The night of February 11, Navarra Kingdom Stadium.
La Liga, Matchday 23. Osasuna hosted Barcelona.
After the match, in the away dressing room.
With a tremendous bang, the dressing-room door was kicked violently open from outside.
The sudden noise stunned everyone in the dressing room. The already noisy room instantly fell silent. Everyone spun around and looked toward the entrance, then saw Guardiola stride in furiously, his teeth clenched and his face filled with resentment as he glared angrily at them from time to time.
The air in the dressing room seemed to freeze in an instant. None of the players dared even breathe loudly. If they could have, they probably would have slowed their heartbeats as much as possible, merely watching Guardiola with their eyes.
Captain Puyol was worried. He feared that Guardiola, overcome with rage, might do something irrational at this moment. He wanted to step forward and try to dissuade him, but he soon realized that he probably had no chance of talking him down.
A terrifying, suffocating tension filled the dressing room.
The media in Catalonia said that Barcelona had been playing with their fans' hearts lately.
What did that mean?
It meant that the team's performances had been far too inconsistent.
After drawing 0–0 away to Villarreal, Barcelona performed well in the two-legged Copa del Rey tie. They avoided defeat away to Valencia, drawing 1–1, and then returned home to beat Los Murciélagos 2–0.
Reaching the Copa del Rey final was certainly worth celebrating. Although their opponents in the final would once again be Real Madrid, it at least proved that Barcelona had a chance to compete for a trophy. That itself was an affirmation.
But neither the media nor the fans were satisfied.
Between the two Copa del Rey semifinal legs came La