Many people think that Gao Zheng's words were to anger Barcelona. After all, everyone can hear the implicit meaning of the words.

But this time, facing Gao Zheng's provocation, Barcelona did not say anything on the other hand. Even Pique did not stand up and say anything.

A reporter asked him what he thought of Gao Zeng's words, and his answer was also: "It's indeed not revenge."

This surprised the reporters - when Pique was so honest.

Did you really get beaten up in the Super Cup?

But no matter how the reporter asked, Pique didn't speak, so no one knew what Pique was thinking deep in his heart.

But if Pique really doesn't care about revenge, everyone will never believe it. He must have been trying to wait until Barcelona wins the game before speaking.

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In fact, the first round of the Champions League group stage was followed by the match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, ​​but Simeone did not plan to rotate in this game, even if Atletico Madrid's first Champions League group stage was a away challenge to Galatasaray.

The league with Barcelona is really more important.

In the Champions League, Atletico Madrid was assigned to Group C this season. As a seed team, they were assigned to the same group as Galatasaray, Benfica and Astana.

In terms of the strength of the teams in the same group, there are basically no opponents who can threaten Atletico Madrid.

But this does not mean that Atletico Madrid's UEFA Champions League group stage will be easier this season.

It's mainly because it's not easy to play away.

It’s not that the opponent can perform well at home, but mainly because the away game is too far.

Except for Benfica right next to him, both Galatasaray and Astana have to go on a trial.

Galatasaray is far enough, and has reached the junction of Europe and Asia, and Astana is even further away.

Friends who are familiar with European football may be unfamiliar with this name, but in fact this team is indeed a new face in the Champions League.

This is a Kazakhstan team.

As we all know, Kazakhstan is an Asian country, but why can their teams participate in the Champions League? Because the Kazakh Football Association has joined UEFA, not the AFC.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no Kazakhstan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the territory was in Asia. Many people may think that Kazakhstan is naturally an Asian country, but in fact it is not. There are two provinces in Kazakhstan living in Europe in the geographical sense. The so-called Europe in the geographical sense traditionally refers to the continent west of the long line, the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, the Marra Sea and the Dardanelles, and the east is considered Asia.

Kazakhstan happens to have two provinces - West Kazakhstan and Atlaus across the Ural River, so Kazakhstan, like Turkey and Russia, are countries that have territory in Asia and Europe. However, perhaps because most of the territory is in Asia, they automatically joined the AFC after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

However, for a country that has no foundation in the AFC, Kazakhstan has no one in the AFC North Korea, so it is often bullied. They originally thought that with their victory, not to say that they would go sideways in Asian football, at least it would be no problem to qualify for the World Cup. The reason why they did not choose UEFA was probably because they thought it was too difficult to play in the World Cup at the beginning. Unexpectedly, in the Asian region, they did not qualify for the World Cup for two consecutive World Cups.

At the same time, they also have many conflicts with the AFC. After all, the AFC has been dominated by West Asian football for a long time. The AFC chairman for the past 50 years has been the agents of the rich people in West Asian countries. Among them, only China's Zhang Jilong served as the chairman for two years, but he was just an agent.

The fuse of the conflict was the 1995 Asian Club Cup. A Saudi Arabian club refused to play in Kazakhstan on the grounds that the weather was too cold. It is logical that Saudi Arabian clubs should be punished in this case, but the AFC controlled by West Asian Football not only did not punish the Saudi Arabian team that refused to participate, but also ruled that the two sides tied 0:0 in this game.

This incident caused Kazakhstan to be very dissatisfied with the country and later withdrew from the AFC.

As for joining UEFA, for Kazakhstan football, the Russian Football Association, which is also in the Soviet Union, provides support and assistance to them, UEFA's support and subsidies are also different from those of the AFC. In addition, often playing with European strong teams is also of great benefit to improving the level of Kazakhstan football.

So Kazakhstan has joined the UEFA family since 2002.

However, although they have been joining UEFA for so long, this is their first time participating in the Champions League.

Because Kazakhstan's teams were too weak before, they couldn't even make it to the qualifying round.

This time, Astana, the representative team of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, first eliminated Slovenian champion Maribor in the qualifying round, and then eliminated Finnish champion Helsinki to enter the playoffs. In the playoffs, their opponent was the league champion Greeks who also played last season's Champions League match.

In the end, Astana eliminated his opponent with a total score of 2:1 and entered the Champions League. He created the history of Kazakhstan football.

This team will also be Atletico Madrid's opponent in the Champions League group stage.

Astana is more than 5,700 kilometers away from Madrid, and it takes seven hours to fly by plane. This is a huge test for Atletico Madrid, located at the western end of Europe.

This may also be the farthest away trip in the Champions League - unless the professional team in Vladivostok, located in the easternmost part of Russia, also scored into the Champions League... But that is unlikely, that team's strength is too weak.

Considering such a long road trip, even if the opponent is very weak, the game is probably not difficult to play.

In addition to distance, weather is also a very important factor influencing.

Because according to the schedule, Atletico Madrid challenged Astana away on November 3, when the capital of Kazakhstan had entered a cold winter. Astana is the second most intimidating capital city in the world, second only to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. In winter, the lowest temperature can reach minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Even if November 3 is not considered late winter, it cannot reach minus forty degrees Celsius, but minus forty degrees Celsius will bring great trouble to Atletico Madrid...

Fortunately, Atletico Madrid doesn't need to consider this issue now, they just need to consider the match against Barcelona.
Chapter completed!