Chapter 415: War Clouds Gathering

When the Chelsea team walked out of Istanbul Airport, they immediately saw a large group of reporters waiting there.

These reporters arrived in Istanbul a few days ago. Their purpose was to interview the local fans about their feelings, the environment of the Champions League final, report on the progress of the event at any time, etc.

In the eyes of many players, the Champions League final is on par with the World Cup final. Although in the hearts of fans, the two are probably a little different, there are many stars whose countries do not have the opportunity to participate in the World Cup, and even if they enter the World Cup, they do not have the strength to achieve good results. The Champions League final is the highest level event they can participate in.

From this perspective, the value of the Champions League final is indeed very high. In fact, it is not easy to break through the siege and reach the final among many football giants. Just like the famous Barcelona, ​​they have only won the European Championship twice so far.

From this we can see how difficult it is to win the Champions League trophy, which is the highest honor for European football clubs.

However, many media outlets did not give a high evaluation of this game, because they felt that there was not much suspense about the outcome of the game and Chelsea would definitely be the winner, so when the entire Chelsea team rushed to the hotel from the airport, 80% of the reporters present followed them, and only a small number of reporters stayed at the airport waiting for Liverpool. It can be seen from this that the gap between the two teams in the minds of the reporters is really not small.

In the imagination of many players, Turkish fans should be very violent, and the fans here are definitely not cute at all.

However, when the entire Chelsea team boarded a temporarily rented bus and rushed from the airport to the hotel, they saw many local Istanbul fans standing on both sides of the road. Many of them were holding signs with slogans such as "Welcome" and "Come on" to welcome the arrival of the two teams. This scene was quite surprising.

But it doesn’t really matter, does it?

For Turkish fans, both teams are English teams and they have no preference for the game at all. Even if they buy tickets, they are just entering the stadium to watch a high-level match that they cannot normally see.

Without preference for a match, Turkish fans, like fans from other countries, also like stars. With so many world-renowned players in Chelsea, there is really no reason for them not to welcome them. It is rare for these players to come to Istanbul.

However, compared with Chelsea, Liverpool's treatment is a little worse.

When the entire Liverpool team walked out of the airport, most reporters had already rushed to the hotel where Chelsea was staying, hoping to see if they could have a chance to interview one or two players. This made the number of reporters welcoming Liverpool at the airport pitifully small, with a rough count of only more than 100.

You know, this is the final of the European Champions League, and more than 100 reporters are nothing.

Before this final, Chelsea had already won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Premier League. They were already a small treble winner. As long as they won this game, Chelsea would be able to win the quadruple. Compared to Chelsea, which was in its heyday, Liverpool had nothing to show for it. Even in the league, they finished fifth, which meant they could only play in the UEFA Cup next season. In this case, how could these reporters be optimistic about them? No matter which aspect you look at, Chelsea will win the championship cleanly.

Although they were mentally prepared, Liverpool players were not in a good mood after seeing this scene. Some of them thought that it was a broken jar and no one cared about the reaction, so it didn't matter if they lost the game. Some of them thought that they should perform better and let the team win, and slap these media who were fawning on the powerful in the face.

"Okay, everyone listen to me. I think we should take the game seriously and try to win the championship trophy. Those people think we will lose. If we win, imagine their expressions. It must be very interesting."

On the bus, the atmosphere in Liverpool was not very good. Most of the players had gloomy faces. Seeing this, Gerrard immediately stood up and took the initiative to explain: "The coach has long said that they are very good, but we are not bad either. This is Istanbul, not Stamford Bridge. We have no reason to be nervous. We should try our best. If we don't try, how do we know that we will definitely lose?"

"We should try our best as Steven said." Jamie Carragher snorted coldly and stood up.

Although the words of these two people did not have a big impact on the players, it at least made them feel a little better. After arriving at the hotel, the first thing the Liverpool players had to do was to adapt to the venue. It would be better to say that they were going to visit the venue. Although it was almost evening, Benítez still asked the players to go into the Kemal Ataturk Stadium for a walk and get a feel for the stadium in advance, so that they could get into training faster the next day.

On the other hand, after tidying up their rooms, Chelsea players gathered in a room to chat and wait for the arrival of head coach Mourinho. It was not that they did not want to do something, but there were hundreds of reporters blocking the hotel entrance. Unless they did something together, individual players would be surrounded as soon as they left the hotel. Just imagine being surrounded by hundreds of reporters. It is definitely not a pleasant thing.

