On the bus ride to Highbury Stadium, the Fiorentina players once again felt the madness of the English fans.

As the match between Fiorentina and Arsenal is about to begin, the shops on both sides of the street leading to Highbury are plastered with "cannons" symbolizing the Arsenal club, and the road is full of fans in Arsenal shirts, from old people in their seventies and eighties to children in their arms, waving flags and banners, painting oil paint on their faces, and singing Arsenal's team song, turning most of London into a sea of football.

To the surprise of the Fiorentina players, they still had a large number of fans in the Gunners' home base, and when they were about to reach Highbury, there were about 2,000 fans in purple jerseys blocking the slow-moving bus, but it was only recently that they realized that most of them were Asians, with only a very small number of whites.

"Chen Yu! Chen Yu! ”

"We want to see Chen Yu!"

The Asians gathered around the bus and chanted to see Fiorentina's number one player, Chen Yu.

Head coach Prandley looked at the time, then at the fans outside the car, and said to Chen Yu: "Give you five minutes, you go and meet them." ”

When Chen Yu saw the familiar yellow skin and black hair, he knew who these fans were coming for, he nodded and said, "Okay, Coach Xie Xie." ”

Chen Yu opened the door of the bus and walked down, and suddenly there were enthusiastic cheers outside the bus, obviously the fans did not expect that Chen Yu would get off the bus in person to meet them.

"Hello everyone, thank you for your support to me, due to time constraints, I only have five minutes to communicate with you, please hurry up if you have anything to say."

As soon as Chen Yu finished speaking, an old Chinese fan wearing a No. 10 jersey stood up, his face was excited, and he seemed to have returned to his youth when he played football, "Chen Yu, I am Cheng Lin, the honorary president of the British Chinese Fans Association, welcome to London to play, I hope you can beat Arsenal, advance to the Champions League final, and win glory for the Chinese, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese in the UK are your strong backing." ”

Cheng Lin's voice did not fall, and then another thick voice shouted: "The billions of Chinese on our continent are also your strong backing, Chen Yu, it will be up to you tonight." Paris is where you go. ”

Chen Yu was very moved and very excited, he said loudly: "Xie Lu thank you for your encouragement, although our strength is not as good as Arsenal, but we will definitely fight hard, winning the game is not all about strength, but also on unity, courage, tactics and luck, I believe we will definitely enter Paris." ”

Chen Yu's words led to a burst of applause, and then a teenage Chinese girl held a large bouquet of flowers to Chen Yu and suddenly kissed Chen Yu on the face.

Chen Yu held the flowers and touched the cheek of the kiss, with a look of surprise.

The reporters mixed with the fans were quick to shoot, and they had already snapped Chen Yu's cute look, and I believe that on the Internet and the media the next day, this little girl will definitely be envied by the fans for a long time.

The closer they got to Highbury, the more fans there were, and the Fiorentina fans also became more numerous, many of them followed the bus to ask for autographs, and there were occasional clashes between the fans on both sides, which made it difficult for the Florentine bus to go, and by the time they arrived at Highbury, it was already 6:20 p.m.

Highbury Stadium, the home stadium of Arsenal FC, will complete its mission in a month's time and become a commercial precinct.

Highbury Stadium used to be the venue for St John's University Theological Seminary, and Arsenal president Norris decided to relocate to Highbury in order to revive the Gunners' economy and attract more fans, and despite strong opposition from locals and other north London clubs, Arsenal managed to establish a foothold here.

The highest attendance in Highbury's history once reached 73,295, but after two world wars and more than 80 years of ups and downs, and several renovations, the current Highbury Stadium can only accommodate 38,500 spectators, which belongs to the relatively "pocket" category in European football.

After getting off the bus and entering the dressing room, the Fiorentina players found that Highbury Stadium was only a little more famous, and the dressing room was actually not as simple as the dressing room at their Frankie Stadium, and even less luxurious than the dressing room of some relegation teams in Serie A.

The shower room is only more than 20 square meters, and the arrangement of the shower head is also very crowded; There are only 4 squatting positions in the adjacent bathroom, and there is no shelter between them; In the dressing room next door, there are only rudimentary wooden wardrobes and stools.

"That's where they played?"

Pacini couldn't help but sneer.

'It's not them, it's us who played here, and I've heard there's a world of difference between Arsenal's home dressing room and the visitors. Assistant Coach Gabriel. Flat road.

“…… Let's take a look at the home team's dressing room, as if Arsenal haven't arrived yet. ”

Pazzini's opinion was echoed by all the players, and before manager Prandelli could make his say, the players rushed to the next door.

Fiorentina players were lucky enough to have the home dressing room unlocked.

