The next morning, Zhang Tiehan got up early to train.

Recently, he has only spent very little time on fitness training, and the rest of the time is doing some simple dribbling exercises, all the time to increase his ball sense, and slowly improve his foot technique.

He still has a lot of room for improvement in terms of football skills.

As the morning ticked by, the rest of their team-mates arrived at the training ground to talk to each other about the draw for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League last night, and about their opponents, Manchester United.

"It's the first time I've played against Manchester United, ......"

"For the first time in history!"

'yes, Roma have never played against Manchester United, they are very strong.

And so it is.

Roma has never played Manchester United in history, and the two teams have not had any conflict in official European competitions, and the biggest reason is that Roma does not have much experience in European competitions, and they can only play domestic leagues for more time, and the Europa League is still very difficult for Roma.

Two years ago, they had a good result, but they only made it to the round of 16.

At that time, the second leg of the group stage of the European Championship was played twice, Roma failed to move forward, their European experience was too little and too little, even if the team was not weak at that time, but the experience and results of European competition are very related, such as Manchester United, a team with rich experience in European competition, even if Manchester United last year due to Beckham's departure, the strength of the team has declined a lot, but they are still very strong in Europe, and Manchester United's strength has risen steadily this season, which is a terrifying opponent.

Everyone was talking about Manchester United, and soon someone asked about Zhang Tiehan, who they knew was once part of Manchester United's academy.

"Manchester United? Very strong. Zhang Tiehan said blandly.

Cassano was surprised, "Zhang? Aren't you excited? You know, you're going to be back at Old Trafford!"

Zhang Tiehan rolled his eyes, "If you want to say excited." It's too early, it's two and a half months away from the game against Manchester United. "He's telling the truth, but in fact, he was already excited yesterday, and he can't always be excited because of this.

Others felt that Zhang Tiehan was very calm.

"Zhang is right, there is still a long way to go."

"Let's get ready to enjoy the holiday in peace."

Everyone talked about the holidays again. It really doesn't look like training at all, but the assistant coaches can't help it, Drinel will only return from Sweden in the afternoon, and there is nothing special about today's training, in fact, the assistant coaches, including many club staff, are ready to enjoy the holiday.

They all seem to have forgotten that there is a game in two days.

……

On December 19, the last league game before the winter break in Serie A began, and Roma's opponent was Parma.

The predecessor of Parma Club was the "Vidi Football Club", which was founded after a composer born in Parma, Vidi. Parma has long been in the second division. By 1989, when coach Scala was in charge, he struggled with an extreme slump, and was demoted to D in 1965 and declared bankruptcy in 1968.

Bad luck continues, and the name has been changed repeatedly.

In 1985, Parma, who finished in the third division, welcomed an obscure new coach, Aligosacchi, who was the former coach of the Italian national team. Sacchi led Parma to the second division and put his spicy style on display in the following season. This caught the attention of AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi.

Among the players used by Sacchi, the most representative. It was Melon, who was born in Agrigento and grew up in Parma, and Melly was even selected for the national team.

After Sacchi left Parma, he was replaced by Zeman, who commanded only seven games before being sacked.

Interestingly, two of the most representative coaches in Italian football today are both from Parma. Zeman's 1987 year was a milestone year in Parma's history. this year. Parmalat Dairy Foods, which has sponsored domestic ski championships, Formula 1 and other events, has become the new shareholder of Parma.

Soon after, Coach Scala took over, and the general manager of Parmalat Dairy Companies, who had foreseen Scala's hopes from Scala, bought an additional 20 percent of the shares.

In 1990, Glenn, Tafarel and Brolin joined Parma, who qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time. Year 1. Won the Italian FA Cup. In the 1993 European Cup Winners' Cup, Zola and Asprilla shone brightly, and Parma won the championship, fully showing their strength. The relegated side have grown into a team that regularly tops the league, beating arch-rivals Juventus in the 1994-1995 season to win the UEFA Cup for the first time, only to be lost in the final league match.

Parma has become one of the 'Serie A Seven' that people talk about, but now the 'Serie A Seven' is falling apart, strong teams such as AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, are still Serie A powerhouses, Roma and Lazio in the middle, in the eyes of people have begun to decline, followed by Parma and Fiorentina are completely reduced to weak teams.

Parma are the underdogs.

If a few years ago, Parma and Roma played each other, they could still attract the attention of all Italy, and now when the two teams meet, even if Rome has fallen here, people are still optimistic about Roma, just because Parma is even weaker this season, and now they have only won four games in Serie A, ranking second to last in the league.

Even though they had a good scorer, Alberto Gilardino, they still couldn't win the game.

In the face of Parma in this game, due to the physical problems of many players in the team, Drinel can only helplessly send half of the main lineup, Totti, who has returned from injury, leads the midfield, in terms of tactics, Drinel did not make any challenge, he believes that with the Roma lineup, as long as it can play well, the hope of victory is still great, after all, the opponent is only Parma in the league, not to mention, Roma is still playing at home.

