Updated: 2012-11-16

The French Stadium is located in the northern suburbs of Paris. This town is only half an hour's drive from Paris, and there are no good hotels in the local area. So when the whole Mallorca team came to Paris, they did not choose to stay in Saint-Denis, but instead found a very good hotel in downtown Paris, so the team stayed in...

"Is the distance a little far? What if the game is delayed?" Natal said hesitantly.

"What are you afraid of? I can't delay it. Don't forget that this is the Champions League final. There must be Paris police who helped us open the way when we set off." Jose laughed: "Besides, even if you are late, are you still afraid that they won't wait for us?"

Natal was speechless, and this is true. There seems to be no precedent in the history of the Champions League final. For such an important game, UEFA and the local government will definitely support it. Even if other roads are blocked like bastards, the road to Mallorca to the French Stadium will definitely be unobstructed.

There have been delays in the history of the Champions League due to traffic jams, but that was in the knockout match. In an away game between Inter Milan and Arsenal, the game was postponed for fifteen minutes due to traffic jams. After the game, both sides were punished because of the delay in broadcasting for fifteen minutes, and the loss was quite huge...

Mallorca lived in Paris, but although Jose gave the players a good environment, he began to strictly restrain them. He was not allowed to go out to the hotel to play privately. If you want to rest, you should stay in the hotel. Anyway, the five-star hotel is quite good, and there is no shortage of places to have fun in the gym and bar.

The players of Mallorca still understand this quite well. They know when it is now. If you want to play, you can play whatever you want when the Champions League is over. Now you are playing? What a joke...

In the next few days, Mallorca went to the French Stadium for adaptive training once a day. Jose did not arrange any secret training. He has played four games with Barcelona this season, and now it is the fifth game. It is already clear what kind of players there are on both sides, and they can't play any tricks anymore.

In this case, the player's condition can only be adjusted to the best, and then adjust it at random on the spot. At least in this regard, Jose feels that he can still suppress Rijkaard, similar to Wenger. Rijkaard is also a head coach who is stronger than strategy and neglects tactics. He can lead a top team, but in terms of specific tactical command capabilities, he is quite average.

Both Mallorca and Barcelona have many players who can change the situation on the court, but Barcelona has more talented players, while Mallorca's overall is better. Jose is just worried about whether Barcelona's Ronaldo and others will use their inspiration to break Mallorca's overall offense and defense. Every time Barcelona and Mallorca meet each other this season, they have many goals. If Mallorca wants to win, they still have to make a fuss about offense. No matter how inspiration there is for a genius player, it is impossible for a game to appear inspiration and increase the number of goals, which can better curb Barcelona's individual advantages.

As time goes by, the atmosphere of the Champions League final is getting stronger and stronger. Most streets are hung with flags representing UEFA and flags of clubs on both sides. There are also more and more flags of Spain. Both teams have several Spanish internationals, and they are all La Liga teams. Naturally, there are many Spanish flags.

All the players also began to comment and infer the final. The final result was that both sides had a 55-5 win in the situation. Barcelona had an advantage in the league and also won two wins and two losses in the confrontation with Mallorca. However, Mallorca is better at fighting tough battles. The King's Cup and the Champions League were both defeated strong enemies all the way. King's Cup defeated Barcelona and Real Madrid in succession, and the Champions League even eliminated Chelsea, Inter Milan and Arsenal one after another. They were all teams that performed well in the Champions League this season. This feature would make them more advantageous in the finals.

"It's all nonsense." Jose put down the newspaper. He wanted to see if he could tell a little about Barcelona's news through local news. As a result, Rijkaard also announced the news controls like him. The idle and boring media could only publish a large number of comments from experts and analysis of the lineups of both sides, and even review all the matches of Mallorca and Barcelona this season...

Fans will also enjoy these things, but they have no value to Jose.

Since that's the case, Jose has not considered Barcelona's affairs. It is the best choice now, with me as the main one. Both sides have similar strengths. When they meet on a narrow road, Mallorca's combat effectiveness is often higher than Barcelona, ​​and the winning rate against Barcelona has also been quite high in the past few seasons, especially in the kind of mutual attacking games, Mallorca can always score more goals than Barcelona. This is their psychological advantage. Adjust the players' state and let them deal with the game with the best mentality. This is what Jose is going to do now.

At the same time, he also needs to make all preparations, be familiar with the players' status, and be prepared for various situations that may occur in the game... This is what he wants to do, but vaguely, Jose felt that he seemed to be ignoring something...

