Chapter 155: With record-breaking winning streak, Lin Feng was sought after by many wealthy families! The first goal did not come until the 43rd minute of the first half, and it was Inter Milan who scored the first goal. Lin Feng received the ball with his back to the goal and passed it back to his teammate who was following up in the middle. Stankovic shot the ball into the goal and Inter Milan temporarily led Lazio by one goal away from home. This season, due to the joining of Lin Feng, Stankovic's appearances and playing time have dropped significantly, and the black man is almost becoming a marginal figure in Inter Milan. In this game, he finally broke his goal drought. However, less than a minute after Inter Milan scored, Lazio equalized the score. Danish midfielder Keller made a lob pass, and Manfredini made a lob shot from a small angle 12 meters in front of the goal. The ball flew over the goalkeeper Toldo and into the goal. Toldo is indeed old. If the ball was taken by the younger Cesar, he might have been able to save it. Both sides are back at the same starting line, and this result is barely acceptable for Inter Milan. After all, the Italian Cup is a two-round home and away game. This time, they got a draw and a goal away from home, which is not a bad result for them. But for the home team, if the game ends with this score, their prospects of advancing would be very bad.
Especially after receiving two red cards, Lazio's lineup depth is not as good as that of giants like Inter Milan. In the next game against Inter Milan, which has a full lineup and is playing at home, their chances of winning are very small. So in the second half, Lazio increased their offensive intensity, trying to take advantage of Inter Milan's short manpower and defeat them at home. But the Blue Eagles were not lucky. In the 53rd minute of the second half, Tare's left-foot volley from 22 meters in front of the goal hit the crossbar, and Lazio missed the best chance to overtake the score. If this ball could have been scored, it would have been a very exciting shot, but unfortunately, the luck was a little bit off. In the end, after a hard battle, the two sides shook hands and made peace with a score of 1:1. Lazio maintained its unbeaten record at home and ended Inter Milan's 413-minute record without conceding a goal in the Italian Cup. But this result is far from satisfactory for both sides, especially after paying such a heavy price. "Fortunately, the player who was sent off did not receive additional punishment, otherwise, the impact on the team would have been even greater." The quarter-finals are still a two-round system, but after the semi-finals, it will be decided in one game. Whether it is Materazzi or Adriano, if additional penalties are imposed, they will inevitably miss the semi-finals or even the finals. Without these two generals, Inter Milan's road to defending the title will be more difficult. …… Although compared to AC Milan's victory in the Italian Cup next door, Inter Milan's draw is indeed not good enough. But compared with the loss of their league rival Juventus, Inter Milan is much stronger. In this round of the Italian Cup, Juventus, playing at home, suffered an unexpected upset and was reversed by Roma 3:2. Not only did they lose the game at home, but they also conceded 3 away goals to their opponents. For Juventus, the difficulty of advancing to the semi-finals has skyrocketed. There is a high possibility that the Old Lady will fall in the quarterfinals and miss out on the Coppa Italia title once again. This is undoubtedly good news for Inter Milan.
