Chapter 265: The Fall of the World's No.
The effect of Inter Milan's substitution was immediate, well, the opposite effect!
In the 74th minute, Sparta's substitute player Abeyi made a straight pass from the left rib, Boyarinsev broke into the left side of the penalty area, turned around and swept the ball in front of the goal with his left foot, and Pavlyuchenko made a sliding tackle 6 meters in front of the goal and shoveled the ball into Inter Milan's goal.
The score became 4 to 1, Spartak Moscow scored a goal.
Because they were so far behind, the visiting team didn't expect to create a miracle away from home.
All they want is to score a goal and save face!
Therefore, after scoring this goal, Spartak Moscow's fighting spirit gradually faded, and they honestly retreated to their own half, intending to stay for the last ten minutes, not wanting to let Inter Milan continue to score goals.
But this goal made the Inter players on the field feel ashamed. In the 77th minute, Inter got a chance to counterattack. Vieira and Recoba cooperated in the frontcourt and passed the ball into the penalty area. Kroos's lob shot from the left side of the penalty area was again resolved by Kovalevski.
In the 76th minute, Vieira passed the ball in the middle, Cruz took the initiative to move to the right and made a cross. Torres struggled to grab the first point, but unfortunately the ball was headed high due to the interference of the opponent's defender.
Two minutes later, Inter Milan got a corner kick opportunity. Zanetti took the corner kick and Cordoba grabbed the ball at the back post.
Instead of shooting directly, he pointed the ball back to the middle of the penalty area.
While Cruz was physically confronting the defender who was defending him, he stretched out his long legs and used a whip kick similar to a martial arts move to kick the ball into the net from 7 meters in front of the goal.
Seeing the ball go in and the linesman not raising the flag, Cruz was excitedly about to celebrate his hat trick.
But at this time the referee's whistle sounded, and everyone looked at him in confusion, only to see him making a gesture to invalidate the goal.
It turned out that the opposing defensive player protested to the referee, believing that Cruz had raised his foot too high, which was a dangerous action, and therefore it was a foul and the goal was invalid.
Everyone in Inter Milan was very dissatisfied with this penalty. After all, Cruz did not intend to hurt anyone, and he did not touch any opposing players in the process.
But the opposing player felt threatened and was indeed near Cruz and complained, so the referee couldn't pretend he didn't see it.
After the goal was ruled invalid, Inter Milan's offensive enthusiasm was almost extinguished.
In addition, the opponent is not resisting much and the team is still leading by a large margin, so the players on the field began to slow down the pace, saving energy as much as possible to prepare for the next game.
The score of 4:1 remained until the end of the game, and after defeating Spartak Moscow at home, Inter Milan took all three points. Currently, they have two wins and one draw, with 7 points, and are still leading Group B.
In another group match that ended at the same time, Bayern Munich, playing away, won 1-0 against Sporting Lisbon thanks to a goal from Schweinsteiger. Currently, they are still in second place with a difference of 1 point.
However, for Bayern, Schweini received a red card soon after scoring a goal in this game, which may have an adverse impact on their subsequent group matches.
As for Sporting Lisbon, after three rounds, they have two losses and one draw, and only got 1 point. Now they are ahead of Spartak Moscow with a slight advantage in goal difference. The situation for qualifying is extremely grim.
After losing this game, their fate is no longer in their own hands, because even if they win all the next three games, they cannot be sure of qualifying for the group.
As for other groups, in Group A where Chen Tao was located, Chelsea defeated the defending champion Barcelona 1-0 at home and took the lead in the battle for the top spot in the group.
After Bremen unexpectedly drew with Barcelona in the previous game, they defeated Levski Sofia 2-0 at home in this game and got three valuable points!
Although they currently have the same points as Barcelona, both are four, they may even overtake Barcelona by three points in the next round.
But considering that their opponents in the last two group matches are Chelsea and Barcelona, as long as Chelsea does not let up, Werder Bremen's chances of qualifying will still be slim.
But who can say for sure about such things?
If Chelsea wins the next game again, it might be possible that they will give Werder Bremen a hand and join forces to defeat Barcelona. After all, the relationship between Chelsea and Barcelona is not good.