It wasn't too late when he thought about it.

"Edwin, your performance is very good this season. To be honest, although I had confidence in you before, I was worried that you would be uncomfortable after entering a new environment. But you told me with your performance and told others that you don't need to worry about your performance, because you are a top goalkeeper, especially after the four years at Fulham." Jose said to Van dersar sitting in front of him.

Van der Sar nodded. He didn't know why this young head coach would come to talk to him - he was really young, he was nearly five years older than him...

However, after hearing the beginning of this passage, Van der Sar made up his mind - it shouldn't be said that he would play as a substitute in this final, it's not scientific...

"I think we all know the importance of this final, Edwin, Barcelona is a very strong team, and their offensive characteristics are also easy to find the flaws in our defense, so in this game, your task will be very heavy, because you may face the opponent's forward with a single striker many times," Jose continued.

Van der Sar let out a long sigh and said, "I will do my best."

"I need you to be on the court even more." Jose stared into Van der Sar's eyes and said: "We can afford to concede the ball, but when facing opponents like Barcelona, ​​we can't afford to lose one person. When facing danger, it's enough to do the best. There is no need to try hard to stop the opponent and protect yourself. This is what I ask of you... Do you understand, Edwin?"

Van der Sar was stunned for a moment, then asked back: "Are you afraid that I will be sent off after getting a red card?"

"Yes, that's it." Jose nodded.

"You are too careful. I usually won't be sent off by red cards on the court." Van der Sar laughed. He said with confidence because he has never been a goalkeeper who is easy to get red cards. In his career, he only gets a red card every two or three seasons, and it's basically due to technical reasons.

At the same time, Van der Sar was also a little strange because Josette came to him to say such a thing, which also made Van der Sar a little confused.

"Just remember what I said, try to avoid this situation. You must know that I would rather concede a goal than give one less person on the field, especially you are the ones who are less. We don't have a strong substitute goalkeeper. Roa is older than you, and his condition is average." Jose finally patted Van der Sar on the shoulder and said.

Van der Sar nodded. Although he didn't understand that Jose would tell him like this, he also knew what it would be like to have one less person in the final. It's absolutely right to listen carefully.

After Van der Sar left, Jose breathed a sigh of relief. The reason why he found Van der Sar said this to him was because he remembered what happened in the Champions League final this season in history - Lehman was sent off by a red card in the first ten minutes, resulting in Arsenal's passive all the way. Although history has changed a lot now, Mallorca is also a team that is easily beaten behind, and Barcelona's frontcourt does not lack straight passes and speed. If inertia is caused, Mallorca was sent off shortly after the opening, then Jose will be passive, and he rarely has the experience of dealing with strong enemies with one less person.

But he couldn't tell Van der Sar that if Barcelona had a one-on-one shot, you would likely make a foul outside the penalty area, and we would easily lose one person. We would rather throw this ball than lose one person on the court... He couldn't say that.

So Jose could only remind him relatively obscurely that Van der Sar is also an experienced goalkeeper. As long as he pays attention to this aspect, he will judge what to do is good and what to do is bad.

Time passed day by day, and May 18th also arrived on time. At 8:45 pm on this day, the game will kick off at the Grand Stadium in France!

At 5:30 pm, Mallorca set out from the hotel on time. They boarded the bus and drove to the town of St. Denis, preparing to start the next game.

They did not suffer much obstacles or interference on the road. They rushed to the French Stadium in just one hour and ten minutes. At this time, there were still two hours before the game began.

"Well, it seems we came a little early." After entering the locker room, Jose blew up, then waved his hand: "Now, take a rest for half an hour, move your body slightly, then an hour of warm-up time, and the remaining half hour, let's discuss how to clean up Barcelona!"

The players in Mallorca responded and started to rest in the locker room - the hotel is a bit far from the stadium, and staying in the car for more than an hour is also a relatively tiring thing. This is the time for them to relax.

Jose was discussing some possible details with the assistant coaches. In this case, time flew quickly. When the players were a little impatient to wait, half an hour had already arrived.

Jose waved his hand and asked the assistant coaches to take the players out to warm up. Then he stopped in front of the tactical board, carefully thought about his thoughts from beginning to end, and then sat down and began to close his eyes and rest.

It was not until the disturbing sounds came from outside the locker room that Jose opened his eyes.
Chapter completed!