Before Bingfa had been away twice before and had never won the Dragons Stadium, Arsenal suffered a series of blows, goalkeeper Samunia could not play is well known, but the main central defender Garra and the main defender Alexander Song were finally unable to play due to injury at the last moment, but it cast a shadow on Arsenal's prospects, Song's interception ability is unmatched in Arsenal, but he has a replacement after all, Diaby and Denilson can go up to resist for a while, However, the injury of veteran Galla has caused Arsenal to have a shortage of people in the central defender position.

The situation is so embarrassing, Wenger can only catch ducks on the shelf, and push Campbell, who has not played in the Champions League since the 2006 Champions League final, to the forefront, except for Galla can no longer fight, Vermaelen is also injured and insisted, the three main players in the core position of the midfield and backfield are either resting or dragging their injured legs, even if Li Huan returns, the attacking players in the front court are basically complete except for Van Persie, the British media still pinched a cold sweat for Arsenal, the absence of offensive players is difficult to win, and the absence of defenders is likely to lose, It's very simple.

On the afternoon before the game, Arsenal chartered a flight to the city of Porto, at the entrance of the Ilapra Park Hotel, where the team was staying, the cheering fans and reporters had long been blocked there, the players signed autographs for the fans, Professor Wenger was interviewed by reporters from Portugal's largest portal "SAPO", online reporters are much sharper than print and television media reporters, and opened his mouth to ask Wenger if he thought about losing.

Arsene Wenger admits frankly: 'I thought about the possibility of losing, we have too many people missing in central midfield, which has never happened this season, but I think I am ready for it. ”

When asked by reporters whether Li Huan would start, Professor Wenger said, "Li Huan will definitely start, his body has fully recovered, but he may not be able to play the full 90 minutes." ”

Finally, Professor Wenger also answered the reporter's question about the tactics of Arsenal away from the website "Sapo", "We have no secrets in this regard, Arsenal's style of play has never changed, with me as the main and attack-oriented, this is Arsenal's characteristic, I think even if I am not in the Arsenal position, Arsenal's style of play will continue, because this style of play is beautiful and can satisfy the fans." ”

Ilapura's Park Hotel is a 5-star hotel with indoor and outdoor pools. There is also a health club and a rooftop bar with free Wi-Fi in public areas and panoramic views of Porto and the Douro River, of course the main reason why the Arsenal Club chose this hotel is not the condition of these facilities, but the fact that this hotel is not far from the Dragon Stadium.

Li Huan and Wilshire live in the same room, Li Huan likes to listen to songs before the game to relax his nerves, and occasionally sings to entertain himself, while Wilshire likes to play football games, Wenger arranged Wilshire in a room, is hoping that Li Huan will take this talented talent with great potential, although Wilshire has always been very arrogant in front of his teammates, but he is very respectful of a real big brother like Li Huan, and has learned a lot of experience from Li Huan.

After afternoon tea, Arsene Wenger held his first team meeting since arriving in Porto, the theme of the meeting was about defense, scoring 105 goals in 39 games this season, an average of nearly 3 goals per game, Li Huan's return to Arsenal never had to worry about scoring goals, and the back line was missing Galla, injured Vermaelen and Alexander. Song, this is something that has never been done this season, although the outside world is now raving about Arsenal's attacking power, but in fact, without a dedicated backline, Arsenal would not have achieved the results they have achieved now.

Fossil veteran Campbell and young talent Fabianski were naturally the focus of the meeting.

After Campbell left Arsenal, he had a long period of stable performance at Portsmouth, but that was in England, and the level of domestic competitions was obviously not on par with the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Poland goalkeeper Fabianski is Arsene Wenger's favourite to succeed Almunia, but the Polish goalkeeper has too many reasons to be uneasy. In last season's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, Fabianski made a mistake and was scored by Didier Drogba, and Arsenal were eliminated 1-2. In this year's FA Cup, Arsenal were eliminated by Stoke in the fourth round, and it was Fabianski who was in goal. And Arsenal's goalkeeper in their last Champions League game was also Fabianski, who was beaten 1-0 by Olympiacos. Although these games were abandoned by Arsenal strategy, Fabianski was to blame as goalkeeper.

