There are no world competitions this year, only the America's Cup and the Asian Cup, which have no impact on Lazio at all.
The only players who participated in the Copa America were Melo and Falcao.
But Melo has already gone to Juventus. Even if he has an impact, it also affects Juventus.
Colombia, where Falcao is located, did not qualify for the group stage. On July 5, after playing the last group match against the United States, they went home.
So Falcao actually got a lot of rest time.
As for the Asian Cup... no one from Lazio has participated.
Influenced by the American and European World Series, Lazio did a very good job in pre-season training.
The training plan was all completed according to the requirements and progress, and the warm-up match went smoothly.
And because there has been no major purchase this summer, Lazio does not need to re-integrate the team.
After a season of working together, this team has a good understanding of each other.
It can be said that this season Lazio has done its best in pre-season training preparations.
This makes everyone full of expectations for the team's results in the new season.
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For Laziola, which has always won, the first important game of the new season is the Italian Super Cup.
League champions Lazio face Italian Cup champions Roma.
It’s the Rome derby of the Italian Super Cup!
Although Roma has been suppressed by Lazio in the league, they still have an opportunity to teach Lazio a lesson and win.
Chang Sheng was dismissive of this.
"I know what they (Roma fans) think, and I can't force everyone to think the same as me, but I still want to say to those Roma fans who are looking forward to Roma defeating Lazio and then winning the Super Cup: Wake up.
Wake up, stop dreaming!"
The Super Bowl is played on the night of August 19th.
As Chang Sheng said, it is very difficult for Roma to defeat Lazio.
Unless he leaves this team with a win, he will not allow Roma to defeat Lazio as long as he is in Lazio.
Roma thought that Lazio's strength would be affected if they lost Lichtsteiner and Melo.
As a result, Khedira perfectly replaced Melo. With the combination of Modric, Khedira and Inle, Lazio's midfield was indestructible.
In the right back position, Abate stepped up.
This later became the main right back of AC Milan and the Italian national team, and he also matured after playing as a substitute for Lichtsteiner in Lazio for a year.
Therefore, Lazio's strength has not been weakened at all, and has even become stronger due to better cooperation.
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Generally speaking, apart from being held abroad, the Italian Super Cup will be played at the home stadium of the league champion.
This time, because the opponent is Roma, Roma can also be regarded as playing at home.
But this didn't help them.
Roma, playing at home, was beaten 2:1 by Lazio.
Roma tenaciously equalized the score once in the game.
But it was useless, it was Lazio who won in the end.
Falcao scored twice in the game, helping Lazio defeat their rivals in the same city and win the Super Cup championship.
Chang Sheng spread his hands at the post-match press conference and said: "Winning the championship? This is not surprising. I have said before, as long as the opponent is Roma, Lazio will never lose!"
So after the game, the media started to hype again that "a long victory will make Roma completely regret it".
Of course, Rome can also be stubborn and refuse to admit that they regret their original decision.
But it doesn't matter, just because they don't admit it doesn't mean others can't think so.
In fact, more and more people believe that Rome does regret it...
This kind of recognition will only make Rome even more unhappy.
Because no matter how they refute, they can't change the public's opinion.
Chang Sheng slapped Roma in the face again and again, how could Roma not regret it? It's just that they wanted to save face, so they refused to admit it.
This view hurt Roma.
It hurts more than losing to Lazio directly on the pitch.
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Every league, every season. The Super Cup is the outpost of the league.
Five days after the Super Cup, on August 25, the 2007-2008 Serie A season officially kicked off.
The league opener is between defending champions Lazio and Torino.
Torino was a newly promoted team last season and successfully avoided relegation.
However, in the first game of this season, they unfortunately faced the always-winner Lazio.
Lazio played all their main players in this game and played very seriously.
He didn't save face for his teammates just because Torino was Balzaretti's debut team.
Of course, Balzaretti was also very active.
The professionalism of professional players is most vividly reflected here.
In the end, Lazio defeated Turin with a score of 2:0 in the opening game and won the first game of the new season.
At the press conference after the game, Chang Sheng said that this season's league championship will still be Lazio's.
"I know that saying this will cause controversy. It will make some people unhappy, but I have to face my heart truly, and I have to tell the truth. I'm sorry to you, those who are crazy about signings this summer and want to compete for ambitions.
To the league champion teams, you are destined to be disappointed. Because this season’s league championship is still ours!”
These words are very arrogant.
But faced with his arrogant face, the media couldn't think of anything to refute his ideas.
Because he won the league championship for two consecutive seasons...it has proven that he is always winning and his team has the ability to do what he says.
After he came to Lazio, Lazio never lacked championships.
Even if they didn't win the league title in the first year, Lazio would still have a UEFA Cup title, and the league title in the second year.
