Turin, Estadio Alpi

The stadium is significantly different from England's stadiums in that in addition to the official football venues, there is also an athletics track, which makes the spectator stands far away from the stadium and easy to manage, but it does not create the frenzied fan cheering momentum of the English stadium stands.

The second leg of the long-awaited European Champions Cup quarter-finals is about to start, and players from both sides are already waiting in the players' tunnel to play.

This is naturally a polite statement, in fact, the thoughts in the hearts of the two are exactly the same: you fall, I will fight for the championship!

The 40,000-capacity stadium looks to be very well attended today, close to full, although there are still empty seats in some places.

Originally, the population of Turin was not large, and even for a giant club like Juventus, the attendance rate still did not reach a hot rate, but today is the European Champions Cup, and there is no reason to have empty seats.

Aldridge looked around the stadium, the Italian fans were as passionate about football as fans in any other country in the world, they waved their flags for the team, put up huge banners to intimidate the opponents, loud slogans, loud singing, all of which expressed their love for the team and the oppression of the opponent.

Aldrich looked around for a moment, and finally frowned.

Where are the away fans?

What about Millwall's fans?

Travelling away with the team is a measure of fan loyalty, at least in England. If you don't go to an away game with the team. And then he bragged about his loyalty to the team. This will be ridiculed and ridiculed by the fan base.

Before Aldridge led the team to Turin, at least three of Millwall's largest fan groups sent letters of encouragement to the club, in which they vowed to cheer for Millwall at the Alpi Stadium to make the players more effective away from home.

But now at the Alpi Stadium, Aldridge barely sees a single large slogan or banner associated with Millwall, and only the few flags with the Lions emblem on them make it known from afar that they are Millwall fans.

Those fans have no reason to lie to themselves. This is no child's play, and there are many fans who see their loyalty to the club as dignity.

What's going on?

Where did the missing Millwall fans go?

As players from both sides lined up into the pitch, the Champions League theme song echoed inside the Alpi Stadium.

"The second leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Juventus and Millwall is about to begin, both teams are in good form in the league at the moment, the score of the last meeting was 2:1, Millwall's goal conceded before the end of the game gave them a one-goal advantage, and allowed Juventus to score away goals, for this game, Juventus must score. Millwall, on the other hand, could fall into passivity, at home of the Serie A champions. Millwall's control of the game would have been greatly reduced, and the second meeting between Lippi and Hall will test the ability of both managers to be on the field, and when the game starts, every minute will be different. ”

"There is no difference between the starting line-ups of the two teams from the previous game, with Millwall's formation changing from 433 to 4231 in the previous game, while Juventus are using the 4312 in the previous game, and the two teams are ready to kick off after shaking hands with each other."

When the referee's whistle blew, the game officially began, and Millwall shrank their defence as soon as they came up, and they led the aggregate score, and it was understandable to play on the counter-attack.

Juventus' state after opening today was completely different from the last game, the last game they worked hard and the time was right, the place and the people were not the same, today they were the opposite, they waited for their work, gave their all to this game, and naturally got into the form faster on the pitch they are familiar with.

Davies, Deschamps, Conte, these three offensive and defensive midfielders provide fire support behind Zidane, helping Zidane share the pressure encountered when organizing the attack, and at the same time use active scrambling to contain Millwall's counterattack at the first time when defending, Inzaghi and Piero also showed a very good competitive state today, just opened, Zidane passed the ball over the top in front of Pirlo, Piero ran diagonally and stopped the ball with his chest without waiting for Elguera to block it was a volley, The ball flew into the bottom right corner of the Millwall goal in a strong spin arc, but Bout was well prepared to save the ball off the line.

Juventus took a corner, the ball was cleared in the box, and the follow-up Deschamps passed the ball straight into the box, Inzaghi directly met the ball and volleyed it high.

From the start, Juventus put a lot of pressure on Millwall.

When that happens, the players know what to do.

They will stabilize first, slow down the opponent's tempo, and wear down the opponent's high state, but this set is a bit immature for Juventus, who can fight and grab.

Piero and Inzaghi were consciously stuck between defenders and full-backs, and Zidane was also between Pirlo and Makelele, which created a kind of pressure, forcing Millwall not to dare to settle down frequently at the back to stabilize, and must attack forward!

Lippi has clearly carefully studied Millwall's style of play, playing 4231 away, with the two wings being the focus, and Larsson and Shevchenko making a big fuss on the flanks in the counter-attack.

Both of these have outstanding abilities, but they are definitely not at the height of the ability to strengthen the Juventus backline, in the Serie A arena full of masters, Juventus's backline is the most stable, it has been tempered and forged, and no one can be wild in front of them.

But Larsson and Shevchenko are not the kind of wingers who hold the ball and "pass you", and in the rapid forward advancement, the wing is a series of excessive playmakers, to achieve the purpose of combining the side and the center, and using the passing and cutting position to tear apart the opponent's defense.

