As soon as the winter break began, Chen Long left Milan and returned to China, where he returned to his parents. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

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The winter break is not an uncommon thing in European football, and basically every league has a winter break of varying duration, with the exception of the Premier League, which does not exist at all.

Generally speaking, the Europa League is now divided into two categories, one is the one that finishes the entire schedule in a calendar year, as is the case in China, such as Iceland, Sweden and Norway and other Nordic countries. The other type is the New Year's Eve season, where a season is divided into two years.

The Nordic countries scheduled the league to be played in one year because they had a long, cold winter of almost half a year, which was not suitable for outdoor sports. Although other countries do not have such a perverted winter as Northern Europe, they will still encounter winter and be affected by the cold winter climate during New Year's Eve. In order to avoid or minimize this effect, it makes sense to set up a winter break.

The timing of the winter break varies from country to country, and even from year to year, and is fine-tuned according to the schedule and weather conditions. Generally speaking, the warmer the south is, the shorter the league winter break, for example, the Bundesliga has more than 20 days, for example, Spain only has a 14-day winter break, and France is farther north than Italy and Spain, so their winter break is three weeks, 21 days. What about Serie A? The winter break in Serie A this season is eighteen days.

Sounds like a long time, doesn't it?

But it's not the longest, it stands to reason that Italy's winter break should be shorter, of course, this is true, but this season is an exception, the Italian Football Federation's schedule, to be honest, the country with the longest winter break in Europe should be Russia, followed by Ukraine. It is surprising that the national league in such a cold region of Russia is also a cross-year, and their winter break can be close to 90 days, while Ukraine simply has a winter break of more than 90 days.

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When it comes to the winter break, it is actually a very controversial topic, some people agree with it, some people support it. In Italy, there is also a debate about the length of the winter break, and some people have repeatedly said: "Among the five major European leagues, Italy is the most populous, and the number of teams is not large, and there is such a luxurious winter break." There's no need to interrupt the players just like that. ”

Those who oppose the winter break have their reasons and considerations, and those who support the winter break also have their considerations and reasons.

The main reason is to provide enough rest time for the team in the cold.

In fact, at the beginning, there was no such thing as a winter break in Serie A, when football matches would only be suspended during the holidays, whether it was December or January, football matches were carried out as usual, similar to today's Premier League.

In fact, if the current winter break could be as long as it used to be for 70 days, then Chen Long would be able to spend the Spring Festival at home.

But unfortunately, the current winter break is basically only more than 30 days.

If there's a World Cup, a European Cup, or something, it's even shorter.

So, after a short time in China, Chen Long will return to Milan, Italy, after which he will travel west with his teammates to Spain for training camps, where he will prepare for the second half of the season.

It felt like a new season.

After fifteen days of intensive training in the warm south of Spain, the entire Milan squad returned to Milan.

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On the evening of January 19, Milan will take on Udinese away from home in a match of the 19th round of the league.

With only four points separating Milan and Juventus, it is a suspenseful one, and Mourinho's strategy for his team is to try to extend their lead over Juventus before the knockout stages of the Champions League begin.

Milan's first Champions League knockout game is on the night of 13 February, less than a month away.

During that time, Milan have four league games to play.

They are away to Udinese in the 19th round, Chievo at home in the 20th round, Cesena away in the 21st round, and Torino at home in the 11th round.

These four games may be relevant to Milan's league title this season. Because when the Champions League knockout stage begins, Milan will inevitably be distracted, and no one can guarantee what will happen in the final sprint to the league.

In the same period of time, Bayern Munich's opponents were Napoli, Pescara, Genoa and Cagliari. The home-and-away order is Home, Away, Away, Home.

It's hard to say whose opponents are tougher to play against, and it's hard to say whose schedule is more advantageous.

Instead of focusing on how your opponent is, try to do your best and play your game.

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On the evening of January 19, Milan's away match against Udinese began in the snow.

In this game, Mourinho fielded almost the strongest squad in Croatia. Gross, Niang, Chen Long, Rodriguez, Sanchez, and Rugani all appeared in the attacking lineup.

