Chapter 772: Dynamo Kyiv
For many Chinese fans, especially Milan fans, it should not be too unfamiliar to Dynamo Kyiv. Although this team is not a super giant in European football, for some reason, many Milan fans can't help but think of him when they mention Dynamo Kyiv. In the 1997/1998 season, he led Dynamo Kyiv to the semi-finals, especially in the group stage, when Dynamo Kyiv beat Barcelona 4-0 at the Camp Nou, and the young Ukrainian striker shocked Europe with a hat-trick!
In the 1998/1999 season, he once again helped Dynamo Kyiv reach the last four of the Champions League, and in the quarter-finals, Dynamo Kyiv met Real Madrid, who scored two goals at home and one away to eliminate Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate.
In the summer of that year, the young man, who had not yet turned 23, was brought to AC Milan by Silvio Berlusconi for $26 million, and since then, wearing the number 7 shirt, he has won a Champions League trophy and a league trophy for AC Milan, and has been named the top scorer in Serie A twice, scoring a total of 175 goals for Milan, the second most of AC Milan's players, behind the ancient god Nodal.
Although he later left England under the pretext of "letting his children learn English", hurting many Milan fans, and even made die-hard fans hate him for a while, when he returned to Milan two years later, many fans saw his slightly vicissitudes of life and suddenly felt relieved.
In any case, he is an indelible memory of Milan's history, he is the eternal flag of the San Siro Stadium, he is a legend here, and his name is Andrei Shevchenko.
Today, Shevchenko has returned to Ukraine and became the head coach of the Ukrainian national team, but people still talk about him from time to time and thank him for his years in Milan.
Zhang Shujie occasionally heard something about Shevchenko in the mouth of Inzaghi, who was considered one of the best striker combinations in Europe back then, but unfortunately they didn't really play many times at the same time, and even if they appeared on the pitch together, there was no guarantee that every game would be highlight. However, these two still hold a small record: when both men score in the same game, then AC Milan's record is - all wins!
In other words, if two men score at the same time, then AC Milan will win!, a rare sight in the world, perhaps the so-called "1+1>2".
The glory created by Shevchenko back then is gone, and now Zhang Shujie and others need to win back the glory they once again had for Milan. No matter how much this Kyiv Dynamo team has with Shevchenko, Zhang Shujie will lead the team to beat them!
AC Milan have been placed in Group D in this Champions League, and in addition to Dynamo Kyiv, the opponents in the same group are Portuguese giants Benfica and Turkish powerhouse Besiktas. This is widely regarded as the weakest group and AC Milan should not have a problem qualifying for the top spot.
Few people think that Dynamo Kyiv can beat AC Milan with Zhang Shujie, the team that beat Barcelona and Real Madrid no longer exists, and there is no talent like Shevchenko in the team. But Dynamo Kyiv is not completely without advantages, they are playing at home, relying on the right time and place to cause some problems for Milan.
Lobalovsky Stadium, tens of thousands of home fans on the scene gave Dynamo Kyiv a momentum, but there was a small detail in the game, a small number of Ukrainian fans posted a portrait of Zhang Shujie in the stands, it seems that these fans should not be from Kiev, and the reason why they came to watch the game was not to cheer for Dynamo Kyiv, but to see Zhang Shujie.
For such a team, it is not very likely to be able to meet a superstar like Zhang Shujie, and only in the Champions League can this opportunity.
In the 26th minute, Kyiv midfielder Tsygankov passed the ball to Hamach, Hamah's first shot was saved by Donnarumma, and the second shot kicked the ball into the net, and Dynamo Kyiv led AC Milan 1:0 at home.
The team's head coach Rebrov found it a little incredible, he wanted to save a draw in the first half, but he didn't expect to score first. The home fans were also delighted and even gave them a feeling that they could beat Milan.
But they didn't rejoice for long, and at the end of the first half, Chen Zihua distributed the ball to Abate, who passed to Suso in front, and Suso hung the ball diagonally to the penalty area at 45 degrees on the left side, and the ball fell between the two central defenders, Vida and Hacheridi, and Zhang Shuhui was here.
He leaped high and a lion flicked his head in mid-air and the ball fell into the far corner, but Shofkovski made a save, but could not save the goal.
The score became 1:1, and Zhang Shujie scored his first Champions League goal of the season and his eleventh Champions League goal for AC Milan.
The first half ended with a draw between the two sides, and the second half of the two sides continued to fight. Dynamo Kyiv's offense appeared to be more cautious, and they wanted to prevent the backfield from being raided by Zhang Shujie. In the eyes of head coach Rebrov, only Zhang Shujie is a threat in Milan's forward line, and the other striker Baca is slightly lacking in strength, although Baca performed well in the Europa League at the beginning, but the Europa League is at least a notch worse than the Champions League.
Inzaghi also understands that if he plays in the Champions League with Baka's ability, he can't be the main striker, at least not in a giant team, but Inzaghi has no other choice for the time being. From this aspect, it can be seen that although AC Milan has invested heavily in Zhang Shujie and Chen Zihua, it still needs to be further strengthened in other positions. This kind of thing will be handed over to Brother Li to complete, and Brother Li has also promised that he will definitely let Milan regain its courage of the past.
After two attacks and three shots from AC Milan, Dynamo Kyiv hit Milan's backfield on the counter-attack and had two shots on goal, but neither of them scored. In the sixty-sixth minute of the game, Romagnoli successfully broke the ball in the backfield and passed it to Chen Zihua, who handed it to Yan Tao, who pulled the side, squeezed away Tsygankov with speed and physical advantages, and rushed to the backfield of Dynamo Kyiv with the ball.
AC Milan's best defense began, Chen Zihua and Zhang Shujie began to run, Yan Tao made the ball to Suso, Suso passed Zhang Shujie again, Zhang Shujie stopped the ball with his left foot, leaned on Rebalka with his back, and passed to Yan Tao who was inserted forward, at this time Yan Tao had already taken the ball to within 20 meters of the back field of Dynamo Kyiv, which is a very dangerous area.
Zhang Shujie, Baka, and Suso rushed into the penalty area, making the Kyiv defense a little confused, Yan Tao saw the opportunity, forced through Antures and passed the ball back to the top of the penalty area, which happened to be a defensive vacuum for Kyiv Dynamo.
Chen Zihua appeared in time.
When the ball came to him, he didn't stop the ball, he directly picked up his right leg and shot angrily, the ball blasted towards the Kyiv goal like a cannonball, Shovkovsky made a pounce, but Chen Zihua's shot was extremely powerful, and Shovkovsky couldn't reach it.
(End of chapter)