novelraw Chapter 611 - 418: Guardiola: Tang Long is strong, but he is no match for Bayern!
Chapter 611 - 418: Guardiola: Tang Long is strong, but he is no match for Bayern!
Champions League semi-final matchups revealed!
Manchester City VS Bayern Munich
Real Madrid VS Barça
Two teams from La Liga, one from the Premier League, and one from the Bundesliga make up the four clubs in this season’s Champions League semi-finals.
It was no surprise that Barça easily defeated Benfica twice on their way to the final four.
Real Madrid’s two-leg clash with Wolfsburg was filled with magical moments.
Portuguese star C Luo showed the world what true individual heroism looks like!
After a 0:2 defeat in the first leg against Wolfsburg, the Galaxy Battleship fought desperately at home, and C Luo performed a hat-trick, single-handedly overturning the tide and advancing with a total score of 3:2!
He performed his familiar signature "Siu" celebration three times, and after scoring the decisive goal in the 77th minute, he excitedly took off his shirt to flaunt his solid muscles to the camera.
"I am the King of the Champions League!"
Real Madrid, with their riveting comeback, will face their old rival Barça in the Champions League semi-finals.
This Spanish national derby on the Champions League stage is eagerly awaited by countless fans, loaded with anticipation.
Messi and C Luo, old rivals, have battled each other in La Liga and now in the Champions League.
But Guardiola wasn’t interested in these matters;
His attention was now entirely focused on their opponent, Manchester City.
After analyzing Manchester City’s two-leg knockout round match against Paris Saint-Germain in detail,
the entire Bayern Munich coaching staff treated their review meeting like a crucial confrontation!
Despite initially dropping a goal in the first leg, Manchester City displayed tenacious resolve away from home, their attack like a relentless downpour, smoothly overturning the opponent 3 to 1;
In the second leg, with a two-goal advantage, Manchester City played exceptionally stable, winning 1 to 0 and with a total score of 4 to 1, left Paris Saint-Germain with no chance to fight back.
Many Manchester City players delivered standout performances in these two matches.
Like Ranocchia, who cunningly and skillfully defended and effectively froze Paris’s number one threat, Eevee;
While Sterling’s unpredictable dribbling and insertion left defensive players baffled throughout;
Agüero’s composure and confidence in front of goal posed a significant threat to Bayern.
But the Bayern coaching staff knew the biggest threat from Manchester City came from none other than Tang Long!
He was the pillar that directed their victory in both matches!
"This kid’s through passes up front are incredibly deceptive, he seems always to be predicting the play three seconds ahead!"
"He has a vast vision; even with his back turned, he can sense his teammates’ movements!"
"It’s his big-picture vision, his field reading surpasses the best players of his age group!"
"Take a look at that scorpion tail assist he sent to Agüero; no player in our team can pull off a move like that!"
"Moreover, his tactical execution is extremely strong; he always positions himself accurately in defense; he plays very smart, smart to a frightening degree!"
"Tang is undoubtedly Manchester City’s most threatening player; if we can’t contain him, I’m pessimistic about the match’s outcome."
"But how to defend him? Double-mark him? But if we double-mark, other openings will emerge everywhere!"
During the review meeting, both Bayern’s first-team and youth squad members unanimously praised Tang Long’s exhibited strength;
But after the accolades, their tone revealed apparent fear, completely devoid of the composure and calmness they had when analyzing Bundesliga opponents.
Guardiola sat in his main seat, spinning a pen and smiling at his group of subordinates.
The lights above shone on his shiny forehead, reflecting a brilliant glow.
Everyone chattered for a while but couldn’t come up with a solution.
Until gradually the murmurs faded, everyone closed their mouths, their eyes uniformly fixed on Guardiola who hadn’t spoken.
They believed Guardiola could certainly devise a plan to freeze Tang Long!
Since coming from Barça to Bayern Munich,
Guardiola perfectly transplanted Cruyff’s passing philosophy from Spain to Germany.
Bayern not only became the team with the highest possession rate in the entire Bundesliga but often delivered a complete victory with big scores, crushing their opponents and leaving them in shattered confidence.
Guardiola quickly conquered the Bundesliga, earning respect from within the team and becoming someone whose words were absolute within Bayern.
"Boss, why don’t you tell us, you must have a way to stop Tang Long!" a coaching staff member said.
