Chapter 180: Champions League quarter-final draw, Inter Milan's luck is against the sky
The final score of the game was 2:0, and Inter Milan successfully advanced to the quarterfinals with a total score of 5:2.
As for Ajax, they came with high hopes but left disappointed.
Although Inter Milan is indeed not in the best form, it is still just a fantasy for them to take advantage of such an opportunity to defeat Inter Milan.
The strength gap between the two teams is obviously much greater than the Dutch themselves imagined!
Just as Inter Milan defeated Ajax, the results of other matches in the Champions League quarter-finals were also released one after another.
As for the three giants of Serie A, AC Milan defeated Bayern Munich 4:1 and advanced to the quarterfinals with a total score of 5:2.
Juventus narrowly defeated Werder Bremen 2:1 at home, with a total score of 4:4, and advanced with the advantage of away goals.
So far, the three giants of Serie A have all advanced to the quarterfinals. Before the Calciopoli scandal, Serie A teams' record in European competitions was still quite solid.
In the Premier League, Chelsea defeated Barcelona 1:0 in the first leg, but was defeated 2:0 by Barcelona led by Ronaldinho in the second leg at Camp Nou.
In this game, Ronaldinho made one assist and one goal, fully demonstrating his strength as a Ballon d'Or winner.
The photos of him dribbling the ball and teasing Lampard and Terry during the game made the front page headlines of major media immediately after the game, with the title "God's name is Ronaldinho"!
Arsenal, who also faced another Spanish Super League team, drew with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and finally advanced to the quarterfinals with a total score of 1:0.
Real Madrid, which was eliminated, failed to win any of the four major titles this season, including the league, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
This almost announces that the first phase of Galaxy Battleship has come to an end!
The team's poor performance also affected Florentino's election prospects. There were countless Real Madrid fans who were dissatisfied with him, and his resignation seemed inevitable!
The biggest dark horse in this round of the Champions League is still Benfica from the Portuguese Super League!
After defeating the defending champions Liverpool at home in the first leg, Benfica not only failed to allow the defending champions to complete a reversal in this round of the game at Anfield, but also defeated Liverpool 2:0 at the opponent's home court, and finally advanced with a total score of 3:0.
The Red Army Liverpool seemed to have used up all their luck in last year's Champions League final. Before this round of games, Liverpool was already full of injuries, with only Crouch available on the front line. What's worse, Liverpool players missed many opportunities in the game and missed the chance to save themselves again and again.
At this point, two of the three Premier League teams that entered the knockout stage were eliminated, leaving only Arsenal in the top eight.
As for the Portuguese Super League giants Benfica, which defeated the defending champions, they advanced into the quarterfinals as a dark horse.
Although the Portuguese Super League is not one of the top five leagues, the performance of Portuguese Super League teams in European competitions in the past few seasons is still quite impressive, and their names can often be seen in the Champions League knockout rounds or even the quarter-finals.
In the other two games, French Ligue 4 champions Lyon did not give Eindhoven any chance, defeating their opponents 0:5 at home and advancing to the quarterfinals with a total score of 0:.
Although other teams in Ligue 1 are not very strong, Lyon is still different. Their performance in the Champions League is still very good. Even if they don't meet Real Madrid, it will not be a problem for them to reach the quarterfinals.
In the quarter-finals, the two teams with the closest strength but also the weakest strength, Villarreal and Glasgow Rangers, ended in a draw again.
But the Yellow Submarine luckily made it into the quarterfinals thanks to the advantage of away goals.
At this point, the list of teams advancing to the Champions League quarterfinals has been released.
According to the league they belong to, they are:
Serie A: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus
La Liga: Barcelona, Villarreal
Premier League: Arsenal
French Ligue 1: Lyon
Portuguese Super League: Benfica.
There are many things to be learned from this list.
Among the five major leagues, Serie A remains strong.
La Liga has the two giants of the Spanish Premier League as its backup, and its competitiveness in the Champions League is second only to Serie A.
Although the Premier League has shown signs of recovery in recent years, its performance in the Champions League is still not stable enough, as can be seen from Manchester United's elimination in the group stage.
As for Ligue 1, which is already at the bottom of the contempt chain of the five major leagues, it is a very good result for them to have one team qualifying. As for competing for the Champions League title, it will take the emergence of a real top giant.
