Prominence in Football Community

Many people thought that Gao Zheng's words were intended to anger Barcelona. After all, anyone could hear the implication of those words.

But this time, in the face of Gao Zheng's provocation, Barcelona did not say a word. Even Pique didn't come forward and say anything.

A reporter asked him what he thought of Gao Zeng's words, and his answer was also: "It's really not revenge."

This surprised the reporters-when did Pique become so honest.

Was it really defeated in the Super Bowl?

But more words, no matter what the reporter asked, Pique would not speak, so no one knew what Pique was thinking deep in his heart.

But if you say that Pique really doesn't care about revenge, everyone will never believe it. He must be holding back his energy and wanting to wait until Barcelona wins the game before speaking.

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In fact, the game between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona is followed by the first round of the Champions League group stage, but Simeone does not intend to rotate in this game, even if Atletico Madrid's first Champions League group match is an away game against Galataza thunder.

In fact, the league with Barcelona is more important.

In the Champions League, Atletico Madrid have been assigned to Group C this season. As the seeded team, they have been assigned to a group with Galatasaray, Benfica and Astana.

In terms of the strength of the teams in the same group, there are basically no opponents who can threaten Atletico Madrid.

But this does not mean that Atletico Madrid's Champions League group stage this season will be easier.

Mainly because the away game is not easy to play.

It's not about how well the opponent can perform at home, the main reason is that the away game is too far away.

Except that Benfica is right next to it, whether it is Galatasaray or Astana, they have to work hard.

Galatasaray is far enough away, already at the junction of Europe and Asia, and Astana is farther away.

Friends who are familiar with European football may be unfamiliar with this name. In fact, this team is indeed a new face in the Champions League.

This is a team from Kazakhstan.

As we all know, Kazakhstan is an Asian country, but why can their team participate in the Champions League? Because the Kazakhstan Football Association joined UEFA, not AFC.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no Kazakhstan. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, most of the land is in Asia. Many people may think that Kazakhstan is naturally an Asian country, but it is not. Kazakhstan has two provinces with about one million people living in Europe in the geographical sense. The so-called Europe in the geographical sense traditionally refers to the continent west of the long line of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, the Bosporus Strait, the Marla Sea and the Dardanelles, and the count as Asia.

And Kazakhstan happens to have two provinces - West Kazakhstan and Atyrau across the Ural River, so Kazakhstan, like Turkey and Russia, is a country with land in Asia and Europe. However, perhaps because most of the country is in Asia, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, they automatically joined the AFC.

However, for a country that has no foundation in the AFC, Kazakhstan has no one in the AFC, so it is often bullied. Originally they thought that with their victory, not to mention going sideways in Asian football, at least qualifying for the World Cup would not be a problem-the reason why they didn't choose UEFA at the beginning was probably because they thought it was too difficult to go to UEFA to play in the World Cup. Unexpectedly, in the Asian region, they also failed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups.

At the same time, they have conflicts with the AFC. After all, the AFC has been dominated by West Asian football for a long time. The presidents of the AFC for nearly 50 years have been the agents of local tyrants in West Asia. Among them, only China's Zhang Jilong has served as the chairman for two years, and he is only an agent.

The fuse of the conflict was the Asian Club Cup in 1995. A club in Saudi Arabia refused to play in Kazakhstan on the grounds that the weather was too cold. It stands to reason that the Saudi Arabian club should be punished in this case, but the AFC controlled by West Asian football not only did not punish the Saudi Arabian team for refusing to participate,

Instead, the game was judged to be tied 0:0.

This incident caused great dissatisfaction in Kazakhstan, and later withdrew from the AFC.

As for joining UEFA, for Kazakhstan football, in addition to the support and assistance provided by the Russian Football Association, which is also affiliated with the Soviet Union, the support and subsidies given by UEFA are also different from those of AFC. In addition, often playing against strong European teams is also of great benefit to the improvement of Kazakhstan's football level.

So Kazakhstan has joined the UEFA family since 2002.

It's just that although they have joined UEFA for so long, it is the first time for them to participate in the Champions League.

Because the Kazakhstan team was too weak before, and they couldn't even pass the qualifying round.

This time, Astana, the representative team of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, first eliminated the Slovenian champion team Maribor in the qualifying round, and then eliminated the Finnish champion Helsinki to enter the play-offs. In the play-offs, their opponent is Cyprus' league champion Athletic Greek, who also played in the Champions League last season.

In the end, Astana eliminated their opponents with a total score of 2:1 and entered the Champions League. Made the history of Kazakhstan football.

This team will also be Atletico Madrid's opponents in the Champions League group stage.

Astana is more than 5,700 kilometers away from Madrid, and it takes seven hours to fly by plane. This is a huge test for Atlético Madrid, which is located at the western end of Europe.

It may also be the furthest away trip in the Champions League - unless a professional team from Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia, also makes it to the Champions League...but that's unlikely, that team's The strength is really too weak.

Considering such a long away trip, for Atletico Madrid, even if the opponent is weak, the game may not be easy to play.

And in addition to distance, weather is also a very important factor.

Because according to the schedule, Atletico Madrid's away game against Astana will be on November 3rd. At that time, the capital of Kazakhstan has entered the cold winter. And Astana is the second-largest capital city in the world, second only to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. In winter, the lowest temperature can reach minus 40 degrees.

Even if November 3rd is not considered to be deep winter, it will not reach minus 40 degrees, but minus 20 degrees will bring great trouble to Atletico Madrid...

Fortunately, Atletico Madrid does not need to consider this issue now, they only need to consider the game against Barcelona.

Perhaps Barcelona is much cuter than the away game more than 5,700 kilometers away. (=easy to read novels)