However, Arsene Wenger still likes his number two goalkeeper. Not only did he justify Fabianski's mistake as a "good reading of the game" and "a mistake made by a brave attack", but he also described the Pole as "a very smart goalkeeper who can certainly learn from his mistakes".

The game will start tomorrow, Wenger put forward his own requirements for Campbell and Fabianski, Wenger did not expect them to have extraordinary performance, as long as they can show their level normally, especially the young Fabianski, the substitute goalkeeper is the most difficult to be, because it is likely that there will be no chance to play for a minute in a season, after the substitute debut, it is inevitable that there will be brilliant ideas, and the result is likely to be a mistake.

After Wenger finished speaking, assistant coach Rice announced the training plan for today and tomorrow to the team, and finally everyone was handed out a USB stick with information about the opponent, and the players had computers in their rooms that could be used to study the opponents they were going to play against.

In the afternoon, Arsenal went to the Dragon Stadium for their first pre-match training session, unexpectedly there were a lot of local fans on the pitch to support, including hundreds of Chinese fans, they are all fans of Li Huan, because Portugal and China because of the special relationship between Macau, Li Huan's arrival has also aroused the popularity of local Chinese fans, but there are also some Portuguese fans who are more hostile to Li Huan because of Ronaldo, so Li Huan's bodyguards are almost 24 hours a day in Portugal to track and protect him.

After training, Wenger participated in the pre-match press conference, in which Wenger complimented Porto, believing that at the Dragons Stadium, Porto is a difficult team to deal with, they have won a lot of honours in the European arena, which Arsenal is still a big gap with Porto, but Wenger believes that the first leg will not determine who will advance, and the game at the Emirates Stadium will determine the surname.

Porto's 63-year-old coach Patrick Ferreira appears to be more confident and passionate than Professor Arsene Wenger, and when it comes to excitement, he even loosens his tie, as if the tie is restricting his performance," ...... At the Stade de la Dragon, we are full of confidence, we have a psychological advantage, we have only lost once in 42 years, that was Ronaldo's magical long-range shot last season, Porto could only lose to the Portuguese at the Stadio de Dragons, Arsenal are stronger? Yes, in terms of squad, that's true, but we're two-time Champions League winners and in the Champions League we played better against Arsenal......"

When Ferreira said this, Wenger's face was very ugly, scolding people without revealing their shortcomings, hitting people without slapping their faces, being pointed at the sore spots, no matter how good the professor's self-cultivation was, he couldn't be indifferent, and when the reporter asked questions later, Professor Wenger refuted Ferreira's words meaningfully, the professor said: "The Champions League represents the highest level of the club, there is no doubt about it, but the championship is often the product of luck, Arsenal and Porto have reached the round of 16 of the Champions League for many years in a row, It shows that we are on the same level and I believe this game will be intense, intense. ”

The Arsenal players were watching the press conference in the conference hall of the Ilapra Park Hotel, and when they saw the opponent's manager speak so arrogantly and unceremoniously, the Arsenal players were so angry that Walcott clenched his fists and said angrily: "You must give them a little bit of power." ”

Diaby slapped the table and said, "If I were a professor, I would have told that old man Ferreira directly, don't talk, what only the Portuguese can beat the Portuguese team, we will kill you tomorrow." ”

Li Huan smiled slightly and said, "It's about to be eliminated, isn't it enjoyable to talk about." ”

Assistant coach Rice pressed down on his hand, signaled everyone to calm down, and said: "Everyone can't be careless, Portugal can win the Champions League twice, this is a strong foundation, in their own home stadium, it is definitely not easy to play, we must be serious." ”

Fabregas, who had not spoken, said: "Maybe they want to provoke us, let's fight calmly, I don't believe we can't win a second-rate European team." ”

'They're the best in Europe and we're going to play them second-rate, like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.' Fabianski was so excited that the substitute goalkeeper had been so excited that he had to start in the knockout rounds of the Champions League that he couldn't sleep well and, according to his roommate Vermaelen, he still had to take sleeping pills.

The enraged Gunners were looking forward to the game as the Portuguese media continued to fan the flames, with Pablo Ferreira's speech at the pre-match press conference dominating the headlines the following day, with the pre-match "Portuguese can beat Portugal" slogan becoming a slogan for Porto fans to motivate themselves and their players.

(To be continued)