Chapter 43: Champions League season begins

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In addition to Hu Lai's stunning goal in the game, there is still a lot of discussion in the media about the Madrid Pirates' 3:2 home victory over Catalan United.
The main focus is on what this game really means for both teams.
On the face of it, the Madrid Pirates won. However, many experts and reporters believe that the Catalan United won.
First of all, from the point of view of the score in this game, the Madrid Pirates only beat the Catalan United by a single goal.
Secondly, from the perspective of the game process, the victory of the Madrid Pirates can only be called a "close victory".
It is obvious that the Madrid Pirates are not as dominant as they were last season when facing the Catalan United.
In the first two seasons, except for the 0:0 game, the remaining three encounters were 4:1, 4:1 and 5:3.
Not to mention the process, just looking at these scores can let people know how easy it is for the Madrid Pirates to beat the Catalan United.
Actually it does.
So although the Madrid Pirates still won this game, many people feel that what Catalan United showed in this game is a very positive signal.
It shows that the Catalan United, which has changed its head coach this season, has indeed improved significantly compared to before.
Nor was it a bluff or a losing scene that Riley Vicente said after the game.
A well-formed Catalan United can indeed threaten the Madrid Pirates.
There are also the King of Madrid and Meli Banega, who are currently in good shape. The competition for the La Liga title this season will definitely be more intense than the previous two seasons.
However, the league is not too important now. After all, the league is a long marathon, and the results of one or two games may not determine the final result. It's too early to say who will win the league and who won't.
Now the most important game in front of the three Western Super League giants is the Champions League.
Who is more important, the league title or the Champions League title, let them say for themselves, that must be both.
But in the minds of many people, the Champions League is still more valuable than the league title.
Because the Champions League championship is competing with the top giants in Europe, the league championship... In fact, they are all entangled with those two old opponents, which is really a bit of aesthetic fatigue.
It is definitely less difficult for the giants of the Western Super League to win the league title than to win the Champions League.
So which champion is more important is self-evident.
After the third round of the league, the Champions League group stage of the new season officially begins.
The Sevilla Navigators, Madrid Pirates and Catalan United, who are located in the upper half of the Champions League, will be the first to appear.
The Sevilla Navigators were the champions of the Europa League last season and became the seeded team for this season's Champions League group stage.
They will face Turkey giant Mehidia at home in the first round of the group stage.
There is also a game in the same group that Chinese fans are very concerned about, that is, Amsterdam Athletic vs. Borg Athletic, the fourth-tier team in this group.
It's just that the Chinese fans are slightly in a dilemma. This game conflicts with the match time of the Madrid Pirates - the match time of the Madrid Pirates away to the Lyon Lions is the same as the game time of the Amsterdam Athletic.
All kick off at 2:45am on Wednesday, September 19th, China domestic time.
The domestic broadcast agency CCTV responded that the match between the Madrid Pirates and the Lyon Lions was arranged to be broadcast live on the free sports channel, while the match between Atlético Amsterdam and Borg Athletic was placed on the paid Fengyun football channel.
Which game attracts more attention is more important in the minds of Chinese fans, and it is clear at a glance.
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In this season's Champions League group stage, the group that the Madrid Pirates are in is called the "Group of Death". In this group, apart from the Madrid Pirates themselves, the remaining three teams are all strong in their respective leagues.
I won't talk about it because of Soubly. Last season, he fought with the Turin Bulls to the last moment and finally finished runner-up.
The Lyon Lions were also the Ligue 1 runners-up last season.
That is, Wissedov is a little bit worse, but it is also a strong team in the Bundesliga.
As the defending champions, the Madrid Pirates can't say they can easily qualify from this group.
If they are too proud and underestimate the enemy, they may overturn in this group, and the probability is not small.
Many things in the football world are difficult to explain with a simple "comparison of strengths".
Last season, the gods descended on a team, the gods blocked the gods, the Buddha blocked the Buddha, and no one could stop it. After winning all the championships that can be won, it is very likely that it will suddenly wither in the next new season.
After all, a team is made up of twenty or thirty people, and there are as many as 11 people in the game. If you add a substitute, the number will be even more.
People are the most unstable factor in the world.
As long as the game of football is still played by humans, it will be full of surprises that are difficult to explain scientifically.
This is also the charm of football.
Uncertainty and suspense are the most important reasons for so many teams to strive for championships.
Otherwise, it only depends on the strength and experience on paper
If the performance of the previous data shows, then directly award the championship trophy to the strongest team.
In reality, the defending champions often do not perform as well as last season.
In the Champions League and World Cup, there are often examples of defending champions falling into the sand, and it is not uncommon.
Not to mention the World Cup. For a while, "the defending champion can't make it out of the group stage" has become a curse...
After the reform of the Champions League, so many years have passed, and no team has successfully defended the title.
