Pepe made an impact as soon as he came onto the field, successfully clearing Barcelona's corner with a header.
In the following minutes, Barcelona applied the tactics from their last game, attempting to pierce through Sporting Lisbon's "base" directly down the middle.
But with Matthaus and Pepe as sweepers, their coverage and interceptions were nearly flawless. With their efforts combined, there was no way to penetrate through the middle.
And a loss of possession in the middle was extremely dangerous for Barcelona.
Seventeenth minute.
Pepe intercepted Guardiola's through pass in the backfield.
Cruyff ran past him, and once he got the ball, he would be on a breakaway.
This was a very risky move to intercept, and only Pepe would dare to do it.
Had it been Feng Te before, he would've certainly retreated conservatively and then faced Cruyff 1v1 with the ball in front of him.
Cruyff could easily bypass Feng Te with more than ten different methods and score.
