Chapter 488: Before the Milan Derby
A 4-1 win at home to Parma ended Inter's three-game draw, and after this game, their manager Dick was able to return to the sidelines to coach, which was undoubtedly good news, but there was also good news - in this round, AC Milan suffered a 3-1 defeat away at the feet of Fiorentina, Fiorentina's three youngsters Pazzini, Bodinov and Montolivo scored one goal each, and AC Milan scored only one goal through Gilardino. This shortens the gap between Inter Milan and them to two points!
Juventus seem to be getting better and better after losing to AC Milan, and this round they swept Roma in a surprise 4-1 away from home, leaving AC Milan three points behind and continuing to lead Inter Milan by as much as five points!
To be able to have such a performance, of course, is related to the Juventus Champions Cup, which is also excellent and qualified early, and AC Milan's loss is also affected by the upcoming fourth round of the Champions Cup, they have not yet qualified, and the last round away loss to PSV Eindhoven gave them only five points, if they don't win the next two rounds, it may be difficult to qualify from the group - so in this league against Fiorentina, Ancelotti hid Shepchenko, Kaka and many other main players, The front court is only played by Gilardino alone, which will naturally be affected.
Now that they have qualified in advance, it is natural that Inter Milan will not go all out in the Champions Cup in midweek, but since it is home, Inter Milan's substitutes will also do their best - Toldo, Margio, Arbeloa, Andreoli, Chiellini, Zanetti, Yaya Toure, Chigarini, Stankovic, Pandev, Di Natale This starting lineup is actually not bad, Maggio and Arbeloa's assist ability is good, because the four people in the midfield are all players with certain defensive ability, Therefore, the assist ability of these two youngsters has been brought into play to a certain extent, and it also provides enough firepower for the players in the penalty area.
Yaya Toure opened the scoring for Inter Milan with his back-row attack, although the Ivorian player is not the main force of Inter Milan this season, but his performance is quite good, especially his back-row insertion is quite powerful, with his physique and good foot skills, as well as all-round scoring ability, his forward insertion has become a very important scoring means for Inter Milan.
Di Natale extended the lead for Inter Milan in the second half, after switching to a scorer, Di Natale also showed his ability, although he did not have many opportunities to play, but he was always able to score, he and Cruz's presence is to provide Inter Milan with the firepower of Tony and Adriano in their absence, and Pandev's characteristics are different from them, his passing is what Inter Milan value.
In the end, Inter Milan defeated the visiting Real Betis with a score of 2-0, and Real Betis did not work too hard in this game, because they almost had no chance of advancing to the next round, and the qualification for the League Cup was also very secure.
In another game, Anderlecht, who was defeated by Chelsea, also appeared in the group one round ahead of schedule with ten points, but what made Mourinho a little speechless was that now Inter Milan is five points ahead of Chelsea, and the first place in the group is also won in advance, and the last round of the game at home has really become an indifferent game......
This also makes UEFA feel very unhappy, the last round of Inter Milan's away challenge to Chelsea can be a big gimmick, this is good, Inter Milan won five in a row, Chelsea three wins, one draw and one loss, the first and second in the group have been determined before the final round, the last game, how many people will pay attention? How much of a loss is that for the Champions Cup?
But they can't blame Inter Milan and Chelsea for playing too well, causing the rest of the group stage to become a passing scene - people don't play well and have to risk being killed in the last round to deliberately play a little worse? So no matter how annoyed they are, they can only blame Anderlecht and Betis for being too uncompetitive and causing no trouble to Inter Milan and Chelsea......
Dick doesn't care much about this, in fact, after the Champions Cup group stage qualified ahead of schedule, he has already left the Champions Cup behind, from now until the beginning of the Champions Cup knockout round at the end of February next year, during this time, Inter Milan can focus all his attention on the league - this is why he will pick this time to make trouble, even if he is banned, the results in the league during this period will not be affected by a little problem, and then, it is when he goes all out in the league - Although Inter Milan will soon compete in the Coppa Italia, this season, Dick's interest in the Coppa Italia has also decreased a lot.
Besides, as the top eight teams in Serie A last season, Inter Milan only began to participate in the Italian Cup from the fourth round, that is to say, directly from the round of 16 - this season's Italian Cup format can be described as quite foolish, appealing teams began to appear in the round of 16, Italy has not paid much attention to its own cup competition, the Italian Cup is not only far less old than the FA Cup and fans like to pay attention, and Spain's Copa del Rey is also a big gap.
