Chapter 586: Facing the Old Club

It didn't take long for Arsenal to put the game against Manchester City on the back burner as they faced even greater challenges ahead.

In midweek of 16 September, the first round of the UEFA Champions League will begin. This is a top priority for defending champions Arsenal, and this time against a strong opponent - Serie A giants Juventus!

This is a focus battle, and the biggest attraction is that Li Zihan faces his old club Juventus.

In an interview with the press before the game, Li Zihan said: "I didn't expect to play Juventus so soon, but as a professional player I think I was ready. Juventus are a great team, they are very strong. So even though we're at home we have to be careful, it's going to be a very tough game and we have to stick together. ”

"Juventus still has a lot of friends in it, I want to treat everyone to a meal, I know a very popular restaurant, I have already booked a place" Li Zihan suddenly changed his words: "But this is after the game, we are still opponents at the time of the game, I will do my best, I think those friends are the same." They are very professional players, but the encounters on the pitch don't affect our relationship. ”

Li Zihan told Juventus that it was impossible for him to release water in this game, and at the same time, it was impossible for Juventus to release water

Pogba, a former Juventus player like Li Zihan, also said: "I am very grateful to Juventus for giving me the opportunity, as Lee said, after the game I will also invite everyone to dinner and talk about the topics we usually talk about, but on the pitch we will do our best"

And Juventus defensive stalwart Bonucci said with some headaches in an interview with the media: "To be honest, I really don't want to face Lee. He's so 'cunning' that a lot of times you can't tell if he's doing a real move or a fake move, and he's just slippery like a loach, and it's hard to catch him and defend him. Bonucci himself laughed at this.

And the world-class Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon also believes: "Lee is the kind of top striker, he has a very keen sense of smell in front of goal, he can always find those opportunities that most people can't find, in fact, he can create these opportunities even if he doesn't look for them." As soon as he stepped in front of goal, he felt the pressure as a goalkeeper."

There is no deep grudge between Arsenal and Juventus, except for the two seasons in a row to dig up Li Zihan and Pogba, the two young twin stars, but this is business, one is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer, if Juventus is not willing to buy people, Arsenal can't buy people.

Therefore, the two teams did not have a particularly big smell of gunpowder before the game, but more compliments on each other, which at first glance looked like a "character accumulation" competition

And Juventus fans have mixed feelings for Li Zihan, from disliking him at the beginning, to falling in love with him in the end, and then to abandoning Juventus and Li Zihan lobbied from it this season to let Pogba join Arsenal.

A Juventus fan who spoke to the English media expressed their struggle: "Lee was not welcome when he first came to the Alps, and to be honest, we were very unhappy with the fact that a guy who had just joined the team and didn't even know what he was doing before was suddenly in the first team, especially when we finally learned that he didn't even have systematic training on the right track, it was like he came out of nowhere, and we didn't understand Antonio [Conte's] decision. ”

But soon this notion was shattered, as Lee won everyone's hearts with his abilities and expressions. By the middle of the season, we thought he would be the heir to the old lady's great number 10 shirt, a striker like Baggio, Trezeguet and Piero. ”

In the end, we didn't expect him to leave after only one season at the Juventus Stadium, so short that we didn't know the young man from the mysterious East. The philistine merchants of Marotta sold Piero's successor for such a pitiful 20 million euros, and now we have to face this terrible weapon of our own making!! ”

The next day, "Juventus is going to face the nuclear weapons they have created!" Such headlines appeared on the front lines of major newspapers.

The biggest headache is with Juventus' general manager Giuseppe Marotta, who sold Li Zihan and Pogba to Arsenal in succession, but he didn't expect Arsenal to meet Juventus in the group so soon. You know, it was for the sale of these two that he even fell out with Conte, who was the hero of Juventus' revival, and finally the two broke up, Conte went to the national team to take charge of the coach of the Azzurri, while the Bianconeri hired former AC Milan manager Allegri

Since the players on both sides are so amiable, there is certainly no need for the two managers to compete against each other, and even the pre-match press conference is very formulaic.

