Volume 1: When a Hero Appears, People Pay Attention. Chapter 77: First or Second in the Group? (Second Update with Guarantee)

Chapter 77: First or second in the group? (Second update with guarantee)

After the national team match day ends, the league officially begins.

Affected by the FIFA virus, Naples was tied 0:0 by Lazio at home.

They share 21 points with Fiorentina, but due to a goal difference one less than Fiorentina, their ranking dropped to seventh.

However, there is only four points between seventh in the league and third in the league. The gap has not widened, and there is still a fight. Inter Milan established their lead from the very beginning. After thirteen rounds of the league, they topped the list with 32 points, leading Juventus in second place by a full five points.

Inter Milan, coached by Mourinho, seems to be unstoppable in Italy...

When Naples defeated Inter Milan in an away game, the Italian media thought that Mazzarri's team could wrestle with Mourinho. Who would have thought that Naples' performance in other games was not stable enough, with fluctuating results, and was eventually defeated by Inter Milan. Pulling further and further away.

Mazzarri is currently not focusing on the domestic league at all. For him, winning the league is impossible. His goal in the domestic league this season is to finish in the top four of the league and qualify for the Champions League. Winning the championship requires a long-term approach...

His focus this season is on the Champions League.

On November 24, Naples welcomed Liverpool at home.

Liverpool, which has always been proud of Anfield, experienced another terrifying home atmosphere here. In the end, after ninety minutes of fierce battle, Naples defeated Liverpool 1:0 at home.

Chen Yingxiong stopped his pace of scoring a goal in every Champions League game, which made many people breathe a sigh of relief - it would be too scary to score like this!

Although he did not score a goal, his powerful shot helped Cassano get a chance to make a supplementary shot and score a key goal.

After the game, Chen Yingxiong treated him to a treat and comforted the injured Skrtel - the Slovakian was not really injured.

This season Liverpool qualified for the Champions League. Martin Skrtel originally planned to make great achievements in the Champions League. Who would have thought that Liverpool's performance in the Champions League this season would be so bad. It is simply a shame to say it...

It is said that Liverpool's top brass is already considering a coaching change...

We still don’t know if the team will be able to participate in the Champions League next season. When thinking about these problems, Skrtel felt particularly annoyed.

When he first joined Liverpool, he originally thought he was joining a giant with a glorious tradition, but he didn't expect to realize that he had been cheated.

From the top to the bottom, this team is no longer the Red Army Liverpool of twenty years ago.

Chen Yingxiong knew that Skrtel was upset, so no one talked about football or the Champions League today. Just play with him and relax.

Finally, when Skrtel was about to return to the hotel, he patted Chen Yingxiong on the shoulder and said: "I think your group will have no problem qualifying. It just depends on whether you can emerge as the first in the group. This is very important. So in the last round, the game against Lyon is an opportunity. Even if it is an away game, try to win them! The Champions League knockout rounds and the group stage are completely two levels, and it can even be said that they are not the same event at all..."

Chen Yingxiong gave him a thumbs up: "Don't worry, Martin. Even if we encounter Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​we are not afraid!"

Skrtel punched him: "You're not so lucky. There are only two strong teams in La Liga, and you've met them both! Let's go, let's go! Anyway, I wish you good luck! Just come in case you are eliminated. Liverpool is looking for me, I will give you comfort!"

Skrtel is gone like this, and he still has to fight for the UEFA Cup this season.

In this round of the group stage, Naples defeated Liverpool at home. And what about Lyon? They encountered the same problem as Naples on the road - losing 0:2 to Zenit St. Petersburg in a snowy sky.

These two games resulted in another change in the group standings, with Lyon losing against Zenit St. Petersburg and Napoli beating Liverpool. Lyon, who originally had nine points, remained unchanged. Naples relied on defeating Liverpool to get three points and increase their points to ten. They surpassed Lyon by one point and became first in the group again!

If this continues, Naples really hopes to appear first in the group...

Zenit St. Petersburg relied on their strong home advantage to score seven points - all seven points were obtained when they were at home, winning two games and drawing with Liverpool. Now, the qualifying situation that had no suspense suddenly became full of suspense.

In the final round, if Napoli can beat Lyon, then they can be sure to qualify as the first in the group, and if Zenit St. Petersburg beats Liverpool in the examination room, they can surpass Lyon in points and rank second in the group. qualify. In this way, Lyon, who was originally in a great situation, would have to sadly play in the UEFA Cup.

Of course, this is the best result.

