Three last year, two this year - unknowingly, it has become a habit to see Italian teams in the European final. After Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan won the Champions League in 2010, the teams from Italy only reached three European finals in the next 12 seasons, namely Juventus (Champions League) in 2015 and 2017, and Inter Milan (European Union) in 2020; Now, the Serie A team has reached the final five in two years, and the efficiency has improved rapidly.
Atlanta makes history
Atalanta reached the European final for the first time in history, and the whistle of celebration rang through Bergamo at midnight. Before the game, the Nerazzurri stand show was accompanied by a banner like this: "Mehran's memory is our childhood; winning this contest will tell the story of Dublin for children in the future." In the 1987-88 season, Atlanta under the rule of Mondonico reached the semi-finals of the Winners' Cup, regretfully losing to Mehran of Belgium, which was also a "goddess" It is the farthest time in the history of the team in Europe. In addition, many fans still remember Atlanta's Champions League journey in the 2019-20 season. The team went out of the group game against the nightmare of three consecutive defeats. In the first round of the knockout phase, Ilichitch beat Valencia with his personal show. Then, in the single game decisive system of the epidemic era, the team met in Greater Paris, only three minutes away from promotion.
By defeating Marseille this time, Atlanta filled the regret in Mehran (out of the semi-final), and in a sense turned over the chapter of the Champions League four years ago (out of the competition by the French). So far, Atlanta has gone through a highly valuable path to the European Union. They met Sporting Lisbon, which is in good condition this season, twice in the group games and the last 16 games, and won 2 and drew 2 against the "Green Lion"; In the quarter final, "True Lanhei" met Liverpool, the top European champion, and unexpectedly won 3-0 away in the first round, ending the unbeaten season record at Anfield.
The first round against Marseille may be a worse match played by Atlanta in the European Union this season: Skamaka opened the record for the team, but after Mbumba's long-range equaliser, Marseille had many chances to counter the score. After some difficulties brought back a draw, Atlanta returned to the home court and fully grasped the initiative: Lukman and Rujeri made great achievements in the first half and second half with long-range shots, and the latter used his bad right foot to spin the arc ball, leaving team mates Skamaka and De Ketelare dumbfounded.
Magic Blue and Black
Looking back at Atlanta's journey to the finals, "courage" is a key word. In the second round against Liverpool, the team was awarded a penalty in the first six minutes. However, after Salah hit, Atlanta did not fall into the fear of being reversed by the strong enemy, but continued to play in its own way and did not leave too many opportunities for the opponent later. In this game, Gasperini used a very offensive lineup. Drone played in the middle, and the absolute core Copmemas also retreated to the midfield line, leaving the three positions in the front court for Lukman, De Ketarare and Skamaka. After the opening whistle sounded, Atlanta immediately began to pressurize, and finally defeated Marseille's defense line with the fire group in the front field.
Atalanta is the model team in Italian football this season. They have come to the end on three fronts. Today's "True Blue and Black" League points have equalled Rome, which has played one more match, which means that as long as they do not lose at home to the "Red Wolf" in the next round, they are very likely to reach the Champions League next season in the past five years. In the next two weeks, they will also launch attacks on two trophies: on May 15, in Rome and Juve for the Italian Cup, The Europa League showdown with Leverkusen took place in Dublin on May 22.
The separation of "Goddess" reflects the level of coach Gasperini. There are few Italian coaches who can fight on multiple fronts, and Jiagong is definitely an exception. Under his rule, Atlanta can show exciting performance every year when participating in the European competition: the top eight of the European Championships in 2019-20 left numerous winners, needless to mention; In the following season, the team entered the Champions League knockout again and lost to Real Madrid in a decent way; In the 2021-22 season, Atlanta failed to qualify from the Champions League group for the first time, but its overall performance was not bad at that time. After being demoted to the European Union, Atlanta also reached the last eight all the way.
However, to cope with the pressure of consecutive weeks of double games in such a leisurely manner, it is also inseparable from a set of thick cards. Atlanta can release two sets of competitive combinations without pressure in the middle and front court. If you want to select a representative star for the whole season of the team, the answer must be Copernicus; However, if we only consider the performance in the sprint period, the current ace in the team is Skamaka - this "shooting machine" can launch high-quality shells from any area within 35 meters from the goal. It can be said that Skamaka is the best Italian player at present, and it is not even necessary to add one of them.
De's Red Wolf is out of strength
Looking at the Scarmarca bought by Atlanta for 25.5 million yuan, and the team's "Mr. 40 million" Abraham, the Roma fans only sighed. What's more, Scarmarca and his friend Fratasi are both Romans, who are also Red Wolf youth training students, but they are not expected to become the leading role in the first team of Rome. Rome met Leverkusen in the semi-finals of the Europa League for the second year in a row and was avenged by Xabi Alonso this time. In fact, the pharmaceutical factory did not fail to give the opportunity, but Rome did not grasp it. Abraham should take the lead: at the end of the first round, he faced an empty goal one meter away from the restricted area, and his header was unexpectedly high.