If Roma can eliminate Juventus, its strong rival, ahead of schedule, it will undoubtedly be much easier for Inter Milan to defend their title in the Italian Cup. But from another perspective, this may also be bad news. Once Juventus is eliminated from the cup, they will be able to focus more on the league. This will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of Inter Milan's league title. Fortunately, the Champions League knockout stage has not yet begun, and Inter Milan does not need to fight on three fronts for the time being, so they can still cope with it. …… Three days later, the 3nd round of Serie A kicked off. The leader Juventus was not affected by the unexpected loss to Roma a few days ago, and defeated Ascoli 3:1 away from home, continuing to maintain its lead. Since being tied by Chievo, Juventus has regained two consecutive wins in the league. Since being defeated by AC Milan in the 10th round of the league, Juventus has achieved an excellent record of 12 wins and 10 draws in the last 2 games. In fact, apart from Inter Milan, the Old Lady is widening the gap with other teams. For example, AC Milan, in this round of the league, the Rossoneri playing at home were tied by Sampdoria, and have been left 12 points behind Juventus in the standings. The gap is so big that Milan fans can give up the fight for the league title in advance. Ancelotti can focus more on the Champions League! AC Milan fell behind, but Inter Milan still stubbornly kept up with Juventus. In the away game against Lecce, Inter Milan defeated their opponent 2:0 thanks to Lin Feng's pass and shot. After winning this game, Inter Milan's winning streak in the league has reached an astonishing 11 games. This record breaks the historical record of Serie A! Before the start of this season's Serie A, the longest winning streak in Serie A was 8 games set by AC Milan last season. This record was broken by Juventus' nine-game winning streak at the beginning of the season, but when Juventus wanted to move towards its first 9-game winning streak in history, it was ended by AC Milan. But now, Inter Milan not only broke the record just set by Juventus, but also increased this record to 11 games! For a time, Inter Milan's record attracted attention and discussion from the whole of Italy. Fans are generally amazed at Inter Milan’s 11 consecutive wins! During the Mini World Cup period, the seven sisters of Serie A were all tough opponents, and there was no dominant team in the league that was far ahead in strength. Therefore, it is almost impossible to achieve a long winning streak. If you win a few games in a row, you will easily be blocked by a strong enemy and then be defeated. In the past two seasons, Serie A's winning streak record has been constantly refreshed. This also indirectly reflects the decline of Serie A. The teams in the middle and lower reaches of the league can no longer keep up with the top clubs in terms of overall strength, and can no longer snipe at the top clubs as they did in the past. But there are only a few people who can see the essence through the phenomenon, and the vast majority of people are shocked by the record set by the Nerazzurri. The impact of this record even went beyond the Apennine Peninsula and spread to the entire European football world.
Only top teams can achieve such an exaggerated winning streak, just like Arsenal a few years ago and Barcelona this season, both top teams achieved a terrifying record of 14 consecutive wins. In the five major leagues this season, the teams with the most consecutive wins are Barcelona and Inter Milan. So it is natural for the outside world to compare these two teams and regard them as the favorites to win the Champions League this season. Coincidentally, Lin Feng and Messi, who competed for the Golden Boy Award last time, are in these two teams respectively. However, this time, the name mentioned more often by the media was not Messi's, but his leader Ronaldinho! In the eyes of the outside world, if the absolute core of Barcelona is Ronaldinho. The absolute core of Inter Milan must be Lin Feng! Putting aside other things, Lin Feng's double-double data of 17 goals and 13 assists in the league is really terrifying. If you lack an intuitive understanding of this data, then just look at the performance of Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldinho in Barcelona. This season, Ronaldinho has played 18 games for Barcelona in La Liga, scored 11 goals and provided 12 assists. In other words, if you look at the data, Lin Feng's data is even higher than Ronaldinho's! If we also count the 4 goals and 1 assist in the Champions League and the 1 goal and 2 assists in the Italian Cup. Since joining Inter Milan, Lin Feng has scored 22 goals and 16 assists on all fronts. If this is not the core of the team, then what kind of results are considered the core? Even though Inter Milan fans call Adriano their king, judging from the performance on the field and the data of the two players, Lin Feng is far better than Adriano and is the undisputed number one in Inter Milan! Although Messi has performed well in recent rounds, he is not yet qualified to compare with Lin Feng. Unless he can outlast Ronaldinho and replace him. Lin Feng's gorgeous data attracted widespread attention from the outside world. As early as last year's Golden Boy Award ceremony, many top European clubs had already noticed him. However, the winter transfer window had not yet opened at that time, and it was too difficult to poach the absolute core players of the opposing team during the winter break. Many people also think that a newcomer like Lin Feng may perform very well for a while, but after his opponents have thoroughly studied his technical characteristics, his condition will plummet. So I had some concerns in my mind and ultimately did not take any substantial action. But looking at Lin Feng's performance now, I found that he has not encountered the so-called rookie wall at all. Even though he was targeted by his opponents, his performance did not decline, and even improved further. When Lin Feng first joined Inter Milan, many people's impression of him was just a fast and powerful scorer. But after watching for most of the season, they found that Lin Feng could not only score, but also organize and pass the ball. His passing ability improved significantly as if he had suddenly had an epiphany. Especially the precise through passes, which amazed these professionals many times. It is worth a gamble if an offensive player has one outstanding advantage, and players like Lin Feng who are outstanding in both offense and assists are extremely rare. As long as Inter Milan is willing to let go, I am afraid that the big giants will be able to flatten their doors! Many wealthy clubs even think that with Lin Feng's current performance, he might become a strong contender for this year's Golden Globe Award. Although because the Chinese team did not make it to the World Cup, his hopes of winning the Golden Ball are very slim. But for an 18-year-old young player to break through the siege of a group of big names and become one of the favorites for the Golden Globe Award is itself a very remarkable thing.
