Chapter 1 The Taste of the Champions League

As February arrived, even the air itself seemed to change.

The European Champions League!

It began to appear frequently in the media.

On February 17th, the knockout stage of the Champions League would begin in full swing, with teams battling it out for the highest honor in European club football—the European Champion Clubs' Cup.

In fact, this globally renowned event only truly begins at this point.

After multiple reforms, the European Champion Clubs' Cup is now called the Champions League. With the increase in participating teams, a significant change has been the entry of many second- and third-tier league teams into the group stage. This has certainly brought benefits to those teams, giving them the opportunity to visit the Champions League stage and earn some appearance fees. However, a side effect has been a sharp decline in the quality of the group stage, with the water content rapidly increasing. Many fans have never even heard of some of the teams that qualify for the group stage. They never expected to leave their mark on this great football event; they were simply there to make up the numbers, only thinking about getting through the six games. It's rare to find teams that enter the Champions League determined to prove themselves in the competition.

Even Serie A teams like Udinese only see the Champions League as an opportunity to inflate the value of their players and sell them for a good price, let alone teams from the Bulgarian League, Romanian League, or Israeli League...

Of course, many teams aren't unwilling to fight hard in the Champions League; it's just that the price of fighting hard is too high—if they win against a strong team, they might be relegated by the end of the season… That would be a real loss.

But regardless, the decline in the quality of the Champions League group stage is widely acknowledged, with many matches being completely uninteresting. Many strong teams are also unwilling to travel to distant Eastern Europe in the dead of winter, so the conflict between the big clubs and UEFA has never disappeared. Although G14 is dead, the idea of creating a game for the big clubs—a European Super League—still exists.

Now, the Champions League only becomes a true "Champions League" in the knockout stage, as almost all of the teams that reach the round of sixteen have something to offer… Of course, there are always some imposters, but they usually don't go very far…

With the Champions League round of sixteen just two weeks away, many fans are starting to get excited.

They are paying closer attention to the sixteen teams participating in the Champions League round of sixteen.

And it's not just the fans who are paying attention, but also many professionals. Including scouts from the participating teams…

The recent league matches of each team can reveal their current form, especially the form of key players.

This is part of analyzing the opponent.

However, for a matchup like Napoli versus Real Madrid, it's completely unnecessary. Real Madrid is the biggest of the big clubs. Their matches are everywhere, the media is constantly reporting on them, and the brand of clothes their players wear on the street can be gossiped about by the media. So, Napoli doesn't need to send scouts to Spain to observe their opponent's recent form.

And what about Real Madrid? They certainly don't need to know anything about Napoli.

Everyone understands that whether Real Madrid can break the curse of the round of sixteen depends entirely on themselves. It can even be said that whether they can win their tenth Champions League trophy in club history depends entirely on themselves. In this world, as long as they are serious and perform normally, there are almost no teams that can defeat them.

But that's just nonsense… Meaningless.

Because in recent years, Real Madrid has never been normal! Judging from this season, the chances of them being normal are very slim…

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After entering February, it wasn't just the fans and the media who were focused on the Champions League; even the players themselves seemed a bit distracted.

Their distraction was evident in the fact that Napoli, playing with their full squad, lost 1-3 to Udinese away from home.

Even Chen Yingxiong was out of form in this match.

The commentator could understand the entire Napoli team's distraction: "You can see that Napoli's players are already thinking about the Champions League round of sixteen, even though they still have ten days until the match…"

Therefore, the Napoli players who lost the game didn't feel too frustrated or sad. They lost, so they lost. It didn't matter that they fell from third to fourth in the league.

Even Mazzarri expressed his understanding of the players' performance in the post-match press conference.

"...The players are thinking about the Champions League? That's normal, and I don't think it's a bad thing. Because it shows that our players have enough motivation and fighting spirit; they haven't been intimidated by the names of our opponents…"

Don't think that Mazzarri was just cleaning up the players' mess in front of the media.

In fact, Mazzarri was already aware of this—he is the team's coach, how could he not know what's going on inside the team?

He had even prepared himself for the result of losing to Udinese.

A temporary strategic abandonment of the domestic league was his plan all along.