The strong attacking firepower allowed Milan to dominate the game from the start, and in the ninth minute, Niang seized the opportunity to open the scoring for Milan.

Ten minutes later, Rugani received the ball from Alexis Sanchez and fired home from close range to give Milan a 2-0 lead over Udinese.

"In less than 20 minutes, Milan had a two-goal lead! And it's away from home, which speaks volumes about the strength of this Milan team in Serie A today. If nothing else, the title race will be between Milan and Juventus this season. Zhan Jun commented.

"Thanks to the geothermal facilities, we were able to see the green turf, but unfortunately the heat didn't seem to be able to reach the Udinese players, who acted as if they were frozen on this cold winter night. On the other hand, the Milan players are much more flexible than Udinese, perhaps because the Milan players are always running, they don't feel cold at all, and they are not affected by the weather......" Peta commented on the performance of the players of both teams.

Udinese did not perform very well in this game, their players did not seem to have recovered from the winter break, and the players seemed to be still having Christmas.

In the second half, Yibian fought again, just three minutes into the beginning, Chen Long sent a curling ball with the outside instep of his right foot outside the penalty area, the football bypassed the defenders of Udinese, and accurately fell to the feet of Sanchez, Sanchez faced the football sent by Zhou Yi, did not stop the ball, but chose to push directly, the angle was very awkward, and the football rolled into the goal by grazing the far post.

“3：0！ Renato Sanchez! The suspense of this game is completely over1" Peta shouted. 'At the start of the second half, Milan scored again with a fast break, Udinese were three goals behind at home and it was very difficult to get it back!

Udinese, of course, were not willing to concede defeat on their home turf and their head coach made two changes in one fell swoop, replacing defender Pledl with young Turkish midfielder Ozkan Ilderin and Nigerian striker Joseph Akpala for another striker Petersen.

Hopefully the attack can be improved.

However, Milan already have a three-goal lead, so they don't need to continue to risk attacking and allowing Udinese to sneak up on the attack. So under the leadership of Chen Long, Milan began to play control the ball and consciously slowed down the tempo.

In this situation, Mourinho also made a change, replacing Niang with Ganso and Bolly for Rodriguez.

The game progressed gradually for the eightieth minute without either side scoring. Milan are not in a hurry, they have a three-goal lead anyway, and Udinese looks impatient.

At this time, Chen Long realized that Milan did not need to slow down the pace anymore. Because there are still three minutes left in the game anyway, it may not be impossible for Udinese to chase three goals in a row to equalize the score in these ten minutes, but the probability is really low and scary. In such a situation, Milan does not need to continue to stall for time, but can try to attack, maybe there will be more gains?

Serie A is different from the Champions League, in the case of two teams with the same points, they do not compare the relationship between each other's wins and losses, but first compare the goal difference, so being able to get more goal difference in the game is also to add more winning weight to the situation that may occur in the future.

So he found a chance to kill the ball, ran to Polly's side, and told him his plan in Polly's ear with his hand over his mouth.

Polly has no objection to this, everything is according to Chen Long's ideas, he only assists.

When the game resumed, Chen Long quickly instigated a successful attack, and finally the full-back Desiglio who inserted the assist assisted Gross to score, and Milan led Udinese 4:0!

Gross's goal completely killed the suspense of the game, and now Udinese only have one choice left, which is to try to score a face-saving goal. It's too ugly to have someone shaved on your home turf......

So in the last ten minutes, Udinese's offensive was even more frenzied.

Of course, in the face of the crazy counterattack of Udinese, Chen Long did not have a soft foot, and in the 86th minute, he assisted Ganso to score the last goal of this game for Milan.

“5：0！ Ganso!! Milan have such a big lead over Udinese on the road! Peta was a little surprised, "Udinese had a bad start to the second half of the league, and it seems that their road to relegation this season is not easy!" ”

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In a month, four league rounds, Milan won three of them, and in the final round of the league, Milan lost to Torino at home, but for Milan, it can afford to lose.

With the end of this round of the league, everyone's eyes have shifted to the other direction, because the Champions League knockout round has begun, and Chen Long's Milan is going to challenge Shakhtar Donetsk away.

