Chapter 97 National team coach comes to inspect, second game of Champions League Mancini is really a dog! Seeing Lin Feng score a goal, he immediately made a substitution, replacing Lin Feng who had just scored a goal with a defensive stalwart. Now, Inter Milan's midfield is full of muscular men, making it even more difficult for Fiorentina to attack. Prandelli next door was so angry that his face turned green! Damn, this old guy Mancini is so shameless! But no matter how angry he was, he couldn't change anything. After 20 minutes, the game ended. Thanks to two goals from Martins and Lin Feng, Inter Milan defeated Fiorentina 2-0 at home and achieved their first three-game winning streak of the new season. After this battle, Inter Milan's ranking in the Serie A standings quickly soared to second place, only 3 points less than the top Juventus. What surprised the fans even more was that Inter Milan had kept a clean sheet for three consecutive games! "Cesar is a great buy as a goalkeeper. We can see his wonderful saves in almost every game. Without him, I think we would have lost at least three more goals!"
Less than two months after joining Inter Milan, Cesar has conquered Inter Milan fans with his outstanding performance. "Samuel's performance was also outstanding. The combination of him and Materazzi was like a stabilizing force in the back line!" Rock Samuel is really like his nickname, solid as a rock, supporting Inter Milan's defense! "Is there no one who praises Coach Mancini's defensive tactics? I think at least half of the improvement in the team's defensive ability is due to Coach Mancini." …… Thanks to the good performance during this period, Inter Milan's public opinion environment has improved greatly compared to the beginning of the month. The media that had previously criticized them began to change their tune and sing praises for them. Not only did he praise Inter Milan's players and coaches from various angles, he also predicted that Inter Milan would make new breakthroughs in the league this year. I completely forgot what they talked about half a month ago. It’s faster to fall out than to flip through a book! Mancini is very calm about the praise from the outside world. The league has just started and temporary results mean nothing. To win the league championship, the team's condition must remain stable throughout the entire long season, without too much fluctuation or huge mistakes. After all, their competitors are top teams like Juventus and AC Milan. If Inter Milan makes the slightest mistake, they will likely be left behind by the opponent. As the game progresses, the team will be fighting on multiple fronts, the players will become more and more tired, and injuries will increase. By then, it will be much more difficult for Inter Milan to maintain a stable state than it is now. As a result, Inter Milan’s schedule has already begun to become more intense. After the fifth round of Serie A, Inter Milan will face another opponent at home in less than three days. This time the competition is no longer Serie A, but the Champions League. After the first round of the Champions League group stage, the situation in Group H was not quite the same as what the outside world had predicted.
After the group draw ceremony, many people were more optimistic that Inter Milan and Porto could break out of Group H. Inter Milan's performance in the first round did live up to the expectations of the outside world, but Porto's performance was a bit disappointing. In the first round, former defending champion Porto, who was visiting Ibrox Stadium, was reversed by the opponent despite Pepe scoring twice, and finally lost the game 2:3. This results in Inter Milan and Glasgow Rangers now being ranked first and second in Group H. As a result, the match between Inter Milan and Glasgow Rangers became a battle for the top spot in Group H. Whoever wins will firmly occupy the top spot and leave other teams 3 points behind! Given the strength that Glasgow Rangers showed in the last game against Porto, Inter Milan did not underestimate their opponent. Except for a few positions that were rotated, he sent out main players in other positions in order to defeat the opponent at home. At the beginning of the game, both sides made several attempts against each other. After testing the opponent's strengths and weaknesses, both sides stopped holding back, drew their bayonets, and began stabbing each other. Taking advantage of the home court and the wing advantage, Inter Milan's attack was very successful and they frequently created dangerous situations in front of the opponent's goal. But unfortunately, they couldn't score despite having the advantage. Although they were threatening, they failed to score. Glasgow Rangers' defense is quite good. Their players are not only fast but also very strong. He is very aggressive on defense and makes big moves. There were occasional incidents of people falling down on the field, and in most cases, it was Inter Milan players who were knocked down. Inter Milan's midfielders were suffering from the harassment