So, of course, he wouldn't have any unexpected or angry thoughts about the team losing to Udinese.

Ten days until the Champions League? So what? Napoli's opponent is Real Madrid… No, to put it more broadly, it might be the entire UEFA.

So, it's completely normal to start preparing for these two round of sixteen matches more than ten days in advance. Mazzarri didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

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On February 14th, in the 24th round of Serie A, Napoli continued their away journey. They drew 0-0 with Siena away from home. Siena is currently ranked 20th in the league. There are a total of 20 teams in Serie A, which means that Siena is currently in last place…

It's not yet the time for the relegation battle, and Siena still has a chance to turn things around. So, Napoli being held to a draw by Siena away from home was truly intentional.

Three days later, the team would face Real Madrid.

According to the schedule, they would first play away from home.

Napoli would travel to the football temple, the Bernabéu Stadium, to challenge the overlords there.

Although Mazzarri had been constantly instilling and promoting to the players at the beginning of the season, telling them that the real Napoli should be a team that "fears nothing, striding across Europe," spirit is one thing, and actual facts are another.

In terms of strength, Napoli really has no comparison to Real Madrid. Their annual financial budget is many times that of Napoli's. To give the simplest example, the annual salary of Real Madrid's star player, Cristiano Ronaldo, is almost equal to Napoli's entire team's annual salary budget…

In terms of strength, Napoli is weaker than Real Madrid, but that is definitely not a reason to concede defeat in advance.

Since they are determined to fight Real Madrid, they must make sufficient preparations.

Napoli is not Real Madrid and cannot "take themselves as the main thing," so of course they must study their opponents. It's normal to start preparing half a month in advance.

Anyway, the team's current ranking is still good, and they have always been in the top group in the league. Temporarily abandoning the league a bit, Mazzarri is confident that he can catch up later, and at least secure a spot in the European competition.

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After not winning in two consecutive games, the Italian media were also clear that Napoli was really preparing for the match against Real Madrid.

After all, the opponent is too strong, and it's normal to start preparing two games in advance.

Next, Napoli would have to go to the Bernabéu Stadium to challenge the powerful Real Madrid.

That white giant is not even in the same league as them…

After playing the match against Siena, the entire Napoli team set off for Madrid to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League round of sixteen against Real Madrid in the middle of the week.

"We can only wish them good luck, because their opponent is breathtakingly strong—Pellegrini's Real Madrid has scored fifty-three goals in twenty-two league games, tied with Barcelona for the most attacking team in La Liga. This number of goals also makes them proud of the entire European football scene. And Napoli's defense has always been a weakness. Although the team introduced former Italy's second goalkeeper De Sanctis during the winter break, it is still worrying whether they can withstand Real Madrid…"

When Napoli set off, the local media in Naples said worriedly.

In the eyes of many people, this draw basically announced the end of Napoli's journey back to the Champions League after eighteen years.

The chances of Napoli defeating Real Madrid are too slim.

Now, they can only hope that Napoli can perform like real men in the Bernabéu, losing the game but not losing face…

In any case, we are also Maradona's team, how could the team of such a rebellious person bow to the strong? Not to mention that Maradona used to play for Barcelona, and is a bitter enemy of Real Madrid.

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"The Bernabéu!" On the plane to Madrid, many players were excited about being able to play at the Bernabéu, especially Hamsik. He had privately expressed his longing for Real Madrid when chatting with Chen Yingxiong, saying that if he had the opportunity to go to a big club in the future, his first choice would definitely be Real Madrid.

Compared to his excited teammates, Cassano's performance was more subdued. First of all, he had already played many games at the Bernabéu, because he used to be a Real Madrid player. Secondly, his career at Real Madrid can be described as "terrible," so he doesn't have too deep feelings for this team and this stadium.

Before boarding the plane, a reporter came to ask him if he had any special feelings about playing at the Bernabéu. The reporter hinted that he could say something like "a wanderer returning home" or "returning home in glory," but Cassano said with a cold face: "This is just an ordinary Champions League match."

The reporter, who had prepared a lot of material, was left speechless by the answer…

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ps, It's the double monthly ticket period, I will work hard to update and ask for monthly tickets~ There will still be three updates tomorrow, until the fifth!