After beating Juventus 2-1, the Fiorentina players rested at home for a day before flying on a club-booked flight to the English city of Manchester, where they will clash with Premier League champions Manchester United at Old Trafford on Thursday.

The last time Fiorentina played an English side was back in the 1994-95 season, when Fiorentina knocked down Graham's Arsenal 2-0 on aggregate over two legs in the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup to reach the final and beat Zaragoza from La Liga in Paris to win the first Cup Winners' Cup in the club's history!

But Arsenal is Arsenal, Manchester United is Manchester United, including manager Fabio Capello, no one thinks that Arsenal can represent all English teams, not to mention that according to the information sent back by the scouts sent by the club to England to collect intelligence, Arsenal's iron-blooded defensive counter-attacking style is an out-and-out outlier even in the Premier League.

Therefore, for the opponent of this quarter-final, Fiorentina basically has nothing to know except for a few game videos...... If there is anyone in Fiorentina who knows anything about Manchester United, it should be Zhuang Mingge alone.

Therefore, when Capello found out that Zhuang Mingge was commenting on Manchester United's group of players, including their manager Alex Ferguson, he immediately pulled Zhuang Mingge to his room to watch the video of the game for a whole night, and said that he wanted to have a good exchange of feelings with Mr. Chairman.

Of course, what happened that night can only be found by looking at Zhuang Mingge, who yawned with a pair of panda eyes and looked like he was burning out the next day......

"Damn! Next time, Lao Tzu won't owe it anymore, and the feeling of being caught watching the video of the game for a night is really bad! Zhuang Mingge complained indignantly that in exchange for only the gloating of little Groz and Karin's daughter.

Manchester United lost their old captain Steve Bruce last summer, and the departure of the England defender has caused a crack in United's otherwise solid backline, and David May, who has taken over the banner left by Bruce as Manchester United's main central defender this season, obviously does not have the ability and temperament of the old captain, which is a headache for Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.

In fact, since Bruce's departure from Manchester United, United's backline has been unstable, and then with the departure of Parister, Schmeichel, Erwin and others, this phenomenon has been further exacerbated, although Ferguson brought in new blood such as Henning Borg, Ronnie Johnson, Stam and Blank, but United's backline did not re-establish until 2006 when Nemanja Vidic and Van der Sar arrived. Prior to this, Alex Ferguson's United had always had glaring holes at the back.

The Fiorentina players who came to Manchester made full use of the few days before the start of the game to adapt to the field and develop the game tactics, and Manchester United was also very cooperative, and did not do anything excessive, such as deliberately shortening the time for Fiorentina to adapt to the field, making loud noises outside the hotel where the Fiorentina players were staying, and so on......

Sometimes, it is convenient to be with others as well as with yourself. This time it seems that you took advantage, and the ghost knows if they will go even further when you go to the other party's house next time?

Therefore, the two sides ushered in the first leg of the Champions League in a relatively quiet atmosphere.

That night, the 68,000-seat Old Trafford stadium was packed (note: Old Trafford was only known as 76,000 after an expansion in '06, there weren't that many seats in 1997), and countless United fans poured into the stadium to cheer on the home team and get a closer look at the champions.

For the first leg of the Champions League match against Fiorentina at home, Ferguson is very important, the old Scottish man lined up a set of 442 formation, diamond midfield and double striker This is also the most common tactical play of Manchester United over the years: the starting goalkeeper is Danish Peter Schmeichel, at the back, Erwin and Gary Neville are separated, and David May and Paris partner in the middle.

Manchester United's midfield was the "golden four" that later became famous in European football, and it was also the strongest link of the Red Devils: Roy Keane at the back, Welshman Ryan Giggs and England star David Beckham on the wings, and Paul Scholes in the midfield position; United's forward line is a combination of Andy Cole and Frenchman Eric Cantona, with the latter not only helping the Reds to attack on the pitch but also providing more assists for his team-mates.

Capello realized that Manchester United is not an easy team to deal with under the guidance of Zhuang Mingge, although English teams are generally more difficult after the end of the ban period, but Manchester United, which has won three titles in the four years since the establishment of the Premier League, is obviously not a team to be taken lightly.

And Manchester United's comeback to win the title last season when they were 12 points behind leaders Newcastle made Capello 12 points more careful, and in the eyes of the cautious Italian coach, he hated this kind of team that people come crazy.

Because you don't know when the other party will suddenly go on a rampage and turn the original extremely unfavorable situation around.

Therefore, Capello also sent a four-four-two formation, but unlike Manchester United, Fiorentina's midfield does not have full-backs: goalkeeper Toldo, two full-backs are Robert Carlos and Zambrotta, these two will be fully responsible for Fiorentina's side attack and defense in this game, and the central defenders are Nesta and Ferrara, two more defensive players, although Stam has shown some potential, but the Dutch central defender's performance on the field is still a little frizzy, Capello doesn't want to be found a breakthrough by a cunning player like Eric Cantona.

In the midfield, Redondo dragged on to organize and sort out Fiorentina's backfield, and Davies and Di Biagio teamed up to escort the Argentine prince, although Redondo's individual defensive ability is also first-class...... Ahead of them, the German tiger, who had heard of Keane's heroic deeds from Capello, was gearing up for a ninety-minute "cordial exchange" with the Irish villain.

On the forward line, considering the jishu characteristics of Parlister and David May, Capello sent a combination of Ronaldo and Big Inzaghi, his intention is very obvious, Lao Tzu is to use a small and fast forward line to deal with your two bulky central defenders, you have the ability to bite me?

The big war is about to begin.