Chapter 184 The phone-gate scandal continues to ferment, Inter Milan overtakes Juventus to top Serie A! After the game, Riquelme took the initiative to find Lin Feng and asked to exchange jerseys with him. Lin Feng accepted all offers and readily agreed to the other party's request. "Looking forward to fighting you next time!" "Me too!" After exchanging jerseys, Riquelme nodded to Lin Feng and turned away. This score is definitely not good news for Villarreal. If they still want to advance to the semi-finals, they must think carefully about how to play the next game. But Inter Milan, as the winner, did not need to consider these problems. Led by their captain, the players walked around the field to thank the Nerazzurri for their support and celebrated the victory with tens of thousands of Inter Milan fans on the scene. Inter Milan's boss Moratti was also present at the game. After watching the entire game sitting in the stands, a long-lost smile appeared on his face. This season, the Champions League semi-finals should be secure!
If they can really make it to the semi-finals, it will be the first time Inter Milan has reached the Champions League semi-finals in three years since the 02-03 season. In the 02-03 season, they had the misfortune of meeting AC Milan, which was at its peak. The two teams fought fiercely in the semi-finals. In the end, Inter Milan was unfortunately eliminated in the semi-finals due to the disadvantage of away goals. AC Milan successfully reached the final, defeated another Serie A team Juventus, and won the Champions League trophy that year. That season was the closest Inter Milan ever came to the Champions League! In the following 03-04 and 04-05 seasons, Inter Milan's performance in the Champions League declined sharply. In the 03-04 season, Inter Milan was eliminated in the group stage. In the 04-05 season, Inter Milan was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Tragically, Inter Milan was eliminated in the quarterfinals by its city rivals AC Milan. And after AC Milan eliminated Inter Milan, they made it all the way to the final, just like last time. But this time they failed to lift the championship trophy again, but were miraculously reversed by Liverpool in Istanbul, contributing to the joke of opening champagne at halftime in the football world. If they cannot take revenge on Liverpool in the future, this joke will probably accompany AC Milan for the rest of their lives! Now, the team has a good chance of reaching the semi-finals again, and Moratti can't help but feel a little excited and a little nervous. He is really worried that Inter Milan will meet AC Milan again in the semi-finals! But they really want to take revenge on AC Milan in the Champions League! Although Inter Milan has defeated AC Milan once in the league this year, the league is not the same as the Champions League. AC Milan is not a team on the same level as Inter Milan in the Champions League. They have too much experience in the Champions League. In addition, AC Milan’s focus at this time is completely on the Champions League, and Inter Milan must do three things at once. If the two teams really meet, Inter Milan will probably find it difficult to get past AC Milan. However, when he saw the young face in the team, he felt inexplicably at ease. As long as Lin Feng can be kept, Inter Milan's future will only get stronger and stronger.
However, AC Milan's current lineup is aging day by day. As a result of the decline and growth of their opponents, perhaps it won't be long before Inter Milan no longer needs to fear their opponents! Just thinking that Lin Feng’s contract renewal issue has not been resolved, Morati’s heart was shrouded in a shadow again. Is this kid really going to run away? …… After the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Arsenal and Inter Milan both won and gained a big advantage, and the promotion situation is relatively clear. The two games of the remaining four teams all ended in a 0:0 draw. This makes the advancement situation of these four teams a little confusing! Judging from the strength on paper, Benfica is obviously not as strong as Barcelona, and its lineup is far less luxurious than the opponent. But in the first leg, Benfica's defense was excellent, completely restricting Barcelona's front attack group and making the opponent score zero points. If they can defend to this level in the second round and drag the game into a penalty shootout, then everything will be uncertain. Lyon's situation was slightly better. They were not as passive as Benfica on the field and had launched many attacks that threatened AC Milan's goal. But unfortunately, due to the absence of Juninho, Lyon's midfield was greatly weakened, especially their killer free kick, which did not play as expected in this game. But in the next game, Juninho will most likely return, which may add a lot of variables to the next game. In general, among the three giants in Serie A, Inter Milan is in the best situation, and AC Milan still holds a certain initiative. But Juventus is basically finished and can be