Fiorentina didn't have time to rest after beating Messina, and the Champions League clash with Panathinaikos in midweek touched everyone's hearts.

This is the first time in five years that Fiorentina have played on two fronts in two top-flight competitions, and although the opponent is the weakest of the three group stage opponents, I am afraid Panathinaikos will think the same, after all, Fiorentina have not appeared in the Champions League for many years, and even at the peak of Serie A's so-called seven sisters, Fiorentina have never reached the quarter-finals.

Panathinaikos, on the other hand, is one of the most successful teams in Greek history, with 18 domestic league titles and 16 Greek cup titles. Although both of these statistics are not as good as those of arch-rivals Olympiacos, the club's European record is better than that of its rivals. In 1971, Panathinaikos reached the final of the European Champions League, losing 0 to Ajax FC and was the only Greek team to have reached the final of a European competition. They have since reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League twice

What makes Fiorentina even more unsettling is that Panathinaikos' head coach Malaisani is Italian, and he is familiar with Italian players as well as Italian tactics. And in the UUUUl season of the Champions Cup, Marceleni's Panathinaikos encountered Juventus, but the Greeks scored away and eliminated the Old Lady at home.

Against such a team, Fiorentina simply have no right to be arrogant, even if Fiorentina are above Panathinaikos and behind Barcelona and Bremen in the Champions League group stage odds.

Ahead of the first match of the group stage, club owner Della Valle encouraged his coaches and players on the club's website: "There are no easy opponents in the Champions Cup, but we beat Sporting Lisbon in qualifying and I think we can draw with the Germans and the Greeks. I don't think they're much better than the Portuguese, I have a lot of confidence in the team, in the coach. ”

Fiorentina manager Prandelli is much more cautious than his boss, saying as a guest on the TV show "Politics in Football": "The series of major tournaments this month has not and will not intimidate us, we will give our best in the Champions League." The level of the teams is unique, and there is a special excitement to play against Barcelona, the world's best team. The remaining two teams, Panathinaikos and Bremen, are also strong, but we will fight. We are in a time of excitement and will earn the respect of all. ”

Prandelli's prudence and steadiness are normal, although he has never played in the Champions League, but he knows how difficult the Champions League is, which is a notch higher than the league and the League Cup.

Prandelli is a passionate coach, but he's also an Italian coach and he doesn't focus all his energy on attacking like Dutch coaches and Spanish coaches. As he often said, "There is no contradiction between looking good and focusing on defense, all teams must pay attention to defense, and this is the same as building a house, no one starts with the roof." ”

Therefore, after the end of the league, Prandelli's players mainly trained the defensive counterattack play, the 45L formation and the 44 formation in the first leg became the focus of training, and the 433 attacking lineup was an alternative to prepare for the team's backward counterattack.

Regarding the cautious attitude and tactics of the coaching staff, Fiorentina's players have no objection except for Bodinov and Di Natale, because whether it is 44 or 45I Tony will definitely be able to find his place, Tony, who scored two goals in two games, is now second only to Chen Yu, and Chen Yu is an all-round warrior, not to mention that 45I is 370 Chen Yu will also start, but in this way, Bodinov and Di Natale have no place

Whether it's cup or league games, Di Natale has a lot of playing time, and there is no conflict between him and manager Prandelli, but he wants to have a chance to play on the big stage of the Champions League.

In an interview with the media, Di Natale said implicitly: "At least on paper, Panathinaikos is the weakest of our three opponents, and if we still want to qualify, beating Panathinaikos is almost a certainty, and I think we should play a little more aggressively." ”

And Bodinov became a media celebrity because of the contradiction with Prandelli, but under the guidance of his agent, Bodinov did not dare to expand the contradiction with Prandelli, when it came to whether he would play in the Champions League, the Bulgarian seemed very frustrated, he said: "The Champions League is very important for anyone, I would love to play, my body is also in the best condition, but whether I can play depends on the attitude of the coach, we are third in Serie A, I don't think we are worse than Bremen and Panathinaikos, If we play at our level, we should qualify together with Barcelona and I think the first game is very important because if we can win it will be a huge morale boost, and if we lose, it will be very bad for us.

Of course, the Italian media is more concerned about Milan and Juventus, thinking that they are the backbone of fighting for the face of Serie A, Fiorentina is just playing soy sauce, but the Italian media did not ignore Fiorentina, and gave them advice, thinking that Fiorentina faced the weakest opponent in the first home game, if they can't win, I'm afraid Fiorentina will have no chance to qualify, they should go all out to win Panathinaikos, it is best to get all three points in the game with the Greeks, and give up the two games with Barcelona, and Bremen fight to the death, so that it is possible to get the right to qualify at the end.

