The winner of the 1997 Toyota Cup was Fiorentina!

Winning the Toyota Cup in a row under the noses of Japanese fans and even fans all over Asia has made Fiorentina's popularity among Asian fans begin to rise wildly.

Ronaldo the Alien, Inzaghi the Forbidden Zone, Batistuta, Redondo, the Elegant Prince, Vieri the Italian Tank, and Robert Carlos, the Brazilian Heavy Artillery...... Almost every key player in Fiorentina's first team has been wildly sought after by Asian fans.

Kenyon, the general manager in charge of commercial development in Florence, is not going to let go of this great opportunity to occupy the Asian market. After all, at this time, the European football market has long been carved up by teams from various countries, and no matter how hard Fiorentina tries, it is impossible to grab more market share from the already divided sphere of influence; Africa is constrained by the local economic situation, and it does not make much profit to occupy the market there; South America is rich in football talent, and the forces are quite diverse, and Florence may be mired in a quagmire if they enter it rashly; Not to mention that part of North America, which is a soccer desert where people prefer to watch ice hockey, baseball and even brutal football to football as the number one sport in the world.

Therefore, Asia, with the largest population in the world, naturally attracted Kenyon's strong attention, especially after preemptively occupying the Japanese football market, China, which is across the sea from Japan, has also entered Kenyon's eyes, and he has listed it as one of the key markets for Florence.

By the way, Kenyon originally planned to go to South Korea to explore the way, but his idea was stopped by Zhuang Mingge before it could be implemented.

At the same time, under the construction of Zhuang Mingge, Kenyon did not choose to seek official cooperation with the Chinese Football Association in the model of developing the Japanese football market, but used the international sports brand controlled by Zhuang Mingge to sell Florence's peripheral products through the sales channels of Adidas, so as to gradually establish the image of Florence as a brand in the hearts of Chinese fans.

Florence's strategy in the Chinese market is well underway.

Without further ado, let's now talk about the winner of the best player in this Toyota Cup.

Although it was Ronaldo and Inzaghi who scored goals in the game, the two were unexpectedly denied the right to drive away from the Toyota in the post-match Player of the Match selection. With two assists in the game, Portuguese midfielder Rui Costa came out on top and walked away with a smile as the Toyota Cup MVP.

After winning the Toyota Cup for the second time in the club's history, the Fiorentina players did not make too many stops in the Far Eastern country and rushed back to Italy overnight - with a Champions League group stage and three league games to play in less than two weeks (the replay of the 11th round of Serie A was scheduled by the Football Association in the middle of the week before the 13th round against Atalanta), the pressure was not insignificant.

Fortunately, the Champions League group stage against Bayer Leverkusen was played at the Frankie Stadium five days later, otherwise the Fiorentina players would have had to rebel. After all, flying tens of thousands of kilometers back and forth to play two games in a week is quite exhausting, if both games are still away...... Hehe.

On 11 December, the tired Fiorentina players played Bayer Leverkusen at home, which was the final game of the group stage. At the same time, the result of this game will directly determine the fate of Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Liverpool in this season's Champions Cup.

Since the team had just played a Toyota Cup in Japan, thousands of miles away, five days ago, and the main players had consumed a lot of energy on the way, Capello made a large rotation in this game to ensure that the players would not be deformed due to fatigue and thus cause injuries in the game.

Looking at Bayer Leverkusen, under the temptation of hopeful participation in the Champions League rematch, Daum decisively sent all his main forces in this game, trying to take advantage of the exhaustion of Fiorentina's long trip to get a victory at the Frankie Stadium, so as to get another qualification place from the group.

However, Fiorentina's starting line-up made Daum feel cold, because Capello copied the method of the previous round against Liverpool in front of him this time - three central defenders, three midfielders, two full-backs - the strict defense at the back and a fast horse staying in the front court to be ready to counterattack quickly, such a tactic is simply clearly bullying his defenders to turn slowly!

After the start of the game, the dense defense of the Fiorentina people made the Leverkusen players quite uncomfortable, and several players in the midfield lacked the ability to break the deadlock independently with several people, so in the game, in the face of Fiorentina's concrete defense, the Leverkusen players only solved the problem by constantly hitting the goal directly in the midfield, trying to blast away the goal guarded by Toldo with long-range shots.

Although LaMelo, Nico Kovac, Kirsten and others have good long-range shooting skills, it also depends on the occasion. If they can really make a world wave under the close care of top defensive midfielders such as Di Biagio and Davies, then Bayer Leverkusen may still have a chance to win. Unfortunately, Lady Luck didn't visit Bayer Leverkusen today, so Kirsten and others' long-range shots were either wide of the goal or too angled and were saved by Toldo.

And at the same time that Bayer Leverkusen was facing the world problem of the iron bucket formation, with Dawo Suker's goal in the third minute of the opening game and Raul's brace, Real Madrid led Liverpool by three goals early at home, although the Reds who were not willing to admit defeat were pulled back by Owen and Fowler in the second half, but German left-back Ziger completely shattered the hope of the Liverpudlian reversal with a shocking long-range shot in the 87th minute, and the score was fixed at 4-2.

In the end, Champions League newcomers Bayer Leverkusen, who had nothing to do in the face of a concrete defence, drew 0-0 away at Fiorentina and unfortunately lost the chance to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League in a situation where a win would have guaranteed qualification, and Daum and his disciples paid valuable tuition fees in this game.

At the post-match press conference, when answering questions from reporters on the spot, Daum did not express his disgust at Fiorentina's extreme defensive tactics, but generously admitted that he was indeed inferior in skills, and did not expect Capello to use a bucket formation in this game.

Daum's response at the press conference won the favor of many Italian media, so he also praised Leverkusen, who was unfortunately out, saying that although he was defeated, he was still honored, and invisibly played a free club image promotion advertisement for this Champions League newcomer throughout Europe.