According to the rules of the game set by UEFA, Fiorentina, who won the first place in Group C in the group stage, is the order of the match first and then the home. In other words, in this game on February 28, the entire Fiorentina team will go to Germany to challenge their opponent Dortmund in the quarterfinals at Westphalia Stadium.

Dortmund was quite difficult to deal with in the 1995-96 season. They had a first-team lineup that was no less than Bayern Munich: Batistuta, Djokaf and others were very familiar with the top-level center guard Jurgen Coral who had played for Juventus for many years, Reuters and Heinrich separated. In addition, Matthias Summer, the best backcourt libero in German football after Mattus, Dortmund's backcourt strength is terrifying;

The Hornets' midfield and frontcourt are not much inferior to Fiorentina in terms of fame and strength. Andres Muller, Riddle, Chap Issat, and Lars Ricken, who is known as a genius boy in German football, are also sitting on the bench, including Michel Zorke, Helrich, and other powerful players. It can be said that they are full of talents.

No matter how you look at it, Dortmund's strength is much stronger than another Bundesliga team that Fiorentina encountered in the European Cup Winners last season, and of course it is even harder to deal with. After all, Dortmund is not like Juventus and AC Milan. Fiorentina has had more than two mobile meetings with them in a year, and they know each other well. Players of Fiorentina teams like Dortmund can only learn from game videos and paper materials.

Therefore, in just three days, Ranieli instilled all the information about Dortmund collected by the club's scouts into the Fiorentine players in a category, hoping to help the subsequent Champions League matches.

While the players were actively preparing for the European Championship, Zhuang Mingge received another good news from the physiotherapy center: Dr. Thomas Carter personally diagnosed that Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who had been absent due to injury for four months, finally met the health standards and could play again. However, the alien's playing time was strictly restricted by Thomas Carter himself, and currently only allowed the Brazilian to play for 30 minutes in the official game.

On February 28, the third day after the 23rd round of Serie A, Florence ushered in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Since this game was the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals and was also a famous "devil home court" Westphalia Stadium, Ranieri adjusted the starting lineup of Fiorentina: Dibiagio and Effenberg, who were suspended in Serie A, got the opportunity to start in the Champions League, while the other two were Dutch Boar Davis and Kripa; the four defenders were Lanna, Ferrara, Nesta and Zambrota from left to right; the forward tutor removed the team captain Batistuta from the starting lineup, and switched to Robert Baggio, who was more flexible and agile in running, and started with the starting lineup.

It is obvious that Ranieri intends to play defensive counterattack tactics at Dortmund's home court, making full use of the general weakness of the German defenders' slow turn, and exerting Effenberg's overall view of the overall situation and accurate passing to the extreme. Batistuta was removed from the starting lineup because of this. In Ranieri's view, the forward combination of Robert Baggio and Inzaghi, who are faster and better at seizing opportunities, is more suitable for their tactical arrangements in this game.

Originally, Ranieri wanted Ronaldo and Baggio to start together, but under Thomas Carter's harsh warning that "can only play 30 minutes", the potter had to give up this plan in disappointment and put the Brazilian on the bench list just in case.

Ranieri's abacus was very good, but he obviously forgot how terrifying Dortmund's home court was. He didn't know that now he could only be regarded as a little famous Dortmund coach Heathfield is also a very outstanding tactical master.

On February 28, amid the cheers of nearly 60,000 Dortmund fans at Westphalia Stadium, Dortmund players suppressed Florence away with their wonderful offensive cooperation and strict defense.

Similarly, the huge cheers of 60,000 Dortmund fans at Westphalia Stadium also shocked the Fiorentine players to a certain extent, making them seem a little restrained in this game. At the same time, in this game, the central defender combination of Jurgen Kohler and Samer seemed very stable, making Baggio and Inzaghi no longer have the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

"Roar!" Jurgen Kohler yelled excitedly after successfully breaking Effenberg's pass to Baggio. Since Fiorentina's return, for him, Juventus was very hurt by Juliano with similar style, after his partner was replaced by the top libero Summer, he can finally use his strength as a top-level man-marking center back without merging his butt for his partner.

Seeing that Fiorentina's counterattack could not be hit, the Dortmund players, who had no worries, became more and more brave as the shouts of home fans. In the 33rd and 52nd minutes of the game, Chap Issat and Andres Muller each scored a goal, and achieved a 2-0 lead in the overall score.

The genius boy Ricken scored in the 68th minute, while turning the score on the court three to zero, he even threw Fiorentina into the abyss with one kick.

If Ronaldo, who came on as a substitute, had not taken the opportunity of counterattack to run for the entire half in the 78th minute, scored a valuable away goal for the team, Fiorentina would have lost completely in this game.

When the news of Fiorentina losing to Dortmund one-to-three in the first leg spread, the surprise German media made a sound of "German football's re-emergence", while Fiorentina, which lost away, was criticized by many Italian media, "lost all the face of Italian football", and comments about "civil war, internal experts, foreign war laymen" emerged like mushrooms after a rain. I don't remember that last year they praised Fiorentina, who had just won the European Cup Winners Championship as the pride of Italian football.

At the same time, many critics also accused Ranieri, the team's head coach, of playing too conservatively, holding a handful of good cards in his hand but not knowing how to use them, as if they could lead Fiorentina to the Champions League themselves.
Chapter completed!