Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Chapter 329 This is Old Trafford!
Before the match between Manchester United and Inter Milan started, the two matches in the upper half had already started.

AC Milan, playing at home, changed its previous sluggish state.

Facing the Bundesliga giants Bayern, the Rossoneri played a dominant performance.

Relying on fierce offensive, Milan took the lead over their opponents twice, with Pirlo and Kaka scoring goals successively.

However, luck was not on their side. Not only did Bayern's substitute goalkeeper Rensing perform bravely, he also blocked many excellent scoring opportunities for AC Milan.

Bayern defender Van Buyten seemed to be on a roll, scoring twice in two melees in front of the goal and helping the team equalize the score on his own!

AC Milan has given their best in this game. Anyone who watched the whole process of the game cannot say that their performance was bad.

But as Zhang Lu said before, AC Milan's defense has great hidden dangers, and this game exposed all these hidden dangers.

If we fail to beat our opponent at home, it will be difficult to play the next away game.

So after the game, Bayern was in high spirits and celebrated wildly at the San Siro Stadium.

Milan fans are worried and concerned about the fate of the team.

Although AC Milan’s situation is not optimistic, compared with another Serie A team, Roma, their situation is already very optimistic!

In another match at the same time, Roma, also playing at home, was defeated 1:3 by Liverpool.

Although Adriano helped Roma score the first goal, Liverpool's subsequent crazy counterattack and three consecutive goals directly stunned the entire Roma team.

Losing at home and conceding three away goals to the opponents basically spelled the death of Roma.

After watching the first leg, I’m afraid no fans will have high expectations for Roma’s away game.

Therefore, Serie A fans once again sadly discovered that the hope of breaking through the Champions League seems to fall only on Inter Milan!

"Serie A fans are so interesting. They hope Inter Milan wins, but they also hope Inter Milan loses. They are like crazy!"

When the news spread to domestic forums, it immediately caused ridicule among Chinese fans.

Compared with Serie A fans, these Chinese fans seem to have a more resolute stance.

They never have double standards and have always firmly supported Lin Feng and Inter Milan, whether it is a civil war or a foreign war.

The fans of Serie A are interesting. During foreign wars, they support Inter Milan and hope that Inter Milan can win glory for Serie A.

But when it comes to the Serie A civil war, they are overwhelmingly against Inter Milan, hoping that Inter Milan will lose every game!
“Haha, believe it or not, if Inter Milan loses this game, they will curse Inter Milan more harshly than anyone else!”

"In the final analysis, Inter Milan's record over the past few decades has not been good enough. The fan base in Serie A is not as large as that of other giants. When Inter Milan wins a few more championships and attracts more fans, the situation may be different!"

"Who cares? Whether Serie A fans support Inter Milan or not has nothing to do with us. We just need to always support Lin Feng!"

Chinese fans are very pure, they watch Inter Milan's games just for Lin Feng.

If Lin Feng leaves Inter Milan one day, most of these fans will leave with him.

……

After learning about the results of the other two Serie A teams, Inter Milan also felt a lot of pressure.

By the quarter-finals of the Champions League, there were almost no weak teams left and all of them were tough opponents.

It is definitely not an easy task to defeat them and advance to the next round.

"Don't be affected by other competitions, just focus on your own competition!"

Seeing that his teammates were a little nervous, captain Zanetti spoke up to comfort them:
“In fact, Manchester United, who are playing at home, are under more pressure than us. At least we can accept a draw, but Manchester United, who have an unfavorable schedule, cannot accept it, so their players are more nervous than us. If you don’t believe me, just watch for yourself!”

Everyone turned their heads to look at the other side of the player tunnel, and sure enough, they saw that the Manchester United players all had solemn expressions. Fat Ruud was even making the sign of the cross on his chest, as if he was seizing the last moment to pray to God!
Some of Inter Milan's players were a little nervous at first, but when they saw that their opponents were not much better than them, and even performed worse, they suddenly stopped being nervous!
"So, AC Milan's poor performance in the first leg against Roma might have been affected by the pressure of playing at home?"

"If that's the case, then doesn't that mean..."

Thinking of this, everyone's mood suddenly became optimistic.

The player tunnel at Old Trafford is not very wide, and the whispers and various small movements of Inter Milan players were of course noticed by Manchester United players.