Many fans were shocked and unbelievable at the thought that the defending champion might not even qualify from the group stage.
Even the defending champions Liverpool of the previous season were defeated 3:0 by Benfica after qualifying from the group stage. Will they be sent home directly after the group stage in Barcelona?
Is it the loss of humanity or the decline of morality? Why have the Champions League champions in recent years become more and more depraved?
With the attitude of enjoying the fun, Lin Feng, like the majority of the spectators, quietly started eating melons.
In fact, Barcelona's declining form this season is closely related to Ronaldinho.
After the World Cup, Spanish reporters broke a lot of negative news about Ronaldinho.
Most of the news was gossip about Ronaldinho getting drunk and spending money like a spoiled brat in nightclubs, as well as some rumors about Ronaldinho disobeying Barcelona's team discipline and not returning to the team on time for training.
Although neither Barcelona nor Ronaldinho have publicly acknowledged these reports, Ronaldinho's declining form on the court cannot be hidden from everyone's eyes.
Considering the dark history of Brazilian players in this regard, many people are not surprised by Ronaldinho's self-degrading behavior, but they just feel sorry for him.
After all, he was born in 80 and is only 26 years old this year, which is the golden age of a professional player.
If he can keep himself clean and be self-disciplined enough, his peak period may be extended for another seven or eight years like Zidane.
But with his current rate of decline, many people feel that he will be kicked out of Barcelona before he turns 30, let alone eight years.
Seeing that Xiao Luo was beginning to degenerate, Lin Feng couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
But on second thought, Ronaldinho was born in a slum, but now he has won the World Cup, the Ballon d'Or, and the Champions League, so he can be said to have achieved great success.
In that case, what's wrong with enjoying life in the moment, as the Brazilians do?
Maybe this is the life they want?
So there is nothing to regret.
Perhaps, only the ascetic Brazilian players like Kaka can be considered as the odd ones out among Brazilians!
It’s a pity that Kaka’s career was not long. Groin injuries and playing with injuries in the World Cup ruined his career.
But upon deeper investigation, Kaka's injury problems actually started as early as his time at AC Milan, especially this season.
If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight. It is generally recognized that Kaka led the team to win the Champions League title in the 06-07 season.
But throughout this season, Kaka has hardly had any rest.
The heavy competition pressure, coupled with the lack of rest for a long time, posed a huge threat to his physical health.
Thinking of this, Lin Feng couldn't help but feel sympathetic. Mancini's use of him was no different from Ancelotti's use of Kaka next door.
For the sake of his own health, he still needs to talk to the coach about the rotation. He doesn't want to end up like Kaka, with injuries. ...
"That's what I was going to tell you!"
When Lin Feng found Mancini and explained his purpose to him, Mancini smiled and said:
"Considering that our tasks this season are very heavy, and that you, like many other players, are facing the dual pressure of playing for the club and the national team, I plan to give you a rest in the next game."
Mancini was thinking about this idea during the last game.
Inter Milan suffered a lot of injuries and suspensions at the beginning of the season, which awakened his sense of crisis and made him realize that he must prepare early to avoid the dilemma of being full of injured players and no one available at the end of last season.
Seeing that Mancini was well prepared, Lin Feng also breathed a sigh of relief
To become a top coach, one must not only be able to deploy troops and lead the team to win games, but also use the lineup reasonably and do a good job of rotating players so that the team always has people available.
Of course, it is not easy to do this.
Because it’s not easy to find replacements for some key players!
Even a strong player like Guardiola finds it difficult to address the impact of the absence of key players such as Rodri and De Bruyne after they were injured.
Fortunately, Inter Milan does not have many opponents in the league and the threat is not great, so there is enough room for error for Mancini to work on.
……
Mancini did what he said.
In the 7th round of Serie A, when Inter Milan announced the starting lineup for the away game against Udinese, many people noticed at the first time that Lin Feng was not on the starting lineup.
This inevitably led to speculation from the outside world, saying that Lin Feng was injured, that Lin Feng had a conflict with the coach, and even that Lin Feng and the club had a breakdown in contract renewal talks, so all the hidden rumors popped up.