Not long after, after sending away some influential media reporters, Mourinho came to this room to give them a short tactical guidance lesson. In fact, he was already very familiar with Liverpool and Chelsea. When he was at Chelsea Club, Mourinho did not say much. He could only let the players train hard and take the game seriously.

However, saying more will always deepen the impression. This time Mourinho had a lot of information in his hand. He distributed the information to each player and asked them to use tonight to read it carefully, analyze it carefully and remember everything in it.

There seems to be a lot of information, but actually there is not much content. Wang Li took a quick look and found that it was just a detailed introduction of Liverpool players.

This information generally contains a detailed analysis of each Liverpool player, including a series of items such as 'what they are good at', 'how they usually play', 'what they often do', 'specific running positions', etc. Although this information does not seem to be much, it is definitely the conclusions drawn by a large group of people after watching many, many game videos.

This is the result of the hard work of the coaching staff. They have made sufficient preparations to win this game.

What Chelsea players need to do is to remember the information of the players opposite them. In fact, there is not much information. Each person only needs to remember three or four on average, which will be very helpful in the game.

"I don't want to see any accidents happen, and I don't want to see any players not playing seriously. Before getting the championship trophy, if any of you don't do this, just go off the court. I think everyone wants to play in the European Champions League final."

Mourinho's tone did not sound harsh, but the implication behind it touched the hearts of every player.

Although everyone came with the team to participate in the game, there were only 11 spots available. In such an important game, who wouldn't want to play? If you don't participate in the game, but get the Champions League medal, this honor is definitely not perfect, and no one wants that.

If I was substituted in the middle of the game...it would be even more embarrassing

Even if the team wins, I'm afraid the media and fans will think it has nothing to do with you. After all, since you were substituted by the head coach, it means your performance was not very good. If the team loses the game, you are likely to become Chelsea's sinner. Think about it, when the Blues fans recall Chelsea's Champions League final in the 2004-05 season, they will think "It's all because of XXX, otherwise we would have won the championship trophy." No one wants XXX to become their own name.

"We need to launch attacks from both wings at the right time, use fast breaks from both wings to move to the middle to look for shooting opportunities. The opponent's attacks mostly come from the middle, so when defending, the focus should still be on the middle, and the sidebacks should also pay more attention to returning to defense..."

Chelsea players had heard these tactical arrangements once before, but Mourinho still told them again without getting tired of it. This was the best tactic obtained after discussion by the team's coaching staff. Mourinho also felt that this tactic was very good, at least it maximized Chelsea's advantages.

However, even though the players have memorized the tactics, they still listened very carefully. This game is the last one of the season and the most important one. No one is a fool. They don't want to work hard for a season and then fail and give up the championship.

As long as they work hard for a few more days and put all their strength into the game, they will be able to relax after 90 minutes. Then it will be the time to relax and celebrate.

The next morning, the two teams went to Ataturk Stadium separately for training to adapt to the venue. The stadium looks very large and the stadium managers are obviously very business-minded. Today, Ataturk Stadium actually sold tickets to the public, and the effect was quite good. Many local fans wanted to go to the stadium to watch the daily training of the two teams.

At around ten o'clock in the morning, the stadium, which can accommodate more than 80,000 fans, was already sparsely populated with fans. It was not the regular game time, so many fans stood directly next to the stadium fence, waving at the players on the stadium and shouting in their local dialect. Whenever a player performed well, they would cheer loudly with purpose.

Under such circumstances, the training effect of the two teams can be imagined. The players protested to the stadium managers one after another, but that would have no effect at all. After all, this is in Turkey, not England.

In fact, the team's assistant coach Clark also feels that training in such an environment will allow the players to perform better during the game. After all, during the game, there were 80,000 fans in the surrounding stands, but now there are only a few thousand fans scattered around.

Among these players, the one who is least affected is Wang Li. He receives the most "intense" welcome, but his training seems to be unaffected at all. It should be said that his training has been just "playing". When he is in the mood to "play", he even performs some fancy shots, which attracts the admiration and cheers of more fans around him.

Although Wang Li has only been at Chelsea for a year, he has already become famous in the team. Many more Turkish fans know him than Lampard and Terry, and many of them knew him from the promotion of the European League matches before the game.

Wherever there is a match, there is publicity. After the two teams of the Champions League final were announced, UEFA and Istanbul local media promoted the match crazily. Even though some Turkish fans would never watch foreign leagues, they knew that the two teams were about to face off in Istanbul.

