Chapter 282 What a miserable team! "Figo made a great pass!" "Especially when he pretended to break in but suddenly dribbled the ball, the passing angle was changed. The defender of Sporting Lisbon had already stood in position, but Figo passed a half-high ball at an extremely fast speed, which was difficult for the defender to clear, giving Cruz the opportunity to score!" Even the commentators felt a little unbelievable about Figo's performance. You know, Figo is almost 35 years old. It is really rare for such a veteran to be able to maintain such a good condition. Originally everyone thought that Figo would choose to retire after playing in the World Cup in Germany, just like Zidane. But now it seems that he will have no problem playing for a few more years in this form. Although he is unable to play the entire game due to his age and declining physical fitness, as long as Figo avoids injuries, there will be no problem for him to play for 60 minutes. Last season, Figo played a total of 46 games for Inter Milan in the league, cup and Champions League, contributing 8 goals and 12 assists. Figo's appearances and playing time have decreased this season, but his efficiency on the court has not decreased at all.
So far this season, Figo has helped the team score 3 goals and completed 6 assists. The threats he created and the passes he made on the wing were crucial for Inter Milan. Because of Figo's outstanding performance, Mancini brought Figo with him to almost every game. Even if he is not scheduled to start, he will be sent on the field in the second half when the opponent's players' physical fitness declines. This can not only avoid Figo's dilemma of insufficient physical fitness and inability to last the whole game, but also take advantage of the opponent's defensive players' physical fitness decline to further amplify Figo's role on the wing. It’s a pity that Figo is getting older and older, and it’s unknown how long he can maintain this state. If he suddenly chooses to retire one day, I wonder where the team would look for his successor! …… The sudden goal loss in the opening stage caught Sporting Lisbon off guard. Their original plan was to steal a move and then retreat to launch a defensive counterattack, taking advantage of the opponent's massive attack to launch a sneak attack. But now they were the ones falling behind, and the tactics they had formulated before the game immediately failed. Inter Milan, who scored the first goal, played more calmly and even began to control the game. They are not in a hurry to launch an attack, but patiently pass the ball through the backcourt and flanks to tear open the opponent's defense. Only when they find an opportunity will they launch a fatal blow. The purpose of doing this is to ensure stability and avoid being disrupted by the opponent during fast breaks and melee, which may lead to losing the ball. Secondly, Lin Feng's absence caused some minor problems in Inter Milan's organization and passing in the frontcourt. It was difficult for the players in the attacking midfielder position to make decisive and threatening decisions like Lin Feng under high pressure. In order to make up for this shortcoming, Inter Milan can only try to find more opportunities from the flanks. Anyway, they are already ahead now and without the pressure of attack, they naturally have to choose the style of play with the least risk and consumption. Inter Milan can play like this, but Lisbon can't accept it. If we allow the opponent to pass the ball back and forth and control the ball like this all the time will be wasted by them. Sporting Lisbon must win this game to keep their hopes of qualifying, which means they have to score at least two goals in this game. Facing a Serie A team, it is still very difficult to score two goals against the opponent, not to mention that Inter Milan is not an ordinary Serie A team, but the leader of Serie A.
