Volume 1: Male Haunts, People Pay Attention to Chapter 176: It's Really Not Light

Chapter 176: Really Not Light

The local media in Florence also paid great attention to this game.

Because this UEFA Cup is Florence's first chance to fight in Europe after returning to the Italian Football League.

In the previous season of 0506, Fiorentina would have qualified to participate in the Champions League, but that summer, the Italian Calciopoli scandal that shocked the world was exposed. Fiorentina was implicated in the relegation battle of the 0405 season because of suspected match manipulation, unfair competition and sports fraud. The final result was that Fiorentina was fined 15 points at the beginning of the 0607 season, which was the most severe penalty among the three penalized teams that were not relegated. At the same time, their hard-earned Champions League qualifications last season were also deprived.

Ironically, when the investigation results came out, Borrell, deputy director of the investigation office of the Italian Football Federation, also made it clear that in this Italian football scandal, Juventus and AC Milan need to bear the main responsibility, while Lazio and Fiorentina are relatively less responsible.

As a result, Juventus was ordered to be relegated because the guilt was too heavy to wash away. Lazio only deducted three points, and AC Milan, which was once thought to be relegated, only deducted eight points. On the contrary, Fiorentina, which is considered to be the least guilty, was deducted 15 points... At the beginning of the league, they were minus 15 points in the standings, and they were at the bottom for a long time.

This is the disadvantage of no one in court...

Because of this incident, Florence's return to the European arena was postponed.

But the Fiorentinas are tenacious. After being deducted 15 points at the beginning of the season, they ranked fifth after the end of the season in 0607, with 58 points and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Although it was a year late and the grade had been lowered, it was finally back to Europe.

The Fiorentines attach great importance to this season's UEFA Cup, which is an opportunity for them to rise again.

As for Zenit St. Petersburg, it is the biggest dark horse so far in this UEFA Cup.

This is a team from Russia, which was not taken seriously by everyone. The level of Russian football has long declined, although CSKA Moscow won a UEFA Cup in 2005. But everyone thought it was just an accident. If you really talk about the favorite to win the championship, you will definitely not be able to send it to Zenit.

Let's look at their poor performance in the group stage. If they hadn't narrowly defeated Everton in the last group stage, I'm afraid they wouldn't even be able to get out of the group stage.

But Zenit St. Petersburg, which entered the knockout stage, seemed to have changed teams collectively.

They first beat the Spanish powerhouse Villarreal 2:0 at home. Although they lost 1:2 after going to the away game, they still eliminated the Yellow Submarine with a total score of 3:2.

If this game is not enough to attract everyone's attention to him, then the next match against Marseille, a traditional Ligue 1 giant, will be a stunning blow for Zenit.

At home in Marseille, they were in desperation and were beaten 0:3. At the last moment, Chen Yingxiong stepped forward. His golden away goal kept hope for his team.

Then they returned to their home court, Zenit showed amazing energy, and they cleanly defeated the proud Frenchman 2:0. Chen Yingxiong scored twice and was the best player in that game.

Was Marseille's defeat an accident?

Many people do think so, after all, Marseille was a little proud and underestimated the enemy before the game. But Prandelli doesn't think so.

He feels that Zenit is a strong team, and he has to show the determination and fighting spirit to deal with Bayern Munich to deal with Zenit in order to ensure that there will be no accidents.

So the day before the game, the most repeated sentence he said to the players was: "Don't underestimate the enemy, even in our home court!"

Dario Dainelli, with the captain's armband, can assure God that he really did not underestimate the enemy, and neither did his teammates. The entire Fiorentina team did not underestimate the opponent in front of them.

But the opponent in front of him is celebrating a goal.

The person who celebrated the goal was Arshavin, and the person who assisted him was Chen Yingxiong.

When the goal happened just now, he and Chen Yingxiong were still entangled together, adhering to the task assigned to him by the head coach before the game - strictly guarding against Chen Yingxiong.

He did it without letting Yingxiong Chen turn around.

But who knew that Chen Yingxiong didn't turn around at all, he directly distributed the football to Arshavin who suddenly jumped in, and then Arshavin made a breakthrough but suddenly took a long shot. The football rushed into the lower right corner of the goal from 18 meters away from the goal.

In the 19th minute of the first half, Fiorentina, who were playing at home, fell behind!

This made the Fiorentina fans feel astonished, and there was a sense of "no reason" in it...

