After Chen Long's goal, it was not only Ajax's defence that was dismantled, but also their fighting spirit. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info.

With only a few minutes remaining, it was possible that they would have scored again to equalise, but the Ajax players did not show such fighting spirit.

However, Mourinho's side made frequent substitutions, replacing Sanchez with Poli in the 90th minute, and replacing Oqiao with Gomez in the 91st minute.

The two substitutions took some time.

Although Frank de Boer replaced midfielder Sana with striker Soleimani in the 88th minute, it didn't help.

Eventually, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game.

"It's game over! After a hard battle, with Chen Long's quasi-stunner in the 87th minute, Milan defeated Ajax 1:0 at home! It was a tough three! ”

After the game, Chen Long was interviewed by reporters in the mixed zone.

was asked if Milan's tough game had something to do with the contempt for their opponents.

Chen Long shook his head and denied it: "How is it possible? This is the group of death, every game in this group is difficult to play, it is normal to play hard, right. We didn't underestimate the opponents, Ajax are a strong team and the way the game played like this is a reflection of their quality. ”

In his post-match press conference, Frank de Boer lamented the result: "I think a draw is fair, but that's football. We're not any worse than Milan, and if there's a gap, I don't think we have Chen Long, that's the gap. Milan's final goal was a reflection of Chen Long's individual ability......"

Jose Mourinho also thinks it would be nice to win at home, but he doesn't have to think about goal difference at all: "It's the group of death, in this group, it's hard to play against any opponent, it's not easy to win any game. So I'm happy to get the three points, goal difference? That's not something to think about in this group. ”

There is a corroboration that can more or less prove the correctness of Chen Long and Mourinho's views - in the other group stage played at the same time, Real Madrid faced Premier League champions Manchester City at their home stadium, and finally won only 3:2.

The first half was the same 0-0 draw between the two sides as Milan's.

It wasn't until the 69th minute of the second half that City broke the deadlock through Gabriel Jesus, who took the lead at Real Madrid's home stadium.

Real Madrid then made a series of substitutions, with Zidane making two substitutions in one go in the 73rd minute, using up all the substitutions. Manchester City's Sampaoli also replaced McCone with Zabaleta in the 74th minute, which was also City's last substitution of the game.

In the 76th minute, Real Madrid equalized through Isco.

In the 85th minute, Kararov gave City the lead again.

Alvaro Morata equalised again for Real Madrid in the 87th minute.

In the 90th minute, Osto finally got the Bernabeu boiling – and his goal in the hour beat Manchester City.

It's the same tough game as Milan, but this one has five goals, so it looks better.

But the difficulty of the game is all the same.

These two games are worthy of the adjective "the most terrifying group of deaths after 199".

The next match of the Champions League will be on October 20, Milan away to Manchester City, watching Manchester City's away game against Real Madrid, I am afraid no one will think that Milan's road trip is easy.

Perhaps it was too much energy to spend in the Champions League, as Milan returned to the league and lost 3-2 away to Roma. Although Chen Long had an assist and also a goal, it didn't help.

However, after this game, Niang, who has been injured, can finally train with the team, which is good news.

Milan has been fighting on multiple fronts this season, and if Niang can make a comeback, it will definitely be a blessing for Niang.

In the seventh round of the league, Milan challenged Chievo away, and finally Milan defeated the opponent 3:2 away.

In the eighth round of the league, Milan host Torino, and after this game, the team will prepare for the second game of the Champions League group stage against Manchester City.

Mourinho rotated in this game, and many of the main players, including Chen Long, were not able to appear in the starting list, or even in the squad.

Jose Mourinho was planning to abandon the league outright, but to his surprise, Milan, who had a rotating line-up, beat Chievo 5-0 at their home stadium.

After this game, Milan threw themselves into the preparation for Manchester City, and in training, Mourinho increased the proportion of Footbonaut in training.

This is because in the Champions League, the passing speed is generally 15% faster than in Serie A, and if you play in the Champions League according to the habits of Serie A, you will lose badly. And Footbonaut can just improve the speed of the players' passing and receiving of the ball, and last season Milan still won the league "four consecutive championships" without Chen Long, which is related to Footbonaut training.

But last season Milan only used Footbonaut to sharpen their guns, and they didn't want to use Footbonaut this season, so they have been training with Footbonaut since the pre-season training camp.

Long Chen has a bigger advantage, he can not only train with the team for Footbonaut, but also on his own, because he is more physical.

………………

With a 3-2 defeat away to Real Madrid in their first game, City will have to win this game against Milan if they are to progress from this group to take the initiative in the rest of the fixtures.