Unlike the previous game, there was no suspense in this game. Milan, who are in good shape and strong, even if they play away from home, how can they not win Shakhtar Donetsk?

Even the Italian media thinks so.

At that time, Milan was drawn with Shakhtar Donetsk, and it was considered to have been drawn.

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But when the game started, things didn't go the way people thought they would.

In the heavy snow of Donetsk, Ukraine, Milan is locked in a bitter battle, and as in this place, they are struggling.

On slippery turf, they had a hard time controlling the ball and missed passes increased considerably.

Although it also snows in the winters in Italy, and it has a Mediterranean climate, sometimes the snow is not light. However, all Serie A stadiums have highly efficient geothermal facilities, so there is no snow on the turf of the pitch and the pitch can be kept relatively dry.

But the geothermal facilities at Shakhtar Donetsk's home stadium at the Donbas Arena don't seem to be working well enough, or simply useless, with snow in some places and muddy and slippery fields that Milan's players are very uncomfortable with.

Shakhtar Donetsk, on the other hand, were at ease, using aggressive running and ferocious defending to make it difficult for Milan's players.

Thirty minutes into the game, no one was able to break the deadlock, and most of the football was played in midfield.

But in the thirty-first minute, the deadlock was broken. It was not the mighty Milan who scored the first goal, but the home team, Shakhtar Donetsk!

"Srna!! Nice free kick! He opened the scoring for Shakhtar Donetsk! ”

Amid the cheers of the commentators, Srna, the captain of the Donetsk Shakhtar team, jumped and dived and slid on the snow. And his teammates followed suit and swooped over to him to celebrate the goal.

Behind them, there were the stunned Milan players who came to the away stadium with the intention of easily defeating their opponents, but they did not expect to fall into a hard battle in the game and were scored first!

At this time, the stunned Milan players heard Chen Long's voice, and he slapped his face in the snow and shouted: "It's not a big deal!" It's an away game after all! ”

After attracting everyone's attention, Chen Long continued to say loudly: "Let's set a small goal first, such as trying to score an away goal first. Be calm and allow people to score goals on their home turf! ”

As soon as he said this, many Milan players reacted that they were too optimistic before, after all, this is Shakhtar Donetsk's home stadium, is there anything wrong with them scoring at their home stadium?

In the preparation for the competition, you should be mentally prepared for this.

Since you have conceded the goal, try to equalize. Not only can you equalize, but you can also get an away goal, killing two birds with one stone, why not?

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So after the resumption of the game, the Milan players quickly adjusted their mentality and began to pay more attention to this opponent.

Chen also adjusted his offensive strategy on slippery turf.

He tries to pass as few balls as possible that look cool and thoughtful but are harder for his teammates to catch, which looks beautiful but puts his teammates at risk of losing their balance when receiving them.

He uses some of the usual passes, but he keeps his teammates on the ball.

In such harsh conditions, being able to catch the ball is the highest requirement.

And after you can catch the ball, you can talk about offensive opportunities, if you can't even get the ball, no matter how good the opportunity is, it's just a possibility.

Milan changed their mentality, played steadily, and even regained the disadvantage in the situation.

And in the 41st minute, that is, 10 minutes after conceding the goal, Milan reached the wing after a series of passes and handed over to Sanchez for a cross. Then Gross headed in the middle and headed the ball into the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk!

"Gross! He equalized for Milan! 1：1！ Milan scored a valuable away goal! ”

The first half was over not long after Milan's equaliser.

Although they conceded a goal, they also scored a goal, and for Milan, this first half result was acceptable.

Fifteen minutes after the break, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

The two sides continued to tussle in midfield, unable to break the deadlock again.

For Milan, with such a hostile climate and field conditions away from home, the final 1-1 was perfectly acceptable to them. At half-time, Mourinho warned his disciples to be patient, a draw away from home is a completely acceptable result, and not to rush.

In such a situation, Shakhtar Donetsk took the lead in making adjustments.

In the 62nd minute, their head coach Luchescu replaced Brazilian midfielder Fraser with striker Tyson Barroces Freda, also from Brazil.

