While Torino supporters were celebrating the planned promotion, the rest of the matches were also announced, with only Zenit St. Petersburg completing the comeback and knocking out the Soviet Super League giants Celtic in the first leg of the first leg.

Arsenal, the only English team in the round of 32, lost 1-2 at home to Swedish team Ostersund, but still easily entered the next round of knockout rounds with an aggregate score of 4-2; Two of the four La Liga teams have qualified, with Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid not having a gutter overturn, Real Sociedad, who are slightly inferior to them, were eliminated by Austrian league champions Red Bull Salzburg, while European regulars Villarreal were beaten by Lyon and left this year's Europa League in a very undignified way; Ligue 1 teams performed well, with Nice losing to Lokomotiv Moscow and Marseille also reaching the round of 16 with a big win in the first leg.

As for the remaining Serie A and Bundesliga teams in the five major leagues, they are divided in a series of love and killing. Napoli, who still occupy the top spot in the Serie A standings, won 2-0 away at RB Leipzig, but were still kicked out of Europe by sixth in the Bundesliga with an aggregate score of 3-3 due to the lack of away goals.

As for the most high-profile matchup between Atalanta and Borussia Dortmund, it was a rollercoaster ride, with Poseidon's sons, who lost 3-2 in the first leg, only need a narrow win to advance, and centre-back Toloy's goal in the opening 11 minutes almost helped the home team achieve that goal. Unfortunately, the tenacious Hornets also showed the resilience of the traditional giants of the Bundesliga in this fierce hand-to-hand fight, and finally settled the score at 1-1 with the goal of substitute full-back Schmelzer in the 83rd minute, thus eliminating the opponent in a thrilling way and advancing to the next round.

Compared to the excellent performance of the Bundesliga team with a 100% promotion rate, Serie A only scored two out of four, and in addition to the Torino team, Lazio also won the right to promotion with a 5-1 victory at home, and finally did not let the red bulls become the country's only seed in this competition.

However, just when the European media and many fans were anxiously analyzing the process of each game and predicting the results of the next round of draws, a storm began to erupt from the Internet and attracted everyone's attention at a very fast speed.

Less than an hour after the match between Atalanta and Dortmund, Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi, who was on loan from Chelsea to the latter, broke the news on his personal page on social media that he was racially discriminated against by Poseidon fans during the game, and he clearly heard malicious invective such as "monkey" and "eating bananas". In response to this situation, Batshuayi also gave a resolute response on the Internet, writing: "It's already 2018, and there is still racist noise in the stands, is it true? As we progress to the next round, we hope you enjoy watching the rest of the Europa League games in front of the TV. ”

UEFA then issued a notice stating that emergency proceedings had been initiated to investigate the incident, and that the evidence available so far showed that the Atalanta fans had indeed engaged in racially discriminatory behaviour. Atlanta President Perkasi was quick to express his apologies to Batshuayi in an interview, saying: "To be honest, I didn't hear racist voices in the stands. If there is, then I feel very sad and I will definitely apologize to Batshuayi. This kind of thing should never happen. ”

But his words didn't have much effect, as Atalanta are already repeat offenders in this regard, and a month ago, their fans were fined hefty by the Italian Football Federation for racist acts against Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, as well as closing the stands for the next game, but those heavy penalties did not seem to have deterred them.

Although the European continent, like the United States, is the hardest hit area of racial discrimination, and mutual discrimination between whites, blacks, yellows, and other people of color has always been an unavoidable topic, at least the correctness of ZZ on the table is unshakable. It's better to have discrimination against Africans or Asians, and the impact of the storm will not be too great, and it will soon be forgotten in a corner, but when it comes to Europeans, it will be much more serious. Although Batshuayi is of purebred Congolese descent, his skin should be regarded as the darkest, but people can take authentic Belgian household registration books, so this incident will cause such a big reaction.

Two days later, UEFA made a rare effort to characterize the matter, confirming that Atalanta FC will be charged with racism and fireworks in the stadium, while Borussia Dortmund will also be charged with fireworks and littering by fans. The incident will be discussed and dealt with at a regular meeting of the UEFA Disciplinary Committee on the 22nd of next month, and the corresponding punishment measures will be finally proposed.

And just when the racism storm was in the spotlight of all European football and beyond, UEFA held a draw for the next stage of the Europa League at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday afternoon, and the results attracted everyone's attention as soon as they came out. Nine of the teams that advanced to the round of 16 came from the top five leagues, and theoretically there would be at least one group of strong conversations, and after the two sides of the first group of duels were drawn, there was a lot of exclamation in the ceremonial stadium, and Lazio and Arsenal met together! This is a direct conversation between the fourth-ranked and first-ranked teams on the latest championship odds list after the first round of elimination, which will naturally make everyone feel extremely excited and excited.

Subsequently, Marseille and Bilbao, two teams from the top five leagues, were also drawn, but because their strength is not considered the top existence, the attention is not too high, but it is also one of the most suspenseful games in this round. In addition to the above two sets of matchups, the luck of the other five major league teams is much better, but no one dares to guarantee that they can easily qualify, after all, at this stage, the rest of the teams are very strong, even from the Czech Republic or Austrian league teams should not be underestimated, less than the moment of the end of the two legs, who will reach the quarterfinals is really hard to say.

Torino will face Lokomotiv Moscow from the Russian Superliga, who won the domestic cup last season to qualify for Europe. They have been in excellent form this season and are currently at the top of the league table and are expected to win the league title again after a 14-year absence.