In fact, it will definitely not be so smooth, but no matter what the result is, Naples' qualifying for the group is already certain. They have already qualified ahead of schedule!

After the game against Liverpool, many Naples fans refused to leave. They gathered around the Sao Paulo Stadium, singing and cheering loudly to celebrate Naples' promotion to the second stage of the Champions League. Because the two games between Naples and Lyon were played at the same time, after the game in Naples, they also knew the news from St. Petersburg. Lyon lost! This means that Naples has surpassed Lyon again and risen to first place in the group, and due to the points, they have advanced one round ahead of schedule!

Before participating in the Champions League, even the most optimistic and arrogant Naples fans, how many of them thought about the present? They have thought about qualifying for the group stage, but they may not have thought about qualifying for the group stage early...

The Naples media announced this exciting news on a large page the next day.

"This is an unprecedented feat since the founding of the Naples team! We have advanced to the second stage of the Champions League! This has never been done in the Maradona era!" Even if some media said this at this time, No one cares anymore...

The fact is this, even if Maradona was there, Naples could not reach the second stage of the Champions League.

De Laurentiis also issued a statement the next day, praising the performance of the Napoli team and thanking Mazzarri for his work and players.

"...For me, this is the best Christmas and New Year gift. Now I want to enjoy this joy and joy until the draw comes out. The boys performed very well and on behalf of the Napoli fans Thank you to them and I hope they have a happy Christmas holiday..."

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Qualifying from the Champions League group early is something to be happy about, but it is not worth being happy forever. In fact, just qualifying from the group is not enough.

The team's outstanding performance in the group stage gave Mazzarri confidence. He began to plan for longer-term goals - why can't we go further in the Champions League knockout rounds?

In order to go further in the knockout rounds, you need to meet an easy opponent in the quarter-finals. This depends on the draw... and a very important factor in determining the draw result is the team's ranking in the group stage. .

One of the rules of the Champions League knockout draw is that the first place in each group cannot meet, so the top 16 matchup can only be a contest between the first place in the group and the second place in the group.

Since it is second in the group, it somewhat shows that this team is weak. Otherwise, why didn't it win the first place in the group?

The first team in the group is strong, and the strong one meets the weak one...then the chance of winning will soon be high?

Otherwise, why would those giants still pursue first place in the group?

Since we want to pursue first place in the group, the last game of the group stage is crucial - if you think it doesn't matter whether you are first or second in the group, as long as you can qualify, then Naples' last game against Lyon can be a success. .

At that time, the main players can rest, or even go to away games, to recharge their batteries and prepare for the domestic league. In the league, their ranking dropped to seventh place.

But now that we have to compete for first place in the group, we must go all out to win in this last group match. Winning away from home is a bit difficult, but it is not hopeless. Besides...even if they don't win in the end, Naples will qualify first in the group if they draw. Therefore, Mazzarri obviously has more tactical room for maneuver than Puel, and he has more options to choose from.

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Soon, everyone in the team knew that their goal in the Champions League group stage was to qualify first.

This is what Mazzarri said to everyone before training on the second day of resumption of training.

Qualifying first in the group? This is naturally what the players hope for.

They didn't have this idea at the beginning and thought it would be great to qualify from the group. But humans are always greedy. If they can qualify first in the group, who would want to qualify second in the group? Now that they have returned to the first place in the group, there is no need to accept the result of qualifying second in the group.

Since we want to focus on the Champions League, we will naturally have to give up the domestic league for the time being, at least before the final round of the game against Lyon. To prevent the main players from consuming too much energy and not being able to keep up with their physical fitness, the most important thing is to avoid injuries in qualifying.

As time goes by, the schedule is getting closer to Christmas. At this time, the weather gets colder, and the players' physical fitness begins to fail to keep up. Naturally, this is when players are most vulnerable to injuries. It must be strictly controlled during this period to prevent players from getting injured.

For this reason, in the fourteenth round of the league, when Naples challenged Parma away from home, Mazzarri started a rotation again, and it was not a rotation with minor repairs, but a major rotation that almost replaced the entire starting lineup.

With such a large rotation, of course, they tied with Parma 1:1 in the away game.

At the post-match press conference, Mazzarri explained the purpose of his rotation because he was targeting the Champions League.

"Many people say that we have accomplished our mission by qualifying from the Champions League group stage, but this is not actually the case. Because we have not yet retained the first place in the group. Yes, we want to win from this group as the first place in the group. Qualify!"

One word shocked everyone.

Those reporters didn't expect Naples' ambitions to be so big!