The media also considered the hope of Roman victory to be great.

The main thing is that Parma are too weak, they have only won one away game this season, and even if Gilardino's goal efficiency is almost one goal a game, it can't stand their constant conceding goals at the back, and conceding again, their goal so far. They have been beaten 41 times in the league, with an average of 2.7 goals per game, a figure that 'beats' the entire Serie A team of 18.

"It's very difficult for Parma to beat Roma at home, and Roma can have a happy Christmas against an opponent like that...... ' Sky Sports Italia commentator said of the game.

And so the game between the two teams began.

The result was something that no one expected, and it took only half time. Parma's leading scorer Gilardino scored twice to give Parma a 2-0 lead.

After the break, Drinel had no choice but to replace Zhang Tiehan.

But Zhang Tiehan still couldn't prevent Parma from scoring, and in the second half, Parma striker Degano suddenly made a force and volleyed 27 meters from the goal to rewrite the score to 3:0.

Totti and Roberto Mancini then pulled a goal back for Roma, but in the end they couldn't change the outcome of the game, as Roma suffered a defeat in front of their own goal, which could be described as a heavy defeat.

After Zhang Tiehan appeared, although he has been working hard. But the whole team was not good, he only touched the ball 25 times in the second half, including three shots, one kicked on the crossbar, and no goal was scored.

They also wanted to say goodbye to the first half of the season with a big win, but it ended up being a failure. And it was a very helpless defeat - the opponent was only Parma.

Half a schedule, sixteen Serie A games. Roma have six wins, five draws and five defeats, accumulating 23 points and ranking ninth in Serie A. Juventus, which is ranked first in the league, has achieved 13 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 41 points, and the gap between the two results is almost muddy. It simply cannot be compared.

As a result, the entire Italian media is even less optimistic about Rome.

Not only the league, but even the table on the Champions Cup is not optimistic.

For Zhang Tiehan, this half season is also a chaotic season for him, on the one hand, he is trying to adapt to the Italian environment. Adapting to the food, the habits, the language and the chaotic environment compared to England, on the other hand, he has to adapt to the characteristics of Italian football, to the tactical characteristics of Roma, a real top league team, he needs more movement, more targeted passing, more consideration of the team as a whole in the game, etc.

He's adapting to these, and he's also trying to show himself.

In this way, Zhang Tiehan still scored 14 goals in Serie A, while he also scored nine goals in the Champions League.

In Serie A, Zhang Tiehan is no longer the most goalscorer, the first place in the Serie A scorer list is Parma's Gilardino, who is proud of all scorers with an excellent efficiency of fifteen goals in sixteen games, and Inter Milan's Adriano has also caught up with Zhang Tiehan in goal numbers, tied for second place with him.

Still, the Italian press was rather surprised.

If you want to only talk about the number of goals in Serie A, Zhang Tiehan naturally has nothing, but you must know that Gilardino, Zhang Tiehan and Adriano are in different teams, different environments, Gilardino is the team's best star in Parma, every game, he alone accounts for more than 60% of Parma's shooting opportunities, in contrast, Rome has Cassano, Montella, and the core of the team Totti, Zhang Tiehan has a lot of opportunities, but in fact, it is similar to Cassano and others.

Adriano is the same, Inter Mila seems to be star-studded, but Adriano is definitely the most special one, last season in Inter's table, Adriano has been called 'king' by Inter fans, although Adriano is only twenty-three years old, but he is already a tyrant in the Inter dressing room, in contrast, Zhang Tiehan is just a very ordinary player in Rome, and Rome's tyrant will always belong to Totti, which is an indisputable fact.

Therefore, Zhang Tiehan is a very special person among the three shooters.

He didn't have the 'hegemon' status of the whole team, he was just an ordinary member of Rome, the youngest of the three, and he had just turned twenty years old in February after Christmas.

But in Serie A, he can score as many goals as Adriano and Gilardino.

In addition, Zhang Tiehan's goal figures in the Champions League are even more amazing!

Nine goals in the group stage, this number is enough for him to get the Champions League Golden Boot in advance, the number of goals in the Champions League Golden Boot in previous years is only eight, nine, more than a single digit when there are very few, it is said that many bookmakers in Europe have stopped suppressing the Champions League Golden Boot, mainly because Zhang Tiehan's goal numbers are too much, in contrast, Bayern Munich striker Mackay, Werder Bremen's Krasnich and Adriano's four goals are not worth mentioning.

With this and Roma entering the Champions League round of 16, even if they can't pass Manchester United, there are still two games to play, can Zhang Tiehan score in both games? Although the game has not yet started, many people are optimistic that he can score, which means that his goal number will definitely exceed double figures.

In front of the two-digit goal figures, the others are not competitive at all.

When the winter break is approaching, the whole of Italy is summing up halfway, and Zhang Tiehan's goal has become a major focus, and the next thing is to see if Zhang Tiehan can continue to perform crazy and write a legend of 2004-2005 in the second half of the schedule after Christmas. (To be continued......)