Volume 1: Heroes Come and Go, People Pay Attention Chapter 112 All for the Champions League (Third Update, Please Vote for Me!)

Chapter 112 All for the Champions League (Third update, please vote for me!)

As February enters, even the smell in the air changes.

The UEFA Champions League!

This began to appear frequently in major media.

On February 17, the knockout stages of the Champions League will begin in full swing. Teams will fight against each other to compete for the highest honor of European clubs - the European Champions League.

This world-renowned event actually only officially begins at this time.

After the European Champions Cup was restructured many times, it is now called the Champions League. After the number of participating teams increased, one significant change was that many teams from second- and third-rate leagues entered the group stage. This of course brings good news to those second- and third-tier league teams, giving them the opportunity to play in the Champions League and earn some appearance fees. But at the same time, the side effect was that the gold content of the group stage plummeted, while the water content soared rapidly. Many teams that fans had never heard of were shortlisted for the group stage. They had no idea that they would be in this great football event. Leave your name behind, they are just here to make fun of themselves, they just want to be defeated after playing six games. There are very few teams that enter the Champions League but desperately want to prove themselves in this competition.

Even Serie A teams like Udinese only regard the Champions League as an opportunity to drive up the value of their players and sell them at a good price, not to mention teams from the Bulgarian League, Romanian League, and Israeli League... …

Of course, it's not that many teams don't want to fight hard in the Champions League, but the price of trying hard is too high - if you fight hard to win against a strong team this time, you might be relegated by the end of the season. Well…that’s really not worth the gain.

But in any case, it is recognized that the level of viewing in the Champions League group stages has declined, and many games are simply useless. Many strong teams are unwilling to go to distant Eastern Europe to compete in early winter, so the contradiction between the giants and UEFA has never disappeared. Although g14 is dead, they have the same idea of ​​establishing a game for the giants-the European Super League. All are still there.

Today's Champions League, the real "Champions League" has to wait until the knockout stage. Almost all teams that can enter the top 16 have two brushes... Of course, Mr. Nan Guo also has it, but they usually go Not too far away...

The Champions League quarter-finals are about to start in half a month, which makes many fans become active.

There is also more attention paid to the sixteen teams participating in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Not only fans pay attention to them, but also many professionals. Even scouts from participating teams...

From each team's recent league games, we can infer the team's status, especially the status of several key players.

This is part of analyzing your opponent.

But for the opponents Naples and Real Madrid, this is not necessary at all. Real Madrid is a giant among the giants. Their games are everywhere, and the media reports on them all day long. Their players can be gossiped by the media even about the brand of clothes they wear on the street, so there is no need for Naples to send players. Go to Spain to observe the opponent's recent status.

And what about Real Madrid? They obviously don't need to know what Naples is like.

Everyone understands that whether Real Madrid can break the eight-year curse depends entirely on themselves. It can even be said that whether they can win the tenth Champions League trophy in the club's history depends entirely on themselves. In this world, as long as they are serious and perform normally, there is almost no team that can beat them.

But this is nonsense...meaningless.

Because in the past few years, Real Madrid has not been normal! Judging from this season, their chances of being normal are also very small...

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After entering February, not only fans and media are focusing on the Champions League, but even the players themselves seem a little absent-minded.

Their absent-mindedness was reflected in the fact that Naples, who played with all their main players, lost to Udinese 1:3 in the away game.

Even Chen Yingxiong was out of form in this game.

The commentator can understand the absent-mindedness of the Naples team: "It can be seen that the Naples players are already thinking about the Champions League quarter-finals, even though they are still ten days away from the game..."

Therefore, the Naples players who lost the game did not feel frustrated or sad. If they lost, they lost. It didn't matter if they fell from third in the league to fourth in the league.

Even Mazzarri expressed his understanding of the players' performance at the post-match press conference.

"...Players want the Champions League? This is normal, and I don't think this is a bad thing. Because it shows that our players have enough motivation and fighting spirit, and they are not intimidated by the names of our opponents..."

Don't think that Mazzarri is just wiping the players' poor performance in front of the media.

In fact, Mazzarri has known this for a long time - he is the head coach of the team, how could he not know the internal trends of the team?

Even the result of losing to Udinese, he had already been mentally prepared.

