Zhang Shujie and his teammates did not bask in this record-breaking victory for long, because on the 22nd of this month, the Champions League knockout round will begin.

AC Milan's opponent is Bayer Leverkusen, and the first leg of the Rossoneri is playing away from home, and it is generally believed that in the Champions League, a double round-robin knockout round, the away team has a certain advantage, especially Milan's strength is stronger than Leverkusen. The day before the game, Bayer Leverkusen's coach Schmidt put it bluntly: "AC Milan are a very strong team, after a few years of slump, they have started to recover, they have a lot of very good players, I think they are the favourites to win the title!"

Schmidt put a high hat on AC Milan, to be honest, AC Milan is not a very "hot" team in this Champions League, the first favorite is Real Madrid, the second is Barcelona, the third is Chelsea, the fourth is Bayern Munich, and the fifth is AC Milan. It is not difficult to see from this list that the former "Real Saren" has quietly changed, and European football has slowly had a new pattern, Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Kroos, Modric and Barcelona with Messi, Neymar and Suarez are still strong, but Bayern Munich has been surpassed by Chelsea, mainly because Robben, Ribery, Lahm and other main players are too old, especially Lahm, who has decided to retire after the end of this season, although there are still Lewandowski, Muller and other players, but once "Robery" If the combination declines due to age, Bayern's attack power will also be greatly affected.

Chelsea is because of the support of Li Mu, plus a group of big-name stars such as Hazard, Costa, Kante, Courtois, etc., in addition to the Champions League in the last five years, Chelsea has won the Champions League twice (2012, 2015), which has also added a lot of impression points to people, so that they can squeeze into the top three.

AC Milan has the presence of Zhang Shujie, assisted by Chen Zihua, and Yan Tao in the backfield, which makes people still have a lot of expectations for them. However, considering that in addition to these three, the other players in the Milan team have only one and a half seasons of Champions League experience, and they need to be driven by three big brothers, so Milan ranks fifth behind Bayern, who has rich experience in the Champions League, in the selection of popular teams.

After that, there are teams such as Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City and so on. Now Schmidt thinks AC Milan is the "big" favorite, which is a bit of a deliberate show of weakness, and Inzaghi has replied to his words directly.

Inzaghi said: "Maybe AC Milan is one of the favourites right now, but I don't think it's really the favourites, Milan is a team with a glorious history, but that was in the past, and a lot of the players in the squad are still too young for the Champions League. But experience is constantly gaining and we take every game seriously and try to win. ”

After the polite words, when it came to the field, it was naturally a real fight, which can be seen from the starting lineups of the two teams.

AC Milan has a formation of 433, goalkeeper Donnarumma, defenders Desiglio, Romagnoli, Yan Tao and Abate, midfielders Locatelli, Chen Zihua and Bonaventura, and forwards Deulofeu, Zhang Shujie and Suso.

Bayer Leverkusen is in a formation of 4231, goalkeeper Leno, defenders Wendel, Dragovic, Toprak, Henrichs, two midfielders are Kanpur and Aranguis, three forwards are Brandt, Hawitz, Bellarabi, and the forward is "Little Pea" Hernandez.

The first half was kicked off by AC Milan, the away Rossoneri did not give the home team any face, launched an attack at the beginning, the first fifteen minutes, almost Leverkusen was pressed to play, the Milan attack line led by Zhang Shujie caused great pressure on Leverkusen, all three shots on target, if it weren't for Leno's bravery, Leverkusen conceded at least two goals in the opening.

"Bayer Leverkusen is completely suppressed by AC Milan, this attack looks like Milan is a team playing at home, if Bayer Leverkusen don't want to play out, it will only be a matter of time before they concede a goal. ”

Schmidt shouted loudly outside the field that the players were going to attack, and the players also wanted to, but the pressure at the back was so great that they had to send heavy troops to guard it, remembering that Schmidt was pacing back and forth. On the other end, Inzaghi stood on the sidelines indifferently, with his hands in his coat pockets, quietly watching the field.

After withstanding AC Milan's four-shot shots, Bayer Leverkusen finally launched their first attack of the game, by which time twenty minutes had passed.

Leverkusen's attack was still very efficient, and was hindered by the Milan midfielder in the middle, but it still hit the backfield, Hernandez completed a shot, Donnarumma saved, Yan Tao cleared the ball with a big foot, Locatelli made another top, but he was unlucky to give the ball to Havetz, Havetz distributed the ball to the left side of the penalty area, Brandt did not pass to Hernardes in the middle, chose to hit the goal from a small angle, and the ball was kicked off.

I thought that after Leverkusen played an attack, the suppressed situation improved, but AC Milan still continued to grasp the initiative of attacking, especially Chen Zihua's possession in the midfield, firmly controlling the control of the midfield, Zhang Shujie's impact, running, and breakthrough in the front court made Leverkusen's defense extremely ugly, and he had to use fouls to stop him, and in half an hour, Leverkusen's players already had three yellow cards, two of which were created by Zhang Shujie.

The on-site commentator sighed: "From the observation of the scene, this is really a game with a huge disparity in strength, Zhang Shujie and Chen Zihua have made Leverkusen's midfield can only be tired of defense, and now AC Milan is only one goal away." ”

AC Milan's goal came a little later than expected, and the scorer was neither Zhang Shujie nor Chen Zihua, but Deulofeu, who received a pass from Locatelli and stabbed home with his right foot on the left to score his first goal for AC Milan and his first goal in the Champions League.

AC Milan got on the scoresheet and Deulofeu broke the deadlock in the 36th minute as AC Milan led Bayer Leverkusen 1-0. ”

Deulofeu was thrilled to score his first goal for AC Milan in the Champions League, and it was a knockout round. After the goal, the young Deu even forgot how to celebrate, but fortunately Zhang Shujie ran up to hug him and defused his embarrassment.

That's what Inzaghi wants to see, scoring away from home is definitely good for AC Milan, the players will also have a psychological advantage, and Bayer Leverkusen will have to score at least two goals if they want to win. However, Zhang Shujie will not let them get three points easily, the first half is almost over, Zhang Shujie has not scored for the time being.

(End of chapter)