While the media and fans are hotly discussing the Bundesliga champion, La Liga champion, and Serie A champion, and fans are debating the offensive power of Joan Chen, Messi, and Ronaldo, the Atletico Madrid team has already boarded the bus to Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
plane to start preparations for the 2011/2012 Europa League final to be held at the National Arena of Romania on May 9.
The Bucharest National Arena was built in 1953 and started renovations in October 2005. The renovation work was completed at the end of 2007. It has 54,000 seats. It was once rated as a four-star stadium by UEFA and is currently the venue for the Romanian national men's football team.
It is home to the Romanian Football Association Cup finals and the Romanian Super Cup.
The Europa League final of the 2011/2012 season will be the first time that the final of a European football club competition is held in Romania. Therefore, not only fans of Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, the two participating teams in the final, flocked to Romania, but also local Romanian fans.
fans also have very high expectations for this Europa League final.
Even though it is only the less famous Europa League final among the two major European competitions, in a small country like Romania, it is difficult to watch the European finals. The atmosphere is definitely not inferior to the Champions League final, and more than 50,000 seats have already been sold out.
The full name of the Europa League is UEFA Europa League. Its predecessor was the UEFA Cup founded in 1971. After the reform of the three traditional European cups in 1999, the Cup Winners' Cup was merged into the UEFA Cup. In 2009, UEFA
The league's competition has been reformed again, and the UEFA Cup has a new name: this is now the Europa League.
Currently, the participating teams in the Europa League include the second-best teams in the leagues of UEFA member associations, domestic cup champions, and some teams that were eliminated in the qualifying rounds and group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Although the overall strength is not as strong as the participating teams in the Champions League, there are occasionally cases where giants compete for the Europa League.
In this season's Europa League, top European clubs such as Manchester United and Manchester City have appeared.
However, the Manchester City duo failed to live up to their expectations and were both eliminated in the knockout rounds, which ultimately led to the Spanish Civil War between Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao.
In fact, it was no accident that Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao met in the final.
Among the five major European leagues, Ligue 1 has always been at the bottom. Sometimes it is overtaken by the Portuguese Super League or the Eredivisie in the European Cup standings. The Europa League record has always been dismal.
Serie A suffered a heavy setback due to the Calciopoli scandal, with revenue plummeting and star losses. In recent years, its performance in the European war has been disappointing. Except for the short-lived moment when Mourinho led Inter Milan to win the Triple Crown in 2010, the whole Serie A is now at a low point.
period.
Although there are many wealthy teams in the Premier League, the competition in the domestic league is very fierce, and there are three competitions to play in the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup, and there is not even a winter break. Therefore, many mid-to-upper-tier teams are involved in domestic competitions.
Too much energy.
German football is simple and fast, which is exactly what the technically advanced Spain prefers. The Spanish team is not afraid of playing the German style.
In addition to the disadvantages of participating teams in the other four major leagues, La Liga teams also have their own advantages.
The Spanish domestic league itself is relatively loose, which allows Spanish teams to devote more energy to the European competition. La Liga teams also pay more attention to the European competition, and they will not give up the competition because of the lower prize money in these events. They still put
The Europa League is a huge honor, and winning the Europa League is a great motivation for them.
Therefore, as long as they can play in the Europa League, Spanish teams will work hard just like they do in the Champions League.
Since entering the new century, Spanish teams have performed very well in the UEFA Cup and Europa League, and have won the championship trophy four times.
This season is no exception. Three La Liga teams, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, and Athletic Bilbao, have entered the semi-finals. In the end, Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid met in the final.
Although Atletico Madrid and Biba are not as famous as Real Madrid and Barcelona, they both have their own characteristics.
Athletic Bilbao is the only club in Europe and even the world that only uses players from its own nationality to form its team. The selection range is very small, but Bielsa is very smart. He highly emphasizes the importance of national pride and self-confidence here.
role in a team.
In this team, Bielsa has extremely high prestige. Every word and every order he says can be implemented without compromise by the team. The coach and Bilbao people are a nation that refuses to admit defeat.
The features are perfectly combined.
This season, Athletic Bilbao defeated Paris Saint-Germain to advance to the top spot in the group stage. In the knockout round, they eliminated the strong Russian team Lokomotiv Moskva, the Premier League giant Manchester United, the German Bundesliga team Schalke 04, and the Portuguese Super League giant Sporting Lisbon to advance to the final. The gold content is extremely high.
.
