324 Mestaria

This is the first time George has led the team to Spain.

Now La Liga is in its heyday, surpassing the Little World Cup Serie A to become the first league in Europe. This can be seen from the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League this season. Three teams appeared in La Liga, Real Madrid, Valencia and A Coruña.

In the former Little World Cup Italy, there is only one Milan alone representative of Serie A.

Even Milan is not easy to appear. If I hadn't been lucky, I would have been eliminated long ago.

There is only one Bayern in the Bundesliga.

The Bosman Act is really influential. The European clubs that were in full bloom in those years now only have the four major leagues left.

And other leagues except the four major leagues, including Ligue 1 and the Dutch League, have completely fallen. Their club is completely unable to compete with the four major leagues. I don't know whether this is the necessity of the development of football or the sadness of the development of football.

In early April, Spain was already sunny.

Looking at the warm weather, George unconsciously thought. With such good weather, it is no wonder that Spanish players are unwilling to play in the wet England. And even if you go to England, you will be very uncomfortable. The so-called homesickness will occur from time to time.

George came to Valencia.

Valencia is a beautiful city. It is bordered by the blue sea to the east, backed by vast plains, beautiful beaches, and plenty of sunshine. This land is like a pearl on the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Greeks, Romans and Arabs have been here like ghosts. Today, Valencia's agriculture is developed, and citrus and lemons have long been famous and exported to Europe and the United States.

This is the third largest city in Spain. There is a strong La Liga team here. He is called the Bat Legion of Valencia, an old team with a long history, with the third largest number of members in Spain. In the early days, the team wore white tops and shorts, so Spain was known as the "white ghost".

Valencia is a team that is completely different from other Spanish styles. Valencia is known for its stable style, which is characterized by fast offensive and defensive conversion and efficient defensive counterattack.

Speaking of Valencia's current defensive counterattack tactics, we can't help but mention one person.

That's Italian coach Ranieri.

Ragneli moved to Spain and became the head coach of Valencia in the 97-98 season. He spread the Italian defensive counterattack to Spain and bore fruit in Valencia. Although he has only been in Valencia for two years, his tactical thinking has deeply influenced Valencia. Valencia was able to become one of the Spanish giants in the late 1990s, and Ranieri made great contributions.

And Cooper, who replaced Ranieri, improved Ranieri's defensive counterattack.

Especially the performance of Mendieta's genius, plus Keeley. The joining of Gonzalez has made Valencia's counterattack tactics better and better. It has become a force that cannot be ignored in European football.

Cooper also took advantage of his performance in Valencia to become a real world-class coach.

But the powerful Valencia, George is not afraid at all.

For Valencia, George studied it early.

George is confident to defeat Valencia.

............On April 4th, this day is the first round of the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.

George led Black to the Mestaria Stadium.

Mestalia Stadium in Valencia has a long history. The history has been more than 70 years, but it doesn't look too old. This stadium, which can accommodate more than 50,000 people, is much larger than Blackburn's Ewood Park.

Every time he sees these courts, George can't help but be a little envious.

Even if it can't be compared with Old Trafford and Wembley, it's good to have at least a seat of 50,000 to 60,000 people. But now Ewood Park can only accommodate more than 30,000 people, which seems a little small.

But after entering the court, George shook his head.

Speaking of which, Valencia has achieved good results in these seasons. And this game is a knockout match of the Champions League, which is a very important game. But Valencia's home court is not full, at least 7,000 or 8,000 empty seats.

This surprised George.

In the Premier League, George plays. Even those relegated teams have a large number of fans. Many stadiums can be filled. Even when George led Burnley to the low-level league, there were a lot of fans on the spot.

Just like Preston Club in the same place as Blackburn and Burnley. Their club is a low-level league team.

For so many years, they don't know what the top league tastes like. But they have a lot of fans, with 20,000 live fans per game. There are many such clubs in England.

But I didn't expect that the powerful Valencia was not even full of seats for more than 50,000 people.

And now there are thousands of fans following Blackburn at the Mestaria Stadium. In this way, there are about 40,000 Valencia fans present today. There are too few fans.

Valencia, where is this place?

