Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Chapter 314: Seventeen consecutive wins, a new record in the five major leagues!

Since the Champions League knockout rounds are a two-round system, for those teams that did not perform well in the first round, winning or losing the first round is not necessarily a death sentence.

A few years ago, La Liga's La Ruconia suffered a 1:4 defeat to AC Milan in the first leg, but in the second leg they returned to their home court and staged a stunning comeback, sweeping AC Milan 4:0 and advancing to the semi-finals with a total score of 5:4!

This is the biggest comeback from behind in the history of the Champions League so far.

With the example of Super Laco in front of them, other teams will definitely give it a try in the second round unless they choose to give up on their own initiative.

So even though Inter Milan's score in the first leg was relatively ideal, Mancini still warned his players not to take it lightly.

Real Madrid is a team with a profound heritage. Their coach and players have rich experience in European competitions, and Capello is recognized as a top coach in the football world.

If Inter Milan players look down on Real Madrid based on the result of the first leg, they will most likely suffer the consequences.

……

The Serie A officials are quite considerate of Inter Milan and other three teams participating in the Champions League. In the 25th round of the league, the matches of Inter Milan, AC Milan and Roma were arranged at the end, giving them one more day of rest.

Even so, Mancini continued to resolutely implement the team's rotation plan, keeping many main players who played the full game in last week's Champions League, such as Lin Feng, Torres and others.

But even so, Inter Milan's lineup of half main players and half substitutes is still unstoppable.

In the away game against Catania, although the home team scored the first goal, Inter Milan then scored four goals in a row, killing the suspense of the game.

In this game, Lin Feng only played as a substitute for 20 minutes, but he scored a goal and made an assist, and was in hot form.

After a 5-2 away win over Catania, Inter Milan's winning streak in the league reached an astonishing 17 games.

And thanks to the rotation plan that Mancini started to implement early on, although Inter Milan is facing multiple battles at this time, the team's condition has not been affected at all, and there is even a trend of getting stronger and stronger.

Inter Milan's hot form caused an exclamation from the Serie A media.

Many people are wondering how long Inter Milan’s winning streak will last?
But more of it was the wailing of the teams that were brutally massacred by Inter Milan. The bloodbathed Catania fans were wailing, and the Roma fans who saw no hope of catching up were also wailing!
Inter Milan's situation of being able to kill anyone who stands in their way really makes them desperate!
As for ordinary fans in Italy, they feel that there has never been such a huge gap between the strong and weak teams in Serie A in a season.

Although there are still 14 league games to be played, everyone has already tacitly accepted that Inter Milan will win the championship.

The focus of Serie A now is not who will win the championship, but who will be relegated?

Among the teams that fell into the relegation zone this year, there is Parma, once one of the seven sisters of Serie A!
Parma, which was once a glorious team and produced a large number of stars, has now fallen to the point of relegation, which is really regrettable.

Their experience made many people think of the deteriorating Serie A itself.

The once glorious Little World Cup is now being surpassed step by step by the Premier League and La Liga as capital recedes and a large number of stars leave.

Considering Italy’s current economic situation, it is probably impossible to return to the glory of the Little World Cup!
……

In the 26th round of the league, Inter Milan's winning streak finally came to an end.

In the home game against Udinese, the opponent used the ultimate invincible turtle formation.

Inter Milan's hard attack was fruitless, and they were successfully ambushed by their opponents and lost the ball first.

Although Lin Feng helped the team equalize the score with a free kick in the second half, when Inter Milan failed to score the second goal, they had to shake hands with their opponents.

Udinese is not a strong team, and they have no worries about relegation, nor hope of qualifying for European competitions.

This type of team usually plays in a more Buddhist manner when the league enters the final stage and does not care too much about winning or losing.

But in this game, Udinese was uncharacteristically enthusiastic. Their players seemed to be treating Inter Milan as the villain. They were full of fighting spirit, fighting for every ball, and even resorted to lethal tactics to deal with Inter Milan.

Unfortunately, the referee's whistle in this game was too lenient. He only gave verbal warnings to Udinese for many fouls and did not draw cards.

This multiplied the power of Udinese's tactics, making it very difficult for Inter Milan to play defensively.