directly dragged out and buried. They were two goals behind Premier League giants Arsenal and had not yet scored an away goal, which would have been fine, but they also had two players sent off. In this situation, if Capello can still lead the team to a comeback, he would be a god! It seems that they were affected by the results in the European war. After returning to Serie A, they faced Treviso, which was ranked last in the league and had only 31 wins, 2 draws and 9 losses in 20 rounds. Juventus suffered another upset and was tied by their opponents! This shocking upset shocked the entire Italian football world and caused an uproar in public opinion! Treviso is 14 points behind the fourth-to-last team and has already secured a relegation spot. Judging from their record, their strength cannot even be described as a weak team. They are just walking three-pointers, bringing warmth to others wherever they go. But unexpectedly, this time their warmth was not given out, but it was Juventus that gave them warmth. What's even more outrageous is that despite encountering such a free-scoring player, Juventus was actually shut out by the opponent! The strength gap between the two teams was so huge that Juventus couldn't even break through the opponent's goal. This further confirmed the previous rumors: It seems that the morale of Juventus is in chaos and the players are in panic! "No wonder we lost so badly against Arsenal away from home. Losing the ball would have been fine, but they actually had two players sent off. Looking back now, I'm afraid their players' mentality was already in a mess during that game!" "Although Juventus is still 3 points ahead of Inter Milan and is temporarily ranked first in the standings, everything may be different after Inter Milan's game tomorrow!" "Juventus now has 42 goals and Inter Milan has 49. The win-loss record between them is also one win and one loss. So as long as Inter Milan wins the game and both teams have the same points, Inter Milan will overtake Juventus with the advantage of goal difference and top the standings!" "Isn't this too good to be true? During the winter break, Juventus' lead was still in double digits. Who would have thought at that time that they would be overtaken by Inter Milan!" "Haha, if Juventus had maintained their stable form in the first half of the season, it would have been difficult for Inter to make a comeback, but who told them to have problems?" "Are those rumors true or false? Did Juventus really collude with the referee to fix the match?" "Who knows if it's true or not, but looking at Juventus' current state, I think it's probably true!"
"That's right, if it was really a fabricated rumor by the media, Juventus wouldn't be affected so much." There is a lot of discussion and rumors about Juventus' current situation. There are rumors that Juventus' top management has been taken away for investigation, and there is solid evidence of collusion with the referee, and they may be severely punished or even ordered to be relegated. There are also rumors that Juventus' previous championships will be stripped and they will face an astronomical fine. There are also rumors that Juventus players have begun to privately contact top clubs in other European leagues to find a way out. This also explains why they were completely out of shape in recent games and their results were terrible! In short, all kinds of unconfirmed rumors are flying around, and they seem very credible! The curiosity of the spectators was also completely ignited. In addition to paying attention to the results of the game every day, they were also concerned about whether there was any new news. Although the procuratorates of four cities have launched investigations, no decisive evidence has been revealed to prove that Juventus was really involved in match-fixing or manipulating the game. But the news spread more and more widely, attracting more and more people's attention. Although no conclusive evidence has been revealed, there has been no official refutation either. In the field of public opinion, suspicion is fact. In the long run, Juventus will only be affected by greater public opinion. …… "Damn it, a championship match turned out like this!" On April 4, Inter Milan, at home, swept Messina 2:3 without any bloodshed, winning four consecutive games and also surpassing Juventus in the league rankings to first place in the standings! This should have been something worth writing about, but the media and fans focused their attention on Juventus' phone-gate affair, which resulted in Inter Milan topping the Serie A table being ignored. This made Inter Milan's players feel very indignant. It was as if they had worked hard for a long time and finally achieved results, only to find out that no one cared at all. "Well, not to mention that the fans don't care much, even I feel that it's not fair to win!" "It seems like Juventus imploded on their own, rather than being defeated fairly by us. Even if we overtook them, we still felt that the victory was unfair!" Due to the lack of flowers and applause, after