Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Chapter 359 Lin Feng leads newcomers, Zhang Linpeng makes his Inter debut
Inter Milan's bloody victory over Roma shocked the entire Italian football world!

Before the game, some people predicted that Inter Milan would be able to make a comeback, but no matter how optimistic people were, they could not have imagined that the story would unfold like this.

6: 1!

This is the biggest score lopsided in the nearly 100-year history of the Italian Cup, and it happened in the final.

If many people had not watched the first round of the match between the two teams, they would probably have regarded Roma as a weak team that could be slaughtered at will.

However, this is not the case. As the team that broke Inter Milan's unbeaten streak, Roma has demonstrated strong enough strength.

But facing the more abnormal Inter Milan, they are still not strong enough.

Now, the pressure is on AC Milan.

Originally thought that Inter Milan would suffer a major setback at the hands of Roma, but unexpectedly Inter Milan fought back and defeated Roma.

Inter Milan, which won the league and cup double, is now in high spirits and has the momentum to kill anyone who stands in their way.

On the other hand, AC Milan, who should have seized the opportunity to narrow the gap in the last round when Inter Milan defeated their direct rival Lazio without letting up, was tied by the relegation team Catania away from home.

As a result, with two rounds left in the league, AC Milan is still 3 points behind Lazio, making it much more difficult to catch up.

If AC Milan still wants to get a place in the Champions League next season, they must go all out in their home game against Udinese on May 5.

The date of the Champions League final is four days later on May 5th.

The difficulties that Inter Milan faced before now appear in front of AC Milan.

In the end, it is to preserve strength and go all out to face the Champions League final.

Or should we go all out to qualify for the Champions League and then fight Inter Milan in the final?
Of course, AC Milan can also choose to take a gamble - if they can beat Inter Milan in the final, then according to the special exception UEFA gave to Liverpool in the 05-06 season, they can get a ticket to the Champions League as the defending champion.

Although this ticket has to start from the first round of qualifiers, given AC Milan's strength, it is not too difficult to advance all the way to the main competition.

But the question is, does AC Milan dare to take the gamble?
Everyone is happy if they win, but if they lose, the consequences will be half the life of AC Milan!
For the top teams in the five major leagues, if they cannot play in the Champions League, the income from commercial sponsorship and Champions League match shares alone will drop by tens or even hundreds of millions of euros.

Without this money, not only will the team's investment in transfers decrease, but even the salaries of existing players will decrease.

As a result, the team's strength will be greatly reduced, and it may even fall into a death spiral.

Why is Wenger great?
Because he can make the team owner stingy and the team can't get any transfer investment.

They even had to bear a huge loan to build the stadium, and had to sell their blood and flesh from the team every year to repay at least 4000 million pounds of debt to the bank.

He has led Arsenal to the Champions League for more than a decade and has qualified from the group stage every time.

Although Arsenal made many jokes in those years due to lack of money, such as the most powerful lineup and paying an extra pound to buy Suarez, and because they were consecutively humiliated by their two bitter rivals, Barcelona and Bayern, in the Champions League, they created the drama of three years at Barcelona and five years at Bayern, and were jokingly called by fans as "There are only one stone of jokes in the world, but Arsenal has eight of them."

But thanks to the professor's magical leadership that helped Arsenal advance to the Champions League every year and the extra income gained from participating in the Champions League, Arsenal was able to survive the most difficult period. They did not go bankrupt like Valencia and other teams due to stadium construction and never recovered.

Participating in the Champions League is extremely important for top clubs.

Ancelotti struggled with his thoughts for a long time, but finally decided to play it safe.

AC Milan's big boss, Silvio Berlusconi, the then Italian Prime Minister, also secretly used his influence and power to ask Serie A officials to give the two Serie A teams participating in the Champions League more time to prepare.

The match between AC Milan and Inter Milan was moved forward one day to May 5th.

In this way, AC Milan will have one more day of rest after the league game, and can recover better to face the Champions League final five days later.

In fact, Berlusconi originally just wanted to adjust AC Milan's schedule, but doing so was too deliberate.

As a last resort, Inter Milan's schedule had to be adjusted as well.

But Inter Milan doesn't want to adjust the schedule at all. They have already won the championship anyway, and the remaining games can be used as training for young players, so it doesn't matter when the games are scheduled.

