Chapter 93: The new Inter Milan trident, the first Chinese derby in the Champions League On September 9, the 14-2005 UEFA Champions League officially kicked off. In this round, Inter Milan will travel to challenge Artmedia. Although the opponent's strength is average, considering that Inter Milan just lost to Palermo away, many people are worried about Inter Milan's condition. Some AC Milan fans even prepared small benches, melon seeds, drinks and mineral water, just waiting to watch their neighbors make a fool of themselves. But Inter Milan's performance disappointed them! Just 5 minutes into the game, Cruz, who had performed well in the previous game, helped Inter Milan take the lead with a beautiful volley. This super substitute proved his strength to the outside world with goals in two consecutive games. Although he is not an absolute main player in Inter Milan, no one can underestimate his scoring ability. Seeing this goal, Inter Milan fans all breathed a sigh of relief. Inter Milan seems to be in good shape today, at least much better than the last game. Artmedia, who participated in the UEFA Champions League for the first time, seemed a little uncomfortable with Europe's top league.
They made many mistakes in the first half and the players were restrained on the field. But Inter Milan did not seize the opportunity to expand their lead, and the score remained 1:0 until halftime. In the second half, although Artemedia's condition recovered somewhat, the gap in hard power still put them at a clear disadvantage. The situation of the game was under Inter Milan's control until the 56th minute, when Inter Milan midfielder Veron was shown a second yellow card by the referee for taking a free kick prematurely. Two yellow cards turned into one red card and he was sent off. The situation of the game began to reverse! Seeing their opponent being sent off, Artemedia's players saw hope of a reversal. They began to try to use their numerical advantage to launch an attack on Inter Milan. As the champion of the Slovak League, Artemedia's strength is at least at the middle and lower level of Serie A. With the numerical advantage, the attack they launched was quite threatening. For a moment, the situation on the field began to turn unfavorable to Inter Milan. If it were in the past, Mancini might not know how to respond correctly at this time. But after learning from his mistakes, he gradually abandoned his previous pursuit of "beautiful football" and took a practical approach. As long as we can win, scoring one goal is enough! Scoring more goals does not add any extra points. So, Mancini made a decisive substitution! He replaced forward Cruz with defensive midfielder Zanetti. This substitution puzzled many people. Cruz performed so well and was still the only striker on the field for Inter Milan. If you replace him, how can you attack? Mancini’s answer was very simple, just let Lin Feng attack! At that time, there was no concept of strikerless formation in football. It was not until Luciano developed this style of play in Rome with Wolf King Totti as the core that the world truly witnessed its power. Mancini used this tactic by accident. At first, Artemedia was a little worried about the opponent's sneak attack, but when he saw that the opponent had even replaced the last forward, the last bit of worry in his heart was dispelled! The opponent has no forward, so what is there to be afraid of? Just rush and that’s it! After all, Artmedia is the champion of the Slovak League, so they are still quite capable.
