Midfielder

Securing two championships in a week is great news for Chelsea now, because Mourinho now has more time to prepare for the life-and-death battle between Chelsea and Barcelona, ​​but the Catalans are not so lucky.

Barcelona has not won the La Liga championship in advance. Although they are six points ahead of Real Madrid, such an advantage is not enough to guarantee that they can finally win the championship. After all, they still have a Spanish derby to play, and the outcome is difficult to determine.

Barcelona originally had several tough battles in the late stage of the league. As long as there is one carelessness, the efforts of the whole season may be in vain, so Rijkaard has played his full main lineup in two league games and one cup game in a row.

Although they all won the result, the physical condition of the players has reached the most exhausted stage since the season, and injuries have begun to attack.

Frequent injuries are now the most annoying thing for Rijkaard. Compared with Chelsea's strong men and horses, Barcelona's midfield and backcourt are now suffering from large-scale injuries. The lack of personnel is the most fatal, especially at this critical moment.

The main players such as Larsson and Motta have bid farewell to this season due to serious injuries. Max also injured his ankle again in the league last week. According to the doctor's examination results, this guy must also miss the life-and-death battle with Chelsea.

Now the team's strongest defensive players are forced to miss this life-and-death battle. Rijkaard really doesn't know how to adjust the lineup.

Even Laporta said helplessly when facing reporters, "Barcelona's defense line really needs to buy people in the summer, because compared with our forward line, our defense line is not world-class. Buying people is a must."

Although the club chairman has expressed his position in front of the media, distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. Reinforcement is a problem that needs to be considered after the summer transfer window opens. Now Rijkaard can only think of ways within the team. If he can't find a general, he can only find some dwarfs.

Albertini and Giuly will probably have to sit on the bench in case of emergency. Although their injuries are not too serious, it is still a bit difficult to persist in the fierce confrontation for 90 minutes, especially Albertini's physical condition.

The continuous battles have made the Italian veteran feel physically tired. If he continues to play as a main player, it may bring worse results. Rijkaard can only choose to let substitutes like Gerard play as a defensive midfielder.

But Rijkaard is not naive enough to think that Gerard can defend Lin Yi, so he still requires Deco in training to appear in the position of defensive midfielder. Although he failed to limit Lin Yi in the first round, he is still much stronger than Gerard.

Giuly's minor injuries have made Rijkaard choose to temporarily give up this French fast horse, and in the first round of confrontation, the Frenchman focused too much on revenge. His on-the-spot performance was not good, even worse than Lopez who came on as a substitute.

Fortunately, at least Iniesta has been in a very brave state recently. With his presence, at least Giuly's absence will not be so obvious.

Compared with the Frenchman, Iniesta has better skills. In terms of ball control and organizing offense, he can also interact more with the team's midfield.

Although the wing lacks speed, Iniesta's presence allows Rijkaard to do more in the middle and two ribs. After all, it is really unrealistic to simply rely on the bottom cross to tear Chelsea's defense. You have to know how strong the air defense ability of those guys is.

The only thing that makes Rijkaard a little worried is the selection of central defenders and full-backs. Van Bronckhorst's performance may not be worrying, but central defender Oleger's recent state has fluctuated a bit, which makes Rijkaard a little worried.

Although Chelsea did not have Drogba, the African elephant, to help in this game, Gudjohnsen is not so easy to deal with. Even that guy's running range is larger than Drogba, not to mention that there is a fierce Lampard lurking behind him recently.

Oleger and Puyol, such a central defender combination, probably even Rijkaard himself is not very confident. He can only repeatedly remind Puyol in training that he must play his defensive strength at this time and try to help Oleger form a barrier-like defense in the middle.

Not only the selection of central defenders gives Rijkaard a headache, but Sylvinho's performance on the field after recovering from injury also makes people feel unstable.

You know, this guy has to defend Robben, who is in a crazy state recently. I really don't know whether this guy, who is strong in attack and weak in defense, can limit the breakthrough of the Dutch Little Flying Man. If not, it will definitely be a disaster.

Although Rijkaard has so many concerns, he can't think of a better personnel combination now, so he can only gamble like this.