For this kind of "play eight games to win the championship" game, Dick felt that he was not interested at all, and he had to play in the round of 16, and there were many fewer games for the substitutes to practice, which really made Dick feel that the current Coppa Italia was a chicken rib.
After returning from the Champions League, Inter Milan began to focus on the league, the next two rounds were away to Messina, then back to home against Ascoli, both of which were not very strong opponents, and then in the fifteenth round, Inter Milan will have their first Milan derby of the season!
As long as they can pass the AC Milan level, then Inter Milan will be closer to the 58-game unbeaten record than ever before, and in the next league, there are no particularly strong teams, Inter Milan may expand the record to a point where it is difficult for the opponent to catch up!
This is Dick's second goal in the league this season, the first goal is of course to win the championship, and the second goal is ...... Dick, who takes breaking records as his mission, naturally will not let go of such an opportunity to be in the limelight!
Although the record belongs to the team, as the head coach who led the team to set the record, Dick's name will still be engraved in the annals of history, and for Dick, he is very eager for this kind of thing!
"There are four games left until the Milan derby!"
Dick immediately announced this to his players as soon as he returned to Milan, and after the next two league rounds, a Coppa Italia quarter-final and a Champions League group stage sixth round match, Inter Milan will welcome AC Milan!
From now on, Dick will concentrate on his main squad to concentrate on playing in the league, and the substitutes will only play in the Coppa Italia and Champions League.
On November 27, in the thirteenth round of Serie A, in Inter Milan's away match against Messina, Dick sent all his main players.
Goalkeeper Cesar, defenders Córdoba, Cannavaro, Materazzi, Zanetti, midfielders Mascherano, Sneijder, Perrotta, Figo, forwards Adriano, Toney.
Messina's players are about to cry, when facing Lazio and Sampdoria before, Inter Milan has fine-tuned the main team to a certain extent, how can they send all the main force when facing us? Big brother, is there any need for this......
Inter Milan ran over Messina without mercy, and Toney, who ended his streak of goals in the previous round, was excellent in the game, scoring his seventeenth and eighteenth league goals of the season with an overhead kick, and he is now well ahead of the scorers' charts, shaking off second-placed Trezeguet by eight goals – Trezeguet's 10th goal of the season in this round, and the efficiency of 10 goals in 13 rounds is good enough, but Toney's form is ...... It's nothing but amazing!
Not to be outdone, Adriano scored his ninth league goal of the season in the game, with Perrotta and Sneijder adding the icing on the cake as Inter swept away Messina 5-0 away.
AC Milan beat Lecce 2-1 and Juventus beat Treviso 3-1, and there was no change in the top three standings.
In midweek, Inter Milan, who had all their substitutes, scored the only goal of the game in a narrow 1-0 win away at Parma, with Di Natale scoring the only goal of the game as Inter Milan took the lead in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia.
On December 4th, Inter Milan hosted promoted Mascoli, Dick once again sent the main lineup, another slaughter, although Ascoli desperately bit Inter Milan twice, they themselves were beaten into a sieve, although Toney only scored one goal in the game, but Adriano scored twice, plus Materazzi, Mascherano and substitute Stankovic goals, Inter Milan swept Ascoli 6-2 at home, and won three consecutive victories after three consecutive draws, scored fifteen goals in three games, telling everyone that the terrifying Inter Milan is back!
Juventus beat Fiorentina 2-1 away from home to continue to lead Inter Milan by five points, but for AC Milan fans, they are extremely anxious, except that Inter Milan has extended their unbeaten record to 54 games, their team lost 1-2 away to Chievo in this round of the league, and the five points ahead of Inter Milan have all disappeared, but they have been overtaken by Inter Milan by one point!
How can they not be in such a bad state before the Milan derby?
The biggest factor is because of the Champions Cup, although they won in the last round, they still can't guarantee that they can qualify from the group, in the last round they host Schalke 04 with the same points as them, and PSV Eindhoven, who are only one point less than them, are at home to the Turkish team Fenerbahce, who are already destined to be at the bottom, if they can't get at least a draw with less than 2 goals to 2, then they will be eliminated in the group stage!
It is precisely because of this that AC Milan will hide the main force in the league and lead to the loss - AC Milan, which is dominated by veterans, has a weaker bench thickness......
Dick flew to London in midweek with only 18 players, and in addition to all the substitutes, he also brought four members of the youth team - the under-21 Academy players are not subject to Champions League registration, and he left all his main players to rest in Milan, who have already finished top of the group ahead of schedule......
This situation has made AC Milan fans full of worries.