Chapter 182: Calciopoli preview, Juventus suffers Waterloo The impact of Juventus being tied by AC Milan at home is far more than just losing 2 points. In the last national derby, there was an unfair penalty at Juventus' home stadium, and this time, the same situation happened again. This caused many fans who were originally skeptical about Juventus's shady dealings of bribing referees and manipulating games to begin to doubt Juventus. At this moment, referee De Santis, who had previously officiated the Italian national derby, was once again summoned by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office. According to sources, De Santis revealed key information during the trial, and this information is likely to be unfavorable to Juventus. Although this news has not been confirmed at any official level, it has spread among the Italian people. More and more people suspect that Juventus' top management controls the referees to fix matches, and public opinion is gradually turning against Juventus! …… On March 3, the 19th round of Serie A kicked off.
Despite being under considerable pressure in the public opinion field, Juventus still withstood the pressure and defeated Livorno, ranked sixth in the league, 3:1 away from home, leaving Inter Milan no chance to narrow the score. But the pressure from public opinion is increasing for Juventus. On March 3, Italian Football Association President Carraro and 22 senior officials of the association were summoned by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office for investigation. After the news came out, the whole of Italy and even the whole European football world was talking about it, and the media in many European countries reported on the matter specifically. In their reports, the words Juventus and match-fixing appeared frequently. Even though there is no substantial evidence yet to prove that Juventus manipulated the game, in the minds of countless people, the two have been linked together. And this is undoubtedly very unfavorable to Juventus! A week later, the 31st round of Serie A kicked off. Juventus, playing at home, encountered a strong rival in this round of the league - Roma! Compared with the previous game, Juventus players were obviously under pressure from external public opinion and found it difficult to concentrate on the court. The opponent is a strong and aggressive team. So after ninety minutes of play, the score on the field was fixed at 1:1! After being tied by AC Milan at home in the 29th round of the league, Juventus was once again tied by their opponents at home. Their opponent, Inter Milan, won a narrow 1-0 victory over Parma away from home. The difference between the two teams was narrowed to 2 points! There are still 7 rounds of league matches left, and the suspense of Serie A is not only back, but it’s huge! House seemingly endless rain! For Juventus, this is far more than one bad thing! On March 3, the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals kicked off. The Old Lady lost both the game and the match when visiting Highbury Stadium. Not only were they defeated 2:0 by Arsenal, but two of their players were also sent off with red cards. Losing away from home is not scary, what is scary is not scoring any goals away from home. This means that in the next game they not only have to score at least two goals, but also must not concede any goals to their opponents. As long as Arsenal scores even one goal at the Alpi Stadium, Juventus will have to score 4 goals to advance!
This is as difficult as climbing to the sky! Therefore, after the game, the outside world was extremely pessimistic about Juventus. The consecutive points lost in the league, the disastrous defeat in the Champions League, and the whirlpool of public opinion have made even the most optimistic people unable to be optimistic about Juventus' prospects. Many people even think that Juventus is likely to fail to win any of the four major titles this season. I'm afraid they won't be able to win any league, cup or Champions League trophies! …… Compared to Juventus, which is in a difficult situation, Inter Milan's situation is much more optimistic. After being tied by Roma, Inter Milan once again won three consecutive games in the league and the momentum of chasing points is very strong. If they continue playing like this, they may catch up with or even surpass Juventus without having to wait until the last round. The hope of winning the championship has filled Inter Milan with enthusiasm. There is no need for the coach to do any ideological mobilization, and the players' own training attitude has become much more serious. This made Mancini very satisfied! "If we continue like this, we will most likely win two championship trophies this season!" Seeing that the head coach was in a good mood, the assistant coach stepped forward and said something fun. In the Italian Cup semi-final held last week, Inter Milan beat Udinese 1-0 at home. Although the suspense of the game was not completely eliminated, their temporary lead undoubtedly gave them the upper hand in advancing. As long as they win the away game in the second leg, they can reach the final again and defend the Italian Cup. In the league, they are now only two points behind Juventus. Juventus's momentum has taken a sharp turn for the worse recently, while Inter Milan is still making great strides. Mancini believes that it is only a matter of time before Inter Milan overtakes their opponents in points. Unless the referee-gate incident turns out in Juventus' favor, the Old Lady is cleared of all charges, the public opinion crisis is resolved, and the team regains its form, it will be able to maintain its lead. But the probability of this happening is really too low. I heard that this matter is getting bigger and bigger. Now even the prosecutor's