With nearly 70 hours left before the Champions League final, the Millwall team left London for the northern part of the Ruhr area in Germany and arrived at Gelsenkirchen. Before World War II, this was an industrial area and was known as the City of Thousand Fires. Unfortunately, it was occupied by the Allies during World War II.
After the military bombing, there were no coal mines here, and the newly emerged city reached a turning point. Today, it is just a city with a population of about 300,000.*
When the Champions League final was about to be staged, a large number of fans poured into this small town. Fans from Portugal and London were the main force, and there were also fans from all over the world who wanted to watch the Champions League final live.
This year's UEFA Champions League final will be held at Schalke Stadium in this city. This is the home ground of Schalke 04 and is famous in Germany. Since its completion and opening three years ago, Germany's top team Bayern Munich has visited this stadium.
The record was a complete defeat, which made this newly built 5-star stadium quickly become famous all over the world.
The war is approaching, and Millwall is preparing in an orderly manner. The atmosphere within the team is good, and there is no tension or pressure. This is the fifth time Millwall will compete in the Champions League final in ten years, and the seventh time it will compete in the club's Intercontinental Cup final.
What is tension?
The veteran players in the team are calm and unhurried, and their rich experience is driving and influencing the young players in the team, such as Nedved, Larsson, Southgate and others, and they play a good role in "passing and guiding".
Football media around the world described this European pinnacle battle as: a battle of old enemies!
There is no other reason.
Aldridge is so sharp that he is rarely matched.
And this year, Millwall’s opponent in the final is: Porto!
Last year, the two teams played against each other in the UEFA Cup final!
Last year's UEFA Cup. This year's Champions League.
Millwall has returned from the trough to the top. Porto is the dark horse that stands out among Europe's second-tier leagues.
Many people think this is a fateful encounter.
Aldridge, who is celebrating his tenth anniversary as coach, meets Mourinho, who has reached the European finals in less than five years after starting his career.
Of course, in terms of biological age, Aldridge is younger than Mourinho.
But compared to his age in coaching the team, Aldridge is undoubtedly Mourinho's senior and someone Mourinho must look up to.
At a time when Aldridge is invincible and has defeated the world-class coaches of the older and Mesozoic generations, Mourinho, the most popular among the new generation of European football, has high expectations to some extent.
Look forward to this Portuguese madman being able to overturn the rule of young coach Aldridge!
Under the exaggeration of the media, Mourinho has become the second "Aldrich".
Although his coaching trajectory cannot match Aldridge's timeline, there are indeed many similarities.
In his third year in charge, Aldridge won the Premier League championship and reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup.
In his third year in charge, Mourinho won the Portuguese Super League championship and advanced to the UEFA Cup final.
In his fourth year as coach, Aldridge reached the top of Europe.
Mourinho, same thing.
It's just that Mourinho was coaching Porto and had resigned twice before. Once he changed jobs and the other time he was fired.
Even Mourinho took over Porto and won the league runner-up midway through his second year in charge, which is consistent with Millwall's record of winning the Premier League runner-up in Aldridge's second year.
Mourinho has completed the defense of the Portuguese Super League this season. He has long been famous in Europe and has also established the image of a "madman".
He is also on the same level as the Portuguese media in China, and what he says is crazy.
"Under normal circumstances, Porto will definitely be the league champion. If something unexpected happens? We will still be the champion!"
I just don’t know if Porto’s match-fixing case will be settled four years later this season and they will be deprived of the Champions League qualification five years later. Will anyone use Mourinho’s wild words to make malicious speculations in the future?
Porto has made progress this season. Compared with last season when it was still slightly idealistic when competing in the UEFA Cup, this season is more pragmatic. In addition to a group of underestimated players under Mourinho who have grown up, become more experienced, and are more united and other factors.
, also includes their technical and tactical play styles.
The reason why Mourinho has become the most prestigious among the new generation of coaches is that he even secretly reached an agreement with Chelsea a month ago and was pursued by Real Madrid at the same time.
The reason is that their performance in the Champions League and their domestic dominance are not enough to show how outstanding Mourinho is.
After all, the Portuguese Super League is a second-tier league in Europe. After all, the French Ligue 1 three consecutive championships should be more prestigious. However, Mourinho led Porto in addition to being defeated by Real Madrid 3:1 at home in the second round of the Champions League group stage, and then came to the final.
In the first 10 Champions League games, they remained undefeated!