Because of this, when Nedved was caught by at least two of the opposing midfielders in the counter-attack, Larsson and Shevchenko could not connect with the middle, and Pirlo was consciously blocked by Zidane, and then Larsson and Shevchenko were caught one-on-one with the opponent's very capable full-backs. The offense was at a loss.

Millwall's full-backs remained unmoved. They lead the aggregate score. Even if it is a counterattack, the overall formation is still based on solid defense in the offense to avoid giving the opponent a chance to counterattack.

Juventus' advantage was very obvious, and the attack was very vigorous, and it was only one shot away from the goal.

The confidence advantage that Millwall had built up in the first leg against Juventus was fading little by little, and the Lions were really starting to realise the horror of the Serie A champions.

In addition to the twin stars on the front line, Zidanega's configuration of the three midfielders behind them gives them a huge advantage in midfield, and the passing and receiving coordination is very smooth. It can be retracted and released in both offense and defense.

Aldridge constantly reminded his players on the sidelines to pay attention to their defensive formations and avoid being penetrated by the opposition in the middle.

He still chose Pirlo to start today, not Ballack, and the defensive hardness naturally decreased, but he needed Pirlo's organization and scheduling when switching from defense to attack.

Playing a team of Juventus's level, even if the opponent has a flaw, it is only a fleeting moment, and whether or not you can seize this moment will test the ability of the team commander, at this point. Aldrich believed in Pirlo more, and there was no doubt about that. That kind of scalpel-like pass, the most reasonable threat pass, Pirlo is better than Ballack.

Silver Fox Lippi looked handsome in a suit today, sitting in the dugout just like in the first round, and he was also enjoying the game leisurely like a spectator with a cigar in his mouth.

Compared with Aldridge, who stands on the sidelines and uses body language to direct the team from time to time, the visual contrast between the two is huge, and they move and stillness.

Aldrich is like a frightened rookie, and Lippi is even more sophisticated.

Excluding the factors of the two coaching styles, if Aldridge and Juventus were given this group, he probably would not supervise the game on the sidelines, but sit down comfortably.

This group of people is too experienced, the team has long been mature, there is no need for the coach to remind or make any changes on the sidelines, if Millwall's group of players have been playing for the Lions, Aldridge can also reach a "rule by inaction" realm within three years, because the players have fought in the north and south, all kinds of scenes have been experienced, mentality, skills and tactics, on-field adaptation, self-adjustment and other abilities will reach the peak, and the work of the head coach will also change accordingly, which is to maintain the peak state of the team, Instead of expecting them to improve and improve even more, basically players who are over 23 years old rely on experience to improve the game, and experience is rich, that is, to maintain and adjust their physical and competitive condition.

Millwall couldn't control the pace of the game today, they wanted to "slow down and play", but Juventus didn't give them such an opportunity, and forced Millwall to attack with a reasonable forward position, but as soon as they attacked, Millwall's frontcourt attacking group that did not dare to press heavily was cut to pieces by the opponent's experienced formation, and Juventus successfully defended and quickly launched a new wave of attacks to maintain the pace of the game at a faster rate.

The Lions did not play well in attack, but the defense was very hard, and after gradually getting used to the rhythm, Juventus's stormy attack began to lose its power.

As long as he doesn't concede a goal, Aldridge doesn't think there's any need to change anything.

Millwall's attack is not ideal, the main reason is that the number of attackers is too small, and there are only four people in the front court, under the premise that the Juventus players are in better condition, four people want to break the opponent's chain defense line composed of at least seven people, it will take a shocking individual play!

Stabilize first, stabilize the defense, wait slowly, don't rush, time passes minute by minute, and the situation is getting more and more unfavorable for Juventus.

Aldridge doesn't believe Juventus can sit still, they have about six or seven men in attack, and the four defenders have not moved, and if it were not for experience and personal super ability and the advantage of the home field, Juventus would not have been able to shake Millwall's defense.

When the game was half an hour into play, Aldridge also became calm, watching the game with his hands in his pockets on the sidelines.

The two teams entered a delicate balance, and Juventus' advantage was also gradually narrowed by Millwall, if more troops were not invested in the attack, for Millwall, who were becoming more and more experienced in defense, even after 90 minutes would be no problem.

The cheering at the Alpi Stadium was earth-shattering, with fans setting off fireworks in the stands and smoke billowing from the stands in one place, but this did not attract the attention of the players of both teams.

This strong dialogue is still more than intense, not exciting, because neither side will give each other a great chance, and there are also players who want to solve the battle by one-man combat, Piero and Larsson have tried, but the final result is very embarrassing to be defused by the opponent, but it gives the opponent more confidence.

In the first half, the two sides shook hands and walked into the locker room. (To be continued......)