After Gao Zheng returned to Italy, he did not start Sampdoria's home game against Lazio.

This is Di Francisco considering that Gao Zheng returned to China to play two games, the second of which was still a full 90 minutes, and the physical consumption was relatively large, so he arranged it this way.

And after playing Lazio, the next game is the most important game against Sampdoria - the Champions League group stage away to Celtic.

The outcome of this game will depend on whether Sampdoria can progress from this group.

In order to prepare for this match, it is normal to give up the previous league against Lazio.

Gao Zheng came on as a substitute in the last ten minutes of the game, while Sampdoria drew 1-1 at home to Lazio.

Although they did not win, Sampdoria rose in the league standings. They have moved up one place from before and are now ninth.

Relying on goal difference, they beat Atalanta, Udinese and Parma, the three teams who are tied with them on 16 points.

After the Chinese team won the right to qualify for the Asian Cup, Sampdoria FC immediately held a negotiation with the Chinese Football Association, and they hoped that the last Asian Cup qualifier could go back without Gao Zheng.

Because this game has lost its meaning, it is a burden for Gao Zheng to run all the way back to play a meaningless game, and it is also for Sampdoria.

Because the next Asian Cup qualifier is March 5 next year, if Sampdoria can qualify from the Champions League group, it will be during the Champions League quarterfinals, and letting Gao Zheng return to China to participate will not help the Chinese team's results, but it will have a huge impact on Sampdoria.

Therefore, Sampdoria Club hopes that Gao Zheng will be able to stay at the club at that time.

They are also very happy that the Chinese team can qualify for the Asian Cup in advance, otherwise, the basis for this negotiation does not exist, and whether they want to or not, according to FIFA rules, they must let Gao Zheng go back to participate in the competition.

The Chinese Football Association has agreed to Sampdoria's proposal in principle, promising that Gao Zheng will not be recruited at that time, so that Gao Zheng can stay in the club, play the Champions League with peace of mind, and continue to win glory for the country in another arena.

Next, Sampdoria doesn't have to worry about Gao Zheng's physical rhythm being disrupted or taking the risk of injury because of his return to China.

Until the end of the season, the Chinese team did not play.

This is great news for Sampdoria.

After playing against Lazio, Sampdoria went to Glasgow, Scotland, two days ahead of schedule to prepare for the match against Celtic.

Their training in Glasgow was settled with Glasgow Rangers, who are rivals in the same city, and are excited to help Celtic's Champions League opponents and are looking forward to their exit from the group stage.

Similarly, if Sampdoria's opponents this time around are Rangers, then Celtic will be happy to do that as well.

Going to Glasgow two days early was to allow the team to get used to the local climate as much as possible.

Winter in Glasgow is nothing like winter in Genoa.

Although the temperature is not very low, every day when the wind blows, the temperature will be lower than the actual temperature.

Compared to the warm and dry winters in Genoa, the winters in Glasgow are simply "hateful".

As soon as he got off the plane, Marcy muttered, "I hate British winters." In front of him was the airport that had just rained, there was standing water on the ground, and the water reflected the planes and terminals of the airport, and a gust of wind blew, and he couldn't help but shrink his neck.

"Be careful, Alberto." Team-mate Michael Fornacier reminded him on the sidelines, "Don't let the Scots hear you. ”

"What's the matter, don't they let them talk about this bad weather?" Marcy frowned.

"No, no. If you just complain to them about the weather, they'll be happy and complain more than you do. But you can't say it's British weather, knowing that the Scots probably don't think they belong in the UK. Fornacier explained.

The youngster, who captained Manchester United's Under-23s and won the FA Youth Cup with them at Under-18s, has spent many years at Manchester United, and although he has not played for the Reds' first team, he is clearly the most knowledgeable of the English side in this Sampdoria squad.

The Scots have always had a grudge against their annexation to the United Kingdom, and this is a resentment from history. Scotland had always been an independent country, and was later incorporated into the Kingdom of Great Britain by England, and the Scots were very dissatisfied with this, and repeatedly fought for independence, launching two large-scale wars of independence.

The famous movie "Braveheart" tells the story of the Scots rebelling against the English.

Now, there is an active push within Scotland for a Brexit referendum. If the referendum were to pass and the Scots voted to secede from the United Kingdom, it would be the most sensational event in the world......

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Sampdoria trained in Glasgow for two days, and it was always gloomy and rainy. This made the Sampdoria players from Genoa, Italy, very uncomfortable.

After each day's training, the coaches will also urge the players to take a shower quickly, change out of the wet training clothes covered with mud, maintain their body temperature, and avoid catching a cold.

Di Francisco was glad he had his team two days early, and if he had arrived in Glasgow the day before the game, the cold and wet weather alone would have been enough to give Sampdoria a disadvantage.

On the day of the race, the weather did not improve in the slightest.

The game will kick off at 7:45 p.m., when the temperature is cooler than during the day, and it feels even worse.

When the team arrived at Celtic Park and went out to warm up, the team's assistant coach shouted to every player: "Warm up!" Don't be lazy with me! When the time comes, you'll be injured and unlucky, but you, not me! After the warm-up, I'll go back to the locker room right away! Don't stay outside! ”

The players wore long-sleeved jerseys, gloves, and some of the players who were afraid of the cold pulled their socks up above their knees, with a collar around their necks and a hat on their heads.

Every time I exhale, there was a white mist in front of my face.

In the stands, however, shirtless Celtics fans cheered on their team, moving in unison and with incredible momentum, as if they had no idea what the cold was all about.

That's what Sampdoria are going to conquer.

Because Ajax is at home, but the loss to Barcelona should be no suspense, so after this round of group stage Ajax points should be fixed at four points, as long as Sampdoria can beat Celtic away, will become second in the group with eight points. With only one round left in the group stage, Ajax can no longer threaten Sampdoria's position, and Sampdoria will qualify for the group one round earlier.

But if Sampdoria loses to Celtic on the road, then Celtic, who are at the bottom of the table, can use those three points to accumulate points to six points, thus surpassing Sampdoria and Ajax to become second in the group.

Sampdoria will have to beat Ajax in the final round, and that game is not easy to play - Celtic's defeat to Barcelona in the last round should be nothing to suspense, then the clash between Sampdoria and Ajax will become a life-and-death battle for who wins and who qualifies.

Ajax beat Sampdoria to accumulate seven points, ahead of Sampdoria with five points and Celtic with six points.

Sampdoria beat Ajax to eight points, ahead of four-point Ajax and six-point Celtic to qualify.

In fact, before participating in the group stage of this season's Champions League, everyone did not have such high requirements for Sampdoria, at that time Sampdoria had not even played the Champions League qualifiers, considering their record of being eliminated from the Champions League qualifying round last time, being able to participate in the group stage has made Sampdoria fans very happy.

But Sampdoria's performance in the Champions League gave everyone a surprise, and at the same time, Sampdoria fans raised their expectations for the team and their requirements for results.

If you are playing so well, why can't you look forward to reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League?