Changing a midfielder and removing a striker is to strengthen the midfield's control while consolidating the defence. Because the two sides were basically entangled in the midfield before, if they can control the midfield, they can create more chances.

This substitution for Shakhtar Donetsk had an immediate effect.

In the 68th minute, Shakhtar Donetsk defender Jaroslav Rakitsky assisted Fraser, who had just come on the pitch, who gave Shakhtar Donetsk the lead!

"Fraser! Fraser!! "The Ukrainian commentator was thrilled and he kept repeating the names of the scorers." We're ahead again! ”

Above the Donbass Arena, cheers of Shakhtar Donetsk fans rang out.

Amid the loud cheers, Mourinho shook his head helplessly.

The ball should not have been conceded if the field and the weather were good, because Desiglio slipped at a crucial moment when defending......

His fall left the forward Fraser unmarked, and of course he could easily hit the ball into the Stegen-guarded goal.

For such a conceded goal, Mourinho can only feel that God is on the side of Shakhtar Donetsk.

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After Shakhtar Donetsk led 2:1, everyone on the Internet lamented the tenacity of Shakhtar Donetsk.

"Milan would be in a big mess if they lost away to Shakhtar Donetsk!" Some fans said.

"Before the game, everyone thought Milan would win easily, but now after watching the game for almost 70 minutes, I think it would be perfectly acceptable if Milan could win 2-1 at the end...... someone said.

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But Mourinho doesn't think 1:2 is acceptable, if it's 1:1 he can accept it, 2:2 he can accept it, but 1:2 can't.

So he replaced captain Rodriguez with Ventura in the 70th minute.

This is a signal to intensify the offensive.

Since Ventura returned from injury, he is no longer an unstoppable workhorse in Milan. Before his injury, he was the go-to option in central midfield, and at that time Rugani hadn't really come out of the picture.

In the year since he was seriously injured, Rugani has completely exploded and become the team's main player, and it will be difficult for Ventura to regain his main position from him, and Ventura has become a rotation player in the team.

However, Ventura has no complaints, he is a die-hard Milan fan, he is actually very similar to the team's veteran Ganso, as long as he can play for his beloved team, he doesn't care if it's or not, and he doesn't care what position he plays.

As long as he is allowed to play, then he will play seriously and faithfully carry out the tasks given to him by the manager.

In fact, the head coach likes such a player very much, because he doesn't make trouble and has the strength. This kind of player is indispensable to any team.

Ventura has been running the pitch since he came on the pitch to create chances for his team, and he doesn't have to be in possession of the ball or have to control it on muddy and slippery pitches.

After more than 70 minutes of running back and forth and trampling by players on both sides, the turf of this stadium was actually overwhelmed.

The more irregular the movement of the ball on the ground, the more difficult it is for the players to control the ball.

The reason why Shakhtar Donetsk was able to take the lead is because they played very simply, after taking the ball, they drove forward with a big foot, and if they could get the ball, they had a chance to shoot, and if they couldn't get the ball, it was a big deal to run for nothing.

This kind of offense is actually very unsightly, and it is not necessarily very efficient, but in this kind of weather and field situation, it is very practical.

On the contrary, Milan's attack is a little more complicated.

Seeing that the time was running out, Chen realized that something had to be changed.

The score of 1:2 is acceptable to many people, but Chen Long is definitely not among these acceptable people.

As the game entered the 80th minute, the score remained unchanged as Shakhtar Donetsk led Milan 2-1 at their home stadium.

In the last ten minutes, Shakhtar Donetsk have given up on attacking and are all in the hope of holding on to that point advantage in the final ten minutes.

So Milan faced a more complicated situation.

Another five minutes passed, and in those five minutes, Milan added four shots on goal, but the score was still not rewritten.

In the 86th minute, Milan again organized an attack, hit in front of the Shakhtar Donetsk penalty area, and then fell into the quagmire again.

Shakhtar Donetsk defended tightly and barely gave Milan any gaps.

Milan could only pass the football sideways, and Shakhtar Donetsk could not come up to grab it, they were afraid that after grabbing, Chen Long would seize the opportunity to send a fatal pass.