and rough fouls of their opponents. Especially Lin Feng, he couldn’t remember how many times he had been knocked down by his opponent. It happened to be drizzling during the game and the grass was wet. His jersey became muddy from each fall, and then got wet by the rain and stuck to his body. He suddenly felt as if all the pores in his body were blocked and he couldn't breathe. It was so uncomfortable. There was a group of special guests in the stands of the Meazza Stadium today. The Chinese national team's head coach Zhu Guanghu and his assistants came to the scene to observe the players' condition. There is only one Chinese player in the entire Serie A, Lin Feng, so it goes without saying that they came here to observe Lin Feng's condition. In the coming October, the Chinese national team finally arranged a friendly match. Moreover, the opponent of this friendly match is very unusual, it is the German team, the host of the next World Cup. The German team is a veteran strong team and has its own distinctive technical style. Playing a friendly match with such a top team is of great reference value for testing the combat effectiveness of the national football team, especially the quality of the back line. After all, if they could stop the impact of the German tanks, then stopping the attacks of other teams in the Asian arena would naturally be a piece of cake. Of course, in addition to this reason, Zhu Guanghu’s trip was mainly to talk with Lin Feng and others to coordinate matters related to the East Asian Cup next month. "Inter Milan didn't play well in this game!"
Zhu Guanghu said to his assistant beside him. The assistant nodded heavily. Even with his vision, he could see that Inter Milan's attack was not as sharp as before during this period. The opponent's tough defense and rough fouls restricted Inter Milan's midfield, making it impossible to conduct effective command and dispatch, and unable to organize a threatening attack. Inter Milan at this time is very similar to Manchester United 20 years later. You said that he has no stars in his team, that is not true, they still have quite a few stars in their team. But do you think these stars are really strong? That doesn't seem right. There is still a big gap between these stars and those of the top teams. Apart from anything else, compared with the midfield lineup of AC Milan next door, Inter Milan's midfield is simply too shabby. Can people like Veron, Zanetti, Stankovic, Solari and Pizarro be compared with Pirlo, Gattuso, Rui Costa, Seedorf, Ambrosini and Kaka? There is no comparison at all, they are not even on the same level! It’s just like the midfield of Manchester City and Manchester United, they are not on the same level! Because of not winning a championship for many years, it is difficult for Inter Milan to attract truly talented big-name stars to join in the transfer market. After all, top stars are no longer pursuing personal treatment, they also care about the pursuit of honor, and it even has a higher priority! This is exactly the same as Manchester United in later generations. Manchester United has not won the Premier League title for ten years since Ferguson retired. Not only that, it is also difficult for the team to consistently secure a spot in European competitions, causing Manchester United's appeal to top stars to plummet. When Ferguson was there, top strikers like Van Persie would rather give up their captaincy at Arsenal and lower their price to join the team just to win the championship. After Ferguson retired, such a thing would never happen again. Even after Manchester United missed European competitions many times and the team failed to win the league championship for a long time. Many stars are quite disgusted with Manchester United, and they are unwilling to join Manchester United even if Manchester United offers a high price. Even for those players who are not top stars, Manchester United needs to spend a premium far exceeding the market price to invite them. Just like Anthony the Compass, is he really worth 100 million? But Manchester United, the sucker, actually paid the money to buy him... …… On the sidelines, Mancini also discovered that his midfield seemed to be suppressed by the opponent in this game. Although Scottish Premier League teams are not as rough as those in the Premier League, they are not much different. Their league plays at a fast pace and players move a lot on the field. This kind of defense is obviously commonplace for them, but Inter Milan's players are obviously not used to it. Mancini couldn't sit still anymore, he ran to the fourth official to protest, thinking that the referee's whistle was too biased towards the visiting team. Perhaps in the Scottish domestic league, in order to increase the continuity and viewing experience of the game, such actions will be condoned by the referee and no card will be issued. But this is not the Scottish Premier League, this is the Champions League! If the referee can tolerate even this kind of behavior, then let's not play football anymore and just kick people instead.
