Chapter 165: Chaotic Barcelona
After a two-month hiatus, the Champions League group stage reignited, with Inter Milan traveling to Barcelona to challenge the Spanish powerhouse, Barcelona.
During the past period, Barcelona had been in disarray both internally and externally. Coach Van Gaal stubbornly relied on the "Dutch contingent," resulting in chaotic team tactics. The once-promising Rijkaard could only sit on the bench.
In this situation, as the first half of the season ended, Barcelona only ranked 12th in the La Liga standings. Criticism from the Catalan media rained down on the coach like snowflakes.
Barcelona's patriarch, Cruyff, even wrote articles directly insulting Van Gaal, believing he was "stubborn and beyond redemption, and must leave Barcelona immediately."
Naturally, Van Gaal was not willing to back down. He repeatedly retaliated during interviews, attributing the team's imbalanced mentality to the media's interference.
Amidst extreme chaos, Van Gaal reluctantly stepped down, and the firefighting coach Antic took over Barcelona for the second half of the season. Although their performance had somewhat improved, the path to securing a spot in the next season's Champions League was still distant.
Therefore, Barcelona had to go all out in the current Champions League season. Before the match, Antic motivated the players, saying, "Although Inter Milan is strong, they are not unbeatable. Whether it's the defensive vulnerabilities or the forward line injuries, these are their weaknesses."
The players looked at the coach with different expressions, clearly not fully trusting him as the temporary firefighting coach.
On the evening of February 19th, at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, ??the players of Barcelona and Inter Milan stood side by side in the player tunnel, ready to enter the field.
The Argentine, Rijkaard, looked curiously at Wang Feng at the forefront of the Inter Milan lineup, couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "He's really young!"
Sensing the gaze, Wang Feng turned to look, Rijkaard smiled slightly at him, Wang Feng nodded in response, and both sides remained silent.
Barcelona deployed a 4-4-2 formation for this match, with Bonano in goal.
The defenders were Reiziger, Frank de Boer, Puyol, and Haavi.
In midfield were Rijkaard, Cocu, Ovimas, and Mendieta.
The forwards were Kluivert and Savio.
Led by the main referee, both sets of players entered the field, greeted by the resounding applause and cheers of the Camp Nou, showing decent attendance despite Barcelona's poor performance this year.
Barcelona kicked off first, and Mendieta passed the ball back to the defense. Their strategy for this match was still based on possession and gradually penetrating the opponent's defense through passing, so they did not rush to attack.
Inter Milan, on the other hand, adopted a defensive counter-attack strategy and did not accelerate either. Therefore, for a period of time, the main battlefield for both sides was concentrated in the midfield, with no good scoring opportunities formed.
In the 34th minute, Barcelona's attack failed, and Kluivert was intercepted by Materazzi in the frontcourt. Materazzi passed to Dalmat, who quickly distributed the ball to the left.
After receiving the ball, Di Biagio glanced at the positioning in the frontcourt, then curled a diagonal long pass with his left foot directly to Wang Feng. At this moment, Reiziger and Puyol, two defenders, were beside him.
Facing the incoming ball, Wang Feng explosively moved to occupy the landing spot. The two defenders were unwilling to fall behind, especially Puyol, who tightly marked Wang Feng, using both hands and feet to tightly entangle him.
Relying on sharp senses, Wang Feng reached the ball's landing spot first, lifting his right foot to control the ball. The ball fell perfectly with Wang Feng's foot, without any gap, as if it were stuck to his shoe.
Puyol, feeling increasingly anxious, disregarded the risk of fouling and slightly raised his arm to bump into Wang Feng. Wang Feng felt a huge force hitting him, causing his body to tilt and his waist to ache slightly. Fortunately, he quickly exerted force on his lower limbs, lowering his center of gravity to avoid losing balance.
Wang Feng then pushed the ball forward, quickly breaking free from Puyol's entanglement, leaving the Spaniard with an incredulous look. Even Puyol, who just bumped into him, almost lost his balance, realizing that Wang Feng could withstand the impact. He had heard about Wang Feng's excellent physicality before, how he was a nightmare for all defenders. Today, he finally witnessed it.
Regaining his senses, Puyol hurriedly chased after Wang Feng, but he once again experienced Wang Feng's speed. Sadly, even with his full acceleration, Puyol was gradually left behind. To stop Wang Feng, he could only reach out to grab him, but such fouls would surely be severely punished.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Feng entered the penalty area, and Barcelona's goalkeeper, Bonano, hastily abandoned the goal. However, Wang Feng suddenly shot, placing the ball directly into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Bonano was caught off guard, diving to save the ball, but was still a step too slow. The ball passed under him and rolled into Barcelona's net.
"Goooooooooooooooooooal!! The ball's in!! Wang Feng opens the scoring for Inter Milan!!"
"Wang Feng, with his stunning ball control and excellent physicality, tore apart Barcelona's defense! The camera focuses on Puyol, who still wears a look of astonishment on his face."
"I need to remind the fans watching at home once again, Wang Feng has just turned nineteen, which means his body still has room to grow. Oh my God, I have to mourn for the defenders who have to face Wang Feng."
Barcelona's players seemed to remember the miserable matches they had before, their morale plummeting, and even the cheers from the Camp Nou fans decreased significantly.
At such a time, the team needed a flag-bearer player to boost morale, but unfortunately, Barcelona did not have such a player now.
They kept passing the ball in the midfield, utilizing their excellent passing skills to keep possession, but they did not attack. It seemed as if they were the ones leading, not Inter Milan.
Inter Milan also couldn't press too hard, to avoid defensive mistakes and could only wait cautiously to prevent Barcelona's counterattacks. In such a passive game, time quietly passed to the end.
As the game was about to end, Inter Milan had another chance. Dalmat dribbled through the midfield and then passed to Di Biagio on the left, who waited for the support of other Inter Milan players as he advanced.
Approaching the edge of the penalty area, Barcelona's full-back Reiziger moved up to intercept, but Di Biagio stopped the ball with a step-over, then turned and caught up to the ball, pushing it horizontally towards the center.
Wang Feng, who was supporting, received the ball and, near the edge of the penalty area, performed a Marseille turn to shake off Puyol, then took two steps sideways and used the outside of his right foot to shoot directly at the goal.
The ball drew an arc in the air, entering the top right corner of the goal, and although goalkeeper Bonano made a full dive, he couldn't reach the ball.
2-0! Inter Milan defeated Barcelona.
After the match, as they watched the Barcelona players enter the dressing room one by one with their heads down, Wang Feng felt that this team needed rebuilding.
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