Chapter 112: All for the Champions League (The third update, ask for a monthly ticket!) )
When the time enters February, even the smell of the air changes ().
UEFA Champions League!
This began to appear frequently in major media outlets.
On 17 February, the knockout stage of the Champions League will be in full swing, with teams battling it out for the European Cup, the highest honour for European clubs.
In fact, this world-famous incident only officially began at this time.
After the European Champions Cup has been restructured several times, it is now called the Champions League, and after the number of participating teams has increased, there is a significant change that there are many second- and third-rate league teams entering the group stage. This is of course a boon for the second- and third-tier teams, giving them the opportunity to go to the Champions League and earn some appearance fees. But at the same time, the side effect is that the gold content of the group stage has plummeted, while the water content has skyrocketed, and many football fans have never heard of the team making it to the group stage, they have no idea of leaving their name in this great football event, they are purely here to play soy sauce, just thinking about playing six games and pulling it down. It's rare to have the kind of team that has reached the Champions League and is desperate to prove themselves in this competition.
Even Serie A teams like Udinese only see the Champions League as an opportunity to inflate the value of their players and sell them for a good price, not to mention the Bulgarian league, the Romanian league and the Israeli league...... ()。
Of course, many teams don't want to fight hard in the Champions League, but the price of fighting hard is too great, and this time they fight hard to win a strong team, maybe they will be relegated by the end of the season...... it is really worth the loss.
But in any case, the decline in spectatorship in the Champions League group stage is admitted, and many games are simply chicken. Many strong teams are also reluctant to go to distant Eastern Europe to fight in the early winter, so the contradictions between the giants and UEFA have never disappeared.
Today's Champions League, until it reaches the knockout stage, is the real "Champions League". "Almost all the teams that can make it to the round of 16 are ...... with two brushes, of course, Mr. Nan Guo naturally has it, but they usually don't go very far.......
The Champions League quarterfinals are still half a month away, which makes many fans start to be active.
More attention has also been paid to the 16 teams that will compete in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
It's not just the fans who pay attention to them, but also a lot of professionals. Even the scouting ...... of the participating teams.
From each team's recent league games, it is possible to guess the form of this team, especially the form of several key players.
This is part of analyzing the opponent.
However, for the rivals of Napoli and Real Madrid, there is no need for this at all. Real Madrid are the biggest of the big clubs, their games are everywhere, the media reports on them all day long, and their players can be gossiped about by the media even if they wear clothes on the street, so there is no need for Napoli to send scouts to Spain to observe the recent form of their opponents.
And what about Real Madrid? They obviously don't need to know what Naples is like ().
Everyone understands that whether Real Madrid can break the curse of eight or not is entirely up to them. It can even be said that whether they can win the 10th Champions League trophy in the club's history is entirely up to them. In this world, as long as they are serious and behave normally, there are almost no teams that can beat them.
But this is nonsense ......, meaningless.
Because in the past few years, Real Madrid has not been normal! Judging by this season, the odds of them being normal are also very small.......
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After entering February, not only the fans and the media are focused on the Champions League, but even the players themselves seem a little absent-minded.
Their absent-mindedness was reflected in the fact that Napoli, who played with all their main team, lost to Udinese away from home.
In this game, even Chen Yingying was not in shape.
The absent-mindedness of the whole Napoli team can be understood by the commentator: "It can be seen that the Napoli players are already thinking about the Champions League quarter-finals, although they are still ten ...... away from the game"
Therefore, the Napoli players who lost the game did not feel any frustration and sadness, and if they lost, they lost, and it didn't matter if they fell from third to fourth in the league.
Even Mazzarry expressed his understanding of the players' performance in the post-match press conference.
"......, the players want the Champions League? It's normal, and I don't think it's a bad thing. Because it shows that our players have enough motivation and fighting spirit and they are not intimidated by the names of our opponents....... ”
Don't think Mazari is just giving the players a bad performance in front of the media.
In fact, Mazzari had long known that he was the head coach of the team, so how could he not know about the movements within the team?
Even the result of losing to Udinese, he was mentally prepared for a long time ().
The temporary strategy of abandoning the domestic league is simply his arrangement.
