Page 121 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

At that time, Eric Abidal was recuperating from the operation to remove a tumour from
his liver he had undergone just two months earlier in March. There were doubts as to

whether he would play again, and even the most optimistic club officials were speculating
that he might return, at the very earliest, the following season. Instead, just under seven
weeks later, Abidal featured in the last two minutes of Barcelona’s Champions League
semi-final second-leg win over Real Madrid. As well as receiving the inevitable ovation from
the Barcelona fans, Abidal’s team-mates rushed over to celebrate with him the moment the

final whistle went, throwing him up in the air as if it were his birthday.
The player had his heart set on making the team for the Champions League final, even if
Guardiola had warned ‘it will be difficult for Abidal to be 100 per cent fit’. Pep knew that the

player’s body might not be ready for it, but had no doubts about how much he wanted to
play. Another problem was the fact that Puyol was also not fully fit, so Javier Mascherano,
a midfielder converted into a centre back, would have to play at the heart of the defence.
Alex Ferguson, with no injury worries, had practically two teams to choose from. And also
time to prepare the match. For two years he had been saying he hoped to get the chance

to face Barcelona again in a Champions League final because he knew what he had to do
to beat them. His wish was granted. But, as they say, be careful what you wish for.
For starters, Ferguson felt that he’d got it wrong two years earlier, in Rome, when he

kept his players isolated for too long in the build-up, locked away in a hotel with minimal
contact with the outside world. To avoid making the same mistakes again, the United
manager decided that he would give his players a break from the monotony of hotel life by
taking them to see a West End show on the Thursday evening in London forty-eight hours
before the Wembley final. Fergie’s choice of Jersey Boys, however, was not fully

appreciated by his entire squad, some of whom joked that it might have been a good night
out for someone of Sir Alex’s age, but not exactly the kind of night they might have had in
mind if left to their own devices in the capital. The day before the big match involved plenty

of last-minute arrangements, including a leisurely morning stroll in the capital and a training
session at Wembley in the evening.
The United manager also wanted to get his tactics right as well and his preparations on
the training pitch at Carrington had begun two weeks earlier. Ferguson spent a week drilling

his players in the game plan at their Manchester HQ and took the opportunity to put them
into practice in a trial run against Blackpool at Old Trafford on the last day of the Premier
League season, a week before the final. It was the afternoon in which United collected the
league trophy and Blackpool’s tearful and dejected players confirmed their relegation.

Ferguson instructed the United players to put pressure on Blackpool/Barcelona high up
the field and, if the first line of pressure was beaten, to drop deep quickly and keep a
narrow midfield, because he believed that his side could effectively surrender the wide
areas to Barcelona, where they were relatively ineffectual. When Barcelona did get the ball

into danger areas near the United box, the players were warned to be particularly mindful of
quick one-twos.
The concept of maintaining and sustaining the pressure on the Barcelona defence also
applied to free kicks, where the United players were told to hit the ball into the box at every

opportunity.