Guardiola returns to its home ... under pressure

FootballBarcelone-Bayern on Wednesday evening is "the" game of a lifetime for the Bayern coach, placed before the performance requirement.

Josep Guardiola has recovered the press room of the Camp Nou. The former Barcelona player and successful coach opts for relaxation before the match. But Wednesday night, it will take the pressure!

A chill has come his spine and so many memories are, at once, brought to the surface. Seeing the Barcelona name extricate the hat when the draw for the semifinals of the Champions League, Josep Guardiola could not remain unmoved. At the head of Bayern Munich for two years now, the Spanish technician was promised a particularly moving back tonight at home, in "his" famous garden of the Camp Nou, where he has seen everything, experienced everything ... won .

Became one of the highest rated coaches in the world, the innocent balls gatherer early 80s had he imagined such a fate, he had thought he would come back for a second, thirty years later - and in a suit! - Try to stifle the first time the ambitions of his heart club? Certainly not! "But if I am entitled to live this challenge and all that I now live in Bavaria, it is because they gave me my chance in Catalonia and because I managed," he replies.

"Nothing bad to say"

Player for twelve seasons, successful coach (14 tracks!) For five years, "Pep" and Barca are inseparable from each other. Without the first, the second would not have lived such a good period between 2008 and 2012. Without the latter, the former would have neither acquired such baggage or taken such a dimension as a man of just forty bench years. "Barcelona is my home, a club which I can not say anything bad, says today the adoption Munich. My respect for all people who work there is enormous. So yes, it will be a very special dual confrontation ... "

For him, as for many others, actually. Because yes, many are likely to be swept up in a maelstrom of feelings, just now at kickoff. The players he brooded and with whom he shared so many things for five years, its current protected Thiago Alcantara - formed La Masia - even the now Barcelona coach Luis Enrique, with whom he shared the blaugrana jersey, can not show themselves insensitive to the semi-final of "families". The proof that the world is small thus be located there, tonight, right before our eyes. However, politeness remain the cloakroom. "Despite our many absent (note: Alaba, Badstuber, Ribery, Robben ...), we will rescue us," said goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. "We're not particularly hide, Thomas Müller adds, because the goal is to impose in Spain ..." Where Guardiola is more expected he finds himself in front of a requirement results by his bosses. For a winning machine as Bayern Bundesliga title does not suffices. The known fall last week in the German Cup against Dortmund was spot into the background. Its leaders dream of doing it again hands on the Champions League, last year abandoned into the hands of Real Madrid.

Lionel Messi awaits

The Iberian coach in vain that fearless, he seeks to divest the pressure exerted by the dreams of his superiors. He blames Barcelona. "We're a good team, but Barca is better than us," he whispers. However, throughout Catalonia, Lionel Messi in the lead, is wary of plans obsessive "Pep" always able to get a big kick out of his bag. "It's a coach who studies everything and leaves nothing to chance, remarked Argentine Tuesday press conference. With him, we had a great time and won many trophies. Personally, I've grown a lot as a player and learned a lot in contact ... »

The courtesies end there. In Barcelona, ​​the "MSN" - Messi, Suarez, Neymar - that some already consider the best attacking trio in the club's history, has sharpened his cleats to move the shoulder. Now it is rumored that after the emotion sequence, Guardiola will also want to take action. And if that was in fact fight of the century?