Chapter 1248: Barça Can't Hold On and Lu Yang Returns!

Hat-trick, penalties, yellow cards, red cards, on-pitch clashes, a slaughter—this match was almost filled with every element of a derby, except a comeback.

For most fans, this was one of the most spectacular matches in recent years.

But for Barça fans, this was one of their greatest humiliations in the last five years.

Half a year ago, they had just gone through a similar defeat like this one.

Barça’s fans finally erupted!

They began venting their dissatisfaction with the team!

Mighty Barça, how can you be kicked around like this?

“Barça’s season ends early! Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will fight for the La Liga title!”

“Another historic-level humiliation! Six-two, Barça suffer a massacre by Real Madrid at home!”

“Lima completes the fifteenth hat-trick of his career! Lima becomes the very best in world football!”

“The Galaxy Battleship conquers Camp Nou! Barça fans throw trash onto the pitch to show their anger!”

“What on earth is wrong with Barça? Is extreme Ball Control just a false proposition?”

“Barça have walked into a dead end; extreme Ball Control is only a tactical ideal, impossible to realize!”

“Three straight league defeats! Seventh in La Liga! Is Barça’s target this year just to fight for a European Competition spot?”

“Unbeaten Barça? Five wins and one draw in friendlies, four wins and three losses in the league—don’t take friendlies too seriously!”

Very soon, Hans’ column in Live Football Report delivered a more detailed analysis of this match.

Its key point mentioned that ‘Mateo needs a player who can help him share the pressure, and this player can only be Lu!’

For a while, everyone’s attention turned to this journalist Hans.

The famous reporter from Italy had opened up his market in Spain.

…

On October 10th, the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers came to an end.

Italy went on a winning streak at the final stretch; in three consecutive matches, forwards Kolber, Ancelotti, Perrotta, and Sogel scored in turn, helping the team to three straight victories.

Morici even delivered a total of four assists, and in the absence of Lu Yang, led the Italy Team to narrowly edge out the Netherlands Team to top the group, securing a spot in next year’s South American World Cup finals.

Italy successfully qualified for the World Cup!

The Netherlands from the same group, meanwhile, had to fight through a brutal playoff to grab a place; their fate was up in the air.

The next day, Lu Yang finally appeared outside the La Masia Training Base.

The good news was that he was not on crutches, which meant he was probably almost recovered.

But the bad news was that the current atmosphere inside Barça might not be suitable for him to blend in.

After all, Barça at this moment was shattered inside and out, with a volcanic eruption possible at any time.

“You’re recovered?” Gudiola looked at Lu Yang, who had changed into training gear, a bit surprised.

“Not fully yet, but I’m worried you can’t hold on. If you need me to play in the next match, I can take the risk and give it a try.” Lu Yang spoke and made his intentions clear.

Back-to-back defeats to Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid had put enormous pressure on Gudiola.

Given how big clubs operate, it wouldn’t be surprising if after the next match Gudiola had to report to Manchester City ahead of schedule.

If that happened, Lu Yang’s situation would really become passive.

The new head coach might not give an outsider like Lu Yang any support at all.

Lu Yang definitely didn’t want to waste a year of his youth sitting on Barça’s bench.

He had led San Remo through tough times; he was used to hardship.

This move to Barça was more about joining a stronger team to coast a bit, take a semi-holiday, and secretly pick up some lessons.

But if he really got dragged into the mess, that wouldn’t be worth it.

Gudiola was a little moved; no wonder everyone who had worked with Lu Yang gave him a thumbs up.

This guy, Brother Lu, really was solid and dependable.

Generally, players only risk playing injured for their national teams.

Who’s willing to play through injury for a privately owned club?

If your injury relapses or worsens, the owner won’t feel a bit of heartache when they decide to dump you.

Gudiola: “You’d better rest properly, there’s no rush for this one. In our current situation, once you come back, you probably won’t even get the chance to rest!”

Lu Yang nodded: “That’s true. A team like Barça that’s so deeply rooted in a system looks amazing when the system is functioning, but once the system is cracked, sometimes they can be much weaker than people imagine.”

Gudiola neither agreed nor disagreed.

Barça’s Ball Control was excessive; in order to control the ball, their formation and positioning were extremely high.

So once the attack failed to click, things became very dangerous, and opponents could hit them on the break almost at will.

There were two ways to solve this problem.

One was to ensure the attack worked.

In that case, the team needed a second Eruption point, and at the moment only Lu Yang had the potential to become that Eruption.

The second way was to strengthen their counter-pressing in the final third.

High pressing!

Midfield and attacking players would counter-press immediately after losing the ball, especially the forwards!

But this was actually very difficult.

The ball at Mateo’s feet was extremely hard to win; most of the time, if he lost the ball, it meant he had been brought down by the opponent.

Although there was a chance to draw a free kick, if it wasn’t a foul, Mateo had no ability to counter-press at that moment.

Mancini could counter-press, but his body size was average and he lacked physical presence.

This included midfielders Ortiz, Hernandez, and even Barça’s holding midfielder Burgos—none of them had a very strong ability to win the ball head-on.

Their defending was basically at Morici’s level.