Chapter 253: The German Tanks Are Coming Roma’s pressing was very fierce, but such a fierce pressing would require a large amount of manpower. This resulted in Roma's overall formation being relatively forward, with a large amount of space in the backcourt. But the problem is that under the opponent's high-pressure pressing, it is difficult for the defender to successfully send the ball directly to the opponent's weak point behind. The longer the long pass, the lower the success rate. What's more, when the opponent is pressing forward as a whole, it is difficult for our players to reach too deep a position, and it is very easy to fall into the opponent's offside trap. Therefore, direct long passes are not very feasible. The best way is to transition from the midfield and turn a long pass into two or three short passes on the ground. This can effectively improve the success rate of passing the ball, and in the process of passing, discover and exploit loopholes in the opponent's defense line, so that the threat of attack is further increased! In the Inter Milan team, the person who was supposed to take on excessive tasks was Lin Feng, but now he has retreated to the backcourt and become the initiator of the attack. Therefore, Lin Feng must find someone who can complete the midfield transition on his behalf. There are two such people in Inter Milan - Figo and Vieira! Both of them are players with very high basketball IQs. After seeing Lin Feng's actions, they immediately realized his thoughts and quickly started running, trying to get rid of the defensive players around them and find space to receive the ball. Of these two people, Lin Feng is more familiar with Figo, and usually, he would choose to pass the ball to Figo first.
But this time, after seeing Vieira's running position, Lin Feng made a different choice - pass the ball to Vieira! Vieira was very surprised when he received the pass from Lin Feng. Although he moved, it was just an instinctive behavior. In fact, he didn't think that Lin Feng would pass the ball to him. However, to his surprise, Lin Feng actually spread it! And this isn’t the first time! Vieira had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but his actions did not delay at all. After receiving the pass from Lin Feng, he just looked up and observed the running positions of his teammates in the frontcourt, and then immediately sent a through pass. Vieira did not choose to pass the ball to Crespo, but chose to pass it to Torres. Everyone saw Torres' condition today. Even though it was more than 80 minutes, he was still full of fighting spirit. When he saw an attacking opportunity, he put in all his strength and ran all the way from his own half. Now he was almost approaching the opponent's penalty area! Vieira looks big and strong, but his technique is very delicate. He passes the ball very well and sends it directly to Torres, allowing the latter to dribble into the penalty area without slowing down! Again? The Roma goalkeeper's face changed. Inter Milan's new striker seemed to be addicted to scoring goals from him! Two goals are not enough, he even wants a hat trick! Doni was furious and attacked hard, and then saw Torres complete the shot with his right foot. The ball spun over his head and flew into the goal! The score became 4:1, and Torres completed his first hat trick after joining Inter Milan. There is absolutely no suspense in the game! …… One victory can change the media's evaluation of a team! After Inter Milan won a big victory over Roma in an away game, major Italian media changed their previous pessimistic view of them and began to sing praises of Inter Milan again. Torres, the newcomer who was questioned before, suddenly topped the scorer list of Serie A in the new season with a hat trick in this game, and was praised to the sky by countless fans and media people. Titles like Spanish Ronaldo, the real answer to Inter Milan's front line, and a strong contender for the European Golden Boot were all pinned on his head without any cost. As for Lin Feng, all major media seemed to have forgotten their previous bad news and acted as if nothing had happened. But the passing of a goose leaves traces behind, and no matter how hard you try to cover up what has happened, you cannot change the facts that have already happened. After seeing the true face of the media, Inter Milan finally did not fall for the outside hype this time.
"Beating Roma can only temporarily stabilize the league, but this season we have more than just the league, we also have the Champions League!" On the way back to Milan, Mancini stood in the bus and said to the players with a serious expression: "Our situation in the group is very serious at the moment, especially since our next opponent is the leader Bayern. If we lose this game, we will probably be overtaken by Sporting Lisbon and fall to third or even fourth place! If this kind of thing really happens, then the people who flatter you and sing praises to you today will change into a different face and will wish to trample you into the mud! So I need everyone to forget about this game, and from tomorrow on, put 100% of your concentration into training, and go all out to prepare for the game in a week!" This match against Bayern may be a life-and-death battle for Mancini. Moratti's patience has already been called out. If he loses this game, he will have to pack up and leave. Mancini did what he said. In order to leave enough energy for the main players to deal with the Champions League in the middle of the week, he kept most of the main players in the fourth round of Serie A, at home against Chievo, and arranged a large number of substitutes to play. The main players including Lin Feng, Figo, Torres, Zanetti and others were all rested this round, and some were not even included in the roster. They all sat in the stands in suits and watched the game. But Inter Milan's bench depth this season is indeed sufficient. Even with so many main players on the bench, Inter Milan can still field a combination of Cruz + Crespo and Recoba on the front line. Originally, Mancini was planning to keep Crespo on the bench as well, but Crespo insisted on playing because this was his 300th game in Serie A, which was of great commemorative significance. Furthermore, Inter Milan is not AC Milan after all. They can completely ignore the league. They still have to compete for the league championship. If all the main players are kept on the bench, we might end up losing the game. So in the end Mancini did not insist and agreed to Crespo's request. The latter also promised that he would perform at his best and score goals to help the team win the game. It turns out that the Argentines were not lying. In this game, Crespo scored two wonderful goals with his head and feet, which celebrated his 300th Serie A game and helped the team beat the opponent with a score of 4:3. Also performing well was the magical substitute Cruz on the front line. Cruz also scored two goals in this game, one volley into the far corner, the other a low shot with the inside of his right foot into the far corner. The angles, strength and timing of both goals were impeccable. Although he has spent most of his time on the bench since Torres and Crespo joined, the magical thing is that Cruz's condition has not been affected at all, and is even surprisingly good. Even because his condition was so good, people outside were feeling sorry for him, thinking that Mancini was too cold towards Cruz. "Why does a striker like Cruz not get a chance to play under Mancini?" "Does Mancini know how to use his players? Is he just going to let such an excellent striker rot on the bench?" "Inter Milan has such a good lineup, but has encountered a coach who is not good at using it. No wonder Inter Milan played so badly this season!" Mancini was confused. Why was he always scolded no matter whether he won or lost? So whatever I do is wrong? Cruise himself did not say anything about the outside world's complaints, nor did he take advantage of the issue to make a fuss. His character has always been like this. He doesn't fight or compete. He just does whatever the team assigns him to do conscientiously. He never takes the initiative to ask for anything, and he is never angry because he can't get a starting position. In his opinion, Crespo is far more famous and capable than himself, and he should be the starter. As for Torres, although he is young, he is extremely talented and has a bright future. He is just a veteran in his 30s and does not have much value to the team. He should not compete for playing time with such a player who needs game opportunities to accelerate his growth. Mancini was a little confused and didn't know whether to arrange him to play in the next game against Bayern.
