The day after the game, the Champions League was discussed throughout Italy, and in those discussions, Sampdoria was a name that they mentioned repeatedly.

Even the media that were not optimistic about Sampdoria before had to praise Sampdoria by name.

It's not that they have changed sex, but when the Champions League group stage is over, everyone is surprised to find that only Sampdoria has saved a little face for Italian football......

In all the group stages played at the same time last night, Juventus only needed to beat Galatasaray away to qualify, but lost 0:1 to the Turkish team, which was finally reflected in the points that Juventus ranked third with six points, and Galatasaray, who won them, ranked second in the group with seven points, surpassing Juventus by one point and gaining the right to qualify from the group.

Although Juventus has always had the "tradition" of calling for dominance in the country, but it has not performed well in the Champions League, but this time it is really too bad that it did not even qualify for the group stage.

After the game, Juventus, from the management to the coaches to the players, was scolded by the media and fans.

You must know that this team was originally tasked with helping the entire Serie A league to fight for more Champions League points - the Champions League points of a league are directly related to how many Champions League places the league can eventually have. Serie A now has only three Champions League places, one of which is still a qualifying spot, while leagues like the Premier League and La Liga, which have performed well in the Champions League, have four places. The reason why there are fewer places in Serie A than others is because the winners have generally lacked performance in the Champions League.

Despite the glory of Inter Milan's Champions League triumph in 2010, it was only the last days of Serie A. Since the phonegate incident, Serie A's competitiveness in the Champions League has not been as good as before, and with the decline of AC Milan and Inter Milan, even the Champions League cannot be played, and there are basically no teams in Serie A that can win in the Champions League.

Juventus had high hopes this time, but their performance was so disappointing.

"Milan Sport" ridiculed Juventus as "an insider in the civil war, an outsider in the foreign war", and "Roma Sport" lamented that a team like Juventus, which could not even qualify for the group stage in the Champions League, was able to win the league championship in Serie A with such a big advantage, and I have to say that Serie A is really in decline now......

Another team that has been favourites before is Napoli, which have actually performed very well in the Champions League group stage this season, and in terms of points alone, they are the highest of the three teams in Serie A, but the 12 points have not helped them to fight their way out of the "Group of Death".

Although they beat Arsenal 2-0 at home in the final group stage, Napoli missed out on the knockout stage due to Borussia Dortmund's 2-1 win away to Marseille and with the same number of points and the exact same win-loss relationship.

They became the highest-scoring team to be eliminated from the Champions League in all time.

Look at Zenit St. Petersburg in Group G, after only winning one game, with six points, they all got the right to qualify from the group, which made Napoli vomit blood.

They are the most pitiful team in this season's Champions League and the most sympathetic. The Italian domestic media did not criticize them much, but lamented their bad luck and put on the "group of death", the deadliest in the history of the Champions League.

You must know that the first group in Group E, Chelsea's points are only 12 points, and the points that won the first place in other groups to this group were unable to qualify, which is indeed very dead.

Juventus and Napoli had high hopes from the Italian media before the start of the Champions League group stage, and if anyone can help Italian football regain its dignity in the Champions League, it must be these two teams.

As a result, I didn't expect that after the group stage, it was these two teams that were eliminated.

On the contrary, no one paid attention to it before the game, and Sampdoria, who was considered to go home after the group stage, stood out and became the only Italian team in the round of 16 of the Champions League.

It's really a very ironic thing, and it makes the people who mocked Sampdoria before have mixed feelings.

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After all the top 16 teams were announced, UEFA then conducted a draw for the quarter-finals.

This is a concern for all.

There are also some rules for the draw in the first round of the knockout round, such as the first team in the group versus the second in the group, and the teams in the same league are avoided, and the teams in the same group are avoided.

However, for Sampdoria, the second condition can be ignored, because the whole of Italy is only one team, and there is no need to avoid anyone at all.

Therefore, they who are second in the group may meet the other seven group winners in addition to Barcelona who are the first in the same group, including Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Dortmund, and Atletico Madrid.

Take a look at the names of the top teams in these groups, all of them are famous giants in European football, and Sampdoria will be more than lucky no matter who they meet.

Looking back at the beginning, it would have been nice if Sampdoria had finished top of the group.

But this question is meaningless, Sampdoria at that time even had to do their best to qualify from the group, so what to do with Barcelona to compete for the first place in the group?

In the end, the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was announced.

Sampdoria were drawn to the top of Group G against Atletico Madrid.

This result is not good or bad, at least it is better than meeting teams like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, but Atletico Madrid is also very strong.

Simeone's team is very combative. In the group stage, five wins and one draw, with an unbeaten record, accumulated 16 points and qualified first in the group.

In terms of schedule, Sampdoria is not good at home and away.

Of course, these are all details, and with the two teams close in strength, it makes sense to say that the home and then the away team are somewhat. Now the two teams are so far apart in quality that there is no basis for discussing such details at all.

However, after the draw came out, Simeone was interviewed on behalf of Atletico Madrid, but he was very cautious: "No, it's not a good sign. ”

His answer was in response to a previous reporter's question about whether the draw for Sampdoria was a good sign.

He then continued: "The other teams in the same group as Sampdoria probably had the same idea as you, but everyone knows what the end result is. I don't think Sampdoria are an easy team to play against, they come from Serie A, they finished third last season, and they also have a Golden Boot scorer who broke Serie A history, so anyone who underestimates such an opponent will be unlucky...... Of course, I'm not talking about Barcelona who were forced to draw away, and I'm not talking about Celtic and Ajax, don't ......get me wrong," Simeone quickly explained seeing a "I understand" smile from reporters.

But his explanation will naturally not be heeded.

"In short, we will prepare carefully for these two games, and none of the teams that can reach the knockout stage are underdogs. To despise an opponent is to insult oneself. ”