Otherwise, with Inter Milan's offensive strength, even if the opponent parks the bus, it will be impossible to stop them!

So, after the game, a conspiracy theory suddenly appeared on the Internet:

Inter Milan has won too many games in a row and is too invincible in Serie A, so they were arranged by the Serie A officials!
Of course, this is just the fans' own speculation and there is no substantial evidence.

But objectively speaking, a monopoly is indeed detrimental to the overall development of the league. It will cause the league to lose suspense and reduce its attractiveness, which will then lead to a series of chain reactions such as a decline in commercial sponsorship and a decrease in broadcasting fees.

But Inter Milan fans don’t care about these. When Juventus and AC Milan dominated Serie A and Inter Milan couldn’t win a championship for many years, why didn’t you come out to do something about it?
Now it is finally Inter Milan's turn to turn the tables, but you can't wait to jump out and do something dirty to Inter Milan. Isn't this too shameless?
……

Inter Milan was tied at home, which was a great opportunity for teams like Roma and AC Milan to catch up.

However, when the opportunity was given to them, they did not seize it.

After Inter Milan was tied by Udinese, Roma was sniped by relegation team Chievo on the road. They took the lead twice but were tied by their opponents twice. In the end, they could only take away one point regretfully, and the gap with Inter Milan is still huge.

AC Milan is in even worse shape. In this round of the league, the Rossoneri were shut out by Palermo in an away game.

In the last three games, AC Milan has only scored one goal, and it was a penalty.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that there is a problem with AC Milan's forward line.

After entering the second half, under the drag of fighting on multiple fronts, Ronaldinho's physical condition became apparent, and he suffered almost constant injuries, both major and minor, and his condition plummeted under the torture of frequent injuries.

As luck would have it, AC Milan's other striker Inzaghi's form also fell into a slump, leaving AC Milan's forward line in a dilemma of having no one available.

In these few games, all of Milan's offensive hopes rest on Kaka.

Kaka is both a father and a mother, which makes Lin Feng feel a little sympathetic towards him!
……

The end of the winning streak may not be a bad thing for Inter Milan.

At least the psychological burden that troubled the team was finally lifted. When the team had been winning streaks and the number of winning streaks was increasing, it was hard for the players not to be distracted by this matter. Before every game, they couldn't help but think about it. They wanted to win the game to continue their winning streak, but they were also worried that if they didn't win, the winning streak would end. Carrying such a heavy psychological burden, the more it played, the more disadvantageous it was for the team.

So after being tied by Udinese, Mancini did not say a word of criticism to the players. He just told them to go back and have a good rest and not to think too much.

At the beginning, the players were full of regrets. They always felt that if they tried harder, they might be able to maintain their winning streak and continue to create new records.

But after a long time, the players' mentality gradually calmed down and they began to accept reality.

If their winning streak stops at 15 games, just one game away from breaking Bayern's record, they will probably feel regretful and angry for a long time.

But considering that they have created the longest winning streak in the top five leagues, there is nothing to regret.

Inter Milan adjusted their mentality and faced the adversity of the opponent scoring first again in the 27th round of the league. However, this time they overcame the difficulties and scored a goal in each half, eventually defeating the opponent with a 2:1 reversal and stabilizing the situation.

As Roma drew again in this round, Inter Milan's lead has expanded to 13 points.

There are 12 games left in the league, and Inter Milan's lead is already very large. Even if Roma does not lose the next game and wins all of them, it will depend on Inter Milan's mood to create a miracle.

So after this round of games, the championship trophy is really beckoning to Inter Milan!

If the league championship trophy is within reach, then the Champions League championship trophy is probably still a long way off!

After the league game, Inter Milan immediately focused all their energy on preparing for the Champions League match against Real Madrid.

Real Madrid did something even more drastic than them. When they were six points behind Barcelona, ​​in order not to affect the team's preparations for the Champions League, Real Madrid chose to strategically give up the league and only sent a small number of main players and a large number of substitutes to face Getafe at home.

The result of this was that Real Madrid was tied by their opponents at home, and the gap with Barcelona further widened to 7 points, falling 8 points behind the top Sevilla.

