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The reporter looked bewildered, ”I didn’t even ask about your hat trick.”

Reporter: ”Alright, since we’re talking about hat tricks, today both you and Carrel showcased impressive goal performances. It’s rare in the Champions League Round of 16 for players from both teams to achieve a hat trick in the same match...”

That’s the entirety of the post-match interview.

The reason it sparked intense controversy is that some media are lamenting Florence’s exit.

Among them, the trash ”Republican Newspaper” was particularly vocal.

The ”Republican Newspaper” published a special titled ”What Does San Remo Defeating Florence Mean?”

It proposed an equation that was very suitable for dissemination and gained widespread agreement.

San Remo defeating Florence equals Florence losing the Champions League title, equals San Remo securing a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals, equals halving the probability of Serie A retaining the Champions League title!

What does this equation mean?

This relates to the classic theory of ”winning the match but not necessarily being stronger.”

The Purple Lily was unstoppable this year. If they hadn’t fallen to San Remo, a spot in the semi-finals was guaranteed.

In everyone’s eyes, this was a team with hopes of a treble, more favored than Juventus.

And San Remo, in everyone’s eyes, was only at the level of a Champions League group stage team.

Their actual strength at best reached the Champions League Round of 16, it couldn’t be higher.

And their league ranking indeed accurately reflected San Remo’s average level.

Fighting for a top-four in the league is just the level of an average Champions League team.

This average team forcibly eliminated the championship-contender Purple Lily.

This scenario is somewhat reminiscent of Red Bull defeating Atletico Madrid, Lyon defeating Manchester City, and Porto defeating Juventus... Although these teams are evidently weaker, they created miracles, but they don’t have championship competitiveness.

And the teams they eliminated, on the contrary, had stronger championship competitiveness.

This may sound unscientific, but it happens every year.

San Remo is not the first, nor will they be the last.

Once they reached the quarter-finals, they became a hot commodity.

Whoever meets them is almost assured of advancing.

Therefore, the ”Republican Newspaper” states that San Remo secured a spot in the quarter-finals, while Florence lost the possibility of winning the Champions League.

In the quarter-finals, Serie A also relied on San Remo and Juventus, occupying two spots.

AC Milan eventually fell at the hands of Manchester United.

This way, Serie A, and the Premier League’s Chelsea, Manchester United, La Liga’s Real Madrid, and Barça are advancing neck and neck.

Ligue 1 only has Paris Saint-Germain, Bundesliga only has Bayern.

This year’s Champions League quarter-finals are a game for the Five Major Leagues.

If it were Purple Lily advancing instead of San Remo, then Serie A could definitely start early promotion; they are likely to have two teams in the semi-finals.

By then, the chances of retaining the Champions League title would greatly increase!

But now...

After ”Republican Newspaper” fired shots, indeed many experts conducted analysis and research in this direction.

They stated: ”This is actually the price of insisting on continuing the San Remo miracle!”

”Everything follows a development curve, and when the San Remo miracle reaches its end phase, we often hope to prolong it due to certain sentiments. But the consequence is that we have to put in more effort.”

”Before this match, all Italian fans were supporting San Remo. Even Florence’s players Carrel and Versachi were cheering for San Remo, looking forward to an intense duel.”

”Now, San Remo has been revived by everyone, extended its life. But the cost is that Italy’s truly Champions League-competitive team has exited. As of this year, Florence has more award competitiveness than Juventus!”

”If we put the resources and emotions used to support San Remo into Florence and Juventus, they will definitely achieve better results!”

”Go along with the trends of the times, San Remo fans. In truly high-caliber, high-level matches, how many miracles are there? It’s time to say goodbye to San Remo.”

For a while, Italian fans were forced into reflection.

How many were hurt by the sunset of the San Remo miracle?