The temporary strategy of giving up the domestic league is simply his arrangement.

So when the team lost to Udinese, he certainly wouldn't have any surprise or angry thoughts.

Ten days until the Champions League? so what? Naples' opponent is Real Madrid... no, to put it further, maybe the entire UEFA.

So it is completely normal to start preparing for these two quarter-finals more than ten days in advance, and Mazzarri doesn't think there is anything wrong.

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On February 14th, in the 24th round of Serie A, Naples continued their away trip. As a result, they drew with Siena 0:0 in the away game, and Siena is currently ranked 20th in the league. There are a total of 20 teams in Serie A, which means Siena is currently ranked last...

It is far from the time for a relegation battle, and Siena still has a chance to make a comeback. Therefore, Naples was able to be tied by Siena in the away game, which was really intentional.

Three days later, the team will play against Real Madrid.

According to the schedule, they have to go to the away game first.

Naples will go to the Bernabeu Stadium, the temple of football, to challenge the dominance there.

Although Mazzarri continued to instill propaganda into the players at the beginning of the season, telling them that the real Naples should be the kind of team that "has no fear of heaven and earth and walks sideways in Europe", the spirit is one thing, and the actual advantages are another. Code thing.

In terms of strength, Naples is really not comparable to Real Madrid. Their annual financial budget is several times that of Naples. To take the simplest example, the annual salary of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is almost equal to the annual salary budget of the Naples team...

In terms of strength, Naples is weaker than Real Madrid, but this is definitely not a reason to admit defeat in advance.

Since you are determined to compete with Real Madrid, you must be fully prepared.

Naples is not Real Madrid, so it cannot be "based on me". Of course, it must study its opponents. It’s normal to start preparations half a month in advance.

Anyway, the team's current ranking situation is not bad, and it has always been in the first team of the league. Giving up the league for the time being, Mazzarri is confident that he will catch up later and at least retain a spot in the European competition.

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After failing to win in two consecutive games, the Italian media also knew that Naples was really preparing for the game against Real Madrid.

After all, the opponent is too strong, so it is normal to start preparations two games in advance.

Next, Naples has to go to the Bernabeu Stadium to challenge the powerful Real Madrid.

That white giant is not a team of the same level as them at all...

After the match against Siena, the entire Naples team flew to Madrid to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Real Madrid in midweek.

"We can only wish them good luck, because their opponents are so powerful and suffocating - Pellegrini's Real Madrid has currently scored 53 goals in the 22nd league round, and is tied with Barcelona for the most offensive power in La Liga. team. This number of goals also makes them proud of the entire European football. And Naples' defense has always been a shortcoming. Although during the winter break, the team introduced former Italy No. 2 national goalkeeper De Sanctis , but facing Real Madrid, whether it can withstand it is still very worrying..."

When Naples set off, some local media in Naples said so with concern.

In the eyes of many people, this signing basically announced the end of Naples' journey back to the Champions League after 18 years.

Napoli's chances of beating Real Madrid are too slim.

Now they can only hope that Napoli can behave like a man at the Bernabeu and lose without losing...

In any case, we are also Maradona's team. How could the team of a man with such an unruly character bow to the powerful? Not to mention that Maradona once played for Barcelona and was a mortal enemy of Real Madrid.

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"Santiago Bernabeu!" On the plane to Madrid, many players were very excited to go to the Bernabeu to play, especially Hamsik. He once expressed his yearning for Real Madrid when chatting with Chen Yingxiong in private, saying that if he had the opportunity to go to a wealthy club in the future, his first choice would definitely be Real Madrid.

Compared with the excited teammates, Cassano's performance was relatively dull. First of all, he has played many games at the Bernabeu because he was a Real Madrid player before. Secondly, his career in Real Madrid can be described as "terrible", so he has no deep feelings for this team or this stadium.

Before getting on the plane, a reporter asked him if he had any special feelings about going to the Bernabeu. The reporter suggested that he could say something like "a wanderer returning home" and "returning home in fine clothes". As a result, Cassano said with a cold face: " It's just a normal Champions League game."

The reporter, who had prepared a lot of things, choked on all the next questions...

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ps, double the *** period, work hard to update, and work hard for ***~ There will still be three updates tomorrow, until the 5th!