There are still 13 rounds left in the La Liga season and Real Madrid is eight points behind, making it extremely difficult for them to win the title.

If Real Madrid fails to beat Inter Milan away from home this time, it is likely that they will not win any prizes this season.

In fact, although Real Madrid's approach is a bit tough, in terms of results, it is actually more cost-effective than Barcelona which sent out all its main players.

Barcelona also wanted to save strength for the Champions League, so they kept Deco and Eto'o on the bench, but they didn't want to lose the game and give up the top spot.

So apart from these two, the rest of the main players all came out and had a spectacular battle for the top spot with Sevilla, and then nothing happened.

Barcelona, ​​playing away from home, scored the first goal thanks to Ronaldinho's improved form and caused the opponent to receive a red card, giving Barcelona a numerical advantage in the first half.

But then Ronaldinho missed the penalty kick himself. Sevilla, who was one man down, seized the opportunity and launched a counterattack, scoring two goals in a row and overtaking the score.

These two goals broke Barcelona's mentality, causing them to receive two red cards in the second half. After a fierce battle, they had to swallow the bitter fruit of defeat and gave up the top spot.

In this game, Sevilla's right back Alves performed very well. He almost single-handedly broke through Barcelona's left defense and contributed a goal and an assist. The entire Camp Nou stadium remembered his back as he ran with the ball, and it also laid the groundwork for him to join Barcelona with a sky-high transfer fee in the future.

……

The entire Real Madrid team arrived in Milan on March 3. Like most teams, Real Madrid also borrowed AC Milan's training base.

Since AC Milan also played at home in this round, it had some impact on Real Madrid's preparations.

But the good news is that they can compete and exchange ideas with AC Milan, which is more familiar with Inter, and thus further understand the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.

This game is very crucial for Real Madrid. If they lose, Capello may lose his job in Real Madrid.

This is actually not the first time Capello has coached Real Madrid. He took over the Bernabeu in the 96-97 season.

Under his leadership that season, Real Madrid started the season unbeaten for 24 games and finally won the league championship by 2 points over Barcelona.

在他执教的全部48场比赛中，皇马的战绩是31胜12平5负，胜率达到了65%。

In fact, judging from the honors and winning rate, Capello's coaching performance is quite good.

However, his coaching philosophy was in great conflict with the expectations of the club's top management and fans. Simply put, his playing style was too conservative, not flashy or good-looking enough, and did not meet the expectations of Real Madrid's top management and fans.

What Real Madrid fans want to see is that the team can play a rapid offensive coordination and destroy any opponent with smooth and gorgeous offensive, which is in line with the identity and image of the best club in their hearts.

But Capello obviously couldn't do it, and neither could Mourinho later, so Mourinho didn't stay in Real Madrid for long.

In fact, Guardiola of the Dream Team III dynasty is quite in line with the requirements of Real Madrid fans.

But unfortunately, Real Madrid can't poach this person.

The reason why Mourinho was hired to coach was, firstly, because Mourinho was very famous in those years and his coaching results at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan were very outstanding.

Second, Mourinho once led Inter Milan to eliminate Barcelona in the Champions League, and Real Madrid was suppressed by Barcelona in those years and was in urgent need of someone who could lead the team to fight against or even overthrow Barcelona!
So, Mourinho, who was not the most suitable person for Real Madrid, came to the Bernabeu.

Later events proved that this cooperation was a lose-lose situation for both parties.

Real Madrid wasted several more years and was still unable to win the coveted tenth Champions League trophy.

Mourinho, who was originally on the rise and close to finding his own way, suffered a Waterloo at Real Madrid. He failed to take the last step and then began to go downhill.

Later, whether he returned to Chelsea for the second time or coached Manchester United and Tottenham, he could not be said to be successful, as if he had suddenly lost his magic.

Capello obviously knows his situation. If he wants to continue coaching Real Madrid, he can only overwhelm all opposition voices by producing irrefutable results.

His first experience at Real Madrid proved that winning the league title alone was not enough, and that he had to win the Champions League trophy to be considered significant enough.

Therefore, this game against Inter Milan is the ultimate test for him.

(End of this chapter)