Chapter 704: Welcome to Hell

The Manchester City players travelled directly to Stembul on a charter flight after the game against Southampton.

For Manchester City, the cost of a charter flight is a drop in the bucket.

On the charter flight, in addition to the team's coaching staff, logistics support team, and players, there was also a team management led by the team's CEO Soriano.

It was the first time in the club's history that a Champions League knockout game was played and the team took it very seriously.

Even the well-informed Soriano was a little nervous.

Looking at Soriano, who was constantly rubbing his hands, Gao Bo said helplessly: "It's just a round of sixteen match, Ferran!" ”

Soriano looked up nervously and said, "I've heard that Turkey's away games are not easy to play... The fans are crazy there. ”

Saying that, Soriano said with some concern: "We won't lose in such an away game, right..."

Gao Bo almost laughed out loud, his boss really had a sense of humor.

Lose?

Losing to Galatasaray, how is this possible.

"There's no way you're going to lose, Phelan!" Gao Bo spread his hands and said, "Galatasaray have a few good players, but they are just a Turkish team, they will not pose much of a threat to us!" ”

"But this is on their home turf, and there have been a lot of big teams from the European continent who have lost in this stadium before."

Soriano looked a little less confident.

In any case, this is the team's first Champions League knockout game, so the club is very cautious.

The best is of course a victory, if you lose the first knockout game, even if you can advance in the end, it will not look too good on the face.

And Soriano's concerns are not unfounded.

Ahead of the start of this match, Manchester City FC, even VisitBritain and the Foreign Office have issued travel warnings for Istanbul.

Manchester City FC is hoping that Manchester City fans would have better travel to Turkey with the team.

Turkey's away stadium, especially the Ali Samyan Stadium, home of Manchester City's rivals Galatasaray in this game, is quite a scary place for visiting fans.

Before the 2000 UEFA Cup semi-finals, Leeds United travelled to Galatasaray and two Leeds United fans were assassinated.

In the first round of the 2009-10 Champions League group stage, Manchester United visited Istanbul's Inonu Stadium to challenge another Turkish Super League team, Besiktas. The two teams of fans fought in the stadium, and the scene eventually got out of control, and the fans of both sides used plastic stools as weapons to start a heated group fight.

In 1993, more than 200 United fans were arrested and banned from the stadium ahead of Manchester United's Champions League clash with Galatasaray. It was at that time that Galatasaray fans shouted the fearsome slogan: "Welcome to Hell." And when Cantona received a red card, he was even beaten by a local police officer.

In Turkey's domestic matches, their fans are equally brutal. In May 2011, Galatasaray beat Fenerbahce 2-1 to win the Istanbul derby, and a Galatasaray fan was attacked and killed.

Such a series of casualties has made Manchester City very worried about the safety of their fans.

Therefore, speaking of this away game, Gao Bo's face also became solemn, but he still shook his head.

"It's impossible to lose, it's a draw at most."

Gao Bo looked at the players in the back row of the plane, and he didn't know if the players would be intimidated by this hellish stadium.

......

The moment the plane landed at Istanbul Airport, the team felt the madness of the Turks.

Being booed at the empty bridge out of the airport is already pediatric.

The moment Manchester City's buses come out of the airport, it's already a frightening one.

The local police have organized a large number of police officers to escort Manchester City, and they also know the level of madness of the local fans, but there are always fans who "happen" to break through the police blockade.

The middle finger is already commonplace.

Turks with twisted faces spat frantically at Manchester City buses, and even stone-throwing.

When an alcohol cocktail was thrown towards the bus, some of the players even screamed.

Even Gao Bo stood up.

The madness of the people in this city, the people here, obviously made Gao Bo underestimate!

Fortunately, the bottle did not hit the car directly, and the police blockade still played a little role.

Under such frightening steps, the team finally drove into the hotel.

Before getting out of the car, Gao Bo announced a new discipline.

No one is allowed to leave the hotel!

Unless it's a group ride out.

In fact, even if Gao Bo doesn't say it, the players won't go out alone.

The city is just too dangerous.

........

After two days of acclimatization training locally, the race took place at 10 p.m. local time on February 13.

This time point is already very late in the local area, but because Turkey is already on the Asian side, Turkey is already a country across the two continents of Asia and Europe, and because the Champions League game needs to start at a unified time, the away game in Turkey is already very late.

However, the atmosphere at the scene made Gao Bo feel frightened.

When he walked out of the players' tunnel, he was taken aback by the stands of this stadium.

The stands are almost burning!

Yes, it's burning.

It's not a pediatric like smoke or fireworks.

Instead, the whole grandstand was on fire.

The sky was dyed red.

"God.......

On Gao Bo's side, Mo Yanan Nan said.

Although Moya has been in the football circle for more than 20 years, this is the first time he has seen such a scene.

Gao Bo squinted at the burning stands.

It turned out that every fan was holding a torch, and from a distance, it looked as if the whole grandstand was on fire.

Gao Bo breathed a sigh of relief, if the stands really burned, this game would not be able to be played.

In addition to torches, there are also fireworks.

The burning fireworks were constantly thrown into the stands, and the entire area of the stadium was burned to the ground.

That's when the players started playing.

Kompany, who was the first to appear, was also taken aback by such a scene, and he subconsciously paused, causing the Galatasaray players on his side to smile disdainfully.

You've never seen anything like this, have you?

Many Galatasaray players thought with a sense of superiority in their hearts.

"Oh God..."

The Manchester City players sighed.

And at this very moment. In the stands across from them, a huge poster slowly rises.

With a dark red background, you can vaguely see the blood waves churning.

The black font is reflected by the flaming red fire around it.

What is even more frightening is that around the poster, when Galatasaray fans extinguished the torches, people found out.

The fans gathered in this stand were uniformly dressed in black robes and black masks.

Everyone is like a grim reaper from hell.

It's breathtaking, chilling!

"Oh God!!"

"Galatasaray fans have made such a big fight!!"

"Too... It's terrible..."

On the commentary seat, the commentators Nan Nan said.

As the poster was fully unfolded, people finally saw the black text on the poster.

Under the churning of the blood waves, under the smoke, the words appeared clearly on the TV screen.

"Welcome to... Hell!! ”