Chapter 258: The national football team has a poor performance, Lin Feng is called in to help
"Two red cards for a victory, Inter Milan beat Bayern at home!"
"The Bundesliga giants are in an embarrassing situation, and their record of not winning away games against Serie A teams continues!"
"Spartak Moscow unexpectedly draws with Sporting Lisbon, Inter Milan unexpectedly tops the group!"
After Inter Milan defeated Bayern, good news came from another game:
Spartak Moscow, considered to be at the bottom of the group, unexpectedly drew with Sporting Lisbon at home, preventing their opponent from trying to secretly gain points while Inter Milan and Bayern were fighting each other.
As a result, the current situation in Group B has become even more chaotic. Inter Milan, with one win and one draw, unexpectedly rushed to the top of the group, followed closely by Bayern, with one win and one loss and three points.
Sporting Lisbon, which was in a good situation, lost unexpectedly in the away game. Currently, both games are tied and they have only 2 points.
What's worse is that starting from the next game, Sporting Lisbon's opponents for three consecutive games will be teams like Bayern and Inter Milan.
If they don't perform well, they may suffer three defeats in a row, and their hopes of qualifying from the group will be completely shattered.
But for Inter Milan, although they topped the group, they cannot be happy too early.
Although Inter Milan won the game, as the outside world said, they paid a heavy price.
The suspension of two key players, Stankovic and Grosso, will have a great impact on Inter Milan's next game.
In addition, Cambiasso was injured during the game, and Materazzi, who was injured before, will have to rest for at least two weeks before returning.
The new season has just begun, and Inter Milan’s injury situation is not optimistic.
But no matter what, this victory gave Inter Milan a lot of breathing space.
At least Mancini doesn't have to worry about being fired immediately!
……
Perhaps it is because the competitions in major leagues are becoming increasingly intense. With the two-front battle in the league and the Champions League, there have been many upsets in this round of the Champions League.
In Group A, thanks to Chen Tao's free kick, Werder Bremen equalized with the defending champion Barcelona at home.
There was a huge gap in strength between the two teams. Before the game, almost no one was optimistic about Werder Bremen, especially when they lost their main midfielder Micoud this summer. Everyone thought they would be easily defeated by the defending champions.
In this game, Barcelona had a huge advantage on the field and took the lead early in the first half.
But the Parrots relied on their tenacious fighting spirit and never-give-up spirit to equalize their opponents when the game entered injury time.
Although this draw did not help Werder Bremen qualify, it successfully dragged the defending champions down, allowing Chelsea to overtake Barcelona in points and move to first place in Group A.
At present, the situation in Group A is clear-cut, with Premier League champions Chelsea winning both games and taking first place in the group.
Defending champion Barcelona had one win and one draw, and is currently ranked second in the group with 4 points.
Werder Bremen had 1 draw and 1 loss, ranking third in the group with point; Levski Sofia lost both games and ranked last with zero points.
Although there are still four games to be played, the qualifying spots in Group A are basically locked in by Barcelona and Chelsea. As for who will get first place in the group, it depends on their direct confrontation in the next two games.
Chelsea, who have a two-point advantage, will still have the initiative in the fight for the top spot in the group as long as they do not lose both of the next two games.
"Brother Chen, don't be discouraged. Werder Bremen still has a chance to qualify!"
"That's right, let me calculate the points for you. In the next two games, as long as you can beat Sofia Levski, you will get 6 points. Add the 1 point you have now, that's points.
It is difficult to overtake Chelsea with this points, but if a one-sided situation occurs between Barcelona and Chelsea - if Chelsea beats Barcelona twice in a row, then you are likely to overtake Barcelona by 3 points. In this way, Chelsea will qualify early and secure the first place in the group, and may let you go when they meet you, giving you a chance to get three points.
Once we get these three points, we just need to grit our teeth and fight Barcelona in the last game, and we will qualify if we draw!"
Everyone in the group offered suggestions and advice, giving Chen Tao and Werder Bremen various ideas.
"Here it comes, another classic draw to qualify!"
"Oh my god, I have a bad feeling when I see these words!"
"Although it is theoretically possible, it is too difficult to beat Chelsea and draw with Barcelona again!"