Since the other party has said so himself, let’s just forget it! However, we still need to do more rotation on the front line. It would be a shame to leave such a good striker unused. It just so happens that Inter Milan wants to make progress in both the league and the Champions League this season, so let's arrange for Kroos to play more often in the league and cup competitions! Such a player is a treasure for any team. We cannot just let him rot on the bench as the outside world says. …… Like Inter Milan, AC Milan was also preparing for the Champions League in the middle of the week, which resulted in them being tied 0:0 by the weaker Livorno away from home, thus ending their three-game winning streak. Roma, on the other hand, seems to be very confident about the Champions League. It may also be that after losing the last game, they did not want to be further left behind by Inter Milan, so they still played with all their main players in this round away from home and finally won 4:0 against Parma. Parma said, "It's Inter who provoked you. If you want revenge, go find Inter. Isn't it too much to attack an ordinary team like us?" After the first four rounds, Inter Milan currently tops the standings with 3 wins, 1 draw and 10 points. Roma ranked second with a difference of 1 point. As for AC Milan, their ranking improved greatly, and they have escaped from the second-to-last position and moved up to the fifth from the bottom. Of course, if there were no points deducted, AC Milan would now have 10 points, with one less goal difference than Inter Milan, ranking second. Perhaps because of the absence of Juventus, this season's Serie A always feels a bit hard to get excited about. Although it seems that the points gap between Roma and Inter Milan is not that big, the outside world unanimously asserts that Inter Milan will definitely have the last laugh. The direct result of this is that the ratings of Serie A this season have dropped significantly, and the number of fans watching the game on site has also decreased compared to previous seasons. Even the Meazza Stadium is rarely packed like before when Inter Milan plays. But there is one exception, and that is the Champions League! On September 9, Inter Milan will face the challenge of Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich at home. Tickets for this game were hard to come by at the Meazza Stadium, in stark contrast to the previous game between Inter Milan and Chievo, where tickets were unsold. Not only that, audiences at home and abroad also have great enthusiasm for this game, and countless people are looking forward to this decisive battle. One of the two teams is the traditional overlord of the Bundesliga, and the other is the new overlord of Serie A after the Calciopoli scandal. They not only represent their respective clubs, but also represent the highest level of the two leagues. After the Calciopoli scandal, the entire football world is very curious about the overall strength of Serie A in the new season, and this game will reveal the answer to them! Before the game even started, the head coaches of both teams had already started a verbal battle. Bayern Munich head coach Magath confidently stated at the pre-match press conference: "We are here to win. No matter who our opponent is, we have to beat them away from home and continue to lead the points." He said this as if he didn't take Inter Milan seriously at all. When Magath's words reached Mancini's ears, Mancini naturally responded without hesitation: "Mr Magath seems to have forgotten that Italian football has always been the nemesis of German football. When the German tanks encounter the Italian reinforced concrete defense, they are often at a loss. And as far as I know, Bayern Munich has been to Italy six times before, but they lost all of them and it was hard to win. Maybe after this game, Bayern will add another failure record! " Mancini's answer caused laughter from the Italian reporters at the scene, while the German reporters looked dissatisfied, but no one stood up to refute him.
It is an internationally recognized fact that Italian football restrains German football, and the results on the field also prove this. The Germans really can't beat the Italians. Bayern is the team with the most German internationals, and their overall style continues the consistent tradition of German football. This also leads to the fact that they always play poorly when they meet Serie A teams. In recent seasons, Bayern has never won against AC Milan and Juventus away from home. But this does not include Inter Milan! 国米此前仅在1988-1989年联盟杯中跟拜仁遭遇过，那一次国米客场2比0、主场1比3，最后因为客场进球劣势输给了拜仁。 That time, Bayern broke through Inter Milan's home court and won a big victory. Therefore, past records do not represent anything. The strength of any team is constantly changing. Even the same team and the same group of people will burst out with completely different combat effectiveness at different times and in different occasions. For Inter Milan, their advantages in this game are mainly concentrated in two aspects: Home advantage and physical advantage! Many of Inter Milan's main players did not play in the league game at the weekend, allowing them to face this battle in the best condition. Bayern had to travel a long way to reach Milan, so the players must have consumed more physical energy than Inter Milan. In addition, Hargreaves and Deisler on Bayern's side were unable to play due to injuries, making Bayern's lineup incomplete. But it seems that the situation on Inter Milan's side is more serious. Materazzi is injured and Vieira is suspended with a red card. Both of them are players in key positions, and their absence will have a greater impact on Inter Milan. (End of this chapter)