novelraw Chapter 615 - 422: A Football Marvel! Guardiola Actually Scratches His Own Face in Self-Harm After the Game!
Chapter 615 - 422: A Football Marvel! Guardiola Actually Scratches His Own Face in Self-Harm After the Game!
At the post-match press conference, as Guardiola entered from the side door, everyone was shocked!
Guardiola’s bald head was covered with visible scratches, and there were also abrasions on his nose and chin.
What happened? Did someone hit Guardiola?
All the reporters present were utterly confused.
The crowd was abuzz with speculation. Could it be that Guardiola had a conflict with a player in the dressing room?
As everyone was eagerly waiting for more details, Guardiola sat on the podium and smiled helplessly.
"Oh, stop guessing, everyone. The scratches on my face are self-inflicted!"
Upon hearing this, everyone in the audience was stunned, and they all stopped discussing, directing their gazes in unison towards the man on the stage.
"Although scoring three away goals isn’t bad, the process was absolutely dreadful! This is also the biggest blunder of my career. I repeatedly reminded the players before the match to tightly mark Tang, but what happened? He still got two goals and an assist, our marking of him was nonexistent!"
"I won’t blame the players, they are all good kids. Who can I blame? I can only blame myself for not clearly explaining my tactical deployment to the players. I apologize for our dreadful defense, I’ll take responsibility for this!"
The media below the stage were well aware of Guardiola’s image.
His persona, since his time coaching at Barcelona, has been that of a "football fanatic"!
According to Catalonian media reports back then, Guardiola would spend at least 18 out of 24 hours a day thinking about football-related matters.
In his life, football always takes the top priority, even surpassing eating and drinking.
Additionally, Bayern’s marking of Tang Long in this match was indeed nonexistent. Many times when he had the ball, Bayern players failed to effectively mark him;
So when Guardiola spoke like this, even though people were shocked at him scratching his own face, they could understand his feelings.
Therefore, Guerrero’s next statement seemed rather reasonable.
"You say that the hat-trick by Lewandowski makes him the best player of the match?"
"If I were to speak truthfully, I believe that those three goals were highly coincidental and lucky, because in my impression, Manchester City’s defense has always been impregnable, they have excellent defensive players."
"So in my opinion, Vidal, who went off injured in the first half, was the best player!"
"That’s right! Even though Vidal was made to look foolish by Tang Long, he showed strong aggression in defense!"
"He didn’t fear Tang’s exquisite skills and dared to confront him, truly commendable for all other Bayern players to learn from!"
"His exit was definitely our biggest loss in this match. If it weren’t for Vidal’s early exit, I believe our number of goals conceded wouldn’t have exceeded two."
Accompanying Guardiola to the post-match press conference was Lewandowski.
He was trying hard not to laugh, pinching his thigh hard to maintain a solemn expression.
Pinching his left thigh, then his right, and back to his left again;
Eventually, mistakenly pinching Guardiola’s thigh.
Guardiola and Lewandowski exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with sadness.
Guardiola, who rarely praises opposing players, then went on to commend Tang Long explicitly.
Touching his own scarred forehead, his tone was both admiring and tinged with jealousy and heartache.
"Pellegrini knows how to use Tang well, just give him the ball, and this young lad who’s not yet 20 can effortlessly control the match, scoring and assisting!"
"I’ve seen some of Tang’s games while he was at Inter Milan, his improvement since coming to the Premier League is evident!"
"It is Tang’s fortune to encounter a renowned coach like Pellegrini who excels in nurturing young players!"
Guardiola’s comments also sparked a huge wave online.
His act of scratching his own head was taken as a curiosity, becoming a topic of conversation for fans in their leisure time.
-[Even someone as strong as Guardiola has moments of emotional fragility!]
-[Too pathetic, his mindset has been shattered by Tang Long, leading to self-harm???]
-[I’ve been a Barça fan for twenty years, and I’ve seen him play at Barça, but I have never seen him so helpless!]
-[It shouldn’t be like this; Bayern’s players need to reflect, have they really trained well these past few days and listened to Guardiola’s pre-match instructions? It’s disheartening!]
-[How arrogant of Bayern’s players to not cherish such a good coach as Guardiola?]
- "Vidal is truly a warrior. Conte said he plays smart football when he was at Juventus, no wonder Guardiola would bring him in!"