Therefore, for Milan, it is destined to be difficult to play at Manchester City's home stadium......

………

Milan flew to Manchester the day after the match against Chievo. And this is three days before the Champions League game in midweek.

Why go so early?

Of course, it's because of having to get used to everything in Manchester, including the weather, food and venues.

As for where the squad will train, Milan have negotiated with Manchester United, who will allow Milan to use their Carrington training base for free in preparation for the match against Manchester City.

As a pair of sworn rivals in the same city, Manchester City's enemies are Manchester United's friends.

Of course, if Milan and Manchester United meet in the Champions League next time, then Manchester City will certainly be happy to lend their training base to Milan for use, even if they fight to the death in the Champions League group stage.

Moreover, Milan also have player deals with Manchester United this summer, and the team's new young striker Telan brought in this summer was brought in from Manchester United

…………

The game is fast approaching and both clubs are ready. Both teams have players who are unable to play in this game due to injury, with Milan side having the old injured Niang, who has missed four league games.

Manchester City, Richards is still in his hands and has not played a game this season.

McCone, on the other hand, was injured in the last round of the league and was unable to play in this game.

During this time, Sampaoli has been studying Milan, mainly studying Milan's core player Chen Long.

Find a way to curb Chen Long's performance in the game.

In the last Champions League group game, Ajax used the practice of building a wall on their own doorstep to contain Milan's attack, and they did not use any special tactics against Chen Long, and even gave away possession outside the box. Their approach is to defend the space in the penalty area, and not give Gross, Sanchez, and Rugani the space and time to take the ball inside and outside the penalty area, so that Chen Long naturally has no target pass.

Why isn't there a restriction on Long Chen?

It's because they really can't be limited, as we all know, Chen Long's ability in the midfield is also excellent, so this also means that his position is very flexible, so, in this way, there is no limit at all......

Ajax's approach gave Sampaoli a bit of an idea. Of course he can't have Manchester City on the bus at home, it's not his style or City's style.

But instead of trying to find a way to contain Chen Long, it is better to find a way to contain Chen Long's goal, which is indeed an idea.

Chen Long's running position is very flexible, and it is not easy to contain Chen Long, because he can appear in almost any corner of the court, and find someone to follow him, and his team's formation will be chaotic. If you use zone defense against him, then in one area, it is difficult to guarantee the defensive strength of Chen Long and other players in Milan.

None of this is a good practice.

So Sampaoli thinks maybe he can learn from Ajax's approach, but not the whole thing. If Chen Long moves to the back in the midfield, then there is no need to care about him. Once he approaches the 30-metre area of Manchester City, it is up to someone to mark him closely, while everyone else does their job to ensure the integrity of the defensive line, and try not to have too obvious gaps so that Chen Long does not have too good passing targets. As for the person who was keeping an eye on Chen Long, he was responsible for interfering with Chen Long and preventing him from calmly controlling the ball and observing.

The day before the game, Sampaoli arrived at the Carrington training base, where City will do their final training session, with little intensity, mainly attacking and defending set-pieces.

He had just sat down in his office today when assistant coach Brian Kidd knocked on the door.

"Boss, the equipment administrator is looking for you."

Sampaoli was curious: "Is there something wrong with the training facilities?" ”

"No, actually...... Uh, let him tell you that he's out there. Kidd found it troublesome for him to talk about it, so he simply handed it over to the administrator.

"Then invite him in."

The equipment manager at Carrington Training Base walked in, a soccer ball in his hand.

"My guy found this while he was picking up a soccer ball in the woods, sir. I think I should show you ......."

Because the training base is next to the dense bushes, and there are always cases where players kick the football into the woods during training, the equipment manager will always arrange for someone to go to the woods to pick up the football after the training session every day.

At a glance, Sampaoli saw the huge Nike logo on the soccer ball in the administrator's hand.

"Manchester United's ball?"

Nike is a sponsor of Manchester United, and their training ball is definitely Nike's. Manchester City's sponsor is Umbro, so it is impossible for Nike football to be present at Manchester City's Carrington training ground.

Because the training bases of the two clubs are next to each other, there is a real chance that the opposing club will pick up the ball when picking up the ball, although the probability is not high, but it is possible.

However, when they pick up the football of the opposing club, they will temporarily save it first, and then return it to the opponent collectively after a certain amount. Although the competition was very popular, the private working relationship was not incompatible.

"Yes, sir. It's Manchester United. ”

"Isn't that just to give it back to the other party?" Sampaoli didn't understand why the administrator was just looking for him with a Manchester United football, didn't he know that his time was precious? Especially before the Champions League......