Although they couldn't understand what these guys were saying, they could guess from the way they kept looking at them that they were probably discussing them.

This made the Manchester United players feel very unhappy, and they glared at the Inter Milan players.

Especially Rooney, he stared at Lin Feng with his eyes fixed, waving his fists, looking like a provocative little yellow-haired boy.

However, Lin Feng was busy making eye contact with Ronaldo and did not notice Rooney's little movements from beginning to end, which hurt Rooney very much.

A moment later, under the guidance of the referee team, the players of both teams walked into the court holding the caddies.

The moment he stepped into Old Trafford, Lin Feng felt the overwhelming sound coming like a tide.

Looking up, I saw that Manchester United fans covered the entire stadium. A huge banner with the words "This is Old Trafford" was hung on the stands in the middle of the stadium, facing the player tunnel!

This scene brought great shock to Inter Milan’s players. Is this the famous Theatre of Dreams?
It’s truly extraordinary!

After the expansion last year, the Theatre of Dreams can accommodate up to 8 fans, which is not much different from Inter Milan's home stadium, the Meazza Stadium.

But the difference is that this stadium is the private property of Manchester United and belongs exclusively to their club, so it does not need to be shared with other teams, while the Meazza and San Siro stadiums belong to the Milan City Government.

Although this is the home stadium of Inter Milan and AC Milan, it is not the private property of the two teams. They have to pay rental fees to play games here, and the annual rental fee is about 350 million euros.

Although the rent alone is not high, the naming fee of the comprehensive stadium, the development of surrounding businesses and the rental fee can mean that the annual income of a club with its own stadium and one that does not have its own stadium can differ by tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of euros.

The higher the income, the more money can be invested in the transfer market to recruit players and to pay the high salaries of big-name stars.

The reason why the two giants of La Liga are so strong is because their income is higher than that of the giants in other leagues.

The reason why the Premier League has risen so strongly and surpassed Serie A and La Liga is because of the large-scale investment of overseas capital and more successful commercial development, which has brought them more income.

This is also the reason why Arsenal gritted its teeth and built the Emirates Stadium even if it meant selling everything it had.

The newly built Emirates Stadium is not only larger and more magnificent, able to accommodate more fans, but the number of boxes has also increased significantly.

Speaking of ticket sales, the money earned from private rooms is actually more than that from regular tickets. Take the Emirates Stadium as an example. It has 200 private rooms. If all are sold, each game can bring Arsenal more than 200 million pounds in revenue.

Ordinary tickets are relatively cheap, and even if all are sold, they can only bring Arsenal around 150 million pounds in revenue at most.

So don’t think that Arsenal is extremely poor now and sells their captain every year.

But after the completion of the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal's revenue has soared significantly. Once they repay the bank loan, it is only a matter of time before they rise again.

It can be said that one of the main reasons for the decline of Serie A teams is that they do not have their own stadium.

Except for Juventus, which has its own home stadium, the first impression of other Serie A teams, even the giants, is that they are poor!
It was precisely because of poverty that the two AC Milan giants both fell into a trough after 2010.

The fans at Old Trafford have always been very loyal. Regardless of whether Manchester United's performance is good or bad, the attendance rate here has always been above 95%, and almost every game is full.

There are even a large number of fans from all over the world who make a special trip here to make a pilgrimage, making Manchester United a city with a large number of international tourists.

Among them are some wealthy and willful owners who are willing to pay high prices for box tickets, bringing huge income to Manchester United.

Perhaps it is for this reason that after Ferguson retired, Manchester United has been able to survive for so many years with its strong health bar and still have money to buy in the transfer market!
The two AC Milan giants in Serie A next door are almost crying with envy!

There are a lot of fans at Old Trafford today. The data reported on site is 76000, which means that the attendance rate has reached 100%!

It’s worthy of being the Red Devils’ home ground, it’s really crazy!

This is not the first time the two teams have faced off in European competitions. In the 98-99 season, when Ronaldo was still at Inter Milan, the two teams met in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

That year, Inter Milan lost to their opponents 1:1 at home and 0:2 away.

So for Manchester United fans, they have a psychological advantage.

Moreover, since the 24th round of the Premier League, when Manchester United lost 1:2 to Arsenal away, Manchester United has won seven consecutive games in the league. The team is in very hot form now.

Therefore, every Manchester United fan is extremely confident that they will be the winner in this game.

