As expected, it was Yang Yang!
The moment referee Iturralde blew the final whistle, Guardiola stood on the sidelines, brows furrowed as he stared toward the pitch. He looked utterly dejected.
He had lost again!
Ever since Yang Yang came on as a substitute, Guardiola had been on tenterhooks. Having once been a hugely successful top-level star himself, he knew all too well that players of Yang Yang and Messi's caliber often needed only one chance to change the course of a match.
Their individual ability and judgment of the situation on the pitch were simply too strong and too outstanding.
Against superstars of this caliber, all a team could do was give everything to contain them. It could never expect to freeze them completely.
Guardiola had to admit that he had made mistakes today, especially in how he used Messi, but he truly had no other choice.
Benitez had built a cage for Messi, while Guardiola's strikerless tactics pushed Messi straight into it. As a result, Messi had failed to put in a good performance throughout the match—he had even looked completely out of sorts.
In fact, this was no coincidence. Every time Messi faced Benitez or Mourinho, things turned out the same way.
That was because both head coaches were always trying every possible way to restrict him.
The strikerless system was a choice born of helplessness. If Ibrahimovic had come to Barcelona, Guardiola would not have needed to adopt such tactics at all. He could have freed Messi without forcing the Argentine superstar to face the opposing center-backs directly, giving him more tactical freedom.
It was just like Yang Yang's situation at Real Madrid.
But now, Barcelona simply could not find a powerful center forward, so Guardiola could only push Messi farther forward.
One-nil. That was