"Well, but this one is quite special, so I thought maybe I should show it to you, sir." The administrator is actually a little hesitant to give this football to the head coach of a team, maybe people don't care about these things at all?

However, Sampaoli still took the football, held it in his hand, and turned it around, and a line of crooked English on the pale red sphere appeared in front of him.

"Hello, Blue Moon, this is a greeting from the Nerazzurri."

The inscription is "Sanchez", followed by a smiley face and a V gesture.

Seeing this scene, Sampaoli was a little stunned, seeing that the head coach's reaction was very strange, Kidd also leaned over to take a look, and after seeing this sentence, he frowned: "This is ...... What do you mean? ”

"I don't know." Sampaoli shook his head.

"Could it be a prank by Milan's Alexis Sanchez?"

"Is he so boring?" Sampaoli wasn't convinced. He felt that Sanchez must have done this with a purpose, but what exactly it was, he didn't think of for a while.

Sampaoli has some knowledge about Sanchez, after all, Sanchez is one of the most famous hot-tempered players in football now, but can a person with such a character do this kind of thing? I heard that he has a good relationship with Chen Long, the core of Milan, so?

Thinking of this, he handed the ball to the administrator: "Return this ball to that side immediately." ”

The Administrator wondered: "But we picked up this one......"

"Then return this one." Sampaoli with its sternness, there is no doubt.

The administrator didn't understand why the manager was suddenly so serious, but he complied, took the football and turned to leave.

As soon as he left, Kidd asked Sampaoli, "Boss, what's wrong?" ”

"It's nothing, I'm just a little worried." Sampaoli muttered to himself.

"Worried about what?"

"Hmm...... It's just a guess. Okay, okay, let's talk about today's training......" Sampaoli realized that he had inadvertently slipped his mouth, so he quickly diverted the subject.

…………

The last day of training before the game was over, and the entire Milan squad gathered to return to the hotel.

Jose Mourinho came to everyone with a football.

He spun the ball with one hand and called Sanchez out of the column.

"Did you write that, Renato?" He asked.

Renato didn't answer the question immediately, but looked at Long Chen.

Chen Long in the team spread out his hands: "I swear I didn't say it." ”

"It was given to me by someone from Manchester United." Mourinho said.

"I wrote it." Sanchez replied honestly.

"What are you writing this for?" Oh keep asking.

"I want to say hi to Manchester City before the game, and by the way, see if the training bases of the two clubs are really that close." Sanchez explained why he did it in the first place.

"You're boring." Mourinho was also speechless at Chen Long's completely unusual brain hole, and he threw the football to Chen Long. "Keep it for yourself."

Sanchez was worried when he took over the football: "Does Manchester United want me to pay?" ”

"Manchester United said it was a souvenir for you." Mourinho waved his hand and let Sanchez return to the team before starting to take stock of the results.

Sanchez whispered to Long Chen next to him: "Uncle, don't let me do this kind of thing in the future, it's too embarrassing......... I said I couldn't get through it, no, it was picked up by the people of Manchester United, right? ”

"How do you know if you don't try, Renato."

"And what about you?"

"I tried it and found that I really couldn't kick it."

"......Shh

"But at least I know that the distance between the two clubs' training bases is not close enough to kick a football with a big foot, and if I hadn't tried, I would never have known. Do you know what the spirit of science is? The spirit of science is to make bold assumptions and carefully verify them! ”

Chen Long said that his brain-opening behavior was so lofty that Sanchez next to him didn't know what to say.

When the team returned to the dressing room and was about to change clothes and get on the bus, everyone ran to ask Chen Long if this was a provocation to Manchester City, like a challenge book for arrows.

But Chen Long shook his head and denied: "No, no, this is actually the literal meaning, there is really no subtext." I just wanted to say hi to them. ”

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. I have no grudge against Manchester City, what are you provoking them for? Provoke them into blackfoot me in a game? Am I that idiotic? So it's a friendly greeting to failure. Chen Long explained very seriously.

"Hey, Long Chen, you're really boring......" Everyone dispersed.

Seeing that everyone was saying this, Chen Long pointed to himself and asked Rodriguez, "Are you bored?" ”

Gotze shook his head: "No, it's very boring. ”

Long Chen: Hey, hey, guys, you have to figure it out, I didn't do anything, it was all Renato who did it, and now everyone thinks he did it, haha, even the boss thinks he did it, so, it's Renato boring, haha.........

Sanchez: Chen, your uncle.........

"I know, you did it......... Not only do I know, but I'm sure Manchester City manager Sampaoli also knows that you did it........." At this moment, Mourinho's voice came from behind Chen Long......

Chen Long: Damn, my Jade Emperor.........

………………