In addition, they eliminated Manchester United in two rounds in the round of 16, eliminated Ligue 1 class champion Lyon in the top 8, and in the semi-finals, Deportivo La Coruña, who had completed a miraculous comeback against AC Milan, was eliminated from the finals.
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In terms of strength comparison, Porto has eliminated the Premier League and French Ligue 1 league champions, and the defending Champions League champion has fallen at the feet of Deportivo La Coruna, and Deportivo's achievements seem to have become a stepping stone for Porto.
It's just that in these six knockout games, the news content that is often seen is: Porto is extremely utilitarian and "dirty".
Ferguson, Le Guan, and Irueta, these three players under Mourinho were defeated in every game, every game, not when the results came out after the two rounds.
They criticized Porto during the first round and after the second round, believing that Porto was too utilitarian. Secondly, the players were always "performing", "harassing", "delaying" and "affecting" the game on the court.
Porto's players always make a lot of little moves when defending, fall down easily to win favorable penalties when attacking, and always try to provoke conflicts on the field to benefit their own team.
Porto's ability to reach the Champions League final is naturally a great achievement, but they are still a dark horse. Dark horse means that the overall strength has not reached the height recognized by the outside world. This is reality and cannot be changed by human will. It can only happen when success is achieved.
It will gradually become a myth by those who come after you.
Just like Millwall who won the Champions League in 1998, people still mention that generation of Wild Lions and make comparisons to see which one is better than the second generation of Wild Lions. They even come to compare with the current Millwall.
If Aldrich makes a comparison, there is no doubt that the second generation Mad Lion is definitely stronger than the first generation, and the third generation Mad Lion is also stronger than that, but still inferior to the second generation. However, the third generation
The Generation Crazy Lions are still on the rise, and their future potential is enough for them to surpass the second generation.
The discussion of Guan Gong and Qin Qiong is of little significance.
Simply put, Porto's players have good potential, but potential is not linked to strength. Just like Carvalho in 2004 is incomparable to Carvalho a few years later.
Porto's overall strength must not have reached the peak of Europe's top level, so they are a dark horse, so their achievements only highlight the greatness of Mourinho. It was this madman who strategized that allowed Porto to win thousands of miles away.
From this perspective, the complaints of Manchester United, Lyon, and Deportivo are quite like "whining women moaning", because in football, the strong do not always win.
Regarding meeting Porto in the Intercontinental Cup final for two consecutive years, Aldridge seemed very calm and showed enough grace at the official UEFA press conference.
"Mourinho is a very good coach. I remember when I met him in 1997, I thought he would achieve great things, so I also extended an invitation to him at that time, hoping that he could come to work at Millwall.
, it’s a pity that he rejected him, he is an ambitious coach,
There are many top clubs linked to him. I think it is normal. The stage of the Portuguese Super League cannot satisfy him. He should display his talents on the top stage of the mainstream European leagues. Ahem, as for tomorrow's Champions League final, Porto has a chance, of course.
There's a chance, Milvo
Although Er is rich in experience and is also the favorite to win the championship, if we are careless and underestimate the opponent, the result will definitely let us down. The only thing I am worried about now is whether the players' desire for the championship will have a negative impact on the game. Schneider, Lar
Sen and the others can't wait to win their fifth Champions League title, so that they won't feel depressed in front of their friend Pirlo. Young guys like De Rossi and Alonso are also eager to win the Champions League trophy as a main player for the first time.
, I can only hope that they don’t get too excited now.”
Aldridge's remarks at the press conference sounded quite satisfactory, but the Fleet Street interpretation revealed a mystery.
It is not difficult to find that Aldridge is "provoking" Mourinho through media platforms, which can be regarded as a kind of targeted harassment.
1997?
It happened 7 years ago, Aldrich used the tone of a senior to stimulate Mourinho.
I was optimistic about you back then, but now you have succeeded, which proves that I have a good vision.
And if you think about it again, what were the identities of the two of them at that time?
At the same time, Aldridge also "interfered" with the Porto team.
Your coach has been linked to many teams in Europe in the past two months. He is leaving. He and you are no longer on the same team.
This is an open estrangement.
Mourinho was interviewed later, and he acted coolly, as if he didn't take Aldridge seriously.
He naturally had anger in his heart, and Aldrich poked his weakness.
He is leaving.
This will be his last game in charge of Porto.
"I don't care what anyone says, I am with my players and we have fought hard to get to the Champions League final. All our energy will now be focused on this game. We are all together and will try our best to achieve it."
Everyone’s dream. I will not make any comments about Millwall, because we have always defeated the strong, and the Champions League final is no exception.” (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!
