It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 109 107 Gladiator

After taking this month's dose of ketotifen, Cial washed up, chatted with Messi for a few words, and fell asleep early.

The next morning, Charles had just finished washing up and was going out for dinner when he met Begiristan and Laporta at the door.

"Charlie, Leo, come with me first. Someone wants to see you."

Begiristan waved his hand, motioning the two to come over.

Charles followed Laporta and Begiristan into the executive floor of the hotel. The moment he opened the door, he saw three unexpected people.

Spanish King Juan Carlos, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero, and Catalan Prime Minister José Mendia.

Charles originally thought that he was going to meet a reporter, and wondered what kind of reporter could alarm Laporta.

First of all, it has long been an open secret that Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and Catalan Prime Minister José Mendia are both supporters of Barcelona.

It's understandable that they would come here.

But King Juan Carlos is a Real Madrid fan, and it would be a great honor for Barcelona if he could show up in person.

Although the combination of two Barcelona fans and one Real Madrid fan was a bit weird, the conversation went on smoothly.

At 10 o'clock, Carlos had to go meet with the Italian President, so Charles and others were able to leave for the restaurant.

Pruna still stayed in the restaurant.

"Ciel, Leo, you're finally here, come and eat."

"Thank you," Charles took the plate, sat down, and began to eat breakfast slowly, smiling as he watched Messi eat the same "anti-allergy" food as him with a headache on his face.

"I thought it was a reporter interviewing someone and was wondering what kind of reporter could alarm Laporta, but I didn't expect it to be the king."

Messi was full of emotion.

"I don't know what to say. After all, he is a Real Madrid fan. Fortunately, he has you."

Ciel waved his hand, "It's okay, just follow what he says."

As the Champions League final draws closer, the atmosphere in Rome becomes increasingly tense.

On May 5, the entire Barcelona team boarded a bus and headed to the Olympic Stadium. Along the way, in addition to the bustling fans, there were also various police officers from Britain, Spain, and Italy.

"After we get off the bus, no one is allowed to stop and must rush in as quickly as possible," Guardiola put on a poker face again.

"We just received news that a British fan was stabbed before the game, four other British fans were arrested, and four Italian fans planned a massacre. No one knows if there will be another one in the near future. Everyone, run faster."

On the day of the Champions League final, 3 British fans will flock to Rome, but only 3 of them will have tickets!

Among the tickets ordered by Manchester United fans, 216 tickets were accidentally lost.

No one knows what unexpected things these accidents will bring.

In addition to the British fans who are known as "football hooligans", there were also some restless Barcelona fans present today.

What’s even more troublesome is that there was a conflict between Manchester United fans and Roma fans last year.

Just recently, according to Italian media, some radical fans of Roma and Barcelona will jointly attack Manchester United fans on the night of the final.

Over the past decade or so, whenever a British team visited Italy, there would be bloodshed.

In 2001, 19 Liverpool fans were stabbed by Italian extremist fans while following the team to a match.

In 2007, three Middlesbrough fans were seriously injured in the UEFA Cup match between Middlesbrough and Roma.

However, the most serious incident was last year's away game between Manchester United and Roma, when 18 Manchester United fans were sent to hospital for treatment.

The conflict between Italian police and Manchester United fans even alarmed the British Home Office and UEFA to intervene in the investigation.

In Europe, football has never been just football.

After the bus stopped, Barcelona players quickly rushed into the stadium through the back door.

At this moment, you never know how many extreme fans will be around you.

Once in the locker room, Charles and his teammates began to change their equipment, while Guardiola went to attend the pre-match press conference.

In this game, Barcelona is designated as the home team and will wear the red and blue home jersey, while Manchester United chose the white jersey for the second away game.

When Guardiola arrived at the press conference, he became furious as soon as he saw Ferguson.

If he had alum in his hand, he would definitely pry open the old man's mouth and stuff it in.

Today's press conference was filled with reporters from various countries, and the entire venue was packed.

As soon as the press officer announced the start of the press conference, Vilanova slammed a dozen newspapers on the table and said, "Today's team is dressed like Real Madrid and acts like Real Madrid. They actually wanted to win by murdering the opponent's players before the game. It's really ridiculous!"

Ferguson's rosacea became redder and redder. "Although we are wearing white jerseys today, we are not Real Madrid."

