Mister Legend

Chapter 392

While Torino supporters were celebrating their planned promotion, the results of the rest of the match were in the cards, with only St Petersburg losing the first leg. Zenit completed the reversal and eliminated the Celtics, the overlord of the Soviet Super League, and there were no surprises in the rest of the games.

Arsenal, the only English team in the top 32, lost to the Swedish team Ostersund 1-2 at home, but still easily entered the next knockout round with a total score of 4-2; La Liga teams have two promotions. Neither Athletic Bilbao nor Atletico Madrid have overturned the gutter. The less powerful Real Sociedad was eliminated by the Austrian league champion Salzburg Red Bull. Liarreal was double-killed by Lyon and left this year's Europa League in a very disgraceful way; Also relied on the big victory in the first round to enter the top sixteen.

As for the remaining Serie A and Bundesliga teams in the five major leagues, they were divided in a series of love and killing.Naples, which still occupies the top position in the Serie A standings, although they defeated the Leipzig Red Bull 2-0 in the away game, due to the lack of away goals, they were kicked out of the European arena by the sixth Bundesliga with a total score of 3 to 3.

As for the most watched matchup between Atlanta and Dortmund, it was staged a roller coaster-like plot. The Son of Poseidon, who lost 2 to 3 in the first round, only needs to get a small victory to advance. A .11-minute goal almost helped the home side achieve that goal.It's a pity that the tenacious Hornet also showed the toughness of the traditional giants of the Bundesliga in this fierce hand-to-hand battle. Finally, with the goal of the full-back Schmelzer who came off the bench in the No.803 minute, the score was fixed at 1-1. In this way, the opponent was eliminated in a thrilling manner, and he was very close to the next round.

Compared with the excellent performance of the Bundesliga team with a 5% promotion rate, Serie A only has four to two results. In addition to the Turin team, Lazio also won the promotion right with a 1-[-] victory at home. The bull became the only seed in the country in this event.

However, just as the European media and many fans were eagerly analyzing the process of each game and predicting the results of the next round of draws, a storm broke out from the Internet, and at an extremely fast speed It attracted everyone's attention.

Less than an hour after Atalanta's game with Borussia Dortmund, Belgian striker Batshuayi, who was on loan from Chelsea to the latter, broke the news on his social media profile that he was racially abused by Neptune fans during the game , He clearly heard malicious abuse such as "monkey" and "eat banana".Regarding this situation, Batshuayi also gave a resolute counterattack on the Internet. He wrote: "It is already 2018, and there is still noise of racial discrimination in the stands, really? As we advance to the next round , I hope you enjoy watching the rest of the Europa League matches in front of your TV."

Subsequently, UEFA issued a notice stating that it had launched emergency procedures and launched an investigation into the incident. Judging from the evidence so far, Atlanta fans did act with racial discrimination.Atlanta President Percassi quickly expressed his apology to Batshuayi in an interview. He said: "To be honest, I didn't hear the voice of racial discrimination in the stands. If there is, then I feel Very sad and I will definitely apologize to Michy Batshuayi. This should never have happened."

But his words didn't do much, as Atalanta were already repeat offenders in this regard, with their supporters being punished a month earlier for racially abusing Napoli centre-back Koulibaly. The huge fines imposed by the Italian Football Association and the closure of the stands for the next game did not seem to make them restrain themselves.

Although the European continent, like the United States, is a hard-hit area of ​​racial discrimination, and mutual discrimination among whites, blacks, yellows, and other people of color has always been an unavoidable topic, but at least the zz on the table is correct. is unshakable.Discrimination related to Africans or Asians is better, the impact of the turmoil will not be too great, and it will soon be forgotten to a corner, but it is much more serious when it comes to Europeans.Although Batshuayi is of pure Congolese descent, and his skin should be regarded as the darkest, but he can get an authentic Belgian household registration book, which is why this incident has caused such a big response.

