The Era of Emerald

() According to the game rules set by UEFA, Fiorentina, which won the first place in Group C in the group stage, is the order of the game first away, that is to say, in this game on February 2th, the whole Fiorentina team will go far away Germany, challenge their quarter-final rivals Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion.

The Dortmund team in the 95-96 season was quite difficult to deal with. They had a first-team lineup that was not inferior to Bayern Munich: Batistuta, Djorkaeff and others were very familiar with the back line. The top man-marking central defender Jurgen Koller who has played for Juventus for many years, Reuter and Heinrich are separated on the left and right, plus the most outstanding backcourt in German football after Matthaus You man Mathias Sammer, Dortmund's backcourt strength is terrifying;

And the Bumblebee's midfielder is not much less famous than Florence in terms of fame and strength. Andres Muller, Riddle, Chapuisart, and Lahr, who is known as a genius boy in German football Si Ricken, with Michel Zorc, Heilrich and other powerful players sitting on the bench, can be said to be full of talents.

No matter how you look at it, Dortmund's strength is much stronger than Werder Bremen, another Bundesliga team that Fiorentina encountered in the European Cup Winners' Cup last season, and of course it is more difficult to deal with.After all, Dortmund is no better than Juventus and AC Milan. Fiorentina have more than two chances to play against them in a year. learn.

Therefore, in just three days, Ranieri instilled all the information about Dortmund collected by the club's scouts into the Fiorentina players by category, hoping to help the subsequent Champions League games.

While the players were actively preparing for the European Champions Cup, Zhuang Minge received another piece of good news from the physiotherapy center: after being diagnosed by Dr. Thomas Carter, the Brazilian forward Ronaldo, who had been absent for four months due to injury, finally reached the health standard. Can play again.It's just that the playing time of the aliens has been strictly limited by Thomas Carter himself. Currently, only the Brazilians are allowed to play 30 minutes in official games.

On February 2, that is, on the third day after the 28rd round of Serie A, Fiorentina ushered in the first round of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Since this is the first round of the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and it is still playing at the famous "devil's home" Westphalia Stadium in Europe, Ranieri made some adjustments to Florence's starting lineup: Di Biagio and Effenberg, who were suspended in the league, got the chance to start in the Champions League, and the other two were Davies and Kripa; the four defenders from left to right Lanna, Ferrara, Nesta and Zambrotta in order; the tinkerer on the front line removed the team captain Batistuta from the starting lineup, and switched to running more flexible and agile Roberto Baggio and Inzaghi partnered in the starting lineup.

Obviously, Ranieri intends to play defensive and counterattack tactics at Dortmund's home court, making full use of the weakness of the German team's defenders who generally turn slowly, and bringing Effenberg's excellent overall situation and precise passing characteristics to the fullest. extreme.Batistuta was removed from the starting lineup because of this. In Ranieri's view, the striker combination of Roberto Baggio and Inzaghi, who is faster and better at grasping opportunities, is more suitable for him in this game. tactical arrangement.

Originally Ranieri wanted Ronaldo and Baggio to start together, but under Thomas Carter's stern warning that he could only play 10 minutes of the game, the tinker had no choice but to give up this plan resentfully. People put on the reserve list just in case.

Ranieri's calculations are very good, but he obviously forgot how terrifying Dortmund's home court is, let alone Dortmund's coach Heathfield, who can only be regarded as a little famous now, is also a very good player. Tactician.

On February 2, amidst the cheers of nearly 28 Dortmund fans in the Westfalenstadion, the Dortmund players used wonderful offensive coordination and tight defense to firmly suppress the away game of Fiorentina.

Similarly, the huge cheers of the [-] Dortmund fans at the Westfalenstadion also deterred the Fiorentina players to a certain extent, making them feel a little restrained in this game; The central defender combination of Ken Kohler and Summer appeared very stable, so that Baggio and Inzaghi couldn't find a chance to launch a counterattack.

"Roar!" Jurgen Kohler yelled excitedly after successfully cutting off Effenberg's pass to Baggio. Iuliano has done a lot of harm. After his partner was replaced by the top freeman Summer, he can finally unscrupulously display his strength as a top marking central defender instead of carefully wiping his partner's ass.

Seeing that Fiorentina's counterattack could not be played, the Dortmund players, who had no worries, fought more and more courageously amidst the shouts of the home fans. In the 303rd and [-]nd minutes of the game, Chapu Isart and Ander Reis Müller scored a goal each to take the lead on aggregate with a score of two to zero.

The genius boy Rickon's goal in the No.608 minute not only turned the score into [-]-[-], but also drove Fiorentina into the abyss.

If Ronaldo, who came off the bench, took advantage of a counterattack in the No. 708th minute and made a long-distance attack for the whole half and then scored a valuable away goal for the team, Fiorentina's game can be said to be a complete defeat.

When the news spread that Fiorentina lost [-]-[-] to Dortmund in the first round, the German media, who were extremely surprised, uttered the voice of "German football's resurgence", while Fiorentina, who lost away, was attacked by many Italian media. Accusations, comments about "losing the face of Italian football", "insiders in civil wars, outsiders in foreign wars" spring up like mushrooms, and they don't remember that they praised Florence, who just won the European Cup Winners Cup last year. The pride of Italian football.

At the same time, many critics also accused Ranieri, as the team's head coach, of being too conservative in his tactics, holding a lot of good cards in his hand but not knowing how to use them, as if they could lead Fiorentina to the Champions League.

When the public opinion was overwhelmingly criticizing the team and head coach Ranieri, Zhuang Mingge, the chairman of the club, stood up at the right time and clearly expressed his support for Ranieri, which calmed down the storm for the time being. .