team is in play, the steal success rate increases by 20 percent.

When your player is in play, all defensive stats are increased by 1.

When your player makes a steal, the 'Passing' stat is increased by 5. ”

Among this skill, the effect of 'increasing the success rate of steals by 20%) is the most fundamental.

Based on this skill, Wan Sheng developed the tactical play of 'full-court pressing', and then based on the 'full-court pressing', he developed the 'Derby County's offensive football play', and then Manchester City's 'OS-F' control system football.

Therefore, Manchester City's tactical system, traced back to its origins, also lies in the 'resolute interception' skill, the team's offensive football play, and also relies on the defense of the whole court.

Many fans think that Manchester City is good at attacking, but in fact, the concept of 'full-court pressing' is deeply ingrained in the minds of Manchester City players, and every player knows that the first thing they have to do on the field is to keep running and keep pressing the opponent.

Now the defensive counterattack played by Manchester City on the field also relies on 'pressing', but Wansheng adjusted the area to his own half, that is, let the players press in the half, the range has been doubled, the defensive intensity has increased a lot, and it can also allow players to have the energy to defend against a single player against the opponent.

That's what City defend.

After the defense, of course, there is also a counterattack.

Manchester City's counterattack method is to run the open space, the opportunity is to run out, their original attack is to use the way to run the open space to find opportunities, so there is no need to say much in this regard, Manchester City is already very good at fast attack.

But no matter how Manchester City's defensive counterattack style of play, what is the difference between other teams, defensive counterattack is defensive counterattack, and the core point is still defense, so Manchester City's game was ugly, Barcelona encountered a tough defense, and the attack was stubbornly blocked, as can be seen in the game scene.

The media and fans also didn't see the kind of 'art football' and 'attacking battles' they imagined, they saw the lethargic scenes of the game, and it can be said that there were few bright spots in the game other than the toughness of the confrontation and scramble.

The media advertised that Morris and Messi, the two core players of both teams, also had little shining performance.

Some Catalan media outlets are starting to worry about Messi.

Messi's performance in the last 20 minutes can be described as a mess, he only touched the ball a few times, was tackled twice in the middle, and did not contribute in attack.

The Camp Nou commentators all said, "Manchester City's tight defense has made Messi a little helpless, and it seems that his form today is very average......"

Some Spanish media outlets have also begun to slam Manchester City.

They believe that the unsightly game is due to Manchester City, who did not play the attacking football they imagined, did not go head-to-head with Barcelona, but played ugly 'English defensive football'.

The commentator of Spanish sports television criticized, "Many people say that Manchester City is the most technical team in England, they are no worse than Barcelona, but the Manchester City we see now is a rude and barbaric team, they did not hesitate to use fouls to stop Barcelona's attack several times, and their attack is not technical, at least until now, we have not seen ......"

Even the British Sky Sports commentator euphemistically said, "Manchester City's defense today is very targeted......

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Wan Sheng stood on the sidelines, smiling at the game.

He doesn't care what the media thinks, it's always the victory that matters.

The winner will be respected by everyone, the loser has no say, the world of football is so simple, so how to have the best hope of winning is also the most important.

Wansheng believes that the team and Barcelona also have great hopes of winning, but certainly not as much as they do now.

With a tough defense, Barcelona can't play, and then their own team goes to launch a counterattack and attack, so that they can get out of the Camp Nou most safely and eliminate Barcelona with the most hope.

So Wansheng did it.

He makes the team play defensive counter-attacks, and he makes the team play ugly football.

Just like some media analysis, "Wansheng hides a pure utilitarian football heart under the appearance of gorgeous offensive football......"

Their analysis is correct, Wan Sheng is indeed utilitarian, but the correct statement is that he has a 'heart that yearns for a championship'.

Whoever can win the championship, he will do it.

If he can definitely win the championship, he doesn't mind letting the team play beautifully, and for the current game against Barcelona, the process is not important at all, the victory is the most important thing!

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PS: It's a bit of a cardin, forgive me for the slow update~ (To be continued.) )