If you can master one aspect of the game to perfection, you'll earn your place in the world of football.
But if you keep changing your approach—counterattack today, possession football tomorrow, the youth academy stressing teamwork while the first team relies on individual flair—you'll never make a real breakthrough.
Fortunately, Wenger and Arsenal didn't fall into that trap.
They knew exactly what they wanted to do.
They were confident that they could fight for a top-four Premier League finish while also competing for the Champions League title this season.
Not only because their opponent was a Real Madrid side missing Zidane and Figo,
but because they were the invincible Arsenal!
...
April 19th, London, Highbury Stadium.
The first leg of the Champions League semifinals kicked off.
This was Arsenal's final season at Highbury.
Their new home, the Emirates Stadium, would be completed in July.
Next season, they would play there.
Yet the result of this match was shocking.
Ronaldo, rejuvenated after his time at Inter Milan, showed flashes of his "Phenomenon" brilliance and gave Real Madrid the lead in the 13th minute.
Real Madrid went up 1–0 early!
In the end, Ronaldo's precious goal secured a 1–0 away victory for Real Madrid.
The race for the Premier League top four had taken its toll on Arsenal—their key players weren't at their best.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid's resilience exceeded everyone's expectations.
Even more surprising was how much effort attacking players like Su Hang put into defending.
However, because Real Madrid left Ronaldo almost entirely isolated up front, he was forced off injured again not long after the second half began.
It was a knee injury—likely a recurrence of an old one.
Recovering from that kind of injury quickly is nearly impossible.
With the World Cup just around the corner, Ronaldo would never choose surgery. He didn't want to miss it.
Opting for conservative treatment meant he would likely miss the rest of the season.
Ronaldo's season was over.
Knowing this, he wept as the team doctor helped him off the pitch.
He couldn't bring himself to look at Su Hang.
He had made a promise to Su Hang—one he could no longer keep.
He could no longer fight for the one major honor missing from his career: the Champions League.
But more than his own regret, he worried about how the young Su Hang would handle this setback.
After all, Ronaldo had already achieved everything.
Su Hang hadn't yet won a truly major trophy.
If Real Madrid failed to win either of the two most prestigious titles remaining this season, Ronaldo feared Su Hang might never recover from the blow.
Many prodigies are broken by a single failure.
Just like in basketball—once that belief in your own invincibility fades, your shooting loses its edge, especially in clutch moments.
That's why, even though Kobe Bryant's shooting percentages weren't the highest, everyone trusted him to take the final shot.
That's the power of belief!
By now, most media outlets believed Real Madrid's Champions League journey was over.
They had suffered far too many injuries.
As soon as one key player recovered, another went down, and they were never in top form.
It was as if fate itself were tormenting this aging Galácticos squad.
That's the risk of relying on veteran players.
And once they return from injury, their form often drops sharply.
So even when reports surfaced that Figo might return for the next match, public opinion remained bleak.
One word summed it up: tragic!
Sport gave Real Madrid's injury woes a reason:
"It's karma! Last season, Real Madrid exhausted their luck—not just for this season but for many to come—when they overtook Barcelona at the last moment to win La Liga."
"But the price was a lifetime of misfortune."
"Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo, Raúl—one by one, they fall!"
"This is the price of their arrogance last season."
"Su Hang drained away Real Madrid's decades of good fortune—they're getting what they deserve!"
"He borrowed ninety minutes from God, but who knows how much he'll have to repay!"
Barcelona's words were cruel, but there was a tone of satisfaction in them too.
After all, they had won their own first-leg semifinal.
A valuable 1–0 victory at the San Siro.
After Real Madrid eliminated Inter Milan, Barcelona looked set to knock out AC Milan.
Both Milan clubs might end up falling to Spain's top two.
Under Barcelona's influence, even the few Spanish fans who still believed in Real Madrid started to lose hope.
Even those who saw through Barcelona's ploy had to admit—it was clever.
Confident of reaching the final themselves, Barcelona used the media to heap pressure on Real Madrid.
They had no desire to see their rivals make it to the final as well.
On paper, Arsenal looked stronger than an injury-hit Real Madrid.
But Barcelona weren't afraid of Arsenal.
They'd simply go toe-to-toe with them.
"With Ronaldinho on our side, the world is ours!"
As for Arsenal, while Henry was still in top form, the Ice Prince, Bergkamp, was no longer what he once was.
He was famously known as "the Dutchman who can't fly."
Not because of any comparison to Johan Cruyff, the "Flying Dutchman,"
but because Bergkamp genuinely couldn't fly.
In 1988, the Dutch youth team flew to Suriname for a tournament, but Ajax, Bergkamp's club at the time, refused to release him.
That plane crashed, killing the entire youth squad.
The tragedy left Bergkamp deeply traumatized, and he developed a fear of flying.
In 1994, after the World Cup, Bergkamp flew from Boston to Amsterdam. The flight was delayed,
and later he learned that terrorists had threatened to blow up the plane, prompting a police search.
From then on, Bergkamp avoided flying whenever possible.
That wasn't a problem in the domestic league.
But in the Champions League, when Arsenal had to travel abroad, Bergkamp often stayed behind.
Even when he occasionally drove to matches, the long journey left him exhausted.
Over time, he began to believe he simply couldn't perform well in away Champions League games—and that belief became reality.
So, unless absolutely necessary, Wenger wouldn't select Bergkamp for those matches.
That was the main—and only—reason Wenger's "Invincible" Arsenal never won the Champions League.
Years later, Bergkamp would confirm and clarify the story himself in his autobiography.
He wrote that his fear of flying worsened before the 1994 World Cup,
and during the flight to the United States, he swore never to board a plane again, never to feel that terror again.
The rumors, it turned out, were true.
Meanwhile, Arsenal's new attacking midfielder Hleb didn't strike any fear into Barcelona.
In contrast, although the whole world doubted Real Madrid, sometimes your enemies know you better than you know yourself.
No one understood Real Madrid's power and mysterious resilience over the past two seasons better than Barcelona.
In theory, they should never have lost to Real Madrid.
Yet most of the time, they did—
especially when Su Hang was on the pitch.
...
"Unlock the Chapters!"
Love the story? Leave a review — I'll unlock 1 new chapter for every review (up to 10)!