Chapter 994: Second Round
Bayern defeated Cologne 4-0 to win the league for the sixth time in a row. The mighty Bayern Munich have no rivals in the Bundesliga and they need to make a breakthrough in the Champions League. However, Bayern have not won the Champions League since winning the Big Ears Cup in the 2012/2013 season, with their best result being the semi-finals, but in the last two years, they have not even reached the semi-finals.
Heynckes said in an interview: "In the past few years, Bayern's operation has been relatively successful as a whole, and I think the biggest failure is to send Zhang Shujie to AC Milan, although the team has paid a huge transfer fee of 93 million euros for this, but it has lost the best player in the world." And now it seems that 93 million is too cheap. ”
It is not difficult to see that Heynckes is still haunted by Zhang Shujie's departure that year, and at the same time, he also indirectly expressed his dissatisfaction with some behaviors of Guardiola and the team's management. Zhang Shujie chose to leave because of his disagreement with Guardiola, although the management kept him, but it could not solve the conflict between the two, otherwise Zhang Shujie would not have left Milan City.
Today's Zhang Shujie is very happy in AC Milan, is the team's well-deserved brother, the king of the San Siro Stadium! After winning the unprecedented six crowns for Milan last year, this year Zhang Shujie once again launched an attack on the championship, the Champions League has reached the semi-finals, and the first leg has been won, the league is also three points ahead of Juventus, and the domestic cup has also entered the final, retaining the hope of winning the championship.
In the 36th round of Serie A, AC Milan played Verona at home, rival Juventus played Genoa at home, Juventus's game was held first, the powerful Bianconeri were favored by many parties, almost no one thought that Genoa would win away from home, but there was one person who did not think so.
He is Lapadula, a former AC Milan striker who only arrived in Genoa last summer, and revealed in front of the media in his hometown: "I will definitely do my best to score goals at the New Alp Stadium and help AC Milan achieve the title of champion." ”
Before the start of the fight, many people said that he was just giving himself courage, but after the start of the fight, people realized that he was by no means a mouthful. He scored in the second half as he secured a 2-1 win away at Juventus. Yo Wu Ntus is three points behind AC Milan with one more game.
This news made AC Milan's players very excited, and "Milan Sport" bluntly said: "Juventus fell off the chain in this important championship period, which is undoubtedly equivalent to pushing the championship to AC Milan, probably no one thinks that Milan, which is in excellent form, will lose to Verona." ”
According to Torino Sport: "Juventus lost when they least deserved to lose, failed to win at home with AC Milan still three league games to go, and perhaps now we can say that this season's title race is over." Taking a step back, even if AC Milan only won one draw in this round, the blow to Juventus would be very fatal. ”
Juventus boss Allegri said: "We played well for most of the game but made two mistakes and we didn't expect Genoa to take advantage of those two chances and score two goals. ”
The match between AC Milan and Verona took place the following day, with Inzaghi fielding all their main players, and AC Milan also bombarded the Verona goal for most of the time, and in the 26th minute of the first half, Chen Zihua gave AC Milan the lead with his 16th league goal.
The Rossoneri led for 50 minutes until the 77th minute, when Verona finally equalised, and Uruguayan defender Cacedis scored the first league goal to make it 1-1!
Zhang Shujie has not yet scored, his league goal tally is still 48, and with just one more goal, he will be able to break the Serie A single-season scoring record – although this record was also set by him.
He made a lot of efforts in the game, a total of five shots, two with his right foot, two with his left foot, and one header, all of which were on target, but each time he was saved by the opposing goalkeeper, and until the end of the game, he failed to knock on Verona's goal, and the score was fixed at 1:1.
AC Milan were held to a draw at home by Hellas Verona to pick up just one point, but their lead over Juventus has changed from three to four points, and a win in their next game will surely lift them the league title.
Inzaghi said after the game: "I feel a bit sad that we didn't win, but overall I'm happy with the draw. At this stage of the season, everyone is tired, I don't have too the players, as long as I win the championship, I can accept the rest. ”
AC Milan are trying not to lose at the moment, at least in the game against Hellas Verona. It's just a pity that Zhang Shujie hasn't come to his 49th league. But he can't afford to think too much about it at the moment, as the second leg of the Champions League semi-final is just two days away.
Inzaghi's side arrived at the Bernabeu a day earlier and he held a press conference with Zinedine Zidane. At the meeting, Zidane said: "It was a tough game, but no matter what, we also need a 1-0 because only then can we qualify. We're ready and I'm sure AC Milan is too. ”
Inzaghi said: "It didn't look like the 3:2 in the first leg didn't give us an actual advantage. Real Madrid needs 1:0 and we only need a 0:0, which seems easier for us in theory, but everyone understands that when two teams of equal strength meet, it is not difficult for the home team to play 1:0, but it is more difficult for the away team to keep 0:0. ”
Inzaghi's remarks also seem to confirm the media's thinking, and many people feel that Real Madrid, who are playing at home, have an advantage. There are many examples of teams coming back to their home games after losing 3-2 away, perhaps most famously in the 2006/2007 Champions League semi-final between Manchester United and Milan, where AC Milan lost 3-2 to Real Madrid in the first leg, but Kaka's two goals saved Milan's hope. Sure enough, back at home, AC Milan beat Manchester United 3-0 thanks to goals from Kaka, Seedorf and Gilardino to advance to the final and eventually win the Champions League that year.
Coincidentally, Ronaldo happened to be playing for Manchester United at the time. That year, the 22-year-old Ronaldo lost to the 25-year-old Kaka, but what everyone didn't expect was that since then, Kaka has gradually begun to decline, and Ronaldo has been singing all the way and engraved his name on the history of world football.
And today, Ronaldo seems to have replicated Kaka's performance against Manchester United, the same away score of 2:3, the same two goals, but I don't know if Ronaldo will have such a good performance in the second leg.
(End of chapter)