So as soon as the game started, Sporting Lisbon had already entered a difficult or even hell mode. But they did not give up. Instead, they actively launched wave after wave of attacks after losing the ball, constantly trying to break through Inter Milan's defense. In the continuous attempts, Sporting Lisbon also completed several shots. But Inter Milan's defense today was excellent. They restricted the opponent's forwards in the penalty area and the midfielder's protection of the front of the penalty area was very good. Under Inter Milan's tight defense, Sporting Lisbon's shots did not pose a threat to Inter Milan's goal. Seeing the team's solid defense, Inter fans in the stands happily sang the team song. Under the opponent's fierce attack, Inter Milan also seized several opportunities to launch quick counterattacks, but unfortunately these counterattacks did not result in a goal. Apart from the goal scored in the fifth minute, neither side made any progress in the remaining forty minutes of the first half. The score remained 1:0 until the end of the first half. After a short break, the two sides exchanged venues and continued fighting. In the second half, Sporting Lisbon made personnel adjustments. They replaced the No. 21 attacking midfielder Farnerud with Martins, a short player who was only over meters tall. Martins is very fast, flexible and has good footwork. This substitution was obviously made because the reason why Inter Milan saw that they had arranged tall defenders with strong frontal defense but not flexible enough was that they wanted to look for opportunities in a small and fast way. However, before they started trying this style of play, Inter Milan suddenly launched an attack. Just two minutes into the second half, Inter Milan intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack. Such counterattacks had occurred many times in the first half, so the players of Sporting Lisbon did not take it too seriously. Some players chose to return to defense, while some players ran back slowly, observing the position of Inter Milan's defenders while running, as if they were ready to receive long passes from their teammates at any time to counterattack Inter Milan. However, to their disappointment, Inter's right-back Maicon dribbled forward and, after attracting the defense of the opponent's full-back and defensive midfielder, successfully passed the ball through the gap between people and handed it to Figo on the side. After Figo got the ball, he used feints and changes of direction to dribble past two Lisbon defenders and entered the penalty area, then passed the ball in front of the goal. Torres stopped the ball with his left foot 8 meters in front of the goal, then turned and shot with his right foot, hitting the ball into the lower right corner of the goal. The score became 2:0! Inter Milan fans in the stands were going crazy with joy. They shouted Figo's name and paid tribute to the veteran. In the absence of Lin Feng, Figo took up the team's offensive banner and scored both goals for the team on his own. After scoring this goal, Mancini completely relaxed. If there was a possibility of being equalized or even reversed before when leading by only one goal, now the possibility is very low. Although he didn't know what tactics Sporting Lisbon's head coach had prepared to deal with him, judging from the situation on the field, the opponent's tactics did not seem to work. Looking at Mancini who was leisurely and contented, the head coach of Sporting Lisbon next door was almost furious! He really didn't know whether the other party had deliberately arranged the tactics this way or was simply lucky. Every time Sporting Lisbon arranged their tactics and prepared to take action, Inter Milan would always score a goal in advance and disrupt their deployment. It was like this in the first half, and it was like this in the second half! Both goals happened at the beginning of the first half, which made his pre-game arrangements a joke and also had a great impact on the players' mentality. Before, to overturn a one-goal deficit, you only needed to score two goals. Now, to overturn a two-goal deficit, you need to score three goals.
With the defensive level shown by Inter Milan in this game, it was almost impossible to score three goals in such a short time in the second half. Thinking of this, his heart was filled with despair. In addition to fans of Inter Milan and Sporting Lisbon, some Bayern Munich fans are also paying attention to this game. After the Southern Kings were unexpectedly tied by Spartak Moscow in an away game, their qualification seemed to be in a little crisis. Considering that their opponent in the last game is Inter Milan, Bayern fans can't help but worry whether Inter Milan will play a tacit game with Sporting Lisbon, deliberately letting Sporting Lisbon win, and join forces to defeat Bayern? This possibility cannot be ruled out because something like this has already happened in Group A! Facing Werder Bremen, who were competing with Barcelona for the second qualifying spot in the group, Chelsea "unexpectedly" suffered an upset away from home and lost to the Parrots with a score of 0:1, allowing Werder Bremen to overtake Barcelona by 2 points! The situation in Group B is very similar to that in Group A, with two top clubs plus a strong team with certain strength. Moreover, one of the two giants has qualified in advance, while the other one is competing with the third place in the group for the qualification. At this time, the attitude of the giants who have qualified first is crucial to them! If Inter Milan plays badly like Chelsea did and loses to their opponent unexpectedly, then Bayern's fate will be hard to predict. Fortunately, the thing they were