Two days later, UEFA made a rare effort to characterize the matter with extremely high work efficiency. They confirmed that the Atalanta club will be accused of racial discrimination by fans, setting off fireworks in the stadium, etc., and Dortmund club will also be charged. He was charged for setting off fireworks and throwing objects by fans.This incident will be discussed and dealt with at the regular meeting of the UEFA Disciplinary Committee on the 22nd of next month, and corresponding punitive measures will eventually be taken.

And just when the racial discrimination storm was the focus of attention inside and outside the European football world, on Friday afternoon, UEFA held a draw ceremony for the next stage of the European League at its headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Take everyone's attention away.Nine of the teams that advanced to the top [-] came from the five major leagues. In theory, there would be at least a group of strong dialogues. After the two sides of the first group of duels were drawn, there was a lot of excitement in the ceremony. Exclaim, Lazio and Arsenal have met together!This is a direct dialogue between the No. [-] and No. [-] teams on the latest championship odds list released after the first round of knockout rounds. Naturally, it will make everyone feel extremely excited and excited.

Subsequently, Marseille and Bilbao, two teams from the five major leagues, were also drawn together, but because their strength is not considered to be the top, so the attention is not too high, but it is also one of the most suspenseful games in this round one.In addition to the above-mentioned two groups of duels, the luck of the other five major league teams has improved a lot, but no one can guarantee that they can easily advance. After all, at the current stage, the remaining teams are very strong. Teams from the Czech or Austrian leagues should not be underestimated. Before the end of the two rounds, it is really hard to say who will reach the quarterfinals.

The opponent drawn by the Turin team is Lokomotiv Moscow from the Russian Super League. The latter won the European seat by virtue of winning the domestic cup last season.They have played very well this season and are currently at the top of the league standings. They are expected to win the league title again after 14 years.

The strength of Lokomotiv Moscow must be ranked behind among the 04 teams, but it is still not to be underestimated. The number one star in the team is the Peruvian striker Farfan who was a teammate with Raul in Schalke 22 before. The core of the midfield is the new generation of local talent, Alexei Miranchuk, who is only [-] years old, and the defense has the Croatian international Joel Luka who became famous with Modric. There are leaders in the three lines.Under the leadership of the former Russian national team coach Yuri Xiaoming, there is still a strong combat effectiveness.

And considering that the Turin team's schedule of first home and then away is not very favorable, the certainty of promotion may be just a five-five theory.That's why Li Mudi said in an interview with the reporter of "Turin Sport" after learning the result of the draw: "I am not happy about this result, although we did not draw top players like Arsenal or Atletico Madrid. team, but Lokomotiv Moscow is also a very tough opponent, and the Torino team needs to show [-]% strength to have a chance to enter the next round. However, the club and fans still feel that they can meet a team from Russia. I am very happy, although they are not the opponents who eliminated us back then, but everyone is very happy to complete a similar revenge, after all, they are all from the same country."

The reason why the Turin coach can say this is because the Red Bulls were eliminated by the Russian team in the last two appearances in the Europa League. In the 2014-15 season, the Torino team was 0 to 2 away and 1 to 0 at home, with a total score of 1 to 2 being blocked by Zenit St. Petersburg from the quarterfinals.In the distant 1992-93 season, which was still called the UEFA Cup at that time, the Turin team was also defeated by Moscow Dina with a total score of 1-2 in the second knockout round (then it was a pure cup system and there was no group stage). That year was also the last glorious moment of the Red Bulls in the last century.

The schedule for the quarter-finals was also determined after the results of the draw. The first round of the confrontation will start on March 3, and the second round will be scheduled for the following Thursday.In Russia in mid-March, the temperature is still not too high. This is an additional challenge for the Italian team accustomed to the Mediterranean climate. If they want to beat their opponents and successfully advance, they must strive for an ideal home game in the first round. The score, otherwise the pressure when visiting Moscow will be infinite.