"Then why is it called a theoretical possibility?"
Although everyone was discussing the matter lively, they all knew in their hearts that Werder Bremen had basically no hope of qualifying.
In fact, after the results of the group draw came out, Werder Bremen had already been sentenced to death.
Not to mention them, even if other top clubs were assigned to this group, it would be extremely difficult for them to qualify.
On one side is the Blues Chelsea, which has risen strongly in recent years and swept the Premier League without any rivals.
On one side is the dream team Barcelona, which has the world's best players Ronaldinho and Havertz, and Mei Ximeng.
In front of them, the other teams in this group were just cannon fodder with no gaming experience at all.
Compared with the situation in Group A, the teams assigned to other groups are much luckier.
However, for Serie A fans, this round of the Champions League does not seem so beautiful.
Apart from Inter Milan's difficult home win over Bayern, the other two Serie A teams all failed.
Roma was completely defeated by Valencia in an away game, and AC Milan was even more outrageous. The Rossoneri, who were in a slump, were shut out by Lille in an away game.
You have to know that this is Lille, not the French Ligue 20 champion Lyon. Lille is not very strong. Last season, they were left behind by Lyon by more than points in the league points. Their strength is evident...
In fact, except for Lyon, which is slightly good, other teams in the entire Ligue 1 are basically weak.
And the fact that AC Milan was tied by such a team really makes people worry about their condition.
"Milan's squad is indeed a bit too old. Whether the team can win now depends entirely on Kaka. If Kaka is not in good shape, it will be very difficult for Milan to win!"
"Alas, I had hoped to see Milan muster up the courage to make another push and fulfill Kaka's Champions League dream, but now it seems that Milan's hope of winning the title this season is really slim!"
"In the end, can the entire Serie A only rely on Inter Milan?"
"But Inter Milan's current form makes it impossible for them to win the championship!"
After the first round, the Serie A fans who were originally very optimistic now all became worried.
This situation is really not optimistic! In fact, the group situation of Roma and AC Milan is really good. There are no top giants in the group to suppress them. They don't need to spend so much effort to fight Bayern like Inter Milan did.
So Serie A fans thought they could get first place in the group, but judging from the results of this round of games, they were obviously too optimistic.
Especially for Roma, after this game, what they should consider is probably not how to fight for the first place in the group, but how to ensure that they qualify for the next round.
……
The Champions League games obviously affected Inter Milan's form. After the match with Bayern, Inter Milan, who were over-exhausted and in poor form, were unexpectedly tied by Cagliari in the fifth round of the league.
In fact, it can't be considered an upset, because the home team scored the first goal, and Inter Milan took a lot of effort to tie the score in the second half.
Although they tried to reverse the game after equalizing, their players really couldn't run anymore. In addition, the opponent was also determined to defend and did not give Inter too many chances, forcing Inter to accept the result of a draw in the end.
After this game, the Serie A standings changed again.
After Roma defeated Empoli 1-0 at home, they had four wins and one draw, accumulating 12 points, overtaking Inter Milan with 11 points and jumping to the top of the standings.
The team ranked behind Roma was not Inter Milan, but the dark horse Palermo.
Their points were also 12, but they lost to Roma on goal difference and ranked second.
Below Palermo is Inter Milan, which currently has 3 wins, 2 draws and 11 points, ranking third in Serie A.
Roma's return to the top of the table has made many Serie A fans, especially Roma fans, very excited.
They don't want to see Inter Milan win the championship from the bottom of their hearts. No matter who the other teams are, as long as they can stop Inter Milan, they are happy to support them.
But more fans are curious: What's going on with this dark horse Palermo?
Many fans remember that Palermo sold many main players this summer, and Inter Milan alone introduced defensive generals such as Barzagli and Grosso.
There are countless players who have been poached by other teams. Even last season's Serie A Golden Boot winner Toni came from Palermo. They sell their main players every year and are the dark horse every year. Is it reasonable that Palermo, which has sold so many people, still has such strong fighting power?
……
After the fifth round of Serie A ended, the FIFA match day arrived. A large number of Inter Milan players accepted the call-ups of their respective national teams, left the club and returned to their respective national teams to fight for their country.