It’s just that a higher-ranking official can crush someone, not to mention that the Prime Minister is secretly endorsing him.

So no matter how Inter Milan appealed and protested, the Serie A officials refused to cancel the adjustment.

"This is too shameless. I think Berlusconi should be banned from interfering in AC Milan's affairs!"

"Indeed, he was able to interfere with the league schedule today. I dare not imagine what he can do tomorrow. Otherwise, he might as well just put the championship directly into AC Milan's hands!"

Amid external criticism and protests from Inter Milan fans, the 37th round of the league kicked off.

In this round of the league, Inter Milan's opponent is Atalanta, which ranks eighth in the league.

Both teams were in a state of having no desire and their minds were not on the game, so the game was very dull and there was almost no tension.

In the first half, neither team scored any goals and even had very few shots, so much so that the audience in the stands were drowsy and even the cheers were muted and lacked any momentum.

Lin Feng sat on the bench with several main players in the team, watching the boring game on the field. He also felt drowsy and yawned frequently.

But a young player sitting next to Lin Feng was watching with great interest:
"Brother Lin, do you think I have a chance to play today?"

Zhang Linpeng, who just turned 18 at the beginning of the month, was included in the team's roster by Mancini for this game and has the opportunity to play for Inter Milan.

Seeing Zhang Linpeng's eyes full of desire, Lin Feng said with a smile:

"It depends on the situation. If we can score the first goal, your chances of playing are pretty good!"

After hearing Lin Feng's words, Zhang Linpeng asked nervously:

"Then if the other team scores first, then I will have no hope, right?"

“Not necessarily. We haven’t made any substitutions yet. Even if we need to step up our attack after falling behind, if we use one or two substitutions, there will still be extra spots available.

So if we make a substitution and the score is level, you still have a chance to play."

Since Inter Milan won the championship, except for the last home game against Lazio, Mancini has not arranged too many main players to play in other games. Instead, he chose to promote new players from the bench or even the youth team and send them out for training.

This will not only allow the main players to get enough rest, but also test the strength of the substitutes and young players.

If any of these people perform well, Mancini will write down his name and put him in the team lineup for next season.

As for those players who perform poorly, he may choose to deal with them during the summer transfer window to free up space and salary for the team, making it easier to recruit and promote new players.

For a team that has already won the championship, the closer it gets to the end of the season, the more opportunities there are for newcomers.

Zhang Linpeng, who was originally worried that he would not get a chance to play, felt relieved after hearing what Lin Feng said.

"Then I'm going to warm up first, so that I won't be unprepared when the coach calls my name!"

After saying that, he ran away without waiting for Lin Feng's response.

Torres on the side came over and said to Lin Feng:
"Your compatriot is kind of cute!" After taking a look at Zhang Linpeng, a burly man covered with solid muscles, Lin Feng couldn't associate him with the word "cute" in his mind.

Could it be that the other party has a different aesthetic taste from me, or is it that Torres just likes this?
This made him look at Torres with suspicion, and he subconsciously moved to the side:
"What's so cute about it?"

Torres was unaware of this, and seeing that Lin Feng was a little far away, he unconsciously moved towards him.

"Unless there are special circumstances, the coach will always ask the players to warm up before making substitutions. Now the coach didn't even call his name, which means there is no plan to make substitutions in the short term. Isn't it a waste of time for him to go out and warm up now?"

Lin Feng did not refute Torres' words, because this guy was right, and Lin Feng naturally understood this logic, but he did not remind Zhang Linpeng, because this guy simply could not sit still.

Instead of letting him sit on the bench, it would be better to let him go out and find something to do.

Moreover, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. If there is any emergency on the field, such as a player being sent off or injured and needing to be substituted immediately, the same two defenders, one has completed warming up, while the other has not had time to warm up.

If you were the coach, which one would you choose to substitute?
What's more, coaches also like diligent and positive players. Players who perform more in front of the coach will be more easily remembered by the coach.

Mancini noticed the young player who took the initiative to warm up at this moment. He turned to the assistant coach and asked:

"What's this kid's name? I remember he was a defender, right?"

Assistant coach Bonillo nodded:
"His name is Zhang Linpeng. He was introduced to the team by Lin Feng two years ago and currently plays as a defender in the youth team.

