I feel like I have been through this process so many times before now. The day awash with mood swings. I'm confident and upbeat. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and I feel like we will do it. In an hour or so, mentally I will go the other way. Inter will become prime Barca, my mind attempting to create a shield for the potential pain of a loss. This will continue, back and forth all day.
What I would say is for players and fans alike, last week was a fantastic warm up. Losing that game was unthinkable. As much as we would have the chance to get over it tonight, that would have been horrific. But we won it. The nerves unbearable, the tension horrific but the job was done and now I am in a calmer place.
2021 was the first time and it felt like now or never. It wasn't to be but now we are back and as Pep said, we will be back again in the future so it feels less intense. There is also less stress over the fact it was a domestic rival, with a manager Pep has incredible respect for and indeed saw as his successor at Bayern, albeit a lot sooner than it happened. There were added tactical intricacies in that battle which do not exist today.
We will have a plan a and a plan b and a plan c but he will not have sweated Inzaghi in the same way.