For a time, rumors were flying everywhere.
Mancini was dumbfounded. I just arranged a rotation. Do you have to make up rumors like this?
Inter Milan club officials quickly came out to refute the rumor, saying that this was just a normal rotation, Lin Feng was not injured, had no conflicts with the head coach, and had not been hidden by the club.
But sometimes, people only believe what they want to believe. Given preconceived ideas, it is useless even if the official explains.
To make matters worse, if Mancini's rotation strategy is successful, then the rumors spread by the outside world will be nothing, and it will not be a big loss for them.
But his rotation was not successful. In the absence of Lin Feng, Inter Milan's attack was completely blocked by Udinese. Although the opponent could not break through Inter Milan's goal, they prevented Inter Milan from scoring.
The two teams ended up in a 0:0 draw, which made Mancini so depressed that he vomited blood.
He estimated that Lin Feng's absence would have an impact on the team's offense, but he didn't expect the impact to be so great.
Without Lin Feng's connection and organization in the frontcourt, both the forwards and midfielders played very uncomfortably, resulting in many opportunities being wasted.
Stankovic, who was Lin Feng's replacement, disappointed Mancini and the majority of Inter Milan players with his performance in this game.
Although Stankovic played very actively, he was useless except for his attitude towards the game. He was even too active and received two yellow cards in this game, and was once again expelled by the referee.
It was because he was sent off in the second half that Inter Milan, with fewer players, found it difficult to launch threatening attacks and had to accept the result of a draw.
After this game, Stankovic was sentenced to death in Mancini's heart. He would never consider using Stankovic to replace Lin Feng in the future, because the gap in strength between the two was too obvious.
Inter Milan was unexpectedly tied away from home, which was a good opportunity for Roma to catch up.
But Rome itself also failed!
Roma, who had exhausted all their energy in the Champions League match in the middle of the week, was embarrassed by Chievo, who was ranked last in the league, after returning to their home court.
If Totti hadn't come to the rescue in the second half, Roma might have lost unexpectedly.
Seeing Inter Milan unexpectedly lose points, many Italian fans who dislike Inter Milan and hate Inter Milan's dominance wanted to set off firecrackers to celebrate.
But when they saw that Roma also lost points, they suddenly lost interest and no longer wanted to watch the fun.
Disband, disband. The Roma team is truly a hopeless case. I gave you the chances but you were useless!
However, the worst were not Inter Milan and Roma. Among the three giants in Serie A and the Champions League, AC Milan, the last to appear, was completely defeated by Palermo 0:2 at home!
This surprised many people!
Even though AC Milan has no hope of winning the title this season, you can't just give up like that, can you?
Starting from the fourth round, including this game, AC Milan has not won in four rounds!
Excluding the 8 points deducted due to the phone-gate scandal, AC Milan now has a pitiful 4 points and is about to return to the bottom of the league.
This has caused many Milan fans to worry. If the team continues to play like this, it may not be able to get a place in the Champions League next season.
If they fail to qualify for the Champions League this season, they may not even be able to qualify for the Champions League next season.
So Milan fans began to appeal, hoping that the team would pay more attention to the league and not completely give up the league because of the Champions League.
Although the Champions League is important, the league is the foundation and we cannot lose sight of the important things!
Milan executives and head coach Ancelotti have heard the fans' calls, but they are also in a difficult position.
Milan's lineup is much worse than last season, and there are more veterans in the team.
If these veterans have to take both the league and the Champions League into consideration at the same time, they may not be able to cope.
The risk of injury for old players is inherently higher than that for young players. If they are overloaded and the team is filled with injuries, in the end they may end up losing both the big picture and the small detail.
Therefore, Ancelotti can only give priority to the Champions League, but in his spare time when he is not playing in the Champions League, he will still try his best to defeat his opponents and move AC Milan's position in the standings up slightly.
Although the top two places are very difficult, AC Milan should have no problem getting the third or even fourth place given their strength.
As long as they qualify for the Champions League, they will be able to advance to the finals even if they start from the first qualifying round.
So the problem facing Ancelotti is the same as that of Wenger's Arsenal: just fight for the top four!
(End of this chapter)