most worried about did not happen. Inter Milan is still very professional. Despite the absence of the core players, the team still took the lead. If nothing unexpected happens, they should be able to win the game. In this way, Bayern's qualification spot is secure. However, if Inter Milan wins, they will secure the top spot in the group one round in advance. Even if Bayern beats Inter Milan at home in the next game, they will not be able to shake the opponent's top position. This is a small regret for Bayern fans. In fact, for them, the ideal situation is that Inter Milan loses this game, and then Bayern beats Inter Milan in the next game. In that case, Bayern can not only qualify, but also secure the first place in the group. But the risk of advancing in this way is too great. If Bayern fails to beat Inter Milan at home, they will most likely be eliminated! …… Inter Milan's lightning-fast goals in the second half seemed to stun Sporting Lisbon. Their players lost their sense of proportion on the field, and were at a loss as to what to do, and Inter Milan almost took advantage of the opportunity to expand the score to 3:0. After almost losing the ball again, Sporting Lisbon's condition finally began to recover. Their players seemed to be awakened and started playing again! In the 54th minute, Moutinho received a pass from Ni, turned around outside the penalty area and suddenly shot, but unfortunately the shot was slightly higher than the crossbar, which made the Lisbon fans sigh. In the 62nd minute, Vieira fouled Padres, and Nani's left-footed free kick from 30 meters on the left went wide of the post. In the 66th minute, something unexpected happened on the field. Sporting Lisbon's right-back Canela collided with Materazzi's heads while competing for a header, and both of them fell to the ground. The team doctors from both teams entered the field to check on their players. After a while, Materazzi stood up on his own and was helped off the field by the team doctor to receive treatment. Canela's condition was obviously much worse. After the team doctor examined him, he signaled for a substitution. He was then carried on a stretcher to an ambulance and taken directly away from the stadium to a nearby hospital for treatment. Sporting Lisbon was already lagging behind, and now their teammates have suffered serious injuries, which further shook their morale. On the other hand, Inter Milan, with fewer players than their opponent, launched a massive attack before Materazzi returned to the field. In the 68th minute, Maicon launched an attack, Figo was fouled by Polgar, Inter Milan used the free kick in the frontcourt to make tactical cooperation, Grosso volleyed with the outside of his foot 26 meters away from the goal on the right side, but missed the far post. Afterwards, Zanetti dribbled the ball to the front court, forcing the opponent's midfielder Paredes to commit a foul from behind, for which he received a yellow card.
Inter Milan's continuous and fierce attacks made Sporting Lisbon's situation worse again. In the 71st minute, due to lack of adequate warm-up before coming on the pitch, substitute defender Abel suffered a muscle strain in his leg and was unable to continue the game. Sporting Lisbon had to use its last substitution, replacing Abel with Verosso, who had just been on the field for less than five minutes. The team was behind in the score and encountered accidents one after another, leaving the visiting team's head coach shaking his head helplessly on the sidelines. Even the Inter Milan fans at the scene and in front of the TV began to feel some sympathy for their opponents when they saw how unlucky they were. I have seen unlucky people, but I have never seen such unlucky people. In fact, Sporting Lisbon's fate was determined from the very beginning when the group draw began. Being assigned to Group B, a death group with two top giants, is almost a death sentence for them! The fact that they were able to struggle until the fifth round of the group stage before being eliminated was a result of their tenacious struggle. But after all, they are not strong enough, and it is too difficult to snatch a qualifying spot from Inter Milan and Bayern. I can only hope that we’ll have better luck when the group draw comes next year and not be assigned to such a death group again! Seeing that the opponent had lost their fighting spirit, Inter Milan began to slow down the pace of the game, playing more conservatively and trying to conserve their energy as much as possible. But Crespo, who came on as a substitute, made a beautiful offside move in the 83rd minute of the second half, shook off two defenders and volleyed the ball with his right foot from 14 meters in front of the goal into the lower right corner, extending Inter's lead to three goals. However, because the opponent was in such a bad state and the outcome of the game was already decided, Inter players did not celebrate Crespo's goal. The opponent barely put up any resistance, so what's there to celebrate about this kind of goal? In the end, Inter Milan defeated their opponent at home without much effort, further increasing their points to 13, 5 points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich. This allowed Inter Milan to secure first place in the group one round in advance, while the defeated Sporting Lisbon missed the chance to advance one round in advance. However, their points are higher than Spartak Moscow. As long as they don't lose the next game, they can play in the Europa League as the third in the group. Although the exposure and prize money of the Europa League are not as good as those of the Champions League, you can still get a share of it, which is worse than nothing. (End of this chapter)