Lokomotiv Moscow is certainly at the bottom of the sixteen teams, but it is still not to be underestimated, the team's number one star is the Peruvian striker Farfan, who previously teamed Raul with Schalke 04, the core of the midfield is the new generation of local talent, Alexei Milanchuk, who is only 22 years old, and the back line is led by Croatian international Joel Luka, who has become famous with Modric, and there are leaders in all three lines. Under the leadership of the former head coach of the Russian national team, Yuri Shomin, there is still a strong fighting power.

And considering that the schedule of the Torino team is not very favorable, the certainty of promotion may be just a five-five theory. That's why Li Mudi said in an interview with the reporter of "Torino Sport" after learning the results of the draw: "I can't talk about being unhappy with this result, although we didn't draw a top team like Arsenal or Atletico Madrid, but Lokomotiv Moscow is also a very difficult opponent, and the Torino team needs to show 100% strength to have a chance to enter the next round." But the club and the fans were happy to meet a team from Russia, and although it wasn't the opponent who eliminated us back then, everyone was happy to complete a similar revenge, after all, they were all from the same country. ”

The reason why the Torino coach said this is because the Red Bulls were knocked out of the Europa League by Russian teams in their last two appearances. In the 2014-15 season, Torino was 2-0 away and 1-0 at home, and was excluded from the quarter-finals by Zenit St. Petersburg 1-2 on aggregate. In the distant 1992-93 season, when it was still known as the UEFA Cup, Torino was also eliminated by Dynamo Moscow 1-2 on aggregate in the second knockout round (which was a pure cup format with no group stage), which was also the last glory moment of the last century for the Red Bulls.

The schedule for the quarter-finals was also determined after the draw was announced, with the first leg kicking off on March 8 and the second on Thursday. Temperatures in Russia in mid-March are still not too high, which is an extra challenge for the Italian side who are accustomed to the Mediterranean climate, and if they want to beat their opponents and make progress, they will have to try to get a good score in the first leg at home, otherwise the pressure on the trip to Moscow will be endless.

The addition of these two Europa League games has suddenly made the task of the Torino team in the future games suddenly become heavy, and it will be two matches in a week for three consecutive weeks, which poses a huge test of the players' physical fitness. Li Mudi had to reasonably arrange the lineup according to the strength of the opponent in each game and the importance of the game, and strive to advance smoothly on all three fronts. It's a good idea, but the ultimate reality shows that the consequences of a non-big team that doesn't have enough depth in the squad to juggle multiple tournaments are most likely to be a chicken and egg fight and a total collapse.

In fact, even the top teams want to win two events in a season, it is very difficult, and the chances of a treble are even slimmer. Only four teams in the top five leagues have won the treble five times so far, Manchester United in 1999, Barcelona in 2009 and 2015 (the first time was an unprecedented six-time crown), Inter Milan in 2010 and Bayern Munich in 2013, and the century-old giants such as Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan have not been able to win this title.

Torino won five league titles in the 40s, and if it weren't for the outbreak of World War II that led to the suspension of the league in 1943 and 1945, the chances of winning seven consecutive titles would have been more than ninety per ten. But the Italian Cup, which was also affected by World War II, was much more tragic and did not resume until the 1957-58 season, which led to the Torino gods winning the double only once before the start of the World War.

The Champions Cup, the predecessor of the Champions League, was only held in 1955-56, when the Red Bulls had already fallen apart after the Supega air disaster. They were not represented in the Champions League for the first and only time in their history after winning their seventh league title in 1975/76, losing to Bundesliga champions Borussia Mönchengladbach in the quarter-finals. The latter eventually made it all the way to the final and lost to Liverpool, seeing the English side embark on a golden six-year period.

Bringing the conversation back to reality, the second leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final will be played next Wednesday night, and although Torino have a 1-0 lead away from home in the first leg, it is still possible for Atalanta, who are almost unable to qualify for next season's European competition through the league standings. The Red Bull still can't relax and must also show 100% strength to deal with it. Considering that this weekend's league opponent is second-from-bottom promoted side Hellas Verona, Lee is ready to rotate extensively in this game to save time for the midweek cup tie.

As a result, Belotti, Baseli and Ranocchia were directly excluded from the squad, and the names of Silvestri and Vukocevic were missing from the starting line-up, and the formation was changed to 4-3-3, which was the main game last season. Edla, Immobile and Boyer form the front three, with Benasi, Musis and Fabas in midfield, Flanagan and Canneman as two full-backs at the back, veteran Moretti and academy rookie Bonifaczi in the middle, Casillas as the last insurance.

This lineup, whether it is offensive or defensive strength, has some minor problems, such as no high-altitude advantage in the frontcourt, not strong backcourt recovery speed, two fullbacks almost zero assist ability, and so on. However, according to the prediction of the Torino coaching staff, it should not be a problem to deal with Verona, who has only 15 points in 25 league games. But no one expected that just in the twelfth minute of the game, the score on the field changed.

Serbian centre-back Vukovic, who was on loan from Olympiacos in Greece during the winter break, received a corner kick from the left and leaped high near the penalty spot to head the ball towards goal. Midfielder Varotti, who had played for AC Milan's youth team, headed in a header from around three metres in front of goal to give Verona a one-goal lead.

Almost all of the Torino players raised their arms and signalled to the linesman that it was an offside goal, but it was ignored. The slow motion of the broadcasters also made it clear that when Vukovic headed the ball, Croatian striker Bruno Petkovic was indeed in an offside position, but he was not involved in the follow-up attack, and Varotti was cut in from behind the last defender of the visiting team, so there was no dispute about the goal.

Not long after the game started, the Red Bulls were in a very disadvantageous situation for the three-point imperative, and there was no doubt that this result was caused by the mentality of underestimating the enemy before the game.