Abraham scored 27 goals in various competitions of the first season in Rome, and his personality was also quite pleasing, so he was once loved by Roman fans. However, the inefficiency shown in the past two seasons, especially the recent repeated exorbitant banquets, has exhausted the patience of most people with him. In this game, it was after Abraham came on as a substitute that Leverkusen pulled two goals in a row, again miraculously keeping the unbeaten record of the season so far. From the top scorer to the star loser, the England striker has fallen quite quickly.
In fact, Leverkusen was not at his best. Adley and others on the offensive side kept shooting and made two mistakes in defense. However, Rome was still regretful to be out of the game, and the theory of "bucket short board" played a role. Karsdorp made a fatal mistake at home in the first round and gave the opponent a goal, while Zalefsky's performance in the second round was disappointing. The mediocrity of such players ruined the prospects of Roma's promotion. Of course, in Leverkusen's first goal of the game, Sviral made a serious mistake, and Mancini had another unfortunate own goal after last season's Europa League final, but no one will blame them: the Serbian goalkeeper had saved the team's fate several times by receiving high resistance before, and the Italian central defender was the first hero who eliminated AC Milan before.
Leverkusen is naturally more difficult to deal with than Marseille, but in combination with the overall performance of the recent league and European games, the two Italian teams have shown completely different states: "Goddess" appears to be at ease, while "Red Wolf" is obviously unable to meet the requirements. Rome had lost the four key battles at home to Bologna, and then faced Napoli and Juve in bad condition. They were also in a passive position on the scene, and it was difficult to get a draw.
De Rossi found that he had taken over a familiar script: last year, Mourinho fell into the quagmire of double track combat and gambled heavily on the failure of Europa League; This time, Rome also has two routes to the Champions League, but both routes are full of difficulties and obstacles. This weekend, Rome will go north to Bergamo. If they can't win, they will basically say goodbye to the hope of entering the Champions League in a conventional way. They can only hope that Atlanta will beat Leverkusen to win the Champions League, and at the same time, the league will not enter the top four. In this way, Serie A will get the sixth place in the Champions League.
The lilies fight with themselves
After losing the European Union final last season, Mourinho once said that he hoped the team would have the opportunity to make a comeback this year and meet a better referee than Anthony Taylor in the final. Unfortunately, Rome is neither a finalist nor a team of Mourinho. By contrast, Florence may be happy: they reached the final of the UEFA Cup for the second year in a row, and had a chance to make up for last year's defeat in Prague. Aston Villa, their biggest opponent, was also eliminated.
However, Fiorentina's final opponent Olympiakos should not be underestimated. When the Greeks faced Markabe Tel Aviv in the previous 1/8 final, they once staged a super reversal, losing 4-1 at home and winning 6-1 in extra time away. In addition, the final is held in Athens, which means Olympiacos is half a home game. Why is "half"? The San Sophia Stadium is the main venue of AEK Athens, and AEK and Olympiacos are rivals each other.
Different from last year's situation, this time Fiorentina has become the dominant side in the cards. The biggest obstacle for the team to win the championship is actually themselves. The Viola is a team with unique tactics and temperament. They often lose some "only Florence will lose" games: the fierce attack and smooth cooperation in the front court run through the whole game, which means that they cannot capture the opponent's city; the opponent can accurately hit the most vulnerable part of Florence's rear defense with a cold counterattack. Sometimes it gives people the feeling that if the game is cancelled in the football world, Florence will certainly become a better team.
Despite the limited strength of the opponents in the UEFA Cup, Fiorentina played several heartbeats in the process of promotion before this: the team won the game away from Maccabi Haifa by Michael Ballack in the fifth minute of extra time; The home game against Bilson won, and the Viola shot 42 feet throughout the game. It was only in overtime that the problem was solved; The situation was similar when Bruges met in the semi-finals. The 31 to 5 shooting ratio only resulted in a 3-2 home victory, which was still due to the iron tree blossom of Nzora in stoppage time!
Fiorentina has a strong control in the midfield, but Bertrand, Bellotti and Ikoney in the front are not good at efficiency. Milenkovic, Martinez Quarta and Ranieri in the back have their own shortcomings. The captain is a big weakness in defense than Raji. When they came to Athens, they must spare no effort to avoid another "Florentine defeat". There is no need to doubt Viola's fighting spirit: in addition to their desire to do better than last year, they also want to dedicate this trophy to former general manager Barone.
Shen Tianhao, Special correspondent of Titan Sports Weekly in Italy
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