the excitement wore off, Inter Milan's players also felt bored. If Juventus cannot adjust quickly and remains in this state, Inter Milan will even widen the gap with Juventus in the league standings! There is no point in winning such a championship! "In that case, why don't we learn from AC Milan and set our sights on the Champions League?" Originally, Inter Milan's focus was on the league, but now that Juventus has imploded, the difficulty of Inter Milan winning the league has suddenly decreased a lot. This gives them extra energy to think about other competitions, such as cup competitions and the Champions League. "Play well in the league first, and then talk about it after the opponent in the semi-finals is determined!" Faced with the players' proposal, Mancini neither agreed nor denied it. Adhering to the three principles of not taking the initiative, not refusing, and not taking responsibility, he will flexibly adjust his bottom line according to the situation. In this way, if the goal is not achieved in the future, he will have an excuse. After all, the Champions League was not Inter Milan's goal from the beginning. ……
After the league, it was time for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. This time, the entire Inter Milan team rushed to Spain to challenge the Yellow Submarine away. Theoretically speaking, a schedule of playing at home first and away later is not very advantageous for the team. But for Inter Milan, who have two goals in hand, this does not exist. As long as they don't lose by two goals in this game, they can advance to the semi-finals. In this game, Villarreal captains Arruabarena and Tacchinati returned from suspension, which is a significant boost to their strength. Villarreal, which was at a disadvantage in the score, launched a fierce attack on Inter Milan as soon as the referee blew the whistle. Although this is Villarreal's first time participating in the Champions League, they have already reached the quarterfinals and have set a record in team history. But they are obviously unwilling to stop here and want to keep moving forward and make their dark horse remain the dark horse to the end. In the 3rd minute, Sorin's cross from the left was cleared by Stankovic. Riquelme got the ball and broke into the penalty area. His shot fell under Materazzi's defense. The ball was suspected to be a foul by Materazzi in the penalty area, and the home team fans protested in the stands, they all thought it should be a penalty. But the referee may not have seen it clearly, or perhaps he was concerned that the game had just begun and did not dare to make such a bold decision, so he did not make any penalty. In the era of VAR, this would most likely be a penalty, but in this era, if the referee does not see the ball clearly and lacks courage, it is easy to miss or misjudge the situation. The referee's decision made the home team fans very dissatisfied. There were bursts of booing from the stands, and it was unclear whether they were booing the visiting team or the referee. Fortunately, the mood of the home team fans was immediately balanced. In the 10th minute, Lin Feng dribbled into the penalty area and was tripped by Senna. The referee also ignored the opponent's foul and did not make a penalty. In fact, this foul was more obvious than the previous one. According to normal penalty standards, a penalty should be awarded. But the referee may have wanted to make up for himself and did not make such a decision. Inter Milan's players tried to protest, but to no avail, and Villarreal escaped. "There seems to be something wrong with the referee's penalty standards today!" "Yes, if he can't adjust quickly, the game will probably get out of control!" Unfair penalties will increase the resentment of players on both sides and cause them to behave irrationally on the court. How to control the scale of penalties without affecting the fairness and smoothness of the game as much as possible is a great test of the referee's skills. The referee obviously realized this. Not blowing the whistle for two consecutive fouls would make the players feel that his whistle was soft, and they would foul more unscrupulously. So, within two minutes, in the 17th and 19th minutes, he gave Inter Milan and Villarreal a yellow card respectively, warning Tazzinati and Materazzi who committed fouls. The players of both teams were speechless. The referee's penalty standards changed so quickly. But they are all veterans and know the referee's mind very well. As soon as they saw that something was not right, the players immediately became cautious, not wanting to be the first to stand out and be caught as an example by the referee. The actions of both sides were restrained a lot and the number of fouls decreased. This is an epic enhancement for technical players on the field, especially midfielders who like to dribble!
It just so happens that Riquelme, the core midfielder of the home team, is such a player! So, after the referee tightened the penalty standards, Riquelme quickly became active on the court. (End of this chapter)