Chapter 152: Champions League Final (1)
On May 26, the day before the Champions League final, the whole Liverpool team reached Rome, Italy.
Rome is the capital of Italy, but also the birthplace of the European Renaissance, because of the long history by the Italians called the eternal name, based on the well-known story of the Italian she-wolf raising the founder of Rome, Rome was established in the early days of the ancient Zhou Dynasty in ancient China, but in fact, Italian archaeologists believe that Rome has been established even earlier than that.
At Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport, there are many Liverpool fans who arrived in Rome early to pick up their flight at the airport.
Outside the airport, Liu Ting saw Humpty Dumpty and the three of them, holding scarves of fans who won the Champions League in 05, and a sign behind them that said "Rome is a good place to win the championship". Liu Ting also saw Zhang Qiming and others, Zhang Qiming was paid by Liu Ting to let them come to Europe to watch the game, and also brought a few activists from the fan club.
When Liu Ting passed by, he also pointed to Zhang Qiming and said to the three Humpty Dumpty: "Bill, you take care of these few, they came from China to support Liverpool, you don't let them be bullied by the Spaniards." β
Humpty Dumpty's chest thumped and said, "Liu, don't worry, I'll take care of them, those Spanish softies will never dare to come to trouble, you just need to win." β
Of course, Barcelona fans are also indispensable at the airport, in fact, Liverpool's plane and Barcelona's plane did not arrive at the same time, but there were still active Barcelona fans who ran to the airport to hit Liverpool, and Liu Ting saw a slogan like "Two damn traitors, you will regret it".
There were also Roma fans who joined in the fun, and banners in Italian such as "Brit get out" appeared at the airport.
The reason why Roma fans hate Liverpool is that from historical reasons, in the 83/84 season, the Champions League final was held in Rome, Italy for the second time, which happened to be a relatively strong period for Rome at that time, last season Rome won the Serie A championship with the efforts of the current AC Milan coach at that time, Ancelotti and others, and Rome also qualified for the Champions League: 1 draw, but in the end it fell short, losing to Liverpool 2:4 on penalties and finishing as runners-up.
It was the only time in Roma's history that they had reached the Champions League final, and the Romans are still reminiscing about that glory period for a long time. Roma's glory days in history were the 80s, but that was the era when AC Milan and Juventus in the north monopolized Serie A, and Roma won only one Serie A title, one Champions League runners-up, and four Coppa Italia titles. It seems that it is better not to collide with others in the glory days of the team, otherwise someone is more brilliant than you, and then you will not win a few championships.
Speaking of which, Ancelotti had a grudge with Liverpool since that time, and later became a manager and met Liverpool in two Champions League finals. And Roma fans also began to hate Liverpool at that time.
In this season's Champions League, the three teams of Serie A met the three teams of the Premier League, and Serie A was wiped out, and Italian fans naturally did not like English teams. And Roma also in the 06/07 Champions League quarterfinals against Manchester United, 2:1 home defeat Manchester United, the Romans thought they saw the hope of advancing to the semi-finals, to Manchester United's home Old Trafford, Roma lost 1:7, simply not too bad, Roma fans will come to play against Liverpool banner is not surprising.
Liverpool's pre-prepared buses did not go to Rome after leaving the airport, and the Rome Olympic Stadium, where the Champions League final was held, was in the northwest corner of Rome, while Liverpool's buses drove directly to the hotel on the outskirts of Rome, where Liverpool's hotel was booked.
Arriving at the door of the hotel, Gerrard couldn't help but ask: "This is farther away from the final stadium than the hotels in the city, so why did we choose the hotel here?" β
Assistant coach Herman said: "There have been a lot of conflicts between the English team and the Italian team in the past two years, Liverpool and Roma have had a feud before, living here can avoid those radical Roma fans coming to find trouble, and tomorrow the whole city of Rome will be boiling over football matches, living in the city is closer, but it does not take less time to get to the stadium." β
After all, in recent years, Italian fans have been the most impulsive in the five major leagues, and they are about to make trouble at every turn, which may be related to the stagnation of the Italian economy year after year, and many people have put their energy on football in the economic recession.
In recent days, Rome City has banned alcohol in the whole city, saying that it is afraid that British fans will make trouble after drinking, British fans will only make trouble after drinking, and Italian fans will make trouble if they don't drink.
In fact, this is the idea of living in the suburbs is Liu Ting's suggestion to Xu Zhengxin, Liu Ting remembers that if it were not for the changes he brought, it would be Manchester United who reached the Champions League final this year, Manchester United lost to Barcelona in the final and lost without temper, after the game, Ferguson made an excuse that it was the night before the game, and many Roma fans downstairs in the Manchester United Hotel came to make trouble, so that the whole Manchester United team did not sleep well and was not in a good state the next day.
Although it was just an excuse for Ferguson to lose, it was not groundless, there were indeed Roma fans who interfered with Manchester United on the night before the game, and Roma fans would do so because Roma lost 1-7 to Manchester United two years ago, and now it is replaced by Liverpool, which is the team that prevented Roma from winning the Champions League back then, and is likely to get the same treatment as Manchester United.
Booking a hotel in the suburbs can avoid this trouble, but the disadvantage is that it will be far away to step on the field this afternoon.
