Chapter 478: Losing Hope
Inter Milan ended the 2020-2021 season with three consecutive Champions League titles!
This season, the Inter Milan team has won a total of four championship trophies, including the UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup, Serie A, and Champions League, achieving the "Quadruple Crown"!
Although there is one less Coppa Italia title than last season's "five crowns", it does not affect the prestige of the Inter Milan team in the slightest.
Inter Milan's three consecutive Champions League titles, in terms of quality, are more than the one before Real Madrid, because in the past two seasons, in addition to winning in the Champions League, in Serie A, there is also no one to beat.
When Real Madrid won the Champions League for three consecutive times, in La Liga, they were not as strong as Inter Milan.
The Inter Milan team can now be said to dominate the whole of Europe and become the biggest opponent of all teams!
Next season, Inter Milan will definitely be challenged even more!
However, this is not a problem that Inter Milan is worried about now, they just need to enjoy the joy of victory to the fullest.
When Inter Milan brought the Champions League trophy back to Milan for the third year in a row, the whole city was mobilized to start a big carnival.
Inter Milan fans took to the streets to celebrate the team's victory.
Sitting on the bus, the players of the Inter Milan team paraded around the city were treated like heroes, and everywhere they went, there were applause and cheers.
AC Milan fans, the past few years have been more and more sad, as a Milan city, the team with seniority is older than the Inter Milan team, in recent years by the Inter Milan team to the death, there is no longer the former two rivalries.
The city of Milan seems to have become the Milan of the Inter Milan team.
This kind of celebration has been going on for three years in a row, and the Inter Milan team has become familiar with it, and the attitude of the players in the team towards the championship has become a matter of course.
This is actually a bad sign, and if it is not adjusted in time, it could have a profound impact on the team next season.
However, at this moment of celebration of victory, no one will be spoiled.
After the celebration, the players, who had worked hard for a long season, began to enjoy the wonderful holiday.
The holidays are only for those non-international players, and the internationals of various countries, after the end of the season, have to report to the national team and put the finishing touches on the World Cup qualifiers.
There are still two rounds of the World Cup qualifiers in the Asian round of 12 of the Dragon Country team, but these two games are no longer relevant to the Dragon Country team, which has already secured the first place in the group in advance and advanced to the World Cup finals.
However, the Dragons still called up all the main teams to prepare for these two games.
On June 10, 2021, in the ninth round of the top 12 of the Asian region of the World Cup qualifiers, the Dragon Country team challenged the Saudi Arabian team away.
Saudi Arabia, after the first eight rounds, is now in fifth place in the group with eight points from two wins, two draws and four losses, but still has the hope of qualifying.
Needless to say, the Dragon Country team, which is ranked first in the group, and the Australian team, which ranks second in the group, has a record of three wins, four draws and one loss in the first eight rounds, accumulating 13 points, only 5 points ahead of Saudi Arabia.
Japan, ranked third in the group, has a record of three wins, two draws and three losses in the first eight rounds, accumulating 11 points, only 3 points ahead of Saudi Arabia.
The opponent of the Saudi Arabian team in this round is the Dragon Country team that has been promoted in advance and no longer pursues victory, but is more for training.
In this game, the Dragon Country team did send a substitute lineup, Shen Feng, Wu Lei, Zhang Xizhe and other main cores, and they didn't even enter the eighteen-man squad, acting as spectators in the stands.
This is not that the Dragon Team deliberately wants to put the water of the Saudi Arabian team, but that the Dragon Team needs to use such a game to train the team now.
Shen Feng, Wu Lei, Zhang Xizhe and others have fully matured and no longer need such training opportunities, they have just finished a long season, and they also need to rest and adjust.
This inconsequential away game is left to the substitutes and young players in the team.
However, the current bench lineup of the Dragon Country team is also not to be underestimated, and the opportunity is rare, everyone cherishes it very much, and in this game, do their best.
Therefore, although the Dragon Country team played this game as a substitute, the Saudi Arabian team did not play easily, they tried their best to win, and there was no good way to take the Dragon Country team, although they tried their best to knock on the goal of the Dragon Country team, but their own door was also attacked by the Dragon Country team.
In the end, the Saudi Arabian team was forced to draw 1:1 at home by the substitute team of the Dragon Country team, and missed the opportunity to chase points.
In the other two matches in the same group, North Korea defeated Oman 2-1 away, and Australia had the last laugh 3-2 in a strong dialogue with Japan.
As a result, the standings in the group have changed again.
The leader is still the Dragons, although they are tied with Saudi Arabia in this round, but the record in the first few rounds is too good, nine rounds, seven wins and two draws, unbeaten, and the points are as high as 23 points, far ahead in the standings.
The start of the Australian team's World Cup qualifiers in the Asian round of 12 was not smooth, with three draws and one loss in the first four rounds, which led to the resignation of the former head coach.
After the change of coach, the Australian team adjusted its state in time, in the later rounds, trying to catch up, after nine rounds, the record has been improved to four wins, four draws and one loss, and the five rounds after the change of coach, the record is four wins and one draw, which is comparable to the Dragon team.
With only one round left in the tournament, Australia has 16 points, 3 points ahead of third-place North Korea, and has a clear advantage in goal difference.
In the last World Cup qualifiers in the Asian round of 12, the Australian team qualified for the play-offs as the third in the group, but lost to the Dragons in the continental play-offs and missed the World Cup finals.
This time, they are in the same group as the Dragons, and the promotion situation seems to be more difficult, but with their own efforts, they can now grasp the initiative to qualify for the World Cup finals.
After winning this round, the North Korean team overtook the Japanese team in the standings, but the lead was not very large.
The current record of the North Korean team is four wins, one draw and four losses, with 13 points, and the current record of the Japanese team is three wins, two draws and four losses, with 11 points.
Saudi Arabia failed to win in this round, and after nine rounds, the record is two wins, three draws and four losses, accumulating 9 points, 4 points behind the third team in the group, North Korea, and has lost the possibility of qualifying.