Unexpectedly, Guardiola shook his head and said, "I have no way to stop Tang Long, and I estimate that even if you gather all the top ten coaches in European football and discuss it for three hours, there’s still no way to stop him."
As soon as he said this, the meeting room fell into dead silence, and everyone was dumbfounded.
They couldn’t believe that the usually confident Guardiola would say something like that?
Boosting opponents’ morale while diminishing one’s own—this is not Guardiola’s style at all.
Disappointment was evident on everyone’s faces.
Speaking truthfully, if even Guardiola doesn’t have an effective tactical plan to stop Tang Long, then no one else could come up with one either. Does this mean conceding defeat before the match even begins?
Guardiola tapped the pen on the table three times and then changed his tone:
"Since we can’t come up with an effective tactic to contain Tang Long, we might as well boldly skip it, because as strong as Tang Long is, he’s not the whole Bayern team."
"No matter how great he is, he’s just one person, and football is a sport where 11 players fight side by side. I tell you, instead of thinking about how to contain Tang Long, you should focus on how to find breakthroughs among the other 10 players of Manchester City, which is much easier!"
Guardiola pointed at the screen, and a circle was drawn around Ranocchia’s name in the PPT.
"Do you think this Italian ball-playing center-back is formidable? In my opinion, we can find flaws all over him..."
...
At Tang Long’s home.
Dilata, the deputy manager of Sky Sports’ Manchester Branch, was conducting a one-on-one interview with Tang Long in the living room.
The entire interview was recorded on video, but from filming to recording to questioning, everything was done by Dilata alone.
This was done to ensure that this one-hour exclusive interview would not be leaked prematurely.
According to the gentleman’s agreement between the two, Tang Long had granted his exclusive interview rights solely to Dilata.
Apart from her, no one could get their hands on an in-depth interview with Tang Long.
After the interview, watching Dilata, wearing black-rimmed glasses and skillfully organizing the interview outline and notes, Tang Long smiled and said to her, "I think what I said today is enough to promote you from deputy manager to manager."
"Really? Then I have to thank you properly." Dilata flashed her signature professional smile.
"How will you thank me? By giving me another necklace?"
"No, let me think for a moment."
After musing for a moment, Dilata snapped her fingers, "Got it!"
Dilata pushed her glasses and analyzed that the matter between Wanda and De Bruyne had cooled down in recent days, and everyone’s attention was now on the Champions League semifinals. If this matter passes by just like that, it would be too boring, wasting this explosive gossip for nothing.
Dilata said she decided to "expand" the story between Wanda and De Bruyne.
Tang Long found it interesting when he heard it.
Although he was very sure that Manchester City would laugh last in this league championship battle;
He was also happy to see Manchester United suffer another wave of media impact—especially Icardi, letting those kids taste the fierce attacks of the English media.
Such taste, Tang Long had experienced countless times since he came to the Premier League.
Dilata took out her phone and showed Tang Long a picture.
The scene in the picture took place in the toilet cubicle at the Carrington Training Base.
Icardi and De Bruyne were leaning against opposite sides of the toilet, both with bruises on their faces, looking miserable.
"Eh? I knew they must have fought, but this picture is the first time I’ve seen it, where did you get it?" Tang Long curiously tried to take the phone for a closer look.
Dilata quickly pulled the phone away, holding it to her chest, and laughed, "We spent 100,000 British pounds buying this picture, what do you think?"
Tang Long asked, "So it was taken by a Manchester United player on the scene, why did they take it?"
Dilata said, "Just like when Nasri secretly photographed you, there are people in their team who dislike Icardi and want to mess with him! I’ve always been thinking about when I could maximize the value of this picture, and since I owe you a favor now, it’s time to bring out the value of this photo."
Then, Dilata, thinking aloud, dictated the copy.
Tang Long, upon hearing it, was instantly petrified!
Hiss...
He gasped on the spot.
"Dilata, you really are a genius, you’re trying to destroy Icardi, it’s a pity you’re not writing women’s fiction!"
"What fiction," Dilata flipped her hair and laughed, "I forgot to tell you, before becoming a sports journalist, I worked as an entertainment journalist for a year. To me, the gossip in the football world is nothing compared to the entertainment industry. Just wait and watch the show."