office in Rome has begun to intervene in the investigation, which shows that the team involved is not only Juventus, and Juventus's public opinion crisis cannot be resolved in a short time. Thinking of this, Mancini became extremely excited. Since he took over as coach, he has never won the top league championship. In this era, at least before 2007, the influence of the Champions League was not as great as it is in later generations. The championship of the five major leagues was sometimes even more prestigious than the Champions League, especially the world's top league like Serie A. If he can win the Serie A championship, Mancini may be able to make a breakthrough and successfully become a first-class coach. Compared with the league title, Mancini believes that it will be more difficult for Inter Milan to defend the Italian Cup title. Judging from the results of the other half of the group, Inter Milan’s opponent in the final is likely to be Roma. Considering Roma's strong momentum and the record of the two sides against each other this season. Inter Milan has never gotten any advantage over Roma, and the outcome of a cup match, which is a one-off game, is actually very difficult to predict. Just like Manchester City coached by Guardiola in later generations, it was obviously already a top-notch team in football, but it often suffered defeat in the Champions League.
After 7 years of hard work, I finally won the championship trophy. ...In fact, it is possible for Inter Milan to achieve the treble this season, because while they are making great strides in the league and cup competitions, they have also made it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and even the semi-finals of the Champions League are within sight. But no one at Inter Milan has ever shouted the slogan of winning the Champions League! Obviously, everyone has some idea of their own strength. With Inter Milan's strength and lineup depth, due to the intensive schedule in April, it will be difficult for them to compete with those top teams in the Champions League where there are so many strong teams. It's not that there is no hope at all, it's just that the probability is very low. If a team were to be eliminated early in the league and cup competitions like AC Milan and focus entirely on the Champions League, the probability would perhaps be higher. For Mancini and his Inter Milan, reaching the Champions League semi-finals would be a success. If you can get into the finals or even win the championship by chance, it will be a great success. However, in the first round of the Champions League, facing the challenge of Villarreal, Inter Milan failed to perform well. Just 40 seconds into the first half, Villarreal's attacking midfielder Riquelme made a pass to the front of the penalty area from the left. Jose Mari got past Worm, stretched out his foot to dribble the ball past him, broke into the penalty area and fell to the ground and shot with his left foot. Cesar made a great save to save the shot, but Fran, who followed up, scored with a supplementary shot in the middle of the penalty area. The score became 0:1, and Inter Milan, playing at home, suffered a heavy blow! Before the game, everyone thought that this Villarreal team was a soft persimmon, even many Inter Milan players thought so. However, the score on the field showed that they were all wrong! There are no weak teams among the teams that can make it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League! Diego Forlan's goal caused Italian fans who came to the Meazza Stadium to watch the game to fall into a brief panic. Many people couldn’t help but worry: Is Inter Milan going to follow in Juventus’ footsteps and lose the first leg? The early goal loss forced Inter Milan to advance their attack plan and press forward on all fronts to launch a fierce attack on Villarreal. In the 2nd minute, Adriano received a pass from Lin Feng and broke into the penalty area with a one-on-one opportunity. Facing the opponent's goalkeeper who came out to attack, he calmly shot the ball into the empty goal. The ball flew over the goalkeeper's head and was about to roll into the goal, but the Yellow Submarine defender Benta who came to defend cleared the ball from the goal line. Adriano held his head in disbelief, and there were sighs from the stands. When Lin Feng saw that the ball did not go in, he shook his head secretly. Ade's condition was indeed a bit poor. It would have been better if he had dunked the ball and then shot it. A lob shot would have been fine, but he didn't notice the position of the opponent's defender and chose the wrong direction. Villarreal's midfielder Riquelme couldn't help but look at Lin Feng again. The pass made by this kid just now was really like a master. No wonder he has such a great reputation at such a young age. He is really good. But he thought he could do it, and even do better. Villarreal did not play conservatively in the away game and did not put themselves in the position of a weak team at all. They calmly played the ball possession tactics at Inter Milan's home ground, using skillful cooperation and Riquelme's calm dispatch and control ability to constantly create threats to Inter Milan's defense. As a representative of the classic attacking midfielder, Riquelme's playing style is elegant, chic, extremely beautiful and very entertaining. He has excellent dribbling and ball-control abilities. Although he is often pressed or even double-teamed by defensive players, he can always keep the ball firmly under his feet in a small space and rarely makes mistakes. Inter tried to double-team him, but it didn't work very well. His solid ball skills and excellent physical coordination allow him to perform all kinds of incredible moves to get rid of defensive players under the opponent's pressure.