Zenit's previous offense didn't show too much threat, but Fiorentina relied on their home court advantage to play vigorously, and the cheers of the fans were louder and louder. It makes people feel emotional, as if a goal may appear at any time.

Goals did appear at any time, but the goal was not the Fiorentina that everyone likes to see, but... Zenit St. Petersburg.

They really don't underestimate the enemy...

Fiorentina captain Dainelli cried out in his heart.

They are just a little uncomfortable with Zenit's style of play and Chen Yingxiong's style of play...

Just now, the two of them collided violently as soon as they came up. Chen Yingxiong took the initiative to find Dainelli, which in itself surprised Dainelli—shouldn’t strikers usually hide from defenders? They are afraid of being entangled by the defenders, and they wish these defenders could be as far away as possible.

Why is this person coming the other way?

He didn't know, if there were no defenders to defend Chen Yingxiong at all, he still didn't know how to play.

Now he plays football to make full use of his physical advantages, so naturally he has to actively seek physical contact.

Anyway, he is poor at dribbling and poor at handling the ball. It is simply a fantasy to use his feet to shake the defender away. It is better to use his body...

Dainelli never thought that someone would play football like this, and he was not used to it at all.

Although Prandelli told them what are the characteristics of Zenit and what are the characteristics of Chen Yingxiong, but how much can they understand just by watching the video? Football is something that you have to touch in person to have a deeper impression.

Now that Dainelli has personally touched it, he finds that the No. 99 in front of him is far more impactful, stronger, and more... barbaric than he thought!

Regardless of how they fell behind, whether they underestimated the enemy or didn't adapt, Fiorentina is now behind by one goal at home.

The situation is very bad for them, they have to equalize the score as soon as possible. If the opponent gets an away goal, don't think about it, and if you think about it, you won't let the away goal disappear. What Fiorentina has to do now is to prevent the opponent from only scoring goals, and at the same time to score goals with all their strength...

After all, there is a home court advantage. After a brief panic after losing the ball, Fiorentina quickly recovered.

They began to organize their own attack.

Their football bears the obvious imprint of Latin football, paying attention to the skills of the feet and the coordination of the ground. It is very different from the current Zenit St. Petersburg that only has Chen Yingxiong.

Thanks to Chen Yingxiong, Zenit's style of play has become a bit aggressive, focusing on physical confrontation, and it feels like it has dropped ten times.

Taking advantage of their home court advantage, Fiorentina still equalized the score before the end of the first half. The man who scored was their No. 10 Adrian Mutu (adrian·mutu).

When Mutu scored a goal, Frankie Stadium finally sounded elated cheers.

The Fiorentina players were celebrating, but the Zenit players didn't feel lost or frustrated because they conceded a goal. They have already scored an away goal, which is already half of the task successfully completed.

In this game, Advocaat cautiously asked the team to be able to draw with the opponent in the away game. It would be better if they could score an away goal while drawing with the opponent.

Now an away goal has been scored and the score is also a draw. If this continues until the end of the game, it will be perfect.

But Chen Yingxiong didn't think so.

If we can win the game, why not? Seeking a draw at an away game, what if you lose the game? Like the last round of Marseille, losing 1:3 away, and then expecting to return home to pray for a miracle?

Although he is the key figure in Miracle, even he himself feels that this is too unreliable. One big reversal is okay, two big reversals are okay, three times, four times, five times... Aren't you afraid of aesthetic fatigue?

And... Too many reversals hurt character!

At such a time, you have lost your character, what should you do at the critical moment?

Chen Yingxiong thought so, and did the same.

At the beginning of the second half, he was constantly looking for opportunities to score.

Dainelli was a little uncomfortable, because this guy took the initiative to ask him to play physical confrontation every time.

In terms of body alone, I am definitely not as good as him... But I have skills and experience, why should I play with your body!

He reacted.

So in the next attack, when Chen Yingxiong still wanted to use his body to fight Dainelli, the opponent retreated. Chen Yingxiong leaned back in the air, lost his body's center of gravity, and lost the ball under his feet!

There was a burst of laughter from the stands at Frankie Stadium.

Chen Yingxiong lost a lot of face, but he didn't get angry or blushed in embarrassment, he just got up from the ground, patted his butt, shook his head, turned and ran back.

"Good job, Dario!" Dainelli's partner, Gamberini, applauded the captain.

Dainelli gave him a thumbs up back. He felt that he had found a way to deal with Chen Yingxiong.