Chapter 112 All my teammates are undercover! Although almost ten days have passed, the impact of the national derby still looms over Italy. The referee who officiated that game, DeSantis, has been suspended from officiating and is under investigation by the prosecutor's office. But apart from him, there seems to be no news of the arrest of other people, especially the top executives of Juventus. It seems that the phone-gate incident did not break out prematurely because of this. But the seeds of doubt had been planted. Fans no longer believe in the fairness of Serie A officials and the referees' association, and various conspiracy theories have begun to prevail. But in the face of fans' doubts and conspiracy theories among the people, Serie A officials and the Italian Football Association seemed to have chosen to play dead. …… Although De Santis has been punished, Inter Milan, the victim, has not received timely vindication.
Although Inter Milan appealed against the unfair decision of the referee immediately after the game. But the appeal process has not been completed yet, and several red cards from the previous game were not cancelled in time. As a result, Lin Feng, Cambiasso, Zanetti and others were unable to play in this game. As for head coach Mancini, who also received a red card, he could only continue to direct the game from his seat in the stands. Fortunately, Inter Milan will play at home in the next game. Mancini specially prepared a small notebook and arranged someone in advance to pass notes between him and the coaching bench. On October 10, Inter Milan will face the challenge of Livorno at home. Due to the loss to Juventus in the last round, Inter Milan dropped to fifth place in the standings. If Inter Milan fails to beat their opponent in this game, their ranking will probably continue to fall. In the first match of this round of the league, Juventus beat Messina 1:0 at home, and AC Milan beat Cagliari 2:0 away. As a result, the two teams occupied the top two places in the league standings, and Juventus' lead over the second place expanded to 5 points. Livorno's strength is average, but when they saw that several of their opponent's main players were suspended and even the coach could not be there in person to direct the game, they started to become more active. It seems that scoring points at the Meazza is not impossible? However, after the game started, they found out that they were wrong, and very wrong. Inter Milan suffered an unfair penalty in the last game. The whole team was full of anger. They directly treated Livorno as Juventus and vented all their anger on them. As soon as the game started, Inter Milan skipped the probing phase and launched a fierce attack on the opponent's goal. Recoba made a shot from 10 meters in front of the goal. The ball hit the defender and bounced back. Veron's follow-up shot was saved by the goalkeeper. A few minutes later, Solari ran with the ball on the left flank and his left-footed shot from 20 meters in front of the goal was blocked by Amelia. In the 11th minute, Favalli made a straight pass and Recoba's shot from a small angle on the left was saved by the goalkeeper. After a corner kick, the Livorno defender headed the ball out of the penalty area.
But the crisis was not over. After getting the ball outside the penalty area, Veron shot directly. Unfortunately, his long shot hit the defender, but Materazzi, who was nearby, reacted quickly and made a half-volley shot with his left foot from 9 meters in front of the goal. Livorno goalkeeper Amelia reacted quickly and made a save, but still failed to keep the ball out of the goal. The football hit the inside of the right goal post and bounced into the net. The score became 1:0, and Inter Milan quickly took the lead after the opening. But one goal was obviously not enough to calm the anger of Inter Milan's players. After a brief celebration, they continued to attack Livorno. In the 19th minute, Veron made a signature through pass - a long through pass with the outside of his foot. Recoba received the ball and had a one-on-one opportunity. When facing the goalkeeper, he selflessly passed the ball to the middle and assisted Cruz to score into the empty goal. The score became 2:0, less than 8 minutes after the first goal. This is Inter Milan's super substitute Cruz's fifth goal this season. He is in explosive form! When attackers such as Lin Feng and Adriano are absent from the game, Inter Milan fans can still trust him! After scoring the goal, Cruz excitedly rushed to the south stand, the gathering place of Inter Milan's diehard fans, and kissed the team logo in front of tens of thousands of Nerazzurri fans. This is following Lin Feng's example and showing loyalty to the team. Although he is only a substitute for Inter Milan, he is very happy even as a substitute. So please don’t sell me and let me retire at Inter Milan! Inter fans responded enthusiastically to Cruz's move. Tens of thousands of fans in the stadium stood up and applauded and cheered for him! In the stands, Lin Feng, Zanetti and others were also applauding their teammates. Although they were unable to play due to the red card, Lin Feng, Zanetti, Cambiasso and others still came to the scene and fought side by