Perhaps Mancini's protest worked, or perhaps the referee felt that if he continued to leave it alone, the game would get out of control. As the number of fouls increased, Inter Milan's players became more and more angry and began to commit retaliatory fouls against their opponents. This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated and must be dealt with severely! Less than 30 minutes into the first half, the referee quickly issued five yellow cards. Among them, Glasgow Rangers players received three tickets, and Inter Milan players received two tickets. The fans at the scene booed and were very dissatisfied with the referee's decision. After all, this is Inter Milan's home court. With far fewer fouls than their opponents, the number of cards they received was only one less than their opponents. This is too outrageous. The Glasgow coach felt the tightening of the referee's enforcement standards and realized that if he continued to play like this, his players might be sent off because of two yellow cards. So he had to ask the players on the field to be more restrained, pay attention to the referee's penalty standards, and not to go against the wind at this time. After the Glasgow Rangers players restrained their actions, Inter Milan's midfielders could finally breathe a sigh of relief. They began to patiently reorganize the attack, pushing the front line towards the opponent's half little by little. In this game, there was a lot of noise from Inter Milan's flanks. Especially Figo, he was in very good shape and almost completely defeated the opponent's full-back on the wing. In view of this, after Lin Feng got the ball, he consciously passed the ball to Figo more often and cooperated with him, trying to continue to expand the advantage on the wing. Inter Milan's activeness on the right forced the opponent to shift the focus of defense to the left. Seeing that Figo was too active on the right, the opponent's midfielder was forced to move to the left to help the full-back limit the Portuguese's attack. Seeing this, Lin Feng began to transfer the ball to the left side, allowing Martins to make several crosses from the bottom, making the opponent's right side feel threatened. Seeing that Inter Milan adopted the tactic of flying on both wings, the two defensive midfielders of Glasgow Rangers were forced to focus part of their energy on wing defense. As a result, the gap in their middle was exposed. In the 35th minute, after Lin Feng got the ball, he did not pass it to his teammates on the wing, but boldly dribbled forward. Seeing this, a defensive midfielder and a central defender of Glasgow Rangers approached Lin Feng from the front and side, trying to force him to pass the ball back. But Lin Feng did not do as they wished. Instead, at the moment when the opponent's defender tried to steal the ball, he suddenly pushed the ball to the right and accelerated, rushing into the penalty area along the gap left by another opponent's midfielder! This time, Glasgow Rangers' defense was completely shaken. When Adriano saw Lin Feng move, he rushed into the penalty area. He believed that as long as he ran into the open space, his good brother would definitely pass the ball to him. Adriano was the main target of defense by Glasgow Rangers' defenders. Seeing him move, another defender of the opposing team stuck close to Adriano, trying to stop him. However, he soon discovered that this guy was as strong as a rhinoceros and he couldn't stop him by himself. After Adriano broke into the penalty area, he quickly reached out for the ball! Lin Feng did intend to pass the ball to Adriano, but after seeing Adriano pushing away the opponent's defense line like a bulldozer and creating a small space for himself in the area on the right side of the top of the penalty area, he changed his mind! At this time, Lin Feng was surrounded by defensive players, but none of them were close to him.
The opponent's full-back was closest to him, but was still two meters away, while the opponent's center-back had just passed him and was now chasing him behind him. More importantly, the opponent's goalkeeper's attention was almost completely attracted by Adriano. In an instant, Lin Feng made his choice. Instead of passing the ball to Adriano in the penalty area, he seized the fleeting opportunity, swung his right leg and kicked a long shot. With a loud bang, the football flew towards the Glasgow Rangers' goal. The Rangers goalkeeper was horrified and jumped up in a hurry to save the ball. But it was too late, the football spun and fell into the net. (End of this chapter)