- "Bayern’s tactics this game were a disaster; drawing the match really had some luck involved!"
- "When Manchester City goes to the Allianz Arena, Tang Long probably won’t have as much ball space as in this match. I believe Bayern won’t make the same mistake twice!"
Guardiola’s remarks at the post-match press conference completely explained the confusion in Manchester City coach Pellegrini’s mind.
It turns out that in this match, Bayern’s players didn’t focus on marking Tang Long not because Guardiola didn’t specifically instruct them before the game but because the players didn’t strictly execute the coach’s tactics!
Seeing Guardiola’s face covered in scratches, Pellegrini let out a cold laugh, full of sarcasm in his words.
"Hey, look at Guardiola, acting like a clown, a grown man, and scratching his face just because he didn’t win. Even my five-year-old grandson wouldn’t do that. Is he really fit to coach Manchester City?"
"Exactly, boss, if it weren’t for their luck, how could they have scored three goals against us? But don’t worry, once we go to the away game, we can definitely win!"
Pellegrini felt unconvinced, believing that Manchester City could have easily won this game, yet also stayed somewhat realistic.
"I don’t believe all of Bayern’s goals were just luck!"
"Look at their first goal, it started with Sterling’s failure to press tightly, and then there was a gap between Delph and Toure. For the second goal, Ranocchia got beaten, it was because he retreated too slowly!"
"As for the third goal, it was obviously a coordination error between Kompany and Kolarov!"
"Guardiola said that on purpose to confuse us. Hmph, we’re all in the coaching circle, he’s nearly twenty years younger than me, and he wants to fool me?"
"We can’t fall for his trick. You go and make a video edit right away, and give those players I mentioned a good talk."
"Got it, boss, you’re sharp as always. With your correction, I’m sure they’ll improve in the next match!" Rein ran off eagerly to make the video.
...
Weekend.
Premier League Round 36, Manchester City visited Queens Park Rangers.
At a critical period of the Champions League knockout stage, Pellegrini made extensive rotations in this match!
None of the main players were involved.
Even Joe Hart, who had been in exile, was brought out to start the match.
It wasn’t enough to just field substitutes; even two promising youngsters from the youth team made it into the starting lineup.
The purpose was clear—to ensure that none of the main and core substitute players would get injured before the second leg against Bayern!
Manchester City now has a 7-point lead over Manchester United, and Pellegrini is very confident, even if they lose to Queens Park Rangers and Manchester United wins, Manchester City will still have a 4-point lead going into the last two rounds of the league. They still have absolute confidence to win the championship.
Queens Park Rangers were already struggling in the relegation zone.
Faced with the big gift from Manchester City, how could they not gladly accept it?
An easy 2-0, taking all three points!
And all their competitors lost, so with this victory over Manchester City, Queens Park Rangers surprisingly jumped out of the relegation zone, ranking 17th.
After the game ended, the home fans even sang Manchester City’s anthem to thank them!
Manchester City deliberately slowed their pace, while Manchester United worked hard to catch up.
They achieved a 3-0 victory over Newcastle at home, successfully narrowing the gap with Manchester City from 7 points to 4 points.
Captain Rooney encouraged the whole team in the post-match interview:
"We seized the opportunity of Manchester City being burdened by the Champions League and successfully narrowed the gap. There are two rounds left in the league, and we’re 4 points behind the top; anything is possible. Until the very last moment, the Red Devils’ warriors will never give up!"
In this match, the biggest contributor to Manchester United’s victory was Icardi, who scored twice in the second half to finish the game.
Although plagued by various off-field distractions, Icardi’s desire for the Golden Boot got him back on his feet.
The two assists didn’t come from De Bruyne, but from Captain Rooney.
Lu Xiaopang, although he found Icardi quite quirky, along with his quirky family, as the captain of the Red Devils, he took a holistic view and gave him a helping hand.
Icardi embraced Rooney tightly after the game.
Rooney patted Icardi on the shoulder, originally wanting to explain the importance of the "Red Devils Spirit" during the title race. Little did he know that Icardi wasn’t thinking about that at all. He earnestly told Rooney:
"That’s great, Captain! Aguero didn’t score in this round either. I’m only two goals behind him now. I can definitely win the Premier League Golden Boot!"