The home team's dressing room at Highbury Stadium has clearly undergone a careful makeover, with a floor of the dressing room laid with a geothermal system that allows for free temperature adjustment to maintain indoor temperatures; The place where sports equipment such as jerseys and shoes are placed is also quite reasonable, so that players can feel their own position even if they close their eyes; Each position is also fitted with leather sofa cushions.

In addition, the home team's dressing room is equipped with fresh food, fruit and drinks, and the neatly arranged leisure books and CD players can help the players better engage in the game after relaxing. At the same time, the changing room is equipped with a massage treatment room with 8 treatment beds, a huge spa room with not only a jacuzzi pool, but also a comfortable shower room.

Compared to the Frankie Stadium, which is still owned by the city of Fiorentina, the Highbury Stadium, which is fully owned by the club, has clearly been transformed by the Arsenal people to be more humane, and the dressing room is full of humanity. The Fiorentina dressing room, located at the Stadio Franky, was still used as a match headquarters.

"! The treatment of the home and away teams is too bad! ”

"Nima, it's just abusing the away team."

"It's so inhumane."

Fiorentina's players saw the home team's dressing room so luxurious, and they all complained indignantly when they returned to the away team's dressing room. In this case, he smiled: "The away team's dressing room will always be only for the away team, and people will definitely not give you a better configuration." ”

Gabriel. Ping said: "That's it, let you live comfortably and beat them, Wenger is not stupid." ”

Prandelli said: "We're here to play, not to enjoy, don't treat this as a five-star hotel, okay, let's not think about it anymore, it's impossible to change dressing rooms with Arsenal anyway, now let's repeat the tactical deployment, and then go out to warm up." ”

For such an important game, the team's tactical arrangements have already been worked out, but the selection of the starting team was finalized at the time of departure, and the players are familiar with the team's overall tactics and their own personal responsibilities in the tactical system, and now Prandelli's reiteration is just emphasis.

Prandelli explained the tactics, and then the players changed into their training clothes and headed out for their first warm-up activities.

The most artistic of all is the East Stand at Highbury, which houses office and player facilities and the famous marble corridor. It cost £130,000 to build 8,000 seats. In the marble corridor erected Helbot? Chapman's bronze bust, Arsenal's legendary manager, who died in 1934, can still be seen today.

John and Linfee had just walked into the East Stand when they heard a deafening cheer, which surprised Linfee, who barely watched the game, "Has the game started?" ”

John said: "No, it's still early, this is the players coming out to warm up, if the game starts, the momentum will be much bigger than now." ”

Looking at the emotional Arsenal fans and Fiorentina fans around him, it is really a little difficult to understand Linfee, who doesn't know much about English football, hasn't the game started yet? Why are these England fans so excited? It's a complete over-energy performance - look at the Arsenal players on the pitch who are warming up before the game, doing the most ordinary half-time running lap exercises, which can make them excited?!

John had been paying attention to Linfee, and he saw Linfee's doubts, and said, "Do you think the fans should honestly wait before the game, or do something else?" ”

"yes, I always thought that the fans would only be so enthusiastic at the beginning of the game, but these English fans seem to have some ......"

"It's a little too fanatical, isn't it? We British fans are much more fanatical than you Chinese fans? Because today's young fans, they prefer to chase stars, obsessed with superstars like Henry and Yu Chen, rather than watching football itself. ”

It's Yu Chen again!

Linfee's heart was both a little curious and a little timid: "Which one is Yu Chen?" “

"Yu Chen, it's the Florentina number 10, the one who wears the number 10 purple jersey, ah, he's running over, you see ......"

Linfee looked intently and saw a muscular black-haired and yellow-skinned player running towards her, not as she was familiar with, and she didn't see his face clearly because the player was jogging with his head down.

Fiorentina and Arsenal warmed up at both ends of the pitch, because it was just moving their bodies, catching circles, passing the ball, and it was impossible to practice the tactics prepared before the game.

When Fiorentina made a mistake with a long pass to Chen Yu, Chen Yu strode to the direction of the stands to chase the ball, and got close to the stands, and suddenly the Arsenal fans in the stands began to boo, while the Fiorentina fans applauded enthusiastically, and many girls shouted "Chen Yu, I love you." ”

Chen Yu has been famous for two years, and it is commonplace for such a scene of enthusiasm and even more crazy than this, this situation did not make him have any psychological fluctuations, but when he got the ball at the billboard and was about to go back, it seemed that there was a consciousness in the dark that drove him to look for something, and at this time Chen Yu looked up at the brightly lit stands.

"Is it him?!"

"Is that her?!"

Chen Yu and Linfee were stunned.

It was almost impossible to see a person he was familiar with in the crowd, but Chen Yu saw it, and glanced at Linfee.