Chapter 733: Finally stopped being undefeated
It's been two hours since the game ended, and Zhuo Yang still can't believe what happened. Everything came so suddenly that he had to re-look at Serie A and football as a sport.
AC Milan lost 2-1 to Udinese in a game that would have won the 08-09 Serie A title two rounds in advance, which not only made the well-prepared championship celebration an embarrassment, but also brought the 76-game unbeaten league run to an abrupt end.
In this game, Zhuo Yang was automatically suspended because of the accumulation of five yellow cards and did not travel with the team, and he was not included in the squad with him, as well as Nesta, who broke his foot in the game with Arsenal three days ago, and Kaka, who had a butt ball. But now AC Milan are in a strong squad and there is no shortage of top-notch players to replace the three of them, with three captains Maldini, Ambrosini and Andrea Pirlo joining forces in the game.
Before the game, no one, including Zhuo Yang and Carlo Ancelotti, would have thought that they would fail, because 76 games is a huge psychological inertia, and everyone thinks that it has become true that Milan do not lose in the league.
In fact, since May 13, 2007, when the 36th round of the 06-07 season began unbeaten, Milan have lost only three of their 90 minutes in all competitive matches, namely 2-3 at home to Madiborg and 2-3 at home to Manchester United in the Champions League. In addition to these two games, there was another game on December 20, 2007 in the 07-08 FA Cup 1/8 final 1:3 defeat to Catania, but that game was a strategic abandonment of AC Milan and could not be counted. Kaka's younger brother Digan was brought in as centre-back from the second team on an impromptu basis, and his three mistakes saw Milan out of the FA Cup.
For two years, there were only three defeats on all fronts, and the Milanes forgot what it was like to lose in the league and how to lose.
This psychological inertia made the Milanese ignore that their opponent Udinese had won five consecutive victories before, and what can be vaguely left in everyone's memory is that in the 17th round of the first half of the schedule, the Udinese were slaughtered 6:1 at home San Siro.
The Milanese also ignored Inter coach Jose Mourinho's deafening warning before the game: "AC Milan will definitely make mistakes, Inter Milan still have a chance." "Everyone thinks it's just Mourinho dead duck's mouth, ignoring the broken mouth of Mourinho that has caused headaches in Italian football and the strength of Inter Milan in recent years.
Udine is just over 300 kilometres from Milan, but the club still has a charter flight for the team after the afternoon game, where floats and a well-planned tour of the celebration await them. But now, it's all turned into ridicule and embarrassment.
While there are still five games left, the Milan believe there are only three left, the 36th round against Udinese, the FA Cup final against Sampdoria and the Champions League final against Barcelona. These three games decide a champion, and Udinese is the most suspenseful of them all.
But apparently, the Udinese don't think so, and neither does the referee.
In the first 25 minutes of the game, AC Milan dominated the field as always, and the front trident of Borriello and Pato and Seedorf threatened the door of Udinese many times, and it felt like it was only a matter of time before they scored.
In the 28th minute, in the counterattack, the Dagostino midfielder suddenly sent his left foot over the top, Flores unloaded the ball with his left foot in an offside position, Maldini reflexively tackled the ball and intercepted the football steadily, and Flores also lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground. The referee decided that Maldini had left the ball after a tackle and awarded a penalty.
Mourinho's oath before the game put a lot of pressure on the referee, and there were words in the words of the Inter Milan club that made the enforcers of the game afraid of being caught a little tail. In principle, this ball can be judged or not, and it is more likely that it is not awarded in normal times, because Maldini's ball protection action is still obvious. But today's game, it has to be decided, because AC Milan may not care about a penalty, but Inter Milan's side is staring with wide eyes.
Not only was it awarded, but Maldini was given the last yellow card of his career.
Without Zhuo Yang's hands and feet, Dida was easily pushed in the opposite direction by D'Agostino. Abbiati had back pain before the game and Dida made his first league start this season.
Perhaps it felt that something was wrong, but as soon as the second half began, Ancelotti replaced Flamini with Serie A killer Inzaghi. Matthew, perhaps in the first half of the race because of the excitement of making a fortune on the verge of making a fortune, ran like a striker.
The ninth master is an old military doctor who specializes in bragging. In the 51st minute, he combined with Anuboliello's cross in the box and pushed it into the net, but the linesman's signal for Anu to follow the ball was already offside. The slow-motion footage proved that the linesman was right, and Anu did poke out half of his shoulder.
The slow motion of the TV is repeated a dozen times to be confirmed, and you have to admire the linesman's sharp eye for going beyond high-speed slow motion.
In the 61st minute, D'Agostino took a corner kick from the left, Bonella leaked the top, and Zapata volleyed into the net from 5 meters from the goal, Udinese 2-0.
This time, everyone felt that something was wrong. Carlo Ancelotti broke through the cauldron and brought on Shevchenko and Ronaldo to strengthen the attack, but Udinese's counter-attack became smoother and smoother, hitting the post twice in the 76th and 90th minutes. With such a good performance, Udinese only had a two-goal lead, but they were actually more unjustly panicked than Milan.
It wasn't until the third minute of stoppage time that AC Milan crossed from Ronaldinho from the left, and Inzaghi headed in the box to get a point back. Jiu Ye scored his 34th goal of the season, and Milan lost 1-2 away, and the unbeaten record was fixed at 76 games.
The post-match Milanese were hopeful that Siena would be able to hold off Inter Milan in the other game that started a little later, so that everyone could still go home with the title. However, after gloating, Inter Milan's morale was boosted in Meazza with goals from Figo, Balotelli and Ibrahimovic, and they simply cut off their opponents 3-0 and also cut off the wall of their neighbors to steal light.
With four points left in the lead, there are only two rounds left in the game. What is more difficult for AC Milan to accept than failing to win the title early is that the unbeaten league run is gone? Really stopped?
From the 36th round of the 06-07 season to the end of the 36th round of the 08-09 season, for two whole years, exactly 38 times 2 equals 76, it seems that there is a doom. Originally, Zhuo Yang and the Milanese thought that the undefeated would continue like this, even if they couldn't grow old, there should be no suspense about breaking a hundred. Even if you are too lazy to break 100, it should be clear that you will win the championship undefeated in the season.
But now the new unbeaten record in the top five leagues has finally been set - 76 games!
Despite the melancholy, it is still brilliant. I don't know when there will be latecomers who can barely look up to its peak, and I don't know when someone will climb up again.
The planned first crown did not arrive as scheduled, leaving Milan with no room for the second crown. The FA Cup final against Sampdoria at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome four days later will have to be cancelled again, because this title is different from the league and overdue means indefinite.
It will be a very ordinary football final in the history of football, but the game has set another record in the top five leagues and a record in world football, and this record is so embarrassing for Italian football.