When they attacked with all their might, Inter's defense immediately felt the pressure. Fortunately, after Mancini strengthened the defense in the middle, Inter Milan had a solid barrier outside the back line, which could help them filter out a large part of the opponent's threats. Under the concerted defense of Inter Milan's players, Artemdia's attack seemed to be much ado about nothing. Although there were many shots, there were very few chances to score in the absolute sense. On the contrary, after they pressed forward with their formation, the empty rear was gradually exposed. In the 77th minute, Inter Milan goalkeeper Cesar resolved the opponent's shooting threat, rushed into the penalty area with the ball, and launched a quick counterattack with a hand throw. Cambiasso made a beautiful turn in the middle, got rid of the interception of the opponent's midfielder, and quickly passed the ball. When Cesar launched the hand-thrown attack, the three players in Inter Milan's frontcourt had already started sprinting. From left to right, they are left midfielder Recoba, attacking midfielder Lin Feng and right midfielder Figo. Cambiasso passed the ball to Figo, a right-winger who not only has strong personal strength, but also has a strong ability to read the game. He did not choose to run along the sidelines with the ball, but quickly passed the ball to Lin Feng. The beauty of this pass is that the opponent's two central defenders are forced to focus on Lin Feng, allowing him and left midfielder Recoba to use the space on the ribs to move forward and get a chance to face the goalkeeper directly. Originally, when the ball was at his feet, he could only cooperate with Lin Feng in the middle. But after passing the ball to Lin Feng, Lin Feng had more choices. The opponent had only two defensive players, while Inter Milan had three offensive players. No matter what choice the other side makes, they will not be able to make up for the difference in numbers, and will inevitably end up losing one thing while gaining another. "Pretty!" Mancini praised Figo's passing. Barcelona and Real Madrid were so stupid in their fight for Figo. Inter Milan can sign the Portuguese superstar for free without spending a penny. Although he is a little older, Figo's strength has not declined much and he is still as useful as ever. The more Mancini thought about it, the more he felt that this transfer was a good deal! When Lin Feng received the pass from Figo, the two defensive players of the opposing team were indeed attracted over. Figo saw this and immediately made a run to the flank. Recoba on the left was a little slow to react but soon made the same choice. Faced with the penetration of two opponent's wingers, Artemedia's defenders were in a dilemma. Go and defend these two people, no one will take care of Lin Feng in the middle. Don't guard against these two people. Lin Feng will pass the ball and the opponent will have a one-on-one opportunity. It feels like no matter what choice I make it’s the wrong one! They had no time to hesitate and had to make a choice. Otherwise, once Lin Feng passed the ball, they would not even have the chance to intercept it. So, one of the two chose to move to the left to intercept Figo on the right. The other person chose to pounce on Lin Feng, trying to force the opponent to return to defense by pressing forward. As long as Lin Feng is prevented from passing the ball forward, Inter Milan's counterattack will naturally come to nothing.
Seeing the opponent made such a choice, Lin Feng passed the ball to the left without hesitation and gave it to Recoba who was making a forward run. When Recoba received the ball, there was no defensive player in front of him. Alone! Alamedia's goalkeeper chose to leave the goal and attack, lowering his center of gravity, spreading his arms, trying to block Recoba's shooting angle as much as possible. Unexpectedly, facing such a good opportunity, Recoba did not choose to shoot himself, but knocked the ball horizontally to the middle. A blue figure came rushing over and shot the ball into the empty goal. The goal was scored by Inter Milan’s attacking midfielder – Lin Feng! The defender of Artmedia who intercepted Lin Feng immediately stretched out his right hand and signaled to the referee that his opponent was offside. The referee looked at the linesman beside him, who shook his head slightly and had no intention of raising the flag. The slow-motion replay at the scene showed that when Lin Feng passed the opponent's defender and moved forward at high speed, Figo on the wing also sprinted towards the penalty area with all his might. It was his running that led the other defender of the opposing team and avoided the risk of Lin Feng being offside. I have to say that Figo is really experienced! Although the goal was scored by Lin Feng, at least half of the credit should be attributed to him. Lin Feng was well aware of this, and immediately after scoring the goal he ran to high-five and hug Figo. Recoba also ran over and Inter Milan's front three hugged each other. Inter Milan fans were very excited when they saw this scene. This counterattack was quick and smooth, like flowing water. It's a game of speed and passion, but also full of beautiful coordination! This is the beautiful football we have always dreamed of! Looking at Lin Feng and the other two who were celebrating, Inter Milan fans sighed in their hearts and thought that they should just let Lin Feng play as a striker in the future! Watching his cooperation with Figo and others is really eye-opening. After Lin Feng scored Inter Milan's second goal, the suspense of the game was killed. Although Artemidea put up a desperate struggle, they were ultimately unable to defeat the ten-man Inter Milan and had to swallow the bitter fruit of defeat at their home stadium. In the end, thanks to goals from Cruz and Lin Feng, Inter Milan defeated their opponents 2:0 away from home and got off to a good start in the new season of the Champions League. For Lin Feng, this game is quite memorable. This was not only his first UEFA Champions League match, but also the first time a Chinese player appeared in a UEFA Champions League match. So the goal he scored was not only his first goal in the Champions League, but also the first goal scored by a Chinese player in the Champions League. But this doesn't seem to be a very glorious thing. After all, players from Japan, South Korea and other countries have already shined in the Champions League. However, China, the country with the largest population, has no voice at all in the Champions League. This is actually a very sad thing if you think about it carefully. …… Inter Milan's victory temporarily shut up those who tried to laugh at them. But as long as Inter Milan shows signs of fatigue again in future games, they will jump out at the first opportunity. With the full launch of the Champions League, the focus of European football has begun to shift to the top giants. In this round of the Champions League, Real Madrid suffered a shocking upset. The Galacticos, which has super stars such as Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham, Raul and others, suffered a crushing defeat of 0:3 to Lyon at the Gerland Stadium.