If there are four years between each World Cup, the lineup of the team has changed, and the state of the players is difficult to maintain the same in four years.
What about the Champions League?
The Champions League is there every season.
Shouldn't it be a continuation of the excellent state of the previous season, a new season, and persistent efforts to defend the title successfully?
But the fact is that no matter how good the performance of the team that won the championship last season, how amazing the results are, it will not be able to successfully defend the title.
The most recent example is the King of Madrid last season.
They beat Stan Park Rangers last season to win the Champions League.
They also performed well last season, reaching the Champions League final.
But in the final, they met Hu Lai, who was in great shape, and was almost defeated by Hu Lai alone.
In hindsight, the defeat of this game was really "metaphysical".
After all, who would have thought that after the King of Madrid led the rival city 3:2, Hu Lai could take advantage of the opportunity to kick off and score a goal directly in the middle circle to tie the game?
Somewhere, it was as if an invisible hand was holding back every team trying to reach the top of Europe for two seasons in a row.
Although the Madrid Pirates are expensive defending champions, when the new season of the Champions League begins, the glory they gained last season has all disappeared. In everyone's eyes, they are even inferior to other competitors.
Because everyone knows that defending the title often means "defending the title".
This time, it was divided into a "death group" again, and it was even more difficult to defend the title.
Under such circumstances, the Madrid Pirates team arrived in Lyon, France two days before the game to challenge the Lyon Lions, the runner-up in last season's Ligue 1.
For the first game of the Champions League in this new season, the host Lyon Lions are naturally well prepared.
Their head coach, Benoit Raboni, said in his pre-match press conference:
"I know Hu is a very good goal scorer, but our whole team has studied his game carefully and found a way to stop him from scoring. We will definitely not let Hu score in this game!"
At that time, a reporter asked him if he could reveal how he prevented Hu Lai from scoring.
Benoit Raboni smiled mysteriously: "Don't try to deceive our tactical secrets from me!"
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"The Lions of Lyon have indeed marked Hu Lai very tightly. No matter where Hu Lai is, there will be a player of the Lions of Lyon by his side..."
He Feng said this after observing the game for nearly 20 minutes. It sounded like he admitted that the Lyon Lions' defense against Hu Lai was effective.
But then he changed the conversation:
"But there doesn't seem to be anything special about this kind of defense? It's no different from the defensive tactics and strategies used by other teams to face Hu Lai..."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Yan Kang.
Yan Kang affirmed his judgment: "It is indeed the case."
He Feng hesitated for a moment, but still said it: "Then what exactly is Raboni's so-called 'method to contain Hu Lai's goals'?"
Yan Kang said half-jokingly: "At least so far, the game has been played for almost 20 minutes, and Hu Lai has indeed not scored yet."
He Feng laughed and said, "You're right!"
The two were teasing easily, because the game was not very intense.
It can even be said to be a little dull.
The Lyon Lions really tried their best to contain Hu Lai's goal, so even though they were at home, they took the initiative to shrink their defense after the game started.
At the same time, the use of foul tactics prevented the Madrid Pirates' offense from running smoothly.
In this way, the game process is naturally not exciting, and it is relatively dull.
This is also the main reason why the two commentators still have time to chat - just because there are not so many wonderful pictures in the game, they do not need to explain the game frequently, so they have time to chat.
But while they were chatting, Hu Lai, who was still in the penalty area, suddenly ran back and left the penalty area!
Of course, this is not surprising, because now Hu Lai will always have a move like this.
He won't be at the front all the time, and it's impossible to stay in the penalty area all the time when he's being pegged by the opposing defender.
Only this time, while he was running back, Kamara, who was holding the ball in the rib, also passed the football with a tacit understanding.
Because the timing of the pass was so tacit, when the football passed to Hu Lai, there was no Lyon Lions player by his side!
Or the players of the Lyon Lions haven't had time to pounce.
Of course this is not a big problem.
Because someone is already doing it.
Two Lyon Lions players are running for Hu
Lai, their reaction was fairly quick, and they didn't completely miss the target~EbookFREE.me~ As long as Hu Lai stops the ball and makes some adjustments, they will stick it up, completely restricting Hu Lai's next move ...
But Hu Lai did not stop the ball!
He directly swung his right leg in front of the ball from Kamara!
Non-stop semi-volley!
The football is like a cannonball, flying directly to the goal on the line of the penalty area!
The goalkeeper of the Lions of Lyon jumped into the air and made a save.
But still out of reach, failed to touch the ball!
Football hits the net!
"Hu Lai - hey beautiful!" Yan Kang shouted. "Goal scored! Hu Lai opened the scoring for the Madrid Pirates, and now the Pirates lead the Lyon Lions 1:0 away!"
He Feng laughed and said, "So the Lyon Lions don't have any 'methods to stop Hu Lai's goals' at all!"
:,,.