So now they are very jealous of Lin Feng. On January 1, as soon as the winter transfer window opened, several offers were submitted to Inter Milan. Bayern, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Liverpool... All the teams that made offers are top-tier giants in the football world! Not to mention that they were interested in Lin Feng, even Barcelona, which had Ronaldinho and Iniesta in the team, wanted to sign Lin Feng. It is hard to estimate how attractive an 18-year-old super genius is to top clubs. Such a young talent can be bought back and used as the cornerstone of the team. As long as he doesn't suffer a fatal injury and his condition doesn't drop drastically, the team can build the team around him. After all, the last person to achieve amazing statistics in a club at a young age was the alien Ronaldo! The battle among the major clubs for Ronaldo was so intense. …… Upon learning that so many teams were eyeing Lin Feng, Mancini became a little restless. The team is now counting on Lin Feng to lead the team forward, but they must not let other giants take their treasure away. If Lin Feng is poached, Inter Milan will lose the brain of the team. How can they play the next game? So, he found the big boss Moratti and asked about the details of the contract between the team and Lin Feng to see if there were any unsafe hidden dangers, such as liquidated damages clauses. "Liquidated damages? It seems there is such a thing!" Moratti asked his assistant to find Lin Feng's contract, and after taking a look at it, he breathed a sigh of relief: "There is indeed a penalty clause, but the amount is 8000 million euros. No team would be willing to spend 8000 million euros to buy a young man who is not even 18 years old, right?" When it comes to spending money, there are few in the entire football world who can compare with him. But even for him, the craziest deal he ever made was spending $5000 million to buy Vieri. But when he bought Vieri, Vieri was already 26 years old, his physical condition was at its peak, and he had proven his strength in many clubs. His situation was completely different from Lin Feng's. Even though there has been some inflation in football in recent years, spending 8000 million euros on an 18-year-old? This shouldn't be possible, right? There really can't be any fool who would do this, right? Mancini felt relieved when he learned that Lin Feng’s penalty clause was as high as 8000 million euros. This price should be safe. After all, Zidane's transfer fee is only more than 5000 million euros. Even if there is inflation, it will not inflate so fast. What's more, Zidane is one of the world's top stars, and his transfer fee is currently the highest transfer fee in football. No one should be able to break this record in a short time! Although his worries have been alleviated to some extent, Mancini still hopes that the team can complete the contract renewal with Lin Feng as soon as possible. In this way, the news of contract renewal can be used to publicly dispel rumors and dispel fans' concerns.
"Well, I'll think about it!" Moratti made a perfunctory remark, but did not take Mancini's words too seriously. Lin Feng has only been in the team for half a year, and his contract still has two and a half years to run. There is still so much time left on the contract, so there is no rush to renew it. After all, if the contract is really renewed, he will definitely have to be given a signing fee and a substantial salary increase, otherwise the player will have no motivation to sign the new contract. Since no one can afford the penalty for the time being and the player will not leave the team during this winter break, why spend such a huge amount of money? It’s not too late to talk about it until summer or this time next year! (End of this chapter)