Chapter 1 The League Officially Starts

After the national team match day ended, the league officially started.

Affected by the FIFA virus, Napoli was forced to a 0:0 draw by Lazio at home.

They and Fiorentina both have twenty-one points, but because their goal difference is one less than Fiorentina's, their ranking has dropped to seventh.

However, there is only a four-point difference between seventh and third place in the league, so the gap has not widened, and there is still a chance to compete. Inter Milan has established their lead from the start. After thirteen rounds of the league, they have thirty-two points, ranking first, and are a full five points ahead of Juventus, who are in second place.

Mourinho's Inter Milan seems unstoppable in Italy...

When Napoli defeated Inter Milan away from home, the Italian media thought that Mazzarri's team could compete with Mourinho, but they didn't expect Napoli to be unstable in other games, with fluctuating results, and eventually be pulled further and further away by Inter Milan.

Mazzarri is not focusing on the domestic league at all. For him, winning the league is impossible. His goal in the domestic league this season is to get into the top four and qualify for the Champions League. Winning the championship is a long-term plan...

His focus this season is on the Champions League.

On November 24, Napoli welcomed Liverpool to their home stadium.

Liverpool, who have always prided themselves on Anfield, saw another kind of terrifying home atmosphere here. After ninety minutes of fierce battle, Napoli defeated Liverpool 1:0 at home.

Chen Hero stopped his streak of scoring a goal in every Champions League game, which relieved many people—if he kept scoring like this, it would be too terrifying!

Although he didn't score, his powerful shot helped Cassano get a chance to make a follow-up shot and score the key goal.

After the game, Chen Hero hosted a treat to comfort the injured Skrtel—the Slovakian was not really injured.

Liverpool qualified for the Champions League this season, and Martin Skrtel originally planned to make a big splash in the Champions League, but he didn't expect Liverpool's performance in the Champions League this season to be so bad that it was simply a disgrace...

It is said that Liverpool's top management is already considering changing coaches...

He doesn't know if the team will be able to participate in the Champions League next season. Thinking of these problems, Skrtel feels particularly depressed.

When he joined Liverpool, he originally thought he was joining a glorious traditional powerhouse, but he didn't realize he had been scammed until he arrived.

This team, from top to bottom, is no longer the Red Army Liverpool of twenty years ago.

Chen Hero knew Skrtel's depression, so today everyone didn't talk about football or the Champions League. They just accompanied him to play and relax.

Finally, when Skrtel was about to return to the hotel, he patted Chen Hero on the shoulder and said, "I think your group is 100% sure to qualify, it just depends on whether you can be the first in the group, which is very important, so the last round, the game against Lyon is an opportunity, even if it is an away game, try to win them! The Champions League knockout stage and the group stage are completely two different levels, or even not the same competition at all..."

Chen Hero gave him a thumbs up: "Don't worry, Martin. Even if we meet Real Madrid and Barcelona, we are not afraid!"

Skrtel punched him: "You're not that lucky, La Liga only has two strong teams, and you've met them all! Go, go! In short, good luck to you! If you get eliminated, come to Liverpool to find me, and I'll comfort you!"

Skrtel left like this, he still has to fight for the UEFA Cup this season.

In this round of the group stage, Napoli defeated Liverpool at home. What about Lyon? They encountered the same problem as Napoli away from home—they lost 0:2 to Zenit Saint Petersburg in heavy snow.

These two games led to changes in the group standings. Lyon lost to Zenit Saint Petersburg, while Napoli defeated Liverpool. The original nine points of Lyon did not change, while Napoli relied on defeating Liverpool to get three points, increasing their score to ten points, surpassing Lyon by one point, and regaining the top spot in the group!

If this continues, Napoli really has a good chance of being the first in the group...

Zenit Saint Petersburg relied on their strong home advantage to get seven points—all seven points were obtained when they were at home, two wins and a draw against Liverpool. Now, the originally certain qualification situation has suddenly become full of suspense.

In the last round, if Napoli can beat Lyon, then they can be sure to qualify as the first in the group, and if Zenit Saint Petersburg defeats Liverpool on the road, they can surpass Lyon in points and qualify as the second in the group. In this way, Lyon, which was originally in a very good situation, would have to sadly play in the UEFA Cup.

Of course, this is the best result.

In fact, it is certainly impossible to be so smooth, but no matter what the result, Napoli's qualification for the group is a certainty. They have qualified in advance!

