Hero of the Penalty Area

Chapter 77: Team first or second? (Second guarantee)

After the national team match day is over, the league officially begins.

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

They scored 21 points with Fiorentina, but they dropped to seventh because of one goal difference less than Fiorentina.

However, the difference between seventh and third in the league is only four points, the gap has not widened, there is still a fight. Inter Milan has established their lead from the very beginning. After 13 rounds of the league, they accumulated 32 points and topped the list, opening the second-ranked Juventus by 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 Mazzari's team could wrestle with Mourinho. How could they think that Naples' performance in other games was not stable enough, and the results fluctuated, and finally Inter Milan Pulling farther and farther.

Mazzari has not put his mind on the domestic league at all. It is impossible for him to win the league. His goal in the domestic league this season is to get the top four in the league and qualify for the Champions League. Winning this kind of thing has to worry about long-term...

His focus this season is in the Champions League.

On November 24, Naples welcomed Liverpool at home.

Liverpool, who has always been proud of Anfield, saw 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 UEFA Champions League game, which made many people breathe a sigh of relief-it would be too scary to go in like this!

Although he didn't score a goal, his strong bang helped Cassano get a chance to make a supplementary shot and scored a crucial goal.

After the game, Chen Yingxiong served as a treat to comfort the injured Skrtel-the Slovak is not really injured.

Liverpool qualified for the Champions League this season. Martin Scott originally planned to show off his ambitions in the Champions League. How can I think that Liverpool's performance in the Champions League this season is so bad? It is a shame to say it...

It is said that Liverpool's senior management is already considering a coaching change...

I don't know if the team will be able to participate in the Champions League next season. The thought of these questions made Scotter feel particularly annoyed.

When he joined Liverpool, he originally thought he had joined a giant with a glorious tradition, but he didn't know that he was cheated when he came.

From the top to the bottom, this team is no longer the Red Army Liverpool that was 20 years ago.

Chen Yingxiong knows Scotter's boredom, so today everyone is not talking about football or the Champions League. 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 it’s 100% okay for your team to qualify. It depends on whether you can appear as the number one in the team. This is very important. So in the final round, the match against Lyon is an opportunity, even if it is away, try to win them! The Champions League knockout and group stages are completely two levels, and it can even be said that it is not a kind of event at all..."

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

Skrtel gave him a punch: "You are not so lucky, La Liga is the top two, and you have to run into it! Let's go! In short, I wish you good luck! Come if you are eliminated. Liverpool are looking for me, my brother will comfort you!"

That's how Skrtel left, and he has to fight for this season's UEFA Cup.

In this round of the group stage, Naples defeated Liverpool at home. And Lyon? They encountered the same problem as Naples in the away game-they lost 0:2 to Zenit St. Petersburg in a snowstorm.

These two games led to another change in the ranking of the group. Lyon lost the game against Zenit St. Petersburg, while Naples defeated Liverpool. The original Lyon with nine points remained unchanged, but Naples relied on defeating Liverpool and scored three points. The points increased to ten, surpassing Lyon by one point and became the first in the group again!

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

And Zenit St. Petersburg relied on their strong home court advantage to get seven points-these seven points were all won at home, the victory of two games, and a draw with Liverpool. Now, the unsuspecting qualifying situation has suddenly become suspenseful.

In the final round, if Naples can beat Lyon, then they can be sure to qualify as the group first, and if St. Petersburg Zenit defeats Liverpool in the examination room, they can surpass Lyon in points and become second in the group. Qualify. In this way, Lyon had to play the UEFA Cup sadly.

Of course, this is the best result.

In fact, it is certainly impossible to go so smoothly, but no matter what the result is, Naples' team qualifying is already a certainty. They have already qualified ahead of schedule!

After the match with Liverpool, many Naples fans have been reluctant to leave. They gathered around the Sao Paulo Stadium, singing loudly, cheering, and celebrating Naples' promotion to the second stage of the Champions League. Because Naples and Lyon played the two games at the same time, after the game in Naples, they also learned the news from St. Petersburg. Lyon lost! This means that Naples has surpassed Lyon once again to be ranked first in the group, and because of the score, they also advanced one round ahead of time!

Before participating in the Champions League, even the most optimistic and arrogant Naples fans, how many people thought of now? They thought about qualifying in the group, but they may not have thought of qualifying in advance...

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

"This is a pioneering effort that Naples has never had since the establishment of the team! We have advanced to the second stage of the Champions League! This is not done in the Maradona era!" Even if the media said this at this time, No one cares anymore...

The fact is that, even with Maradona, Naples could not make it to the second stage of the Champions League.

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

"...For me, this is the best Christmas gift and New Year's gift. Now I want to enjoy the joy and joy, and then continue until the result of the draw. The boys performed very well, and I represent the Naples fans. Thank them, I hope they can have a very happy Christmas holiday..."

※※※

Qualifying from the Champions League group in advance is a happy thing, 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 Mazzari confidence. He began to plan longer-term goals-why can't we go further in the Champions League knockouts?

In order to go further in the knockout rounds, you need to meet a good opponent in the eighth-finals. This depends on the draw... and one of the most important factors in determining the result of the draw is the team's ranking in the group stage. .

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

Since it is second in the group, how much can it explain that this team is weak, or why didn't it take the first place in the group?

The first in the group is strong, and the strong meets the weak... Is the chance of winning soon high?

Otherwise, why do those giants still pursue group first?

Since the pursuit of group first, then the last game of the group stage is very important-if you think it doesn’t matter whether the group is first or second, as long as you can qualify, then Naples can play soy sauce in the last game against Lyon. Up.

At that time, the main players can rest, or even not go to the away game, to regenerate their energy and prepare for the domestic league. In the league, their ranking dropped to seventh.

But now that we are competing for the top spot in the group, we must go all out to win the last group match. The away game is somewhat difficult, but it is not hopeless. Besides... even if it didn't win in the end, the draw was the first qualifying for the Naples group. So Mazzari's tactical room for maneuver is obviously more than Puel's, and he has more options for him.

※※※

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

This is the second day of recovery training, Mazzari told everyone before training.

The first team to qualify? This is naturally what the players hope for.

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

Since we are going to focus on the Champions League, the domestic league will naturally have to give up temporarily, at least before the final round of the game against Lyon. To prevent the main players from consuming too much physical strength and causing their physical fitness to fail to keep up, the most important thing is to avoid the situation of qualifying injuries.

With the passage of time, the schedule is getting closer to Christmas. At this time, the weather has become cold and the players' physical fitness has begun to fail to keep up. Naturally, the players are most vulnerable to injury. Must be strictly controlled during this time period to prevent players from being injured.

For this reason, in the fourteenth round of the league, when Naples challenged Parma away, Mazzari started a rotation again, and it was not a minor repair, but a big rotation that almost replaced the entire starter.

Such a large rotation, of course, they tied Parma 1:1 away.

In the post-match press conference, Mazzari explained his purpose of such a rotation because he is aiming for the Champions League.

"A lot of people say that we have completed the task after qualifying from the Champions League group stage, but this is not the case. Because we have not kept the first place in the group. Yes, we have to be the first in the group from this group. Get out!"

Shocked four people.

Those reporters never thought that Naples' ambitions could be so great!