This is the third largest city in Spain. As a powerful team in the world's first league, the number of spectators at the scene did not exceed 50,000, which was very surprising. If it is placed in Blackburn, not to mention this kind of Champions League knockout match, even in the league, 50,000 fans can easily gather.

George didn't know that there were so few fans in Valencia? Or is it because Valencia fans don't care about Blackburn at all and think this game is a suspenseless game?

George put down a trace of disappointment in his heart and looked at the players on the field. When I saw Aimar playing the ball there, I was a little envious. Players like Aimar can only play in La Liga. With a thin body, if it comes to the Premier League, it is estimated that he will retire in a few seasons.

The clown Aimar is a 21-year-old young player, but he is famous. It is famous not only in Argentina, but also in La Liga and world football.

Aimar is a genius from the Argentine giant River Plate team. Together with Saviola, he led River Plate to win two Argentine Football League titles and a South American Super Cup.

Aimar is regarded as the "stakeover of the king of the ball" by Argentines. Of course, there are too many "stakes of the king of the ball" in Argentina now. But all the people who can be given this title are Argentina's best talented players.

21-year-old Aimar has just moved to Valencia this winter. The transfer fee exceeds 20 million euros.

In the current world football world, it is absolutely rare that the transfer fee can reach 20 million US dollars at the age of 21.

Since the winter transfer, Aimar's performance in Valencia has been obvious to all. In La Liga, a technical league, Aimar, a talented midfielder, is proficient.

But there is also some good news. It's that Aimar was injured not long ago and just came back. It is difficult to guarantee the state.

George just looked at it for a while, and then went into the locker room by himself. I just came out to feel Valencia's home court. In the locker room, George is analyzing how to deal with Valencia on the road.

At this time, the players who finished the warm-up entered the locker room one by one.

"We are a newcomer to the Champions League. Although we are the champions of the UEFA Cup last year, few people can think of us entering the quarterfinals."

The League Cup champion is too watery. Compared with the strong team in the Champions League, the League Cup is completely lower. Those rich families also look down on Blackburn.

"Top eight, you are already amazing. But are you only satisfied with the top eight?

"Of course not." All the players shake their heads.

The top eight, the top eight is also a goal. All Blackburn players disagree with this statement.

"Yes, the top eight, what is the top eight? As long as we beat Valencia, we can make it to the semi-finals. After the semi-finals, it will be the final. We have reached this point. How can we meet the results of the top eight?

Valencia is a team that focuses on defensive counterattacks. Defensive counterattack, I asked him to only defend, not counterattack.

George began to explain the tactics of the game to the players. It's just a short time, because the tactics in the game have been explained in the training.

"Valencia was the runner-up of the Champions League last season. Go and tell them why they are runners-up, not champions!"

There are two matches in the quarterfinals on this day. One is Valencia vs. Blackburn, and the other is Arsenal vs. A Coruña. In yesterday's game, Manchester United lost 0-1 at home to Bayern and Milan beat Real Madrid 3-1 at home.

The qualifying situation of the Premier League hegemon Manchester United is already precarious.

So the English media put their hopes in Blackburn and Arsenal.

"Hario, everyone, this is the quarter-final knockout match of the UEFA Champions League. The two sides of the game are Valencia and Blackburn.

"First of all, let me tell you about Valencia's starting lineup. The goalkeeper is Canizares, the defender from left to right is Caponi, Perrigrino, Ayala, Angeloma, and the midfielder is Killy. Gonzalez, Barraja, Mendieta, Aimar, and the forward lines are Karu and Juan. Sanchez."

Let's talk about Blackburn's starting lineup. The goalkeeper is Cudicini, the defender line is Riese, Blanco, Ferdinand and Sanior from left to right, the midfielder is Pires, Deco, Marklele, Miku and Duff, and the forward line is Klose.

George did not let Panucci, who was in good shape, play in this game, but chose to trust Blanco, a veteran. Blanco will miss many games in the second half of the season only because of physical problems. But George didn't doubt his strength at all.

Although Blanco's turn is slow, his frontal defense is absolutely first-class in world football. And the important thing is that Blanco is extremely experienced. It can make up for Ferdinand's recklessness.

For this game, George is confident enough to defeat Valencia.

(To be continued)