As the heart and captain of Fiorentina, Chen Yu's form will determine the outcome of this Champions League match, and Chen Yu has also received more attention from fans, journalists and opponents before the game.

In an interview with Milan Sport, Chen Yu supported coach Prandelli's cautious tactics, but also expressed confidence in victory.

"There is no doubt that Barcelona is number one, they have this quality, the remaining three teams, I think the quality is equal, no one is sure of winning, a lot of times, the victory or defeat depends on some details or accidents, our match with Panathinaikos was played at the Frankie Stadium, which is an advantage for us, the cheering of the fans will motivate us, Panathinaikos also has their own advantages, their manager is Italian, we are definitely more familiar with us than we are with them. But after last season's league and Coppa Italia tests, I think we have the confidence to beat everything, whether it's Bremen or Panathinaikos. ”

The day before the game, Panathinaikos arrived in Fiorentina, and at the beginning of the game, Panathinaikos coach Masaleni sighed, "It's definitely not the same feeling to go back to Italy to play, especially with a strong team like Fiorentina, I swear, Fiorentina is not below Barcelona, they are actually the second favorite to qualify, Prandelli is one of my favorite coaches, he coaches teams that always play well and can achieve good results."

Chen Yu is definitely the striker who has the most headache for me, in my memory, no one is more difficult to deal with, maybe he is not as good as Ronaldo to break through, not as fast as Martins, not as strong as Vieri, but he is weird because he can be all of the above, he is a devil, and we have to put shackles and handcuffs on him in this game so that we can win.

For us, the biggest difficulty is not the opponent, but we have too many injuries, the core of the midfield Conceikao and striker Oli Sadebe have accumulated five yellow cards and are suspended, and the main goalkeeper Papadopoulos is still injured, they are not able to come to the away game, which is our biggest loss, but we will try to overcome the difficulties and try to get a satisfactory result. ”

"This is the first game of the group stage, we are missing three absolute players, and the opponents are strong and well-organized, from Champions League qualification to Coppa Italia to Serie A, they have won them all, and on the road, I think a draw is acceptable, of course, I believe they can surprise the fans a little bit, we have the quality." ”

The Panathinaikos team took this game very seriously, they took a little break in the morning and carried out adaptive training, Fiorentina scouts watched the training of the Greek team and recorded it, Prandelli and the coaching staff watched the training video of Panathinaikos, they fell silent, although they were cautious before, but because the opponent lacked three absolute main players, Prandelli was still very optimistic about beating Panathinaikos, but now they dare not be optimistic, because the opponent's cooperation is very skillful, the overall defense, especially the excellent air defense, striker Dimitrios is in great shape, scored three goals in the confrontation game, such a team, in fact, depends on the whole, the lack of a few main forces does not have a big impact on the strength, if they want to play defensive counterattack, Fiorentina wants to win is not easy, think about the Greek team in the 04 Euro Cup, you can understand, if you can't attack, you are likely to be attacked by the opponent.

In the evening, Fiorentina held a pre-match tactical meeting again, analyzing the opponent and discussing the tactical play of tomorrow's game, after a heated discussion, Fiorentina made moderate modifications to the tactics previously formulated, Fiore retreated to two backs Donader and Brocki before, Chen Yu retreated to tomorrow's starting strikers Tony and Di Natale after that, from 44 to 43, to strengthen Chen Yu's mobility, Tony as a cover, Di Natale and Chen Yu to make a fatal blow.

After the meeting, the players and coaches watched the first four groups to kick off.

Because the opponent in the same group is Barcelona, the Fiorentina players naturally chose the big game between Real Madrid and Lyon.

Before the start of the game, Fiorentina's players thought Real Madrid were unbeaten away, but the result was a big surprise, and Lyon won the Champions League 9 with ease, 3-0 at home.

And in the other few games, most of the giant teams also played very hard, Inter Milan faced the first time to play the Champions League belly Bratislava is only l:UJ, Liverpool is a difficult L reversal of Real Betis when they are one goal behind, Chelsea played Anderlecht is also a small victory, only AC Milan relied on Kaka's magical play, 3:l beat Turkey's Fenerbahce. The non-mainstream teams played well, with PSV Eindhoven beating Schalke 04 l:0, Glasgow Rangers beating Porto 3:and Rosenborg beating Olympiacos 3:l.

Seeing the weak team and the fish belly play so well on the first match day, playing the giants embarrassed, this made Fiorentina feel a lot of confidence, and they all thought that even against Barcelona, they could not give up, if the opponent was not in good shape, maybe they could still get a point or two, but the counterattack of the weak team on the first match day also made Fiorentina frightened, and secretly prepared to play a hard game with Panathinaikos.