It is said that his performance last season was very good and he was praised by the youth team coach.”

Bonillo and Zhang Linpeng had only met a few times, so they were not familiar with each other.

But because of his relationship with Lin Feng, he was willing to say a few good words for the other party.

It's just a matter of talking. If it fails, he won't lose anything, but if it succeeds, he might gain a favor.

Mancini nodded but said nothing.

Because of Bonucci, he lacks confidence in the central defenders trained by his own youth training.

But if conditions permit, he would not hesitate to give the other party a chance to perform.

The opportunity came soon. In the second half, Inter Milan's right-back was injured by the opponent and could not continue the game.

Mancini originally planned to let the main right-back Maicon play, but he happened to catch a glimpse of Zhang Linpeng who had finished warming up and returned to the bench, looking at him eagerly.

So, when I was about to call out Maicon's name, what came out of my mouth was Zhang Linpeng's name:

"Zhang, get ready and get ready to go on stage!"

"Yes, coach!"

Zhang Linpeng jumped three feet high with excitement, quickly took off his yellow vest, put on shin guards, checked his jersey, socks and other equipment, and rushed into the stadium impatiently.

Seeing Zhang Linpeng come on the field, the domestic fans who had been complaining because they didn't see Lin Feng appear on the field immediately perked up.

"Oh my god, Xiao Zhang is here!"

"Awesome! Another Chinese player has appeared for a top team in the top five leagues!"

"Including Xiao Zhang, there are now four Chinese players who have played for top clubs, right?"

"Yes, Dong Fangzhuo has already played for Manchester United in March. Although it was only in garbage time, at least he made a breakthrough."

“I thought Zhang Linpeng might have to wait until next year or the year after to play for Inter Milan, but I didn’t expect it to come so soon!”

"Does this mean that Xiao Zhang is very talented and is highly valued by the Inter Milan coaching staff?"

"Not necessarily. I think it's mainly because Inter Milan has no pressure in the league right now, so they can spare so many opportunities for new players to train!"

"Even Xiao Zhang has played, the next one will be Xiao Wu from Barcelona!"

"Are you talking about Wu Lei? Isn't that kid too young? If I remember correctly, he is only 16 years old this year. Barcelona is full of talented players. If he wants to play, he may have to wait two or three years!"

The fans were chatting when the situation on the field suddenly changed.

In the 73rd minute, the home team took advantage of a free kick opportunity to break the deadlock on the field.

Less than five minutes after Zhang Linpeng came on the pitch, Inter Milan fell behind.

Although this ball has nothing to do with him, if he loses his first game, it will probably cause a big blow to the child psychologically.

Besides, although Inter Milan’s unbeaten streak in the Italian Cup has been broken, their unbeaten streak in the league has not been broken yet!

If there is an opportunity, Mancini will naturally fight for it.

So he waved his hand and said, "Lin, Torres, go warm up!"

The Champions League final is just a few days away. Although we need to protect the main players from injuries, it is also necessary to let them play games and maintain good condition.

If there are no games for a long time and the players only rely on team training, it is easy for the players' condition to decline, and they will perform poorly in official games.

I would like to criticize the Football Association by name here. They always hold closed training sessions, which keep the players away from the competition environment and work behind closed doors.

The result was that neither of them achieved anything remarkable, and due to lack of games to maintain their form, the national team's performance became worse.

Five minutes later, Lin Feng and Torres finished warming up and both came on as substitutes.

Before Lin Feng came on the court, Zhang Linpeng was desperate.

Because he felt that his and his teammates' offense could not penetrate the opponent's defense.

But after the two big brothers Lin Feng and Torres came on the court, the situation immediately became different.

In the 83rd minute, less than five minutes after the two players came on the court, Lin Feng used a precise long pass to provide Torres with a single shot.

The latter seized the opportunity and killed him with one sword.

The score became 1:1!

This ball seemed ordinary to Lin Feng and Torres, but it had a great impact on the minds of substitute players such as Zhang Linpeng.

Is it so easy to score a goal?
Or maybe Brother Lin is just too strong!

When I watched the game on TV before, I didn’t have such a direct feeling.

But after fighting alongside him on the court, Zhang Linpeng discovered that his elder brother was so strong!

(End of this chapter)