Among the five major leagues, the only one missing from the quarterfinals is the Bundesliga.
But the situation in the Bundesliga is very special. Bayern is the only dominant team, and other teams are unable to raise their heads.
Once Bayern is eliminated, the Bundesliga will easily end in zero.
It is an above-average performance that Werder Bremen has made it to the knockout stage this season and pushed Juventus to this extent.
While Bundesliga fans were scolding Bayern for their poor performance, they were also satisfied with the performance of the Parrots.
……
After learning the scores of each game, Lin Feng sent a message to Chen Tao and Zhou Haibin respectively to comfort them.
Zhou Haibin is fine. He has not played many games for PSV Eindhoven and does not have deep feelings for the team. Plus, PSV Eindhoven's hopes of advancing are slim, so this expected result will not be a big blow to him.
But it was different on Chen Tao's side. Werder Bremen really fought to the last breath, especially Chen Tao. He made a through pass in the 13th minute of the first half, assisting Klose to score the first goal away from home, and at one point expanded Werder Bremen's lead to two goals!
At that moment, all the Juventus fans at the Alpi Stadium were in a panic, and countless Juventus fans couldn't help but start praying.
Werder Bremen's defense was also tenacious afterwards. All the players on the team actively participated in the defense and withstood Juventus's fierce attack until the 65th minute of the second half before conceding a goal.
Juventus' morale was boosted by the goal and the whole team attacked with all their strength. Werder Bremen gritted their teeth and persevered until the 88th minute, until their goalkeeper Wiese made a low-level mistake with his butter hands, giving Juventus the chance to score the winning goal.
After the game, Chen Tao, like many Werder Bremen players, still stood on the field, looking lonely and reluctant to leave for a long time.
This scene made many Chinese fans who watched the live broadcast feel heartbroken, and many of them were worried whether Chen Tao would suffer a heavy blow as a result.
But Chen Tao himself did not seem to be that depressed. After receiving Lin Feng's text message and the consolation from his teammates in the group, he immediately came forward to clarify things to everyone so that others would not continue to worry about him:
"I'm fine, don't worry, this kind of defeat won't defeat me!"
Gao Lin said carelessly: "That's right, I said Brother Chen would not be defeated by such a small matter, if you lose, you lose, at worst you can come back next year, don't be afraid, Brother Chen, we will fight in the Champions League together next year, I will help you get revenge on Juventus!" Zhu Ting said speechlessly: "Big head, don't you see where you are ranked in the league, and you can't even play in the Champions League or the Europa League!"
Gao Lin shouted unconvincedly: "Yo yo yo, judging from your tone, your hamburger business is doing very well. Are you so arrogant?"
Zhu Ting said confidently: "Haha, it's just so-so, third in the world, with the same points as Brother Chen's Bremen. We are only ranked third for the time being. We can't guarantee a place in the Champions League next season, but we will definitely get a place in the play-offs!"
Even though Hamburg was relegated to the Bundesliga 2 and could not recover, they still performed very well in the Bundesliga in the first few years of the 21st century.
Hao Junmin, who is also in the Bundesliga, also quietly said: "Brother Gao Lin, let's be realistic and try to get into the top four first. The Champions League seats for next season will most likely go to Bayern, Werder Bremen and Hamburg. Let's get a Europa League seat first and broaden our horizons in European competitions!"
The fourth and fifth place teams in the Bundesliga can participate in the Europa League. Currently, Schalke, where Hao Junmin is located, is fourth in the league, and Dortmund, where Gao Lin is located, is ninth in the league, but is only 9 points behind fifth-placed Stuttgart, and still has hope of qualifying for European competitions.
In fact, the teams joined by these Chinese players who went to study in the Bundesliga are all good.
Needless to say, Chen Tao has been able to compete with Bayern for the league championship in Werder Bremen in recent years. His ability to become a starter in such a team is equivalent to being a starter in top clubs in other leagues.
The dual exposure of European wars and leagues has rapidly increased his fame, which can be reflected in the 1300 million euros offered to him by the German transfer market.
For a midfielder of his age and with such a high price.
If he wants, he can transfer to a stronger team, such as a top club in the Premier League or Serie A.
With the strength he has shown this season, there will definitely be a team willing to pay a high price for him, and the transfer fee will not be less than 1500 million Euros!
Even the other players, Gao Lin's Dortmund, Hao Junmin's Schalke 04, and Zhu Ting's Hamburg, are all strong teams in the Bundesliga.
