Chapter 43: The Battle of China and Italy (Preface)

What are the opinions of the fans of the game?

Suffice it to say, there is a very sad blues in the whole of Europe, and no one is optimistic about Italy, whether it is Britain, France, Germany, or Brazil and Argentina in the Americas.

"Even if they have Baggio, it is absolutely impossible for them to be the opponent of the Chinese Red Army," Maradona said solemnly in an interview: "There are 1.3 billion people behind them, and Italy does not know China, I regret that the Azzurri will follow in the footsteps of the French team, this is a wonderful World Cup." ”

Lao Ma's sure and affirmative words convinced the reporters, but many veterans have heard the trickiness, the sentence "Italy doesn't understand China", the implication is that if it is a "China pass" Lao Ma meets the Chinese team, then the victory is still very promising!

It's a pity that if Argentina wants to meet China, they will have to wait for the finals, and it is estimated that they will have to be sniped by the Brazilians halfway - if they really meet, it will be in the semifinals, people remember that in the Olympic Games two years ago, the Brazilian Olympic team was sniped by Argentina in the semifinals, and the scarred scene of meeting the Chinese team in the final - the most famous is Ling Feng's happy smile when he saw Xiao Luo, and his teeth were about to laugh......

I don't know how confident Lao Ma is when he says this.

And the media in France, England, Italy's old enemies, also stood up at the same time to express their views - the two national sports media, which had just been arguing together, became like brothers in just a few days, and the singing and cooperation were intimate.

It can't be helped, Italy's virtue of starting high and going low in the group stage makes people unable to have much confidence in this Azzurri team, especially after the unexpected loss to Mexico in the last game, which makes it difficult to expect high hopes for them.

Vieri, who was in the limelight in the last Cup, is now dumbfounded, Baggio has never been reused by Trapattoni, and Totti and Piero can't take on the big role in their muddy performances.

Funny! Italy has always been a penalty nightmare! I have seen the unlucky penalty kick, I have never seen such an unlucky one, from 90 to 98, the three World Cups were eliminated from the penalty kick home, one of which was still in the homeland, this Roman Pope, oh no, God does not appear in his own territory, do you still expect him to travel thousands of miles to China to achieve his majesty? It's no wonder that you can't even recognize someone who is not beaten by a group of Chinese gods!

Today's situation, naturally, is proud or arrogance of the Italian Football Association President Carraro does not want to see, of course, the reason for this pessimistic phenomenon is also because Italy itself is not angry, Carraro called Trapattoni and asked him to reuse Baggio in the game against China, and then for the outside media, he was very "modest" said that China is a strong team, but Italy also has a glorious history, you know, not that the host is always dominant, If you don't believe it, in 90, we didn't lose to Argentina, and it was a penalty......

Carraro didn't know if he was cheered up or deflated, anyway, after hearing it, Ling Feng and Lao Ma almost laughed off their big teeth, in 90 years, that game was in Naples, Lao Ma's home stadium, does this home advantage work?

Of course, we can't say that to the outside world, otherwise people will think that Maradona is going to divide the Italian territory.

The ticket sales of this game are hot, and the Hong Kong police do not know how many scalpers have been arrested, but there are still a large number of fans shouting that there are no tickets to enter the stadium, and the current situation is that there is no price in the market, and the capital of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has to increase manpower, while cracking down on scalpers, while maintaining law and order in and around the stadium.

Forget to mention that among the 12 World Cup host cities, Hong Kong and Macau each have one quota place.

It's not easy!

Think about it, with Hong Kong's land is at a premium, it would be a fool's dream to build a large stadium!

However, after revealing some news to Tung Chee-hwa that year, he immediately allocated funds to expand the Kowloon Stadium and build it into a world-class stadium -- it is true that Hong Kong has money, and besides, this stadium has attracted a lot of sponsorship, and the capital of the special administrative region really does not contribute much money.

Now this game can be described as a gathering of superstars - not football stars, but celebrities in the entertainment industry, business elites!

There will be a total of three matches at the Kowloon Stadium, a match between the Netherlands and Austria in Group H of the World Cup group stage, a match between the quarterfinals D1VSG2, which is between China and Italy, and a third and fourth place final!

The first game wasn't that eye-catching, but this one, it's a hit!

To put it mildly, Hong Kong people are poor and only have money left, and the black market price of a ticket for an ordinary seat costs 5,000 Hong Kong dollars - as for VIP tickets, they have long been booked directly by rich people, and many celebrities still complain that they can't enter the stadium to watch the game!

It can be said that if the Chinese team can't win this game, those rich people can crush the Chinese players to death with money, which don't need to be exchanged for coins!

Half an hour before the start of the game, Zhu Guanglu and Trapattoni announced the starting lineup for the game at the same time.

Italy are still their traditional 4-4-2 or 4-3-1-2.

Gianluigi Buffon was the undisputed starting goalkeeper, with left-back from AC Milan and captain of the Italian national team. Maldini, the right-back is Roma's captain Panucci, and the center-back partner is naturally Nesta and Cannavaro, thankfully, Nesta is now much healthier and more lively than before, I didn't see him fall in the group stage again, and then sit on the bench and watch Italy go home with his own eyes; And Cannavaro was not suspended for accumulating yellow cards, so that the golden combination could spark passion with his old teammate Ling Feng in the World Cup - otherwise, according to the historical situation of Nesta's injury and Cannavaro's suspension, the most commendable backline in Italy may be useless in Ling Feng's eyes.

Of course, thank God it's the Italians, Ling Feng is still hiding in the lounge and sulking, Nesta was also injured in the last World Cup, why is it different this time, Nesta This guy is known as the glass man of the competition, and he will definitely be injured when he encounters a major game, but he is alive and kicking today, and it is estimated that he is going to suffer - I don't know which bastard arranged it like this!