The only thing to watch is, how long can Inter Milan hold out against Manchester United’s attack and how many goals will they concede?
If Manchester United gets more than 2 goals at home, then even if the schedule is favorable for Inter Milan, Inter Milan will still be in danger.

Manchester United fans are full of confidence in their team, and so are Inter Milan fans.
Compared with Inter Milan’s 17-game winning streak in Serie A, what does Manchester United’s 7-game winning streak mean?
Manchester United is in hot form, is Inter Milan in bad shape?
Perhaps Premier League fans will use the fact that there are many giants in the Premier League and the competition is fierce as an excuse, believing that Manchester United's winning streak is more valuable and that Inter Milan's record in Serie A is too inflated.

But Inter Milan has remained unchanged in the league, cup and Champions League this season and is the only team in the top five leagues to remain unbeaten.

The Serie A matches are not good enough, so are the Champions League matches not good enough either?

Does this mean that we are disrespectful to established giants like Bayern and Real Madrid?

When they faced Inter Milan, they didn't get any advantage at all!

"Teacher Zhang, which team do you think has a better chance of winning this game?"

When fans of both sides insist on their own opinions and cannot reach a consensus, it is natural to consult professionals.

So everyone thought of Coach Zhang Lu.

It just so happened that Zhang Lu and Zhan Jun were the commentators for this game, so before the game started, Zhan Jun spoke on behalf of the fans and raised the issues that everyone was most concerned about.

"I think it's a 50-50 split. Both teams have plenty of explosive players and scoring points. Inter's midfield is a little stronger, but Manchester United's advantage on the wing is also obvious.

So it all depends on who performs better on the spot and can turn their advantage into a winning advantage!"

As soon as Zhang Lu finished speaking, the referee blew the whistle to start the game.

Like Inter Milan, Manchester United's lineup is incomplete.

Defensive general Vidic and versatile midfielder Park Ji-sung were injured and missed the game. Super substitute Solskjaer started the game and formed Manchester United's forward line with Rooney.

On the Inter Milan side, Cruz, who is also a super substitute, replaced Torres who was suspended due to accumulated yellow cards, while Materazzi, who was suspended due to a red card, was replaced by Barzagli, who has performed well recently.

Although it was the opponent's home court, Inter Milan played particularly proactively.

Less than 30 seconds into the game, Figo broke through on the right and caused a foul by the opponent, winning a free kick for Inter Milan.

Figo took the shot himself and kicked the ball into the penalty area.

Ferdinand turned into an aerial bully, leaping high to grab the first point, and overpowered Vieira who was trying to head the ball, clearing it out of the baseline.

The two seemed to have made some small movements when competing for the header, and after landing, they broke out into an argument, with all kinds of words starting with F flying around.

When Vieira was still playing for Arsenal, he often clashed with this group of people from Manchester United.

And Ferdinand is not a good-tempered person, and he will not be spoiled at all.

However, the two of them knew their limits and only had an argument without engaging in physical combat.

The game has just begun. If you get a card or even sent off because of your action now, you will have to wait for the criticism from the coach and the outside world after the game!
Inter Milan won a corner kick, and Lin Feng trotted towards the corner area, pretending to take a corner kick.

But he gave Figo a wink on the way, and Figo understood what he meant. He quickly took the corner kick and gave it to Lin Feng, then accelerated towards the penalty area!

After Lin Feng got the ball, he dribbled towards the diagonal corner of the penalty area, deliberately keeping distance from Figo who was making a forward run.

After Manchester United players realized that they had been tricked, they rushed out desperately, trying to push the defense line out and expand the defense range.

However, just as Manchester United defender O'Shea rushed towards Lin Feng, Lin Feng aimed at his small goal and sent a straight pass through the crotch.

O'Shea's face suddenly changed and he quickly clamped his legs together to try to block the ball.

However, before he could complete the action, the ball had already rolled past his crotch.

Figo, who stopped suddenly behind O'Shea, received the ball, but Ferdinand had already rushed out and blocked him.

Figo's shooting angle was very small, and with Ferdinand's intervention, there was almost no chance of a forced shot in this situation.

Instead, he knocked the ball back to Lin Feng who was making a forward run!

After receiving the ball, Lin Feng quickly dribbled past Brown who was trying to steal the ball, then adjusted the angle, aimed at the goal and kicked the ball hard!

(End of this chapter)