Prominence in Football Community

"...In a UEFA Champions League quarter-final match that ended early this morning Beijing time, Sampdoria, played by Chinese player Gao Zheng, was tied 1:1 by Atletico Madrid at home. Although Gao Zheng was in the game Score a goal, but the team failed to win at home, which cast a shadow over Sampdoria's Champions League promotion..."

"...Gao Zheng performed well in the UEFA Champions League match early this morning. He scored a goal and almost beat Atletico Madrid. After the game, Gao Zheng was the player with the highest rating in the game... Atletico Madrid coach Simeone said in the post-match press conference that he went back to the dressing room and kissed Courtois hard because he saved Gao Zheng's shot..."

"The Italian media praised Gao Zheng's performance. Those media who criticized Gao Zheng a lot last season all praised Gao Zheng overwhelmingly this time. Corriere dello Sport even believed that not only Sampdoria was not worthy of Gao Zheng's strength. Yes, the entire Serie A is a little behind for Gao Zheng... To be honest, when I heard this comment, I almost thought it was a joke made up by those good people on the Internet. In the end, I went to the "Corriere dello Sport" Looking at the official website, the most eye-catching position on the homepage is the title of the report: 'Serie A can no longer hold high!'... I thought that only China was rich in all kinds of high-profile, but now it seems that foreigners can't be good at it. Unscrupulous and bottom-line..."

...

In Chinese newspaper kiosks and convenience stores, the person in front has just sold the last weekly sports newspaper in the store, and the boss is enthusiastically recommending other morning newspapers to the people behind, because there are also a lot of news about the early morning Champions League match. report content.

White-collar workers with briefcases and programmers with backpacks are waiting at the bus stop. They are very different in dress and temperament, but the common thing is that they are all browsing the UEFA news on their mobile phones.

In the subway, there were many sleepy commuters, but when the multimedia TV in the carriage started to play highlights of the UEFA Champions League match between Sampdoria and Atletico Madrid in the early hours of this morning, these people who seemed to be asleep were They all raised their heads and stared at the screen with wide eyes.

On campus, those football-loving kids were discussing how great it would be if Gao Zheng scored in the last world wave, arguing endlessly about whether Gao Zheng should stay in Sampdoria.

This was originally just an ordinary weekday morning in China, but it became special because of the UEFA Champions League game in the early morning.

Everyone is paying attention to Gao Zheng's situation.

On and off the Internet, Gao Zheng dominated this morning, making the boring commute to work seem interesting.

Due to the time difference, it was later in the day that Italy entered the daytime, and the media became active, with various news pouring in.

There were two Champions League quarter-finals last night,

However, the Italian media is most concerned about only the match between Sampdoria and Atletico Madrid.

They are more concerned about the impact of failure to win this game on the team's next Champions League journey.

Some people also criticized Sampdoria. They were not criticizing the team, but mainly criticizing the head coach Di Francisco. It is believed that in January, the team paid too much attention to the Coppa Italia, resulting in intensive competitions, and the players did not have a good rest. This is why two players were injured in a game.

Now that Sampdoria has failed to win Atletico Madrid at home, it may be bad luck to go to the away game in the second round.

It can even be asserted that Sampdoria's Champions League journey this season is coming to an end.

Although Di Francesco said in yesterday's post-match press conference that the team will not concede defeat early, many people feel that it is time to focus back on domestic competitions.

In fact, with the strength of Sampdoria, they can go all the way to the top 16 of the Champions League, which is already considered very good. When a hegemon like Juventus is not up to date, Sampdoria cannot be criticized too much.

The Spanish media's requirements for Atletico Madrid are more stringent.

They think that Simeone's team failed to win Sampdoria in the away game as a failure. They are not worried that Atletico Madrid will not be able to advance to the quarterfinals because of this, but feel that it is too shameful for Atletico Madrid to advance in this way.

In terms of the strength gap between the two teams, Atletico Madrid should double-beat Sampdoria at home and away.

Famous experts did not understand and were dissatisfied with the strategy adopted by Simeone in the first half. Some criticized Simeone for being frightened, and some exaggeratedly said that if Atletico Madrid continued to play like this, they would be able to advance to the quarterfinals , and it will definitely be difficult to move on, and not only in the Champions League, but in all the next games, the performance will decline. Because of Simeone's timid performance, his authority among the players has collapsed, and this team is close to falling apart... …

These words are particularly exaggerated, and they sound appalling, but it makes people feel puzzled—whether Sampdoria has a higher chance of advancing to the quarterfinals, or Atletico Madrid...

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After playing the Champions League match against Atletico Madrid, Sampdoria still has the league and Coppa Italia finals to play.

Overall, the schedule is relatively dense.

Next in the league, Sampdoria will face Milan at home, and then a week later, on March 1, Sampdoria will go north to challenge Turin in the league. After this game, they have to go to Rome to participate in the Coppa Italia final.

The date for the Coppa Italia final is March 5, with just three days between the two games.

After this game, it will be the league on March 9th.

After the league, in the middle of the week, Sampdoria had to go away to Atletico Madrid.

Before the second round of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, Sampdoria had to play three games in a row, with double matches a week for two consecutive weeks, which required very high physical fitness for the team.

How to arrange the lineup rotation reasonably is also a test for Di Francesco.

Before the weekend's game against Milan, everyone thought that Di Francesco would not rotate the lineup, because everyone knew what the game against Milan meant.

Even A Milan thought so, but when Sampdoria announced the lineup before the game, they discovered that Di Francesco had actually rotated the lineup, and it was not the kind of one or two positions. Fine tune...

Sampdoria's lineup surprised and delighted Milan.

Surprisingly, I didn't expect that Sampdoria would rotate this time. You must know that the last time the two sides faced each other this season, even though the UEFA Champions League group stage followed, Sampdoria still played with all the main players.

Of course the joy is that A Milan can finally take revenge on Gao Zheng.

However, the final result was different from what Milan had expected.

With Gao Zheng's goal in the 78th minute, Sampdoria drew 1:1 with Milan at home.

They still failed to beat Sampdoria, failed to beat Gao Zheng, and allowed Gao Zheng to score again.

This goal is Gao Zheng's fifteenth league goal this season.

In an interview after the game, Gao Zheng once again stated that the game against Milan was an ordinary game, and the rotation of Sampdoria in this game also seemed to prove his words, so let everyone not be too concerned. Deliberate attention.

However, the reporters always felt that Gao Zheng said that because he probably didn't care about A Milan anymore...

Of course, based on the current results and performance of A Milan, it is indeed not convincing-at the beginning of this year, Allegri was dismissed by the A Milan club because of his poor performance in leading the team. The Dutchman Seedorf, who had played for A Milan for many years, was invited, but after Seedorf took over the team, the situation of A Milan did not improve, and his performance was still ups and downs.

Twenty-five rounds of the league have been played, Milan A has 33 points, ranking tenth, and Sampdoria is two positions higher than Milan A, and their competitor is indeed not Milan A.

It is true that many people are embarrassed that the wealthy families of the past have been reduced to such a point.

And among those who were sighing, some people couldn't help but think about it—if they hadn't given up on Gao Zheng back then, if Gao Zheng could have stayed in A Milan, would they still be in such a mess now?

But that is only a few people's guess after all.

With the tense relationship between Gao Zheng and A Milan, everyone knows that this kind of "if" is absolutely impossible to realize.

Even if Gao Zheng were to leave Sampdoria, Milan might not be the target he would consider...