In the position of the back midfield, it is AC Milan's butcher Gattuso, it is estimated that Trapattoni plans to do so, a Gattuso plus Nesta and Cannavaro, swallowing Ling Feng alive.

In the player tunnel, Ling Feng saw Gattuso's eyes shining at him, and he yelled in his heart, he remembered Maradona's evaluation of Gentilla, and it could be used on Gattuso at this time - this guy should go to kill pigs, not to play football!

In other words, this evaluation is quite appropriate, otherwise how could Gattuso be nicknamed the butcher in a dignified manner?!

Italy definitely have more than one midfielder, with Tomasi also starting, a traditional Italian style of play, with most of their midfielders being the kind of players who rush forward and are ready to engage in hand-to-hand combat at all times.

The right midfielder is Zambrotta, who is an all-rounder in Italy, claiming to be able to play in any position except the goalkeeper - the counterattack of the Chinese media is that our Ling Feng can even be a goalkeeper, and he doesn't use his hands......

The forward midfielder is the current spiritual leader Totti, of course, he can be called a forward midfielder, or a shadow striker, and his position is the most important position of the Italian defensive counter-attacking line, the core link.

Piero as the left winger, Vieri as the center, these are the positions that the two are very familiar with, Baggio is still sitting on the bench, maybe Trapattoni intends to continue to use Baggio as a surprise player, it can also be said that as long as Baggio does not play, then the Chinese team will never say that the field is dominant!

The lineup of the Chinese team is the same as usual.

Teenager Ding Rui was injured after contributing a valuable penalty to Ling Feng in the first game and missed the remaining two games of the group stage, but he continued to start after fully recovering from this game, partnering Hao Haidong in the striker.

Ling Feng is still a shadow striker, and like Italy, his position is also the most important position in the Chinese team.

The two full-backs, Liu Dong and Yue Lingxiang, are not only full-backs, but like Zambrotta, they can also suddenly change positions as wingers.

A defender Zhu Yujian, his task today is to keep an eye on Totti.

Fan Zhiyi and Wang Gang served as central defenders, Zhu Yin and Sun Jihai were still on both sides, and Li Ke was in goal.

Compared with Italy, which is mostly crowded in the middle, the Chinese team is more inclined to penetrate on the side.

When warming up before the game, the director kept giving the picture to a place in the stands, where many big-name Hong Kong and Taiwan stars gathered, among which the little diva Han Jing and a girl next to her were the most eye-catching.

She is Ling Feng's fiancée, the dream lover in the hearts of hundreds of millions of men, and the combination of beauty and wealth - Bai Siyue, the Chinese phoenix.

As the fiancée of China's No. 1 star - and there is news that Ling Feng is expected to marry Siyue immediately after his 22nd birthday, the director of this World Cup has not given Ling Feng much face.

As long as it is the game of the Chinese team, Siyue will definitely cheer for Ling Feng in the stands, and the director will definitely cut the camera to this beautiful phoenix who is rich and rivals the country many times.

Si Yue is dressed very beautifully today, or rather, in the midst of this group of stars, any woman will dress herself up beautifully, so as not to give people the feeling of being too comparative.

But many beauties familiar to the audience can't hide Siyue's heavenly beauty, she sits there, like a blooming white lotus.

Seeing this picture, Liu Jianhong couldn't help but joke that if a bomb exploded, it is estimated that the entertainment industry on both sides of the strait and three places will lose more than half of its superstars.

These superstars gave the audience another image today, and that is the image of the fans.

Their clothes were very casual, only a few of them looked like they were wearing the jerseys of the Chinese national team, but their faces, both men and women, were painted with a small five-star red flag like the rest of the fans - one on one side of the face.

According to common sense, artists can't show their heads too much outside, or even do this kind of "image-damaging" thing, but this game is different, and the entertainment company will turn a blind eye and acquiesce.

At this time, the players of the two teams have officially entered the stadium, played the national anthem, exchanged team flags, and chose the venue and who will serve first.

Ling Feng shook hands with Maldini Jr., he chose the front, chose the right one, and the Chinese team took the lead in serving.

"Looks like we had a bit of luck today." Returning to his own half, Ling Feng whispered to himself, maybe in this game, facing the world's No. 1 defensive team, if you want to tear apart the opponent's defense, it will indeed take some...... Luck.

The Kowloon Stadium was a sea of red, and the television showed footage from the helicopter on the sidelines.

It was a patch, completely red!

There are four big screens outside the stadium for live broadcasting, and the fans who can't enter to watch the game are uniformly wearing red Chinese team jerseys crowded in the square, which is an ocean, a sea of red that makes foreigners amazed!

1.3 billion Chinese fans, the strongest backing of the Chinese team!

Maybe there are many Chinese fans who like Italy, if it is changed to before, even if it is really the World Cup quarterfinals, I am afraid that many people will wear blue Italian jerseys to cheer for the Italian team.

But now, all red, the same color as fire!

Chinese football has the capital and reasons for fans to like it, maybe many fans still love Italy, but at this moment, they do not hesitate to stand on the side of China, because this is their motherland!

In comparison, the Italian cheerleaders in the south stand are quite shivering, only a few Italian jerseys and small blue flags are shaking weakly there, 90,000 Chinese fans, less than 8,000 Italian fans, this ratio is indeed a bit out of balance......

With Colombian referee Moreno. With the whistle of Ruales and the flashing of countless flashing lights, Hao Haidong passed the ball, and the focus of the quarterfinals of this World Cup - the match between China and Italy officially began!