Arsenal's group is not under great pressure to qualify, although the Belgian giants Anderlecht are one of the three giants in the domestic league, but their strength and fame are not worth mentioning in the European arena, they are almost here to play soy sauce

As for the Turkish giants Galasatare, the same reason as Anderlecht. But in terms of fame and strength, it is much stronger than Anderlecht, but that's about it. Perhaps the biggest threat in the squad as a whole is their midfield brain, Dutch striker Sneijder, and then Turkey's strong home environment.

And Galassataree miraculously eliminated Juventus last season, so that the Serie A giants can only be unwilling to play in the League Cup, so this season Juventus is definitely revenge, and Galaszatare must be more careful in the face of Galasatare.

All in all, Arsenal and Juventus have almost locked up their place in the group from this group, and the only suspense is who is the first in the group and who is second in the group.

Therefore, there is no need for the two teams to act like enemies of life and death.

Wenger naturally did not dare to be careless against the strongest opponent in the entire group, and he faced it with all his strength, and the same was true for Allegri's Juventus.

Although the atmosphere before the game was not intense, they were not ambiguous about the starting line-up.

"Welcome to the Emirates Stadium, the 2014-2015 Champions League group stage match brought to you by Sky Sports. This match is the first round of Group D, and the Premier League giants Arsenal will host the Serie A overlord Juventus! Herhouse said.

As a famous football commentator for Sky Sports, it is already a well-known fact that German Herhaus is a fan of Li Zihan. In China, many fans said that Hullhouse often commented on Arsenal's games last season, does it indicate that Hevedes is going to join Arsenal? Hurhouse, Hevedes was stupid and couldn't tell the difference.

This is also the last season for Sky Sports to broadcast the Champions League, as they lost a new bid after the same period expired with UEFA and they were not offered a contract extension.

Instead, BT won the broadcast rights for the next three years (2015-2018) for more than nine billion pounds and nearly one billion pounds, which is nearly three times higher than the price offered by Sky Sports.

In the face of such a red fruit money offensive, UEFA knelt without the slightest restraint

So at the beginning of next season, if Sky Sports wants to broadcast the Champions League or Europa League, they will have to spend a lot of money to buy the rights to BT, of course, if they agree to give him a piece of the pie

"Now the two sides are still warming up, and the game can start with a stormy battle, so let's introduce the starting line-ups of both sides now, so that we don't have a chance at the time." Zhan Jun said.

Zhan Jun did not give a regular commentary to Sina Sports this season, and the broadcast rights of the Premier League in Chinese mainland belong to Xinying Sports. At the beginning of this season, Xinying Sports began to charge for Premier League matches, and Tongguò weighed all aspects of Xinying Sports to make concessions, taking out three games per round as free broadcasts, and other games will be broadcast for a fee.

So Zhan Juntong guò said on his own Weibo that he will not be a commentator for the media that pays, so if the media does not charge fans and spectators, he will do that game for that one.

For example, at the beginning of this season, Zhan Jun has already worked as a commentator for PPTV and Sina Sports, and although the broadcast rights of Chinese mainland in the Champions League belong to CCTV, CCTV still gives the qualification of online media broadcasting, but it is not distributed to local TV stations.

So in this game, Zhan Jun sat in the broadcast studio of Sina Sports to explain it for everyone.

"First up front is the home team, Arsenal, and up front is England's homegrown striker Harry Kane, who scored against Manchester City in the last round of the league, Kane is only 21 years old. Probably considering Juventus' three central defenders, Arsene Wenger sent the inexperienced youngster to stand up to Juventus' back line in such an important game, and then give the players behind him more chances. It was supposed to be the task of the French striker Olivier Giroud, but the sad Giroud was injured before the season even began.