"Offense, we must rely on offense to continue to threaten the opponent, just like we played the game in the last 20 minutes at home, so that we can ensure that the team can break into the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Don't forget that our opponents still have an away goal advantage."

Rijkaard was already discussing away games with his coaching staff when the game was still a week away from starting.

At this time, Barcelona has no other choice but to attack. In the away game, they must suppress Chelsea. If it is still a tug-of-war, it will be a fatal blow to them. After all, the first They have not forgotten the confrontation of the round.

It goes without saying how strong Chelsea's midfielder is. Especially after watching them beat Liverpool in the League Cup, Rijkaard deeply realized that if he still entangles too much with the opponent in the midfield, Then Barcelona is the next Liverpool.

After all, if you want to rely on Xavi, Deco and Herrard to compete with Lin Yi, Robben, Makelele and the like, it is indeed a bit powerless. At least they have no advantage compared to the opponent in terms of physical confrontation. If you get into an endless fight , then it must be Barcelona that suffers in the end.

"They will definitely choose to defend. Don't expect the Portuguese to take risks. Although it is at his home court, he will definitely use the best line of defense to grind us down. That guy is like a turtle with his head reduced. Don’t dare to attack against Barcelona.”

This was Tencart's speech on the sidelines. It can be seen that this guy has no good impression of Chelsea and Mourinho, especially after he was recently investigated by UEFA for the conflict, the Dutchman has completely Mourinho and the others regarded them as mortal enemies.

It is estimated that in the eyes of many Catalans, Mourinho and others are no different from those in Madrid. They are all enemies.

Tenkat may be even more angry than them, because the swelling of this guy’s beating by Brito has not completely subsided to this day. That punch caused at least two of his back molars to loosen, which made him When watching Chelsea, there is obviously a sense of extreme bias.

Although Tenkat's speech contained a certain degree of resentment, Rijkaard still agreed with his evaluation of Chelsea's tactics. He also believed that Chelsea would choose defensive counterattack tactics at home, especially when they have an away goal in their hands. This is especially true when it comes to advantages.

It cannot be said that Chelsea's offense is not fierce, but when it comes to advancing to the Champions League quarter-finals, Rijkaard himself will also choose a conservative and stable tactical play. This has nothing to do with anything else. Results determine everything. This is a wealthy club. The team’s rules for survival in the Champions League.

Although that line of defense is difficult to break, Rijkaard still hopes that Chelsea will really choose to retreat like they did in the first round. In this case, the farther the attack is from Barcelona's defense line, the harder the door guarded by Valdes will be. The safer it is.

If Barcelona's offensive ability is really to be considered, then Rijkaard would rather let his team go head-to-head with Chelsea's defense than expose the team's somewhat weak defense to the opponent's offensive firepower.

Regarding Chelsea's violent offensive ability in recent rounds of games, Rijkaard hopes that it is just smoke bombs set off by the opponent. He wants to use this kind of offense to make Barcelona have more scruples in away games and not dare to press easily. .

But Rijkaard now just wants to respond to Mourinho's threats with practical actions. Barcelona would rather die on the offensive road than hide in their own half and wait to die. This is the Catalan's Character, they also used this character to create this team.

It's just that when Rijkaard and his coaching staff were doing these intense pre-match analyses, Chelsea seemed very relaxed, especially those members of the coaching staff, Mourinho and Brito, who dared to start the battle at the beginning of the game. Give the players a holiday before.

However, these two old partners chose to sit in the highest stand of Stamford Bridge overlooking their home stadium, with a bottle of red wine in their hands.

"What do you think our opponent is thinking now?" Mourinho took a sip of red wine and asked Brito who was sitting not far away.

"They must be thinking that you will continue to use tough defense at home to stifle Barcelona's genius performance." Brito's answer was equally straightforward. Just like Tencart had no good impact on Chelsea, he also had no good impact on Barcelona. Not a good impression.

"I really hope they can think about it. It's best if they are really ready to attack the tough situation." When Mourinho finished saying this, a dangerous smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Preconceived ideas will always kill those who are self-righteous. This is what Lin Yi told Mourinho during a chat. Mourinho hopes to apply the essence of this sentence to the Barcelona team in the game against Barcelona. .

Defense? Maybe, who knows. . .