Tuesday, September 16, 2009.

In the evening.

The night in Lyon has just arrived, and the French-style lights spread slowly in the city.

It is already late in the night in China, and many people are already asleep.

But for others, after more than three months, the new Champions League season finally kicked off.

This is their sleepless night.

-

In the live broadcast room of CCTV, commentator He Wei is making final preparations.

This is the first Champions League day of this season. Whether it is due to professionalism or feudal superstition, he hopes to make a good start, so he checks it in detail.

At this moment, CCTV5 is playing the preview program "Champions League Opening Wing" recorded in advance, systematically introducing the overall situation of the Champions League this season and the group matchups of 32 teams. He still has time to continue preparing.

The studio door was gently pushed open, and a tall man in his sixties strode in.

He nodded apologetically: "It was obviously early in the morning, but there was still a little traffic jam..."

"There is no way, who made this the imperial capital?" He Wei stood up with a smile and shook hands politely with the other party. "Zhang Zhi, you put on makeup, let's take the information at the same time?"

The old man who was over 1.9 meters tall when he was young was named Zhang Lu. He was once a professional goalkeeper. After retiring, he began to engage in football theory research and was hired by CCTV as a competition consultant. When he started broadcasting the Serie A League in 1991, he also became the first batch of football commentators in China.

He has a habit of keeping neutral and objective, he basically does not make special preparations before commenting on the game. Some games even know the teams of both sides after entering the broadcast room, thus eliminating the preconceived impression.

Of course, many people think... this is obviously for being lazy!

However, he is not the host or commentator. As a guest, his professional knowledge is basically enough to deal with changes in the situation on the field.

Today he also did not ask in advance which game the commentary was, so he asked He Wei while accepting the makeup artist's simple puff paste, "Which game do we want to talk about? Juventus or Milan?"

There is no doubt that he has been engaged in Serie A commentary for nearly 20 years and is familiar with these two teams. Both the Old Women and the Reds and Blacks are super powerful families with many fans in China. Under normal circumstances, they are definitely the priority target for TV stations to broadcast.

"None aren't," He Wei replied with a smile, "It's Lyon's game against Ajax."

"Huh?" Zhang Lu was obviously surprised, "Is this the team from France and the Netherlands? This..."

He originally wanted to question whether the brain of the TV leader was kicked by a donkey. Although Ligue 1 is one of the five major leagues, everyone knows that it is just to make up numbers. Until many years later, there was only one team that could win the Champions League championship in Ligue 1, and it was impossible to compare with the other four major leagues.

But he didn't do this because he was not a fool, and the TV station's leader was not a fool.

"Zhang Zhi has not paid attention to media reports recently, right?" He Wei explained with a smile, "There is a Chinese player in the Ajax team."

"Ah... So that's it." Zhang Lu immediately understood. Although he didn't pay much attention to online media, even the newspapers reported on the boy from his compatriot far away in the Netherlands many times. "I remember, that little guy is called Long Shute! But... this is a Champions League match. Can he be on the 18-man roster of Ajax?"

He Wei shook a piece of printing paper in his hand and made a "hush" sound: "He is not only on the roster, but also on the starting team!"

-

“They are the best teams,

They are the ultimate team,

This is the top event,

The Victory Teacher,

The King's Teacher,

The greatest team,

The champion,

The biggest gathering,

One of the greatest sporting events,

They are the strongest,

They are invincible,

They are the champions!”

The official theme song of the Champions League "Champions League" sounded over the Gerland Stadium. The lyrics were intertwined in English, German and French. The rhythm was exciting but melodious. The tune was magnificent. Accompanied by the cheers and shouts of 40,000 fans on the scene, a very shocking game atmosphere was created.

Long Shute was standing in the player passage at the Gerland Stadium, waiting to appear with his teammates. Next to him was a six or seven-year-old French caddie, who was looking at him curiously.

The caddies who can participate in the Champions League are definitely not ordinary people. They have at least experienced a considerable degree of "training" in the Ligue 1, have seen many big scenes, and rarely acted impolitely as staring at players, but perhaps he has never been a caddie for Chinese players, so he feels a little fresh about this foreign player with black hair, black eyes, yellow skin...

Lyon's starting eleven players stood less than two meters away. These players have fairly average figures. Except for forward Lisandro Lopez and midfielder Gian Marcuson, only 1.74 meters tall, everyone else is around 180, and even the two central defenders do not exceed 183, which is slightly lower than Suarez.

Although Van Basten advocates ground attack, the White Swan has long abandoned its rigid and stubborn concepts after great ups and downs. He specially arranged training classes for high-altitude ball bombing to target Lyon's weaknesses, which can be launched at any time as a backup attack method.

Dominating the Ligue 1 for seven consecutive years has also allowed Lyon to enter the Champions League for many years. In addition, this is playing at their own home court, so there is almost no trace of tension on the faces of these players. They talk and laugh, as if they don't take their opponents seriously at all.

Compared to the home team that is easy to use, Ajax is obviously different. Except for the defender Oleg who once played for Barcelona, ​​everyone else has participated in such a major event for the first time, and they are more or less restrained.

Captain Ajax Suarez stood at the front of the queue. Even though he had always been free and casual, he couldn't help swallowing at this time, and occasionally made a cross on his chest, then lowered his head and kissed his ring finger to calm his mood.

After all, he is just a 22-year-old young player, and this Champions League group stage is just the first official Champions League match in his career.

The three referees stood in front of him, and the game ball was a little farther away, and further outward was the wide Gerland Stadium.

Suarez took a deep breath and followed the referee team forward.

Steglenberg, Veltonhem, Vanderville, Emmanuelson... Ajax's team members walked out of the corridor one by one.

The order of entry for each team will be slightly different, but the most common rule is that the captain is in front, and the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, and forward players will stay at the end.

As the midfielder, Long Shute was the third last to walk out of the passage, and he was immediately surrounded by a mass of hot air.

The enthusiastic and unrestrained French fans challenged the guests from afar with their shouts!

This is their stadium!
Chapter completed!