Now, his team's lineup is becoming more mature, the players' strength is improving rapidly, and the team's tactics work well together. It is not surprising for such a team to say that they will defend the league championship again.
On the contrary, it would be surprising if Chang Sheng didn't say this.
So when some reporters heard Chang Sheng say this, they even breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this was the normal rhythm.
Chang Sheng's words will indeed make some people unhappy, such as Inter Milan's head coach Mancini who has a grudge against the league championship.
His team lost the league championship last season, but with the performance of double defeating AC Milan, Mancini finally managed to stay at Inter Milan.
Of course, some media said that Inter Milan kept Mancini because there was really no better head coach. It would be very suitable for him to win frequently, but it is impossible to come to Inter Milan for constant victory.
So Inter Milan had no choice but to keep Mancini.
Although he did not win the league championship, Mancini can lead the team to second place in the league every season, which is considered to be quite capable...
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After the first round of the league, Chang Sheng went to Monaco to attend the Champions League draw ceremony on August 30.
It was like a lottery, he wanted to see who he could be grouped with this time.
The final result was that Lazio was assigned to Group C. As a second-tier team, they were assigned to a group with Real Madrid, Werder Bremen and Olympiacos.
As soon as this grouping came out, Chang Sheng became the focus again.
Everyone knows the grudges between Chang Sheng and Real Madrid...
Chang Sheng came out of the Real Madrid youth training camp back then, but he was kicked out. Therefore, his hatred for Real Madrid can last for a long time.
As soon as the lottery results came out, the TV broadcast gave Chang Sheng a close-up shot.
Chang Sheng is smiling happily in the camera.
Apparently he also liked the results.
Sure enough, after the draw ceremony, Chang Sheng said in an interview with reporters: "I am very happy to be drawn with Real Madrid. I haven't met them for a long time... To be honest, I miss it a little bit.
Those 'old friends' in Spain."
Real Madrid's current head coach is Schuster.
This head coach really has some connection with Chang Sheng.
Because he also coached Getafe...
That was back when he was coaching Valencia in a winning position. Schuster only saw Getafe for a short period of time, but he did not leave anything worth remembering for Getafe.
Later he coached Levante and led Levante to promotion.
Because of his success with this small team, he succeeded the unpopular Capello this summer and became Real Madrid's head coach.
This is a challenge for him.
Perhaps the first important challenge he has to face is to face Real Madrid's old enemy Chang Sheng.
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After the European Super Cup, the second round of the league came. Lazio defeated Sampdoria 1:0 in an away game and achieved two consecutive league victories.
In the third round, Lazio defeated Empoli 4-0 at home.
After three rounds, they won three out of three matches and accumulated nine points, rising to first place in the rankings.
Second in the league is city rival Roma.
Roma also won three out of three matches and accumulated nine points.
The two teams even had exactly the same number of goals scored and conceded. They both scored seven goals and didn't concede a single goal.
However, in terms of points ranking, Lazio is still ranked first.
This made Roma fans very unhappy.
Our points, goals scored, and goals conceded are all the same. Why are we second in the league and they are first?
In fact, if it were Roma or any other team that encountered this situation, Roma fans probably wouldn't have this idea.
But as long as anything happens and you encounter a mortal enemy in the same city, there's nothing you can do about it.
The Italian Football Federation could only refuse to explain. They wanted to wait until one more round to decide the winner.
They don't believe that after four rounds of the league, these two damn teams can still have the same points, the same number of goals scored, and the same number of goals conceded!
The Roma fans were very unhappy, while the Lazio fans were very happy. Because they had everything the same as their opponents, but in the end they beat Roma and ranked first.
When they saw the Roma fans getting angry at this treatment, the Lazio fans felt happy from the bottom of their hearts.
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After playing three rounds of league games, Lazio will play the first game of the Champions League group stage away from home.
They face Olympiacos away from home.
At this time, Lazio is no longer what it was last season, and most of the people in the team have no experience in the Champions League.
After a season of Champions League baptism, this team finally has experience in the Champions League.
And these experiences are very valuable.
They reached the quarterfinals in one go and were inextricably matched up with Bundesliga giants like Bayern Munich.
In the end, they lost to their opponents in a penalty shootout.
This is their first time participating in the Champions League and they have such a rich experience, which is very beneficial to their experience accumulation.
Therefore, Lazio's performance in the Champions League this season is more mature.
What's more, Olympiacos was Lazio's opponent in the Champions League group stage last season.
At that time, they were placed in a group stage with Olympiacos, Valencia and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Olympiacos is no stranger to Lazio.
This also helped them.
In the away game, Lazio finally defeated Olinacos 3:0, giving themselves a good start in the Champions League of the new season.