After the game against Liverpool, many Napoli fans refused to leave. They gathered around the San Paolo Stadium, singing loudly, cheering, and celebrating Napoli's promotion to the second stage of the Champions League. Because Napoli and Lyon's two games were held at the same time, after the end of Napoli's game, they also learned the news from Saint Petersburg that Lyon lost! This meant that Napoli surpassed Lyon again, rising to the first place in the group, and because of the score, they qualified one round in advance!

Before participating in the Champions League, even the most optimistic and arrogant Napoli fans, how many people thought of today? They thought about qualifying from the group, but they may not have thought about qualifying from the group in advance...

The next day, the Naples media announced this exciting news in large print.

"This is an unprecedented feat since the establishment of the Napoli team! We have advanced to the second stage of the Champions League! This is something that was not achieved in the Maradona era!" Even if the media said such things at this time, no one cared...

The fact is that even with Maradona, Napoli was not able to reach the second stage of the Champions League.

De Laurentiis also issued a statement the next day, praising the performance of the entire Napoli team and thanking Mazzarri's work and the players.

"...For me, this is the best Christmas and New Year's gift. Now I want to fully enjoy this joy and happiness, and then continue until the draw results come out. The boys performed very well. I thank them on behalf of the Napoli fans. I hope they have a happy Christmas holiday..."

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Qualifying from the Champions League group stage in advance is something to be happy about, but it is not worth being happy about forever. In fact, just qualifying from the group stage is not enough.

The team's outstanding performance in the group stage has given Mazzarri confidence. He began to plan for longer-term goals—why can't we go further in the Champions League knockout stage?

In order to go further in the knockout stage, we need to meet an easy opponent in the round of sixteen, which depends on the draw... and an important factor in determining the draw result is the team's ranking in the group stage.

One of the rules for the Champions League knockout stage draw is that the first place in each group cannot meet, so the round of sixteen can only be a contest between the first and second place in the group.

Since it is the second place in the group, it can more or less indicate that this team is weak, otherwise how could they not get the first place in the group?

The first place in the group is strong, and the strong meet the weak... then the chances of winning are higher?

Otherwise, why do those giants still pursue the first place in the group?

Since we want to pursue the first place in the group, then the last game of the group stage is crucial—if you think it doesn't matter whether it's the first or second place in the group, as long as you can qualify, then Napoli's last game against Lyon can be a formality.

At that time, the main players can rest, or even not go to the away game, recharge their batteries, and prepare for the domestic league. In the league, their ranking has fallen to seventh.

But now that we want to compete for the first place in the group, we must go all out to win this last group game. It is a bit difficult to win away from home, but it is not without hope. Moreover... even if we don't win in the end, a draw is also Napoli's qualification as the first in the group. Therefore, Mazzarri's tactical flexibility is obviously greater than Puel's, and there are more options for him to choose from.

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Soon, everyone in the team knew that their goal in the Champions League group stage was to be the first to qualify.

This is what Mazzarri said to everyone before training on the second day of resuming training.

Qualifying as the first in the group? This is naturally what the players all hope for.

At first, they didn't have this idea, and they felt that it would be good enough to qualify from the group. But humans are always greedy. If you can qualify as the first in the group, who would be willing to qualify as the second in the group? Now that they have returned to the first place in the group again, there is naturally no need to accept the result of qualifying as the second in the group.

Since we want to focus on the Champions League, then the domestic league must be temporarily abandoned. At least before the last round of the game against Lyon, we must give up a little. Avoid the main players consuming too much energy, leading to insufficient physical fitness, and the most important thing is to avoid injuries.

As time goes by, the schedule is gradually approaching Christmas. At this time, the weather becomes cold, and the players' physical fitness also begins to decline, which is naturally the time when players are most likely to get injured. We must strictly control this time period to prevent players from getting injured.

For this reason, in the fourteenth round of the league, Napoli's away game against Parma, Mazzarri once again started rotation, and it was not a small-scale rotation, but a large-scale rotation that almost replaced the entire starting lineup.

With such a large-scale rotation, it was only natural that they drew 1:1 with Parma away from home.

At the post-match press conference, Mazzarri explained the purpose of his rotation, because he was aiming for the Champions League.

"Many people say that we have completed our mission by qualifying from the Champions League group stage, but that is not the case. Because we have not maintained the first place in the group. Yes, we want to qualify from this group as the first in the group!"

His words shocked everyone.

The reporters did not expect Napoli's ambition to be so great!