Lin Feng is also among the returning army!
In fact, after the World Cup training ended, the Chinese national team also played two Asian Cup qualifiers and a friendly match.
Since the opponents were all Southeast Asian teams with relatively weak strength, Zhu Guanghu did not recruit a large number of international players playing in Europe. Instead, he boldly used newcomers and promoted a group of young players from the local league to receive training under the leadership of veteran players.
On August 8, the Chinese national football team played a friendly match with the Thai team in Qinhuangdao.
Compared with ten years later, the Chinese national football team now has a strong advantage over the Southeast Asian teams. Relying on high-altitude bombing, they can beat the short Southeast Asian teams badly.
In this game, Zhu Guanghu led the young national football team with an average age of less than 24 years old to show great dominance at home. The national football team scored two goals in each half and finally won 4:0.
What is even more commendable is that all four goals were scored through ground cooperation, and none of them were headers.
The young players who were called up also performed very well, especially Yu Hai, a 19-year-old left winger. He made sharp breakthroughs on the wing, helped his teammates create good opportunities many times, and scored a goal himself in the second half.
After watching this game, many fans were surprised by Yu Hai's talent, and some even gave him the nickname "Chinese Robben".
The Thai team is considered to be a relatively strong team in Southeast Asia, at least much stronger than Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.
The Chinese national football team was able to defeat their opponents with such a young lineup, so shouldn’t they be able to easily defeat the weaker Singapore team?
However, it turned out that the fans were happy too early!
On August 8, in the Asian Cup qualifiers, the Chinese national football team faced Singapore in Tianjin.
Singapore is an absolute underdog. When facing such a team, fans feel that the Chinese national team can win big and it is possible to score seven, eight or even ten goals!
However, the final result was a narrow victory of 1:0 for the Chinese national team!
The Chinese national football players, especially the young players, who performed well in the last game against Thailand, seemed to have lost their magic in this game.
You have to know that Singapore is much weaker than Thailand, but just because this is a formal competition, the players on the field became timid, as if they didn't know how to play football.
This game made the fans very dissatisfied, and all kinds of ridicule and abuse came pouring in.
It’s no wonder that the fans are cursing, the Chinese national football team is really too outrageous.
Although the starting lineup was almost exactly the same, the performance of the Chinese national team in the warm-up match and the main match was completely different.
Anyone who has seen these two games would probably find it hard to believe that they were played by the same team.
However, this is not the most outrageous thing, the most outrageous thing is still in the next one!
On September 9, the Chinese national football team rushed to Singapore to play against the Singapore team away again.
The fans who were originally gearing up for the national football team to win a big victory over their opponents and wash away the shame were completely disappointed with the team's performance.
The Chinese national football team, which had won the previous game, simply drew with the opponent 0:0 in this game.
Such performance of the Chinese national football team naturally attracted more ridicule and abuse from the outside world.
If we can’t even beat Singapore, how are we going to play in the Asian Cup?
This is just a competition in Asia. If they go to the World Cup qualifiers or even the World Cup finals in the future, the psychological pressure on the players will only be greater. Will they not even be able to play football by then?
"Lu Xun once said: The Chinese national football team is probably really sick!"
"There's no blood in their play. There's not a single real man in the team!"
"I just can't understand it. We are obviously stronger than our opponents, but why do we become restrained and unable to play once we get on the field?"
"What are you afraid of? If you don't want to play or don't dare to play, then don't join the national team. If you join the national team, you should fight to the death!"
"This group of people is no good, replace them all, and never recruit them again!"
"I think we should call Lin Feng and his team back. They even played so badly against Singapore. They will definitely be slaughtered by the strong team from West Asia in the next game."
The next two opponents of the Chinese national football team are Palestine and Iraq. Palestine is of average strength and generally will not pose a threat to the Chinese national football team.
But after watching the two games of the national football team, the fans' confidence was shaken and they dared not say that they could definitely beat this underdog team, let alone the powerful Iraqi team.
At this time, Zhu Guanghu did not dare to be careless and had to recall the overseas troops to stabilize the morale of the army.
(End of this chapter)