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The whole Liverpool team went to the Olympic Stadium in Rome after the hotel was ready, and the field happened to meet Barcelona and arrived, but neither side talked much, but the sidelines were surrounded by reporters from all over the world, and the slightest problem would attract attention.
The two teams stepped on the field to adapt to the field, and only the head coaches of the two teams stepped forward to say a few words to each other, which disappointed the reporters who were waiting to see if there was any pre-match news.
On the evening of May 27, one of the most important and high-profile matches in all of Europe arrived.
At the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, the two teams are warming up for the game.
Zhan Jun was talking about the situation of the two teams: "It was not until an hour before the game that the two teams handed in the final starting list, which is also the norm in the Champions League finals in previous years, after all, in such an important game, personnel changes in every position may have a great impact, and no one is willing to expose the starters early." β
"Liverpool's side is their most common starting line-up of the season, goalkeeper Reina, the back four from left to right are Gareth Bale, Carragher, Ag and Arbeloa, the three midfielders are Xavi Alonso, Mascherano and Gerrard, the forward three are Liu Ting, Torres and Kuyt, Liverpool are lucky, there are no injuries and no suspended players before the final."
Barcelona has changed a lot, their main left wing-back Abilda and right wing-back Alves are all suspended, Guardiola has to make a big change, Barcelona starts goalkeeper ValdΓ©s, the back line from left to right is Silvinho, Yaya Toure, Pique and Puyol, the midfield three are Xavi, Busquets and Iniesta, and the front line is the most goalscoring trident in Europe this season Messi, Eto'o and Henry. The suspension of the two main fullbacks, Guardiola let the veteran Silvinho start at right-back, Yaya Toure retracted from the midfield and partnered with Pique at central back, the Barcelona captain was also the former main central defender Puyol changed to play right full-back, Puyol's change should be to limit Liu Ting in the position, Guardiola used the young Busquets and Xavi Iniesta in the midfield to partner with the start. β
When Zhan Jun was commenting, the Spanish commentator was also saying: "La Masia is worthy of being a famous youth academy in Europe, the starting points of the two teams in this Champions League final combined, a total of 9 people are from La Masia, 7 from Barcelona and 2 from Liverpool, and there are 5 substitute players from Barcelona on the bench, and even the Barcelona coach is also from La Masia." β
The two teams warmed up about the same, returned to the dressing room to change into clean shirts, and led the caddie in the aisle to get ready for the game, while Liverpool used the away team's dressing room.
Music sounded in the stadium, and in the singing of Bocelli, a blind Italian tenor, first the model dressed in gold entered with a cup with big ears, and then the song was changed to the theme song of the Champions League, and the players of both teams slowly entered.
The final was attended by 62,467 people, including King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain, Italian Prime Minister and AC Milan boss Silvio Berlusconi, Prince William of the British Royal Family, Prince Albert of Monaco and two princes, Pierre and Andrea, and the indispensable UEFA Football Association Michel Platini.
In addition, there were Beckenbauer, Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Dalglish and others present, and of course, many male and female stars from European countries.
The referee of this game is the 40-year-old Swiss Busaka, last season's Champions League semi-finals Barcelona home against Manchester United is his referee, that game he gave Manchester United a penalty, but was kicked away by Ronaldo, fortunately in the second leg Manchester United home Scholes kicked the world wave to eliminate Barcelona, otherwise Ronaldo will become the team's big sinner.
Busaka blew the whistle and the Champions League final began.
Liverpool kicked off first, and after two inverted feet in midfield, Xavi Alonso transferred the ball to the left side of Liu Ting's feet, Liu Ting took the ball to the front to face Puyol's defense, Liu Ting tried to break through and failed to pass the ball to Gerrard in the middle, Gerrard's long-range shot failed to threaten the Barcelona goal.
Puyol is tall but not bulky, and Pep Guardiola asked him to defend Liu Ting, and the experienced Puyol did make Liu Ting feel a little difficult to deal with.
But it's just a little, Liu Ting has Bale behind him, and as long as Bale rushes up at speed, not to mention Puyol, even Messi can't keep up. As long as Bell can step forward to help at the right time, Liu Ting believes that he can deal with the blonde lion king.
Both sides started with a tentative attack, without a big investment of troops, and this situation lasted for about ten minutes.
In the 11th minute, Liu Ting and Gerrard teamed up to shake off Puyol and crossed from the left, and Torres stopped the ball on his chest and volleyed wide of the far post from 13 meters in front of the goal.
This kick is not too threatening but beautiful enough, and it directly ignited the whole stadium, Liverpool fans and neutral fans are applauding this kick, and the atmosphere on the field is also ignited, and the rhythm of the two teams begins to increase.
In the 14th minute, Liu Ting received the ball outside the penalty area and flashed past Busquets, and a long-range shot also went over the crossbar.
Liverpool continued to attack, but Barcelona found the back of the net with the first threatening shot.
In the 17th minute, Iniesta broke through with the ball in the middle and then slanted to the right side of the Liverpool penalty area, Eto'o ran there to receive the ball, and stabbed past the grabbing Carragher, Reina fell to the ground and failed to touch the ball with one hand, and the ball rolled directly into the near corner of the goal.
The result was a bit of a surprise, as Liverpool looked dominant, with Barcelona looking a little timid in the face of Liverpool, but the first threatening shot on target was the first shot on target and the first shot on target was cleared.