side with their teammates in another way. "Haha, you were worried about whether we could win before, but now you don't have to worry about it anymore, right?" Zanetti looked at Cambiasso on the side and said with a smile. Cambiasso scratched his head. He was worried that too many main players would be absent from the team and was afraid of accidents. Who knew these guys were so powerful? Even without so many main players, they were still able to pin their opponents to the ground. Are we too strong, or are our opponents too weak? "Livorno is probably stunned. If they can come to their senses next, they might be able to hold out for a while." Zanetti is experienced and has a better understanding of the opponent's strength. Although Inter Milan was already leading by a large margin in the first 20 minutes of the game. But the opponent is not really that weak, and there may be a turning point in this game. It seemed to confirm Zanetti's words. After conceding two goals in a row, Livorno was awakened. They quickly intensified the pressing in the midfield, focusing on Veron and Solari, in order to limit Inter's attack. This move really worked very well. Livorno actually controlled the midfield and even possessed the ball for a longer time than Inter Milan. But unfortunately, their top scorer Lucarelli was suspended, and they lacked a striker who could score the winning goal in front of the goal. Although their attacks were threatening several times, they failed to score a goal. The first half of the game ended quickly and Livorno failed to equalize the situation.
Shortly after the start of the second half, a Livorno player tackled Ze Maria from behind while defending him and was directly given a red card and sent off. This red card was a complete death sentence for Livorno. In the 49th minute, Inter Milan made a cross from the right, Grandoni made a mistake in clearing the ball in front of the goal, and Cruz volleyed the ball with his left foot from 20 meters in front of the goal into the lower right corner. The score became 3-0 and Cruz scored his sixth goal of the season. In the 51st minute, Ze Maria took a corner kick from the right side, Materazzi headed the ball to the right side in the center of the penalty area, and Cordoba flew and shot the ball into the net from 4 meters in front of the goal, 4-0! In the 61st minute, Recoba dribbled the ball on the right side, completed a wall pass with Solari, dodged the tackles of two defenders, and scored with a low left-foot shot in the lower right corner from 11 meters in front of the goal, 5-0! Livorno was completely routed! In the end, Inter Milan defeated Verona 5-0 at home. If Inter Milan had not shown mercy and slowed down the pace of attack at the last moment, the score would probably be higher than this number. In the absence of a large number of key players, Inter Milan won a hearty victory, announcing that they have walked out of the shadow of the previous defeat. This season, Inter Milan has maintained a perfect record in all home games, changing the previous bad impression of being a worm at home and a dragon away. Cruz won the MVP award after the game, and goalkeeper Cesar scored the second highest score in the team. He made several wonderful saves in this game, helping the team increase the home clean sheet record to 723 minutes. It is worth mentioning that this is Mancini's 100th official match victory since he took over as coach. Young coach Mancini is constantly evolving towards becoming a famous football coach. …… After finishing the seventh round of the league, Inter Milan flew to Portugal without stopping to prepare to face Porto, the third opponent in the Champions League group stage. In the first two rounds of the group stage, Inter Milan has won two consecutive victories. If they can win this game, they can basically secure a qualifying spot three rounds in advance. With the league and cup schedules becoming increasingly tight, being able to qualify early in the Champions League group stage can greatly reduce the pressure of Inter Milan players fighting on multiple fronts and allow them to get more rest time. Although Porto was the Champions League champion in the 03-04 season, since Mourinho and a large number of the team's champions left the team, Porto's strength has plummeted and it is no longer as strong as it used to be. In the first two rounds of the group stage, Porto suffered upsets, losing 2:3 to Glasgow Rangers and Artmedia respectively. This resulted in the former Champions League champions finishing at the bottom of the group. This battle was a life-and-death battle for Porto. If they can't beat Inter Milan, they're basically out. Inter Milan, coming off a big win in the league, was determined to win this game. Porto, who do not want to be eliminated early, will certainly do their best to fight for that glimmer of hope. In this game, all the Inter Milan players who were suspended in the league took to the field. Even Mancini returned to the coaching booth. The red card in the league cannot be used to punish the Champions League. The only thing worth worrying about is probably Adriano's injury. He was injured in the national team game and has not recovered yet. He is expected to be absent for a while.