If not for Atletico Madrid, who are in the same league and have defeated them before, whenever they encounter teams from other leagues, Athletic Bilbao will give it a go.
Of course, there is no absolute certainty in the game. Even if Bilbao has lost to Atletico Madrid in the league, it is not certain that they will lose in the final. Faced with the fact that winning can win the European championship, Athletic Bilbao
It is still unclear at this time what kind of combat effectiveness the Basque players can unleash.
On the other side, Atletico Madrid's current head coach Simeone is also from Argentina, but he is much younger than Bielsa and can be regarded as Bielsa's disciple. From 1998 to 2002, when Bielsa coached the Argentine national team, Simeone was his
His players.
This Europa League final can be seen as a master-disciple showdown between Simeone and Bielsa.
Atletico Madrid is the third largest club in Spain after Real Madrid and Barcelona. However, before Simeone took over, it was easy to lose track at critical moments and was unable to show its true strength. What it lacked was a kind of toughness in key games.
.
And it is Simeone who is a real tough guy on the football field. His style has not changed since he became a coach, and he is called a bandit coach. Simeone's improvement in the hardness of Atletico Madrid's overall style of play is far greater than his improvement in Atletico Madrid's tactics.
In terms of skills and tactics, Atletico Madrid, as the third largest club in La Liga, is actually very strong. Whether it is Courtois on the goal line or Diego Godin, Miranda, Gabi on the defense,
As long as Thiago and others improve their defensive hardness and dare to fight and grab, there is basically no need to worry about the defensive line.
On the offensive line, Atletico Madrid itself has a tradition of outstanding forwards. Torres, Aguero, Diego Forlan, etc. are all representatives of Atletico Madrid's outstanding forwards, and they have also produced "the best forwards in the world.
” reputation.
Now there are two super partners in the team: Tiger Falcao and Calderon King Joanchen. Their goal efficiency is even higher than the previous partnership of Aguero and Forlan.
Therefore, Atletico Madrid is almost considered to be the best in the world on both offense and defense. Except for the lack of depth in the bench, the main starting lineup can compete with any team in the world. In the second half of the season, Atletico Madrid successively defeated Barcelona and Real Madrid, which is proof.
After Simeone transformed Atletico Madrid's style of play, Atletico Madrid now has a lineup that is good enough to compete for the Champions League championship. It is almost guaranteed to win the Europa League against Athletic Bilbao.
According to the odds offered by European bookmakers for this final, Atletico Madrid's probability of winning is almost four times that of Athletic Bilbao.
In other words, Atletico Madrid's probability of winning is 80%, and Athletic Bilbao's is 20%. In Chinese terms, 80% of the Europa League championship is already in Atletico Madrid's possession.
As time goes by, the game time gets closer and closer, and the world's attention begins to gradually shift to the Europa League final.
As one of the two major European competitions, although the Europa League does not receive as much attention as the Champions League, it is still the European champion after all. Coupled with the attraction of superstars Qiao Anchen and Falcao, the attention is still quite good.
Especially for China, it was the first time that a player participated in the European championship competition, and everyone was very excited.
cctv-5 sent a large team of reporters to Romania for on-site reporting. In addition to commentators, guest commentators, and on-field reporters, there were also off-field reporters who interviewed Atletico Madrid and overseas Chinese fans outside the stadium.
There is even a group of reporters left in Madrid, waiting at the Poseidon Square where Atletico Madrid fans gather, to interview and take photos of the Atletico Madrid fans gathered here. Especially, if Atletico Madrid really beats Athletic Bilbao to win the championship, the gathering will
The hundreds of thousands of Atletico Madrid fans in Poseidon Square will definitely celebrate wildly.
This kind of shot is not to be missed and must be photographed.
In addition to reporters, there are naturally no shortage of overseas Chinese fans from Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and other parts of Europe. Wearing Atletico Madrid or Chinese jerseys and holding Chinese flags, they entered the Romanian capital to cheer for Qiao Anchen.
If Atletico Madrid really wins the championship, it will be the first European championship won by a Chinese player in Europe, which is of extraordinary significance.
Therefore, not only overseas Chinese fans in Europe, but also domestic fans who are not short of money, organized a group to fly all the way from China to Romania to watch the game live and cheer for Qiao Anchen.
In addition, the domestic media's numerous forward-looking reports have also made many fans, even pseudo-fans, ready to wait in front of TVs and computers in the early morning to watch the Europa League final.
The Europa League final of the 2011/2012 season is about to begin.