Riquelme's passing is actually not slow at all. He is very sensitive to the position and movement of defensive players. As long as the pressing fails, the ball can be easily transferred to an unguarded area by him, which will create a threat to Inter Milan's defense line. After 20 minutes of play, Riquelme completely overshadowed everyone on the field. Even Inter Milan fans were fascinated by the performance of this midfield master. But after seeing Riquelme's wonderful performance, everyone had a question in their mind: This guy is so strong, why was he kicked out by Barcelona? The answer is actually on the court! Compared with Villarreal's attacking midfielder, Inter Milan's attacking midfielder plays a completely different style of football. Faster forward movement, quicker ball handling and less time in possession. Lin Feng is like a ruthless serving machine. He transfers the ball passed by his teammates to other positions quickly in the most reasonable way so as to maximize the offensive threat. When necessary, he would even try to dribble the ball himself to seek shooting opportunities. Compared to Riquelme's style of play, which likes to control the ball under his feet, Lin Feng's play is more concise and efficient. Indeed, Riquelme's ball-protecting and escaping movements are indeed very graceful and elegant, with a low error rate and he seldom loses the ball. But while he was making all those cool moves, Inter Milan's defense had already been in place. Riquelme's slow handling of the ball is likely to cause Villarreal to miss good attacking opportunities. On the other hand, Lin Feng's quick passing without sticking to the ball can greatly increase the difficulty of the opponent's defense and make his own offense more threatening. Moreover, compared to Riquelme who focuses more on offense, Lin Feng is good at both offense and defense. His large coverage range and excellent running ability allow him to serve as the team's first line of defense and intercept the opponent at the initial stage of the attack. If this interception is successful, it will give us the opportunity to counterattack on the spot. Even if it fails, it can reduce the speed and efficiency of the opponent's midfield and backcourt players passing the ball, and buy time for other players on the team to lag behind in defense. On the other hand, Riquelme is a guy who only knows how to attack and is completely invisible when defending. The two different styles of play have resulted in two completely different offensive methods for the two teams. In the first 20 minutes, Inter Milan did not score a goal. But their offensive threat became increasingly greater, and Villarreal, with one less defender, gradually showed signs of being unable to hold on. In the 26th minute of the game, Inter Milan found another chance to score. After Lin Feng broke through the midfield, he quickly passed the ball to an unguarded area on the right. After receiving the ball, Figo chose to cut inside. Facing Villarreal defender Peña, Figo seized the opportunity and dribbled past the defender. The ball passed between the opponent's legs. After Figo completed the breakthrough, he calmly shot the ball into the goal with his left foot before the goalkeeper could block the angle. The score became 1:1, and Inter Milan quickly equalized the score in the first half. But this score is still unfavorable to Inter Milan. This is their game. A draw is equivalent to losing, not to mention that the opponent has the advantage of away goals. If Inter Milan plays away with such a score, the probability of being eliminated is very high. So Figo did not choose to celebrate after scoring the goal, but chose to seize the time and continue attacking. But for Villarreal, winning by one goal away from home is enough to make them very satisfied.
So after the kick-off, the Spaniards began to control the ball by back-passing, wasting time, wearing down the opponent's fighting spirit, and looking for opportunities to attack. (End of this chapter)