The addition of these two European league games has made the Turin team's future competition tasks suddenly become onerous. There will be double matches a week for three consecutive weeks, which will form a huge test for the players' physical fitness.Li Moody had to reasonably arrange the lineup according to the strength of the opponent and the importance of the game in each game, and strive to advance smoothly on the three fronts.This idea is good, but the ultimate reality shows that if a non-rich team with insufficient lineup depth wants to take care of the consequences of multiple competitions, it is very likely that it will be a chicken-and-egg fight and a complete collapse.

In fact, it is very difficult for even the top strong team to win two championships in one season, and the chances of winning the triple crown are even slimmer.So far, only four teams in the five major leagues have won the triple crown five times. Manchester United in 1999, Barcelona in 2009 and 2015 (the first time was an unprecedented six-time crown), Inter Milan in 2010 and In 2013, Bayern Munich, a century-old giant like Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan, failed to win this title. It is conceivable how difficult it is.

As the former absolute ruler of Italian football, the Turin team won five league championships in the 40s. If the league was not suspended from 1943 to 1945 due to the outbreak of World War II, judging from the situation at that time, they won The possibility of seven consecutive championships will exceed 1957%.But the Coppa Italia, which was also affected by World War II, was much sadder and did not resume until the 58-[-] season. This resulted in the Turin God team only winning a double before the start of the World War.

As for the Champions League, the predecessor of the UEFA Champions League, it was only held in the 1955-56 season. At that time, the Red Bulls had already fallen apart after the Superga air crash.Reduced to a poor team, they did not participate in the UEFA Champions League for the first and only time in history until they won the seventh league championship in the 1975-76 season. They lost to the Bundesliga champion Borussia Mönchengladbach in the quarter-finals and were eliminated.The latter eventually made it all the way to the final and lost to Liverpool, watching the British team start a golden period that lasted six years.

Bringing the topic back to reality, the next Wednesday night will be the second round of the Coppa Italia semi-final. Although in the first round, the Turin team took the lead 1-0 away, but it is almost impossible for the team to pass the league. For Atlanta, which has qualified for the European competition next season, it can still fight hard.The red bull still couldn't relax a bit, and had to use [-]% strength to deal with it.Considering that this weekend's league opponent is the newly promoted Verona, which ranks second to last, Li Moody is planning to carry out a large-scale rotation in this game to reserve strength for the midweek cup match.

As a result, Belotti, Baselli and Ranocchia were directly excluded from the big list, and the names of Silvestri and Vukocevic were also missing from the starting lineup, and the formation became top-notch. The season's main 4-3-3.Edra, Immobile and Boyer formed the front trident. The three midfielders were Benassi, Muses and Fabas, and Flanagan and Kanneman served as two-way full-backs in the defense. , the veteran Moretti took the youth training rookie Bonifaczi to partner in the middle, and Casillas became the last insurance.

This lineup has some minor problems in terms of offensive and defensive strength, such as no high-altitude advantage in the frontcourt, weak recovery speed in the backcourt, almost zero assist ability of the two full-backs, and so on.However, according to the predictions of the Turin coaching staff, it should not be a problem to deal with Verona, which only scored 25 points in 12 league rounds.But no one expected that just after No. [-] minutes of the game, the score on the field changed.

After receiving a corner kick from the left, the Serbian central defender Vukovic, who was on loan from Olympiakos in Greece during the winter break, leaped high near the penalty spot and headed the ball towards the goal.The midfielder Varotti, who once played for the AC Milan youth team, made a header relay about three meters in front of the goal and scored successfully, helping Verona take a one-goal lead.

Almost all Torino players raised their arms to signal to the linesman that it was an offside ball, but they were ignored.The slow motion of the broadcaster also clearly showed that when Vukovic headed the ball, Croatian high center Bruno Petkovic was indeed in an offside position, but he did not participate in the subsequent attack. Rorty came in from behind the last defender of the away team, so there was no dispute about the goal.

Not long after the game started, the Red Bulls, who were bound to win three points, were in a very disadvantageous situation. There is no doubt that this result was caused by the thought of underestimating the enemy before the game.

　Tomorrow, Labor Day, May [-]st, will be celebrated in the middle of the night.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)