"Real Madrid didn't lose to you 8:2, they were destroyed, but we played much better than them, what you said is completely false."

For many years, Ferguson has been critical of Real Madrid's practice of using its financial strength to recruit big-name stars.

Especially since Real Madrid has repeatedly rumored to buy Ronaldo over the past year or so, he was furious. Yesterday, he saw a newspaper saying that he had a deal with Real Madrid and someone "poisoned" him, which almost made him die of anger.

He is a virus. He will not be sold to Real Madrid, let alone traded with Real Madrid.

"Oh, if your tickets hadn't been stolen inexplicably and someone prepared to poison us hadn't really appeared in our hotel, I wouldn't have believed it was true," Guardiola said grimly. "If we do the same as Real Madrid, we are doomed to fail."

Florentino, who was watching the live broadcast in the living room, almost crushed the remote control.

Damn it, damn Manchester United, it would have been fine if they just wanted to "poison" him, but they actually dragged him into it.

Ferguson's face flushed, and he grabbed the newspaper that Vilanova had slapped on the table. "It's clearly written on it. It was clearly Real Madrid's doing. We at Manchester United will not accept any slander."

"No one knows better than you what happened to your players in Spain. You will know what happened."

Guardiola slammed the table and left the press conference with Vilanova angrily. "I have nothing to say about a club as despicable as Real Madrid."

The Rome Olympic Stadium can accommodate 8 people, but it will not be fully occupied. Instead, empty seats will be left to ensure safety, so only more than 5 tickets were actually sold for today's game.

Barcelona received 19544 tickets, of which 15635 have been distributed to members, accounting for 80% of the total number of tickets. The remaining 3909 tickets will belong to fans from other parts of Spain. Although Manchester United has many fans coming to Rome, only of them have received tickets.

The remaining tickets were sold to other Roma fans, but today's Roma fans support Barcelona, ​​so now except for the North Stand which is not dyed red and blue as a diehard Manchester United fan, the rest is all Barcelona's colors.

Charles walked into the player tunnel and heard a familiar voice again.

"TADA~Congratulations to the host for getting the reverse Cristiano Ronaldo - David Beckham."

"David Beckham, Manchester United top 7."

"If he hadn't left, there might not have been Cristiano Ronaldo."

When Charles heard the name, he finally had an idea in his mind.

Although Beckham is very famous, he is also very strong. He is almost a player whose fame overshadows his strength.

Charles and his teammates had just walked out of the player tunnel to warm up. Every touch of their ball triggered earth-shattering cheers from the south stand.

……

"Station, stage, you are watching the 2009 UEFA Champions League final. The Spanish champion Barcelona and the English Premier League champion Manchester United will meet at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The ultimate showdown is about to take place."

"This is the fourth time that the Olympic Stadium in Rome has hosted the Champions League final, and it is also the fourth time that Manchester United has reached the Champions League final. The Red Devils have thus become the first defending champion team to reach the Champions League final since Juventus in 4."

"Compared to Manchester United's 6% success rate of winning the championship as long as they reached the final, Barcelona, ​​which has reached the Champions League final six times this year, has one less championship than Manchester United."

"Manchester United have remained unbeaten in their last seven encounters with Spanish clubs, while Barcelona have only won one of their last eight encounters with English clubs."

“本场比赛是两家球会历史上的第10次正赛交锋，此前曼联以3胜4平2负稍占优势，其中在1990/91赛季，红魔在优胜者杯决赛中就是击败巴萨夺冠。”

"In fact, in the last four encounters between the two sides, Manchester United has remained unbeaten with one win and three draws. However, in the most recent England-Spain duel in the Champions League final, it was the La Liga team that won, and it was Barcelona that had the last laugh."

"Barcelona's Alves and Abidal are suspended, Iniesta's injury has not yet fully recovered, and Manchester United's Fletcher can only watch from the sidelines."

"However, Henry and Charles both recovered from their injuries to help, Puyol also returned from suspension but played at right back, and Busquets started as a defensive midfielder."

"Ferdinand finally returned after three weeks of injury and joined forces with Vidic to hold the Red Devils' fortress position."

"Park Ji-sung, who was excluded from the squad for last year's Moscow final, started in this match. The South Korean international also became the first Asian player to start in the Champions League final."

