Page 112 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

He was asked, ‘What would Sir Alex make of that?’
‘I am sure he will think, “Look, here goes another one that will abandon this profession

before me.”’
Back at the hotel after the pre-match press conference on the eve of the final, Pep
organised a meeting with all his backroom staff and presented them with a photograph of
them together, taken a few days before, with the inscription: ‘Thanks for everything. Pep’.
The staff applauded and over the noise you could hear the voice of Guardiola shouting, ‘you

are amazing, as good as the players, you are!’
Pep had a precious minute to reflect on the way up to his hotel room. He wanted to make
sure everything had been organised according to plan. There had been, as happens ahead

of every final, huge amounts of information to digest and elements to ponder apart from just
tactics: such as the line-up, the state of the grass, logistical issues and even private and
personal matters to take care of. It was something he had experienced many times before
as a player and knew how quickly events caught up with you as time flew past in the build-
up, so he began his preparations several weeks earlier.

Carlo Mazzone, Guardiola’s former coach at Brescia, had received a phone call ahead of
the game. At first he thought it was somebody winding him up. ‘Carletto, this is Pep ... Pep
Guardiola. I want you to come and watch our Barcelona.’ For Pep, it was important to invite

those people from his past who had played their part in his journey: people like the seventy-
two-year-old Italian coach, as well as other former Brescia team-mates and even others
from his brief spell at Roma.
Closer to home, Pep learnt that Angel Mur, the club’s retired massage therapist for thirty-
three years and one of Pep’s favourite members of staff from his playing days, did not have

tickets, so he came as a personal guest of the manager.
All seemed in order, but, around midnight on the eve of the Champions League final, Pep
lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, struggling to switch off and get to sleep.

The players had been joined by their partners the night before the final – contrary to the
conventional belief that players become distracted with their wives or girlfriends around
them – because Pep had experienced the excessive pressure and tension that builds to a
crescendo on the eve of big games he knew how important it was for the players to relax. If
having their nearest and dearest by their side helped them cope with the anxiety and even

distracted them, it meant they would sleep more soundly the night before. That level of
empathy with those under him became another of those little details for which his footballers
are grateful to him.

As the lights finally went off in Pep’s hotel bedroom, the last-minute dress rehearsal of
the Champions League ceremony at the Olympic stadium in Rome was coming to a close.

The day of the final. One surprise before kick-off

Andrés Iniesta: The minutes leading up to a Champions League final are like the minutes
building up to any other game. Really. I don’t want to seem boring or take away any of the
glamour from the world of football, but that’s the way it is. And it’s a good thing that it is like

that. The same talks, the same customs.