In terms of the desire for the championship, the strongest is still Gao Zheng.

Gao Zheng is proud, and this pride comes from the talent and ability that he has shown at a young age to completely surpass his peers. It comes from his unique presence in the Milan junior team.

However, he also knows very well that in the football world, potential and strength cannot be completely equated.

A lot of people have super talent, but in the end they don't live up to their talent in their careers, and they don't perform well as people expect from them.

There are a lot of factors that play a role in this.

For Gao Zheng, he almost became the next injured Zhongyong, and even now he can't fully say that he has fulfilled the talent that was once favored.

That's why he needs this championship so much.

Even if it's not as good as the league and the Champions League, it's important to him.

Otherwise, what right does he have to be proud?

Saying "the mountain is there", as a result, everyone looks back on his career, and there has been no decent champion for a long time, is this said in the past?

Born in May 1991, he is almost twenty-three years old, what championships have those peerless geniuses won at this age?

What did "the alien" Ronaldo achieve at the age of twenty-three? Winner of the Copa do Brasil, Dutch FA Cup, Dutch Super Cup, Spanish Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup, and UEFA Cup. Oh, and the 1994 World Cup winner, the 1997 Confederations Cup, and two Copa America titles.

What about the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo? At the age of 23, he won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a Champions League, an English League Cup, two English Community Shields and a Club World Cup.

Maradona's successor, Lionel Messi, was also without accolades at the age of twenty-three: four La Liga trophies, two Champions League trophies, four Spanish Super Cups, one Spanish Copa del Rey, one UEFA Super Cup and one Club World Cup. There are also world junior champions and Olympic gold medals in the national pairs of honours.

There are also many superstars who have won many championships at this age.

Compared with them, Gao Zheng's honor is much shabby.

Strictly speaking, he doesn't have a trophy yet – the reserve team doesn't count the honours and doesn't win the Serie B title.

In terms of individual honours, he also has only one top scorer in Serie A.

He is the one who wants to challenge Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but at the same age he has a lot less honor.

Although there are objective reasons such as his injury and giving up football for a year, as well as Sampdoria's overall weakness.

But in any case, when people analyze the data in the future, they will not take these objective factors into account, they will only see a very direct comparison of numbers, and the number of their champions is zero.

They will wonder Gao Zheng, what do you have to be proud of?

Gao Zheng didn't want that to happen.

Sampdoria's strength is indeed inferior to Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester United and Messi's Barcelona at the time, but this does not hinder Gao Zheng's ambitions.

If he can lead a team like Sampdoria to championship glory, wouldn't that be even more proof of his ability?

In addition to this very rational reason, there is an emotional factor.

When he had no ball to play, it was Sampdoria who gave him the opportunity to return to the pitch, and the fans here supported him unconditionally, even persuading him to leave Sampdoria for the sake of his great future - where to find such fans?

The old chairman admired him so much and valued him, but he failed to bring even a single honor to the team before the old chairman passed away.

He must leave Sampdoria in the future, but if he just leaves empty-handed and leaves nothing for the team, it will be a little too sorry for the fans, the old chairman, the coach and his teammates who support him.

Therefore, for the sake of himself and for others, this Italian Cup championship must be won.

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On the afternoon of the match, the entire Sampdoria team came out of the room, gathered in the lobby, and boarded the bus en masse to the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

When boarding the bus, Gao Zheng was stopped by reporters, as the core of the team, everyone wanted to hear his views and expectations for this final.

“…… We, like all the teams that make it to the final, have only one goal in mind, and that's to win the title. Gao Zheng said confidently.

On the Internet in Italy and China, Gao Zheng's words quickly spread.

"Gao Zheng made his championship declaration before going to the stadium, which reminded me of the declaration that he booked the Golden Boot last season when he was only thirteen rounds in the league. Could there be any similarities between the two things? ”

"Gao is really too confident! While he was right, what did the Fiorentina players say in an interview? The Italian netizen posted a video clip of Fiorentina's captain Pasquale being interviewed in yesterday's pre-match press conference.

In the video, Pasquale appears cautious: "...... Sampdoria are not weak and we will give it our all in the final. I believe that the winner will go to the best side......"

Compared with Pasquale, Gao Zheng is much more arrogant.

However, both Italian fans and Chinese fans have accepted and are accustomed to Gao Zheng's setting.

Some people have also analyzed that Gao Zheng's character is actually not arrogant, but absolutely powerful self-confidence.

Of course, at this time, everyone didn't realize that Gao Zheng's self-confidence was not in line with his honor, as long as Gao Zheng kept scoring goals, they felt that Gao Zheng's pride and self-confidence were taken for granted.

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The Coppa Italia final kicks off at 8.45 local time.

Due to the adoption of winter time in Italy, there is a seven-hour time difference between Beijing time and Rome, which is equivalent to 3:45 a.m. Beijing time the next day.

This time is very unfriendly to the Chinese fans.

But CCTV still spent a lot of money to get the broadcast rights of this Italian Cup final.

Although a lot of money was spent, it was quickly recouped in advertising dollars.

Despite the inopportune time, there were still a large number of fans waiting in front of the TV sets in China to watch the game live.

For Chinese fans, this time period is the same as the usual Champions League game time, and they are always used to this life of staying up late to watch football.

In fact, before this game, there was also a question in Italy about whether to move the final time to facilitate the TV broadcast in China, increase the ratings, and expand the influence of the Coppa Italia in China...... However, this proposal was ultimately rejected, especially by Florence.

After all, the influence of the Coppa Italia in China has nothing to do with them, and they will naturally not agree to this obvious bias towards Sampdoria.

Many Italian neutral fans and TV viewers also oppose this, because after 8 p.m. is their prime time to watch TV, there is no need to change their viewing habits for Chinese thousands of miles away.

Feng Shiyu set the alarm clock early, at half past three, she was woken up on time by the mobile phone alarm clock, and after getting up and washing her face with cold water, she woke up the dormant computer - there was a TV with a larger screen in the living room, and she was able to receive the central five, but in order not to disturb the roommates who shared the house, she could only use a laptop with a small screen to watch the live broadcast.

Meanwhile, in another city, her roommate, Xiao Yingying, spent half the night in a bar with friends she met while watching the game, drinking and chatting, waiting for the game to begin. Although it was already half past three, everyone was not sleepy, and the mood was high, and when the image of Gao Zheng warming up at the Olympic Stadium appeared on the bar's projection screen, they also let out cheers.

Farther away in Genoa, Italy, the Chinese student football team had no way to go to the scene to cheer for Gao Zheng, but they all came to the bar where they often watched the game, prepared national flags and slogan banners, and chose this old base to continue to cheer for Gao Zheng. Looking at their full set of belongings, it is as if they were waving the national flag in front of the television and being seen by the Roman magnate.

Zhao Ju and Guo Wei accompanied Yang Wenlong to watch the game in the office of the football school. At half past three in the morning, the football training class was pitch black, and everything was quiet, except for the light and sound of the phosphor screen of the TV in the office, which broke the darkness and silence.

At this moment, in many corners, there are many such Chinese fans, who are waiting in front of the TV and the computer, unable to hide their inner excitement, waiting for the opening whistle.