"Here are the match rosters for both teams:"

“巴塞罗那(4-3-3)：1-巴尔德斯/5-普约尔、24-亚亚-图雷、3-皮克、16-希尔维尼奥/6-哈维、28-布斯克茨、17-夏尔/10-梅西、9-埃托奥、14-亨利。”

“曼联(4-3-3)：1-范德萨/22-奥谢、5-费迪南德、15-维迪奇、3-埃夫拉/16-卡里克、11-吉格斯、8-安德森/13-朴智星、7-C-罗纳尔多、10-鲁尼。”

"The much-anticipated Champions League final is just around the corner. Will the final champion be Manchester United or Barcelona?"

"On one side is the iron-blooded team under the iron-fisted old coach Ferguson, and on the other side is the gorgeous football spokesperson with a gathering of stars. Who will be at the top of Europe between Manchester United and Barcelona?"

"The whole world is waiting for the Battle of Rome to give birth to the new king of Europe."

"The original Messi-Ronaldo dispute unexpectedly resurfaced this year with the emergence of a new disruptor: Charles."

"Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo was the top scorer in the last Champions League. He scored 8 goals and helped Manchester United win the title."

"However, Ronaldo has failed to score in his last six encounters with La Liga teams. He also missed a penalty in Manchester United's away game against Barcelona in last season's Champions League semi-final."

"Barcelona's Messi is now the top scorer in this season's Champions League, with eight goals. However, Messi has not scored in his past 8 encounters with Premier League teams, including the two-legged battle with Chelsea in the semi-final."

"Charles, who created the miracle of the Nine Five Supremes, has been plagued by injuries since joining Barcelona, ​​but his football talent and offensive efficiency are well known to everyone. However, Charles has never played against any Premier League team."

"In the end, will it be Cristiano Ronaldo who defends his throne and dominates the rest? Or will Messi succeed in subverting the world and create a new one? Or will it be Charlton who comes from behind and takes the lead?"

After warming up, return to the locker room.

Charles had just sat down, wondering what Guardiola was tinkering with, when suddenly a video started playing on the screen.

The video begins with the movie "Gladiator", where a group of gladiators wearing armor and holding spears stand on both sides of the passage, waving their clenched fists.

The scene then changed to a close-up of a gladiator. Charles didn't understand English and didn't know what he was saying, but he suddenly felt his heart sinking.

At this time, the picture changed again to a hand passing through the golden wheat waves, and the classic aria "Nessun Dorma" from the opera "Turandot" was also heard in the locker room.

The picture at this time gradually blurred, and was replaced by a highlight of Valdés wearing a black jersey standing in front of the goal and blocking the ball one after another.

The singing was still melodious, and the image of a hand passing through the golden wheat waves appeared again. This time, the person standing in front of the goal became Barcelona's second goalkeeper.

Amid such singing and the repeated appearance of this hand, game highlights and training videos of the entire Barcelona team were played one by one.

The curly-haired Puyol being hugged, Messi smiling shyly with his hands tucked into his sleeves, Charles inspecting the Real Madrid defense, Xavi being doused with water, Eto'o volleying...

Charles didn't know how long the video had been playing, but gradually he could hear sobbing sounds. Slowly, the sobbing sounds became more and more frequent, and finally the whole locker room burst into tears.

"I didn't know what to say," Guardiola said, his eyes red. "So I asked my friend to edit a video for me. The only requirement was that everyone had to be in it."

"Today, I don't want to say anything, a fight to the death with Manchester United, or that Roma must be red and blue today."

"I only have one word to say, kids, fight for yourselves. We are the best team today."

The Barcelona team did not have much time to calm down, and the referee team quickly sent someone to urge them.

After lining up in the player tunnel, Guardiola followed the team that had just cried and walked into the stadium.

At 7:45 p.m., the Swiss referee Massimo Busacca blew the whistle to start the game.

Barcelona has the ball.

Eto'o passed the ball back, and Charles received it and passed it back again.

C Ronaldo took the lead and rushed towards the ball. After receiving the ball, Pique ignored his former teammate and passed the ball back to goalkeeper Valdes.

The romantic Guardiola played a passionate video for the team before the game, but it ended up being too exciting.

And because of this video, Barcelona didn’t even recover in the first 15 minutes and played like shit.

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(End of this chapter)