So the team's loss to Udinese, of course, he will not have any surprises that the cymbal is angry about.
Ten days until the Champions League? So what? Napoli's opponent is Real Madrid...... no, to put it far, maybe the whole UEFA.
So it's perfectly normal to start preparing for these two quarter-finals more than ten days in advance, and Mazzali doesn't feel anything wrong.
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On February 14, in the twenty-fourth round of Serie A, Napoli continued its away trip. As a result, they drew away from home to Siena, who are currently 20th in the league and have a total of 20 teams in Serie A, which means that Siena are currently the bottom .......
It's far from the time for a relegation battle, and Siye's still has a chance to turn around. So Napoli was able to draw away from Siena, which was really deliberate.
Three days later, it's time for the team to play Real Madrid.
According to the schedule, they have to go away first.
Napoli will take to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the temple of football, to challenge the supremacy there.
Although Mazzarri instilled propaganda in his players at the start of the season, telling them that the real Napoli should be the kind of team that "is not afraid of the sky and the earth, and the European borders are sideways", the spirit is one thing, and the actual example is the other.
In terms of strength, Napoli really can't compare with Real Madrid.
I don't know how many times the budget of Naples is in a year. To take the biggest simple example, Real Madrid's star Cristiano Ronaldo's annual salary for a year is almost equal to the salary budget of the entire Napoli team for a year.......
In terms of strength, Napoli is weaker than Real Madrid, but this is definitely not a reason to admit defeat in advance.
Since you are determined to fight with Real Madrid, you have to be well prepared.
Napoli is not Real Madrid and cannot be "dominated by me. "Of course, it's about studying the opponent. It is also normal to start preparing half a month in advance.
Anyway, the team's current standings are okay, and they have always been in the first team of the league. Giving up the league for the time being, Mazzarri is confident that he will catch up later, and at least it will be no problem to retain a European spot.
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Without a win in two games in a row, it is clear to the Italian media that Napoli are really preparing for a match against Real Madrid.
After all, the opponent is too strong, and it is normal to start preparing two games in advance.
Next, Napoli will have to go to the Bernabeu Stadium to challenge the mighty Real Madrid.
The white giant and they are not at all a grade of ball rumbling...
After playing against Siena, the Napoli squad departed for Madrid to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid in midweek.
"We can only wish them the best of luck because their opponents are a formidable and suffocating opponent, and Real Madrid, who are currently in 22 league games, have scored 53 goals and are tied with Barcelona as the most attacking team in La Liga. This number of goals also makes them proud of the whole European football scene. As for Napoli's defense, it has always been a shortcoming, although during the winter break, the team introduced the former Italian No. 2 international De Sanctis, but in the face of Real Madrid, whether it can withstand it is still very worrying...... ()。 ”
When Naples set off, the local media in Naples said this with concern.
In the eyes of many, this signing basically announced the end of Napoli's journey back to the Champions League after 18 years.
Napoli's chances of beating Real Madrid are too slim.
Now they can only hope that Napoli can perform a little bit at the Bernabeu and lose without losing .......
In any case, we are also Maradona's team, how can a team with such an unruly personality bow to Haoqiang? Not to mention that Maradona used to play for Barcelona and is a mortal enemy of Real Madrid.
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"Bernabeu!" On the plane to Madrid, many players are very excited to be able to play at the Bernabeu, especially Ha Yansik, who once expressed his yearning for Real Madrid when chatting with Chen Yingying in private, saying that if he has the opportunity to go to a giant club in the future, then the first choice must be Real Madrid.
Compared to his excited teammates, Cassano's performance was more lackluster. First of all, he has played a lot of games at the Bernabeu because he used to be a player for Real Madrid. Secondly, his career at Real Madrid can be described as "terrible", so he doesn't have much affection for this team and the stadium.
Before getting on the plane, I also asked him if he had any special feelings about going to the Bernabeu to play, and the reporter suggested that he could say something similar to "the wanderer returns home" and "returns home", but Cassano said with a cold face: "It's just an ordinary Champions League game." ”
Let the reporter who has prepared a lot of things choke on all the next questions......
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Long ps, double the monthly pass period, work hard to update, try to ask for a monthly pass~ Tomorrow is still three watches, until the 5th!