Istanbul, known as "Constantinople" and "Byzantium" in ancient times, has a long history and splendid cultural heritage, and was once the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and can be regarded as one of the centers of the Western world. It is now the capital of Turkey.

It is a beautiful city that straddles the Eurasian continent and has a population of 11 million people, with libraries, palaces and mosques.

The final of the 2004-2005 European Champions Cup will be held at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium on the western outskirts of Istanbul.

It is a large stadium with a capacity of 80,000 spectators, but it is not a professional football stadium, it was built for the Olympic bid, and there is a track and field track on the side of the green field.

On the afternoon of April 23, the entire Inter Milan team arrived in Istanbul, and after staying in the hotel, they had a field adaptation training at the stadium.

The amount of training is not large, mainly to familiarize the players with the turf condition in advance.

Ronaldo was chatting with Ricardo in a whisper: "Brother, tomorrow I don't think you will have a chance to play, I will use half time to finish Liverpool." ”

Ricardo smiled: "Dadado, although you are strong, but I must remind you that Liverpool have only conceded one goal in four games in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. They defended well. ”

"Really?" Ronaldo blinked, "But I've already found their weaknesses." ”

"Oh, what is it?" Ricardoch said.

"It's a secret," Ronaldo said in a serious way, "and you won't start anyway, so it's useless to tell you." ”

"Maybe I'll need to come off the bench and turn the tide." Ricardo joked.

Ronaldo thought for a moment: "Makes sense. Then I'll tell you, you come here. ”

Ricardo leaned over his ears.

"Their weakness is very obvious...... Ronaldo said with a smile and a deliberate straight face, "we just need to drain the water." ”

"What?" Ricardo looked confused.

Ronaldo prompted: "Think about it, what is the name of Liverpool? ”

“Liverpool……”

"Yes, they all live in the pool. Then we'll drain the water and see what happens. Ronaldo triumphed at his little joke.

Ricardo didn't actually think the joke was funny, but he still gave Ronaldo face and pretended to laugh for a while: "Okay, we can drain the water first." But what if it doesn't work? ”

"Then try to play more behind the ball," Ronaldo said, "Liverpool's defenders are tall and strong, they are fierce in front of the front, and they are also very good at defending high balls, but they are slow to turn. Hit the ball behind you a lot and I think it will work wonders. ”

"Mancini said the same thing," said Ricardo helplessly...... "Dadado, do you have any ideas of your own?" ”

"Of course," Ronaldo said with confidence, "I think I could try more long-range shots." ”

"Why?"

"I've heard that the goalkeepers in the UK are very fond of butter hands."

"Liverpool's goalkeeper Dudek is a Pole......" Ricardo covered his forehead.

"If you stay in the English league for a long time, a good goalkeeper will become a butter hand," Ronaldo said firmly, "Seeing the English goalkeeper blindfolded, this is the secret of our Brazilian national team." ”

Come on, Ricardo knew he didn't want to hear anything useful from Ronaldo.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Heysel tragedy, and it is a special day for Liverpool.

After the Heysel tragedy, Liverpool were banned from European football for seven years. To add insult to injury, the 1989 Hillsburg tragedy plunged Liverpool into a two-decade slump.

In such a special year, perhaps the Liverpudlians can burst into a special fighting force.

An incredible reversal, a permanent miracle in the history of football, an unsolvable mystery, a madness of 3 goals in 6 minutes. The Oxford Dictionary even includes a new entry: unbeliverpool.

Although it was in a different time and space, and Ricardo was convinced that Inter Milan, who had a healthy Ronaldo, could not be overturned by the Liverpudlians, he couldn't help but worry.

In this world, no one can understand his worries.

Liverpool, like in another time and space, defeated the strong all the way, eliminated the surging Chelsea and Juventus, and reached the final step by step. What if they also blew up in the final?

The anxiety made him not sleep well all night.

When he got up for breakfast the next day, he had big dark circles under his eyes, which scared his teammates. Mancini couldn't help but shake his head: young players are just poor in mental quality. Fortunately, there is no intention of starting Ricardo today.

Inter Milan's squad has been decided: goalkeeper Toldo, defenders Zanetti, Mihajlovic, Córdoba and Favali are nothing new. Cambiaso, Stankovic, Veron and C. Zanetti in midfield, Ronaldo and Adriano in front. The bench seven are: Fontana, Materazzi, Zemaria, Emre, Van der Meyde, Ricardo and Martins.

Liverpool have yet to announce their squad and Roberto Mancini is in the process of meeting assistant coach Oscar. Caballero speculated on Liverpool's starting XI.

Liverpool's midfield is relatively stable, goalkeeper Dudek, defenders should be Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia and Traore, midfielders should be Gerrard, Reese, and Benitez's favorite Luis. Garcia and Harvey. Alonso, but the striker is not sure.

Liverpool have a penchant for using a single arrow this season and then ambushing a hidden striker. Will the single arrow be French striker Cisse? Or the Czech Baroshe? Will the hidden striker be Australian Colwill or Czech veteran Smitchell?

But one thing is for sure, Liverpool's style of play is definitely based on counter-attacking.

They were placed in a group with Monaco, Olympiacos and Deportivo La Coruna in the group stage, which is supposed to be relatively weak in average quality, but they only won 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses to finish second in the group.

However, it is worth noting that although they have scored only six goals in their six group games, they have conceded only three, which is the joint-second-fewest goals conceded by any team in the eight. Juventus have conceded the fewest goals, conceding just one goal in six group games. Inter Milan, Chelsea and Liverpool are tied for second place with just three goals conceded.

They then beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 in the quarter-finals, Juventus 2-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals and Chelsea 1-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

It's not that Juventus and Chelsea are weak in attack, Juventus doesn't mention it, Capello's 1-0 doctrine makes them not score many goals. But Chelsea are goalscoring maniacs, scoring 10 goals in six group games, scoring five goals in the two legs of the quarter-finals against Barcelona and six goals in the quarter-finals against Bayern Munich.

Of course, when it comes to attacking power, these two teams are not comparable to Inter Milan.

Inter Milan scored a whopping 16 goals in six group stage games against last season's champions in La Liga, Bundesliga and La Liga. With 4 goals in Porto, 4 goals in AC Milan and 5 goals in PSV Eindhoven in the knockout round, it can be said that Inter Milan is the most attacking team in this Champions League! And Liverpool are the team with the strongest defense!

The strongest spear, and the strongest shield, will be decided today!