Sampdoria's opponents in this game, Celtic, are in the limelight in their own domestic league and are hard to beat.

Since the beginning of this season, they have remained unbeaten, with 11 wins, 3 draws and 0 losses, accumulating 36 points and leading the Soviet Super League standings. After local rivals Rangers were relegated due to bankruptcy, the team dominated the Premier League and has won two consecutive titles in the Premier League, and it is very likely to win three consecutive titles this season.

However, the biggest problem faced by a hegemon in a small league like Celtic is that the league is not competitive enough, and even if it dominates in this league, it will be difficult to stand out in Europe. This is true for Ajax, Celtic, Benfica.

In China, he is the hegemon and cannot be beaten, and when he arrives in the Champions League, he will be taught by the real European giants.

Let's take the present moment for now.

When I saw Sampdoria in the group stage before, I thought it was a soft persimmon that could be pinched casually. After all, this Sampdoria team has not participated in the Champions League for many years, and has no experience in the Champions League at all, how can it be compared with them who can participate in the Champions League every season?

Both Celtic and Ajax have made Sampdoria a target for points.

Completely ignore this Sampdoria team, but it is the third place in Serie A.

Even if the current Serie A is in decline, the overall competitiveness of the league is still better than that of the Soviet Super League and the Eredivisie.

This led to the first game of the group stage, where Celtic lost away to Sampdoria.

For this game, head coach Neil Lennon began to prepare a week in advance, and formulated a very strict marking tactics for Sampdoria's number one star Gao Zheng to ensure that Gao Zheng can be completely dumb in this game.

Judging from the beginning of the game, Celtic did a very successful job, because Gao Zheng was restricted by the opponent, so Sampdoria's attack did not improve.

Of course, this also has to do with Di Francisco's initiative to adopt defensive counter-attacking tactics. As soon as Sampdoria fights against the counter, it is difficult for Gao Zheng to get enough strong support, and many times he can only fight alone. Berardi works hard, but he still has a lot of defensive responsibilities and constantly makes him sprint up and down, which also has a big impact on his fitness.

If the game continues like this, when Sampdoria is unable to pose a threat to the Celtic defence, Celtic's attack will become more and more intense, and more troops will be invested in the attack, and the threat to Sampdoria will become more and more great.

In fact, twenty minutes into the game, there were already signs of that.

For five minutes, Celtic almost laid siege to Sampdoria.

Samp's current counterattack has a single means, and it can only be a direct long pass from the backfield to find Gao Zheng in front, and there is no way to send the football up through the organization of the midfield and the participation of many people.

More often than not, such a counterattack can only be a matter of luck, or ...... Gao Zheng's personal ability.

The 50,000 home fans at Celtic Park were cheering with each Celtic attack, and when Celtic attacked in front of Sampdoria, the cheers grew louder and then quieter.

It's like a tide.

The tidal wave of cheers was incessant and could indeed put a lot of psychological pressure on Sampdoria's players, as if they were not playing against a team, but against an ocean.

But as sailors, isn't fighting the sea what they are good at?

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In the 28th minute, Sampdoria broke the ball at the back, Obiang handed the football to Berardi, Berardi did not take the ball to attack, he looked up, Celtic in the continuous offensive, the back line is getting higher and higher, the central defender has long been out of the defensive third zone, is approaching the center circle.

Behind them was a huge void.

At the same time, Gao Zheng was originally in the middle, running forward from the moment Sampdoria broke the ball, but at the beginning he was running to the right side. I had just run two steps, but suddenly I changed direction and turned back to the middle.

Seeing this scene, Berardi knew how to pass, and he passed the football to the left rib, which was the route that Gao Zheng turned back!

Before Berardi got up, Gao Zheng had already accelerated, because he was still in front of the Celtic defense at the time, so he had not yet run to the offside position.

As he ran parallel to Celtic's last centre-back, Virgil van Dijk, Berardi's pass was sent right out and into the space in front of them!

"Sampdoria's counterattack! High ——! Caresa shouted excitedly. After being pressed by the Celtics for almost thirty minutes, such a counterattack is too stimulating to the spirit.