This result was completely beyond the expectations of the outside world. No one expected Real Madrid to lose so badly! After the game, major media used the title "The Fall of the Galaxy Battleship" to describe this game. Even Real Madrid's mouthpiece, AS, announced in grief and anger that the Real Madrid galaxy battleship had been sunk: "It took Lyon just 11 minutes to destroy Luxemburgo's team. Without any tactical ideas, organizational core, or offensive and defensive system, the Galacticos have expensive stars and a lineup worth hundreds of millions of euros, but the performance of the team is a mess! This star-studded team is more like a sinking Titanic, the galactic battleship is being sunk!" Another major media outlet, Marca, was also blunt: "Conceding three goals in 10 minutes has nothing to do with Casillas's hard work. Without Casillas' outstanding performance, Real Madrid's shame would be even greater! Luxemburg sent out 4 attacking midfielders for this game, but people did not see beautiful offensive organization, or even real football! For Real Madrid, their face has been lost and they can only leave with their heads down and booed." It can be seen that Real Madrid's poor performance really broke the defense of Real Madrid's diehard fans. But if they knew that from now on, Lyon would become their nemesis in the Champions League and that the Galacticos would gradually become the 16th place in the Champions League, I wonder how they would feel. Judging from the strength on paper alone, the two teams are not on the same level at all. Real Madrid is almost full of superstars, Ronaldo, Zidane, Raul, Beckham, Michael Owen, Guti, Roberto Carlos, Robinho... This string of names can be written even longer! In contrast, their opponent Lyon, except for Juninho and Wiltord who are somewhat famous, the other players are all young newcomers. Malouda, Govou, Diarra, Abidal, Chris, Casapa, Revere, Lyon's main lineup, compared with Real Madrid, can really be said to be quite civilian. The team's total value may be less than one-fifth of that of the opponent. But the outcome of a football match is not determined by the player's worth. If you don't play well, it doesn't matter how high your worth is. Except for Real Madrid, other giants basically defeated their opponents in this round. It is worth mentioning that in this round of the Champions League group stage, the Chinese derby was staged for the first time. In the Champions League group draw, Feng Xiaoting's Barcelona was placed in the same group as Chen Tao's Werder Bremen. The first round of the group stage will be Barcelona's away game against Werder Bremen. Since both teams have Chinese players, the popularity and attention of this game in the country even exceeded that of the focus match between Real Madrid and Lyon, and also exceeded that of Inter Milan's game. For Chinese fans, they have watched a lot of Champions League games. But it was the first time in history that both teams had Chinese players participating in a Chinese derby. Although Werder Bremen is playing at home, Barcelona is still stronger. After 90 minutes of hard fighting, Werder Bremen still failed to successfully defend their home court and was completely defeated by their opponent 0:2 at home. In this match, Chen Tao, as the starting midfielder of Werder Bremen, played the whole game and almost completed an assist. Unfortunately, Klose's goal was ruled invalid due to offside, and his assist was thus wasted. Feng Xiaoting came on as a substitute for Barcelona in the 77th minute of the game. It is worth mentioning that the two had a direct confrontation in the 85th minute of the game.
Facing Chen Tao, whose physical condition had seriously declined, Feng Xiaoting stopped the opponent's attack with a clean steal and instigated a counterattack, winning applause from head coach Rijkaard and Barcelona fans. After the game, the two of them had a meal as agreed, with the winner Feng Xiaoting treating them. Chen Tao turned his grief and anger into strength, and vented his resentment for losing the game on the court at the dinner table! (End of this chapter)