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Atlético Madrid arrived in the Kazakh capital the day before their match against Astana.

Obviously Simeone does not expect any team to adapt to the venue and the local climate, and he did not report too much hope and expectation for this away game. After sitting on a seven-hour plane and hurting his butt, Simeone felt that as long as the team didn't lose, it would be a good result.

There are domestic media from Kazakhstan waiting at the airport, waiting for the arrival of Atletico Madrid players.

It seems that they are normal news reports, but every Kazakh reporter expects to see something different from the faces of Atletico Madrid players.

Sure enough, when the Atlético Madrid players appeared in front of them, almost everyone looked exhausted and had a bad face. They shrunk their necks and hunched their bodies, hurried past the Kazakh reporters and boarded the bus.

Nor are there Atletico Madrid fans here to welcome them and cheer them on.

For ordinary Atlético de Madrid fans, Kazakhstan is too far away in the hinterland of Asia. Air tickets are expensive, accommodation is expensive, and the journey is tiring, which makes them daunting. No one comes with the team.

At that time, Atletico Madrid will face a complete "away game" in this stadium, and there will basically be no Atletico Madrid fans in the stands.

Seeing Atlético Madrid players with dark circles under their eyes, puffy feet, and pale faces, the Kazakh journalists smiled happily—this is what they want to see when they come to the airport!

Such a team, who came to the cold Astana on an expedition, still want to go back alive?

Think beautifully!

What was not done at Atlético de Madrid must be done at our home this time!

The goal is to defeat Atletico Madrid and win the first UEFA Champions League victory in the history of the club and even the country!

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The news of the arrival of Atlético Madrid players in Astana that night appeared on the TV screens of fans in Kazakhstan and Madrid, as well as in China.

Everyone can see what the Kazakh journalists saw at the scene.

The newscasters were saying in a voiceover: "Atletico Madrid players looked very tired. They didn't stop at the airport or accept any media interviews. They just boarded the car and went to the hotel. It seemed that they couldn't wait to lie down on the soft bed. Have a good sleep on the comfortable mattress..."

In addition to the difficult journey, the Atletico Madrid team also encountered a big problem when they arrived in Astana, that is... cold!

On the day when the Atlético de Madrid team arrived in Astana, the local temperature was 11 degrees below zero. When every Atlético de Madrid player stepped out of the plane, they were swayed by the cold.

They were already very uncomfortable after sitting on the plane for so long, and it was really "worse" when they encountered a cold snap.

News reports also mentioned this point. Spanish TV station told Atletico Madrid fans about the temperature at that time, which caused everyone to click their tongues.

On November 2nd, for Madrid, it was still autumn, and it hadn't entered the whole winter. Although the temperature was lower than before, it was still more than ten degrees above zero.

And Astana turned out to be more than ten degrees below zero, and the temperature difference between the two places reached almost 30 degrees. It is really hard to imagine what kind of trouble Atletico Madrid will encounter in the game...

In addition to temperature,

The venue in Astana is another issue.

Because Astana is cold in winter, the local climate is difficult to have a football field with natural turf in winter, so Astana's home stadium is the same as some Russian stadiums, which are artificial turf. Play sports.

It's just that it hurts the Atletico Madrid players.

They usually play on natural turf, and there is a big difference between the two. The friction coefficient is different, the foot feel is different, and the feeling is completely different.

Professional players are very sensitive to the field.

In the past, Chinese fans used jokes to satirize the national football team, saying that the turf is not good enough to play poorly. In a sense, they are ironically right, but from another perspective, "If the turf is not good, they will not perform well" is indeed scientifically justified.

It is not just a problem of Chinese players who are not used to it after switching to artificial turf. European professional players also have similar problems.

So on the night of arriving in Astana, when the Atletico Madrid team came to the Astana Arena to adapt to the venue, the Atletico Madrid coaching staff was very serious and asked everyone to take this training to adapt to the venue seriously.

They didn't come several days in advance, so they only had this chance to adapt to the field. If they can't get used to the artificial turf this time, who knows what will happen in the game.

Take the tackle, an action that is commonplace in the game.

There is no problem doing it on natural turf, it is smooth and natural, and there is no harm.

But shoveling on artificial grass is a torture for every player who tackles. The turf made of plastic has a lot of friction, and with black rubber particles, players will rub against the turf when they tackle. The high temperature will cause the players to be "burned". Moreover, due to insufficient friction, the player's knee ligaments may also bear an excessive burden.

The intensity of this training session to adapt to the venue is no less than that of a regular game.

In the end, every player was covered in white steam, as if he had just come out of the bathhouse.

The assistant coach Boggs, who was wearing a thick down jacket and wrapped himself up like a big fat man, frowned and showed a deeply melancholy expression.

Simeone, who is also in thick clothes, persuaded him: "Think about it, 'Professor'. You have to think about it this way. Fortunately, the last round of our group stage is to play Benfica away, not Astana, otherwise it would be true." It's going to die."

The final round of the UEFA Champions League group stage is on December 8th. One month later than now, the temperature will definitely be lower than now, maybe there will be heavy snowfall.

It will definitely be torture for Atletico Madrid to play in that environment at that time. Galatasaray's Ali Samiyan Stadium is not the stadium of hell, but the Astana Arena is the real hell.

After hearing Simeone's words, Boggs looked up at the sky and thought about it. It seemed that this was really the case. Thinking about it this way, he felt much better.

"But the luckiest thing is the Turks. They came here in September. It must not have been so cold at that time!" Boggs sighed.

"Just like that, they still failed to win. We can't take it lightly. This time the away game will be very, very, very... difficult to play."

Simeone used three "very" in a row to show the difficulty of this game.

Boggs stared at the players who were still training on the field and nodded gravely in approval.