"Opportunity! Gao Zheng! Let's see if he can get rid of Van Dijk! He Ping was also very excited, Chinese fans stayed up late to support Gao Zheng, if the game was dull, it would be too aggrieved.

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As a centre-back who is 1.93m tall and weighs 92kg, Van Dijk's speed is definitely not his outstanding specialty, but it is not slow either, because he often has a sudden forward move with the ball in the game, and if he is slow, he has no confidence to do so.

But at the same time, the excessively high center of gravity and weight also limited his turning speed, and Gao Zheng suddenly changed his direction and inserted diagonally just now, forcing Van Dijk who was defending him to turn around in a hurry, and was thrown away by Gao Zheng by half of his body at once.

But fortunately, speed is not Gao Zheng's specialty.

Van Dijk strode after Gao Zheng.

In order to take into account the landing point of football, Gao Zheng could not sprint with all his strength.

The distance between the two is shrinking at breakneck speed.

When entering the 30-meter area, Gao Zheng received the football. Van Dijk changed his defensive strategy, not rushing to break the ball with his feet, but sticking it up and stuck behind Gao Zheng, forcing him to go outside.

This is the most common defensive strategy used by defenders in one-on-one, direct foot steals, unless there is a lot of certainty, a lot of confidence, unless it is not recommended to do so, either it will be passed by the opponent, or it will be fouled.

Forcing the opposing offensive player to the outside, so that he can't directly threaten the player, and finally the inside line behind him is naturally handed over to other teammates who return to defense, defense is never a one-person thing, but the result of teamwork.

The two were entangled and almost came to the corner of the large penalty area on the left rib.

Gao Zheng was still accelerating to bring the football into the penalty area, trying to overtake by speed.

How could Van Dijk let him get his wish, while accelerating himself, he used the advantage of his body strength to arch Gao Zheng out from behind.

He calculated that Gao Zheng was so top when he accelerated to start, and on the premise of not fouling, he could still let Gao Zheng be pushed out when he was in the air, and he couldn't stabilize it at all, and when he fell to the outside, it would be difficult to come back.

That's the experience and quality of a good centre-back.

Gao Zheng jumped out by him, and even let the football fall behind him! Van Dijk is overjoyed, it's a good chance, a good chance to break the ball!

He hurriedly accelerated and stretched his foot, wanting to poke the football out, but Gao Zheng's left foot was still dragging behind, like a flexible tail, and he gently touched the football that fell behind him with his toes, and the football rolled behind him along Van Dijk's feet!

And at this time, Gao Zheng who jumped to the front changed direction and overtook on the outside!

"The ball is divided! Ahh Carresa couldn't control her emotions and screamed.

"Beautiful! Strike!! "This is Heping's flat thunder.

Van Dijk hurriedly turned around and chased back.

But as I said before, he is tall and heavy, and he turns very slowly, and the result of forcibly trying to speed up and turn around is that he just turned around and ran a step, and the thigh muscle in his right leg suddenly strained...... He covered the muscles behind his right thigh, jumped and slowed down, and could no longer catch up with Gao Zheng.

And Gao Zheng, who had been divided by the ball, cut inward after receiving the ball.

Celtic goalkeeper Foster quickly moved towards the near corner and protruded forward to block Gao's shot.

At the same time, the second-place Celtic central defender Ambrosse, who is chasing back, is also approaching Gao Zheng.

In this case, Gao Zheng made a feint in front of the goalkeeper Foster who came out to block the angle, and his left outside instep kicked the football, as if he wanted to use the outside of his instep to eject. Goalkeeper Foster hurriedly fell to the ground to save.

But he pounced.

Gao Zheng's left foot went around the football, followed by his right foot to hit the football firmly, and the inside of his right foot rubbed the football out of an arc, bypassing the side-saving goalkeeper Foster, and flew into the huge corner of the goal before the blocking of the returning central defender Ambrosse.

The sound of the tide suddenly disappeared, as if the raging sea had been conquered by a brave sailor, and it was calmly bowed at the sailor's feet, docile like a children's pool.