Chapter 468: Chapter 467 Poaba, Sasa, Poapa, Wuo Wo, Mon Men
"Otherwise, Sporting Lisbon would have lost their round of eight spot, and Barça would have been without a semifinal spot too."
"Barça must make their mark in the Champions League, or else they will face another season with nothing to show for it."
Bosque mocked his rivals with a wave of his hand, whilst also revealing some underhanded tactics teams of Real Madrid’s caliber might encounter.
In response to this, Deng Kai had his say, "Mr. Bosque makes a good point, but as a strong team, why can’t you secure a spot in the knockout stages during the six long rounds of group matches?"
"Since you’ve secured your spot in the knockouts early, what’s to say you can’t use rotation for tactical reasons?"
"To be honest, Barça has been hit hard by injuries in the past. How did Guardiola go from his peak to a substitute in previous years?"
"How many matches has Rivaldo missed this season due to injury?"
"Quaresma faced two lengthy periods of absence during the last two seasons with Sporting Lisbon."
"Barça is very hopeful of challenging for the Champions League title this year, at least I believe the semifinals are no problem. It would be a huge loss for such a team to be unable to advance further due to key players’ injuries."
In so many words, he essentially confirmed Bosque’s concerns, issuing a veiled threat to Barça.
This really got under the Barça fans’ skin.
The relationship between these two teams, in the Kai Era, was indeed very difficult to appease.
Their grievances included:
Deng Kai refused a trial invitation from La Masia at the age of ten.
At thirteen, he publicly declared he wouldn’t go to Barça and cursed that players who joined Barça voluntarily wouldn’t end well.
Figo’s direct transfer from Barça to Real Madrid turned Barça into a laughingstock among fans.
Barça signed Simon but he flopped early on; later, when he did hit his stride, Deng Kai instigated him to leave the team. Eventually, Liverpool snatched him up, and now he was part of Liverpool’s youthful trident with Owen and Gerard.
Quaresma’s transfer to Barça was halted by Deng Kai, resulting in Barça later paying four times the price to re-sign Quaresma, suffering a significant financial blow.
In the UEFA Europa League semifinal, Barça were eliminated by Deng Kai’s humiliating hat-trick of headers.
During that match, Barça players received numerous yellow and red cards because of Deng Kai, and further suspensions were imposed post-match.
In this season’s Champions League first encounter, Sporting Lisbon beat Barça 3-0 at home, followed by unabashed mockery.
With so many grievances, could Barça just let it go?
Forget about the club’s senior management or coaching staff wanting to play a tacit match with Sporting Lisbon for the sake of results, the players and fans would be the first to disagree!
Even because the Barça officials didn’t respond to the incident, and coach Rijkaard refused to discuss the matter in the league, Barça’s morale was directly shaken, and fans even unfurled banners in the stands calling for "A bloodbath for the Portuguese."
Barça’s loss in the league made matters even worse.
Eventually, the Barça officials finally came to a consensus.
A press conference was held, attended by coach Rijkaard and Enrique, the then-captain of Barça.
Rijkaard, "Barcelona will approach the next game against Sporting Lisbon with the mindset of a Champions League final. We will fight with all our might to win the victory that belongs to us."
"We will always remember what the Portuguese did last season at Camp Nou. We won’t let that disgusting ’Siu’ celebration echo through Camp Nou ever again!"
"This time, we fight for our fans!"
Enrique also gave a passionate speech, expressing the Barça first team’s support for this decision, and even revealed a collective team signature, including Quaresma’s.
Of course, Quaresma had privately called Deng Kai in advance to discuss this matter; he knew Deng Kai was reliable and he didn’t want to be friends with him either.
After all, when this year’s World Cup was over, no matter what the achievements of the Golden Generation, Deng Kai was bound to join the Portugal national team and form the new starting lineup with Figo, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomes, Simon, Ronaldo, and himself.
Considering Deng Kai’s leadership abilities, Quaresma had no doubt that in the end, the team would be known as Kai — oops, since he’s Chinese, his family name comes first, so it’s Deng.
For a time, the media unanimously wrote off Lisbon Athletic’s exit.
Because Barcelona got serious.
This put a lot of pressure on everyone at Lisbon Athletic.
In fact, was Lisbon Athletic afraid of Barcelona?
Afraid they couldn’t score against Barcelona, maybe!
It’s not like they hadn’t played before — last time they met, was it a 3-0 win for the youth team or what?
But after the media’s concerted direction, Lisbon Athletics truly were made to feel like it was the end of the world.
The dynamics between the two sides changed dramatically without anyone realizing it.
Ordinary people might not notice this shift, easily getting carried along by it.
But what Deng Kai was best at was seizing the momentum, and Barcelona trying to play this trick on him was probably biting off more than they could chew!
The changes the era of information explosion brought to everyone were beyond the wildest dreams of the steam age.
Soon, Lisbon Athletic held a pre-match press conference for the 27th round of the Primeira Liga, responding collectively to Barcelona’s recent remarks.
Deng Kai sat beside Trigella, smoothly fielding questions throughout, expressing opinions on behalf of the team with himself at the helm.
Deng Kai, "Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone for their interest in our upcoming match against Barcelona, and we’ll strive to bring an exciting game to all of you. But there are a few points I want to emphasize, or rather, remind everyone."
"Last year in the UEFA Cup, it was us who knocked out Barcelona. Us!"
"This year, in our first encounter with Barcelona, we slaughtered them four to zero. Us!"
"Perhaps in this group, Barcelona advanced early, but that was only because out of their six games, only two were against us. If all six were against us, Barcelona wouldn’t have gained even a single point! Us!"
"In the next game, we at Lisbon Athletic will surely triumph."
"I said it!"
"Finally... I’m relieved to hear Barcelona say they will play the next game with the attitude of a Champions League final. Because then they won’t have excuses for their defeat."
"But sorry to say, I’ve seen the Champions League finals between Real Madrid and Juventus in ’97-’98."
"Seen ’98-’99 finals between Manchester United and Bayern."
"I’ve watched the ’99-’00 Real Madrid and Valencia finals, and last season’s Bayern versus Valencia finals."
"But I really haven’t seen a Champions League final involving Barcelona."
"I hope the next time Barcelona talk tough they can refer to something they’ve achieved, not what they plan to do in the future."
"Look at the examples I’ve mentioned and then Barcelona’s examples — haven’t you realized yet who’s actually afraid of who?"
"Come on, say it with me, Poaba, Sasa, Poapa, wu wo wo, momen!