Of course, precisely because these teams are relatively strong, it is more difficult for them to gain a foothold in these teams.
The reason why Gao Lin was one step ahead of Hao Junmin and Zhu Ting and became the first rotation player was probably because Dortmund was weaker than the other two teams at that time!
Although Chen Tao said that everything was fine, Lin Feng keenly noticed that the other party was not as relieved as he claimed.
So Lin Feng called Chen Tao directly.
Lin Feng: "Are you really okay? If you are okay, just cry. I won't laugh at you!"
Chen Tao: "You are crazy, I am fine, please don't disgust me!"
After a pause, Chen Tao changed his words:
"Well, I was a little bit upset. You have never been in a weak team, so you may not feel the despair we felt when facing a strong team.
Juventus brought too much pressure to us in this game. They launched a fierce attack on us from the very beginning. The rhythm and intensity of the game were something I had never seen before.
In order to keep up with their pace, we had to speed up and strengthen our defense by running at all costs.
But in the second half, we were a little tired of running and that's when the opponent scored a goal.
You don’t know, after the goal, Juventus was like a different team. The whole team was extremely crazy. After getting the ball, they passed it forward desperately and rushed into our penalty area.
We could only use our bodies and even fouls to stop them, but unfortunately we still failed to hold on.
Although the captain made a mistake, we don't blame him.
Even if we hadn't made that mistake, we probably wouldn't have been able to hold on during injury time, because by the final moments of the game, our entire team couldn't run anymore and we really couldn't have lasted even a minute.
It’s too difficult, the Champions League is really too difficult, the strength of these top giants is even more terrifying than I imagined! ”
Chen Tao kept talking, and Lin Feng listened quietly without interrupting him.
Losing is inevitable as long as you play football.
Even teams as strong as Barcelona and Real Madrid will still lose when they are supposed to lose, and it will be a crushing defeat.
Although Inter Milan's record in Serie A is acceptable, when they meet top teams in the Champions League, such as Barcelona and Arsenal, their performance may not be much better than Bremen.
Losing is not scary, what is scary is not being able to afford to lose, because you dare not try because of the fear of losing.
Werder Bremen is weaker than Inter Milan, so they are destined to lose more often, and the bigger the game, the easier it is for them to lose.
"Yeah, these guys are really strong. Although we made it to the quarterfinals, to be honest, if we meet Feng Xiaoting's team in the next round, we will most likely be swept out. By then, we might be even worse off than you. At least you will die standing up!"
"Come on, after all, you made it to the quarterfinals. Even if you get eliminated in the end, it's worth it. It's your first time participating in the Champions League, and reaching the quarterfinals is pretty good. And you may not be so unlucky to be drawn against Barcelona. Maybe you'll be lucky and draw Villarreal?"
Chen Tao's mouth seemed to be blessed. The draw ceremony for the Champions League quarter-finals was being broadcast on TV. When the guest of honor drew Inter Milan and Villarreal together, both people on the two ends of the phone were stunned.
"Brother, why don't you tell me the winning numbers for tomorrow's lottery? We still have a super lottery draw to go. Whether we can make a fortune depends entirely on you!"
Chen Tao said angrily: "Get lost! If I had this ability, why would I still play football? I would have gone home to make a fortune long ago!"
At this point the draw ceremony had already concluded and the quarter-final matchups were revealed.
Arsenal vs. Juventus, Barcelona vs. Benfica, Inter Milan vs. Villarreal, AC Milan vs. Lyon.
The topic of discussion between the two also shifted to the matchups in the Champions League quarterfinals:
"Brother Chen, who do you think will make it to the semi-finals?"
Chen Tao pondered for a while and said:
"Your opponents are relatively weak, so you should be in the semi-finals. Arsenal are facing Juventus, and to be honest, I don't know who will have the last laugh. It's probably a 50-50 chance in this group!
Xiao Feng and his team are facing Benfica. I think Barcelona has a greater chance of advancing.
As for Lyon and AC Milan, I am more optimistic about AC Milan. In this way, the top four teams will probably be the winners among you, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus and Arsenal. "
After the analysis, Chen Tao exclaimed in amazement: "Serie A is indeed the top league. This year, maybe three Serie A teams will make it to the semi-finals at the same time!"
(End of this chapter)