But it doesn’t matter, we still have Lin Feng and Super Cruise. Previously, the assistant coach was able to lead an incomplete Inter Milan team to a resounding victory. Now all my generals have returned from suspension, and our opponent is Porto, a weak team that has lost both games. Isn't this game easy to win? With this idea in mind, Inter Milan launched a fierce attack on Porto after the opening. The entire Porto team knew the importance of this game. The players were under tremendous psychological pressure and played very cautiously in the first 20 minutes of the game. Compared with them, Inter Milan, playing away from home, had no psychological burden at all and played passionately, unrestrainedly and proactively. Seeing the home team being besieged by the visiting team, the Porto fans who came to the scene were all worried, fearing that their own goal would be breached by the opponents. If we really lose this game, it will be all over. "Hold on, Porto!" "God, please help us get through this!" Porto fans were praying devoutly, and it seemed as if God heard their prayers, and an accident occurred on the field. In the 22nd minute, Porto's attack failed to break through Inter Milan's defense. As a last resort, the midfielder could only lift the ball in front of the opponent's goal and let their own forward fight for the opportunity. With Inter Milan's defense on high alert, Porto's forwards naturally had no chances. I thought the opponent's attack would end here, but who knew that Materazzi missed the ball when clearing it and kicked the ball into his own goal. Cesar was unable to save the ball and had to watch his teammates break through the goal he was guarding. The two of them stared at each other, and Cesar's mouth twitched, not knowing whether to say "MMP" or not. "It doesn't matter, it's just a ball, we can get it back!" When Mancini saw the goal, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch. But he quickly calmed down and didn't care too much about the goal. This goal could at best be considered a mistake by their own players, not that the opponent's attack really tore through Inter Milan's defense. Therefore, as long as we don’t make such low-level mistakes again and seize the time to score a few more goals, there will be no problem. However, sometimes, you have to admit that when you are unlucky, even drinking cold water will get stuck in your teeth. In the 35th minute, Porto won a free kick in the frontcourt. McCarthy's free kick failed to create a threat and the ball was blocked by the wall. McCarthy followed up with a shot, and the ball hit Veron's thigh in flight and refracted into the net. This time it's Cesar and Veron's turn to stare at each other! Cesar is angry! what happened?
Why are my teammates against me today? You are all undercover agents sent by the enemy, right? Are you deliberately making it more difficult for me? All the Porto fans in the stands were going crazy! Even though our attack was terrible, we were lucky! Two consecutive goals came from the opponent's great assists. This is simply God blessing them! If scoring one goal was not enough to ensure that they would win the game, then with a two-goal lead, Porto fans felt safe. Although Mourinho has left, the defensive genes he injected into the team will remain forever. Perhaps Porto is not very good at playing against a giant like Inter Milan. But if they are asked to retreat and fight back, they are very good at it. In the coaching booth, Mancini could no longer sit still. Even if he lost a goal, he could still comfort himself by saying that he was not panicking and that it was just a technical adjustment. But now we have lost two goals, and both goals were lost inexplicably. Even he could smell something bad. Are we going to lose this game? As if in response to him, it began to drizzle. At first it was just a drizzle, but soon the drizzle turned into moderate rain, and the moderate rain turned into heavy rain. Players from both sides had to fight in the heavy rain! (End of this chapter)