Among them, the promotion of Chelsea is "succinct and to the point". Many of the advertising stickers are pictures of Wang Li's overhead kick, which fully demonstrates the style of domineering football and attracts many Turkish fans to become interested in the game. It can be said that after such advertising, it is impossible for Wang Li to not be recognized even if he covers his face. As for other Chelsea players, except for those fans who like to watch the Premier League who can recognize one or two, other fans can't even name them.

Fortunately, the staff of the stadium seemed to be able to judge the situation. After seeing this situation, in order to attract more fans to buy tickets, they directly opened the big screen of the stadium and began to introduce the main players of the two teams one by one. This greatly satisfied the fans' "curiosity", but also embarrassed the players of the two teams in training.

Thus, the first day of training ended in such a scene. Most of the players from both teams walked out of the stadium with helplessness on their faces. However, a few players who were ignored by the stadium staff because they usually couldn't play and had no performance records were secretly glad that they were not on camera.

It would definitely be embarrassing to be watched on the big screen before you have even performed anything.

That evening, Chelsea held an impromptu press conference in the lobby on the first floor of the hotel. When Wang Li and Lampard walked down from upstairs, there were already more than a hundred reporters crowded in the lobby. This was obviously not all. There were still many reporters at the entrance of the hotel taking pictures frantically through the glass. Due to limited space, they were not allowed to enter.

Such impromptu press conferences are usually held by the team's press officer to release some recent team conditions, which generally have no special significance, so Mourinho did not attend. Only Lampard and Wang Li met with reporters on behalf of Chelsea and answered a few questions. As the leader of Turkish newspapers, the reporter of Istanbul Church Newspaper first asked: "Mr. Allen, can you tell us what you think of this game?"

Wang Li said: "I don't have any special opinions. Chelsea and Liverpool are already very familiar with each other. What we have to do is to play the game with a normal mindset and treat it as an ordinary league game rather than a final. Only in this way can we contribute a wonderful game to the fans."

"Do you think Liverpool will be a rival to Chelsea?" a Sun reporter asked afterwards.

Wang Li smiled and said, "I think we are stronger, but anything can happen in a football match, so we must take the game seriously and try to minimize the chances of accidents, so that we can successfully win the championship trophy."

"So what is Chelsea's goal?" Wang Li smiled and said confidently: "We have only one goal, which is to defeat them and win the championship trophy."

Even in a normal league, saying this kind of thing would seem a bit impolite, as the media would think it was self-boasting and a sign of not taking the opponent seriously at all. However, in relation to this game, when these words were spoken by Wang Li, the effect was completely different.

At the press conference, the following words of flattery and inquiry were "Chelsea will definitely win the championship", "They are no match at all", "How many goals do you aim to win?", etc. Wang Li himself felt embarrassed after hearing these words.

Unlike Chelsea's press conference, which was lively and full of unanimous support, Liverpool's press conference was full of "ups and downs".

Most of the reporters' questions were centered around the question of "how many goals do you plan to lose?" They didn't believe Liverpool had any chance of winning at all. The gap between the two teams was too big. If this wasn't the Champions League final, I'm afraid these reporters wouldn't come to interview Liverpool.

Seeing this situation, Gerrard, who followed the head coach to attend the press conference, smiled bitterly in his heart. Although he also knew that the team's chances of winning were slim, when others said it, the feeling in his heart was completely different.

The team has reached the Champions League final, and everyone wants to win the championship, even if the opponent is the powerful Chelsea. However, the reporters present did not understand this at all. They just kept talking about related questions such as "Are you under a lot of pressure?", which made Gerrard feel extremely uncomfortable.

However, on the other hand, he was also very glad. Judging from the performance of the reporters, Chelsea might have made the mistake of underestimating the opponent in the hype. He knew that there was a big gap between the two teams. Only if the opponent made mistakes would they have a better chance of winning.

So, facing the reporters' questions, Steven Gerrard, who was always known for his perseverance, actually put on a sincere face that said "it's true". This made the media's goal of angering Liverpool and getting big news fail, but instead made them feel that Liverpool really had no hope of winning---

If even the team's backbone has lost confidence in the game, how can we play this game?

PS: It rained heavily in Beijing yesterday. Xiao X was affected. After getting soaked, he had a high fever of 40 degrees. He took aspirin three times before it was barely down. So, today's update is a little late. Sorry...