There was a debate within England.

Most of the media in the London area still support Millwall, and some of them have a bad relationship with Millwall, but it is undeniable that they have no other choice but to support Millwall in the north-south confrontation of English football and the football collision between England and Italy, otherwise London fans will not buy it, and they will not have a good end.

And then it's even more interesting.

Some neutral media shifted their guns to AC Milan, saying that Millwall is qualified to represent English football, because the stars in the team, Darren Bent, Morris, Darren Ward, the three core of the forward, midfield, and back line, are all pure English players, AC Milan is different, their core Kaka is a Brazilian player, AC Milan cannot represent Italy.

The Italian media immediately retorted, "The most important player for AC Milan is Andrea Pirlo, not Kaka!" ”

The two sides have launched a fierce debate on this issue, and the core point is whether AC Milan can represent Italian football and Millwall can represent English football.

After careful analysis of the lineup, some fans have come to the conclusion that Millwall and AC Milan represent their respective countries, but there is no problem with Manchester United and Chelsea, which are difficult to represent English football.

Among the core players of Manchester United, there are English players, and they can only be said to be Rooney and Ferdinand.

Chelsea have Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Both teams can only say that they represent England with only two players, Millwall has Morris, Darren Ward, Darren Bent three players, from the perspective of core players, Millwall has a numerical advantage, in addition to the core players, Millwall has a little more England players.

Manchester United and Chelsea can be called 'multinational forces', and most of the players in their squads are from other countries.

Millwall only have two or three extra numbers, but they are still much better than Manchester United and Chelsea.

AC Milan is much better.

AC Milan have mostly Italian players and they can represent Italian football perfectly, and there is not much to say about it except for the controversy over the core of Kaka.

From this point of view, it is also possible to find part of the reason for the poor results of the England team.

For example, the giants of Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and other leagues, due to the influence of the Football Association's policies, most of them still use their own players, and they will appear when the Italian team plays, many players are from AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, and the German team is even more powerful, most of the squad belongs to Bayern Munich, and the Spanish team is a combination of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Not so with England.

In the England team, if you divide it by club, you can find many clubs, even Manchester United, Liverpool and other teams that contribute the most players, there can only be three or four players, most players want to find club teammates in the team is impossible, they are all from a single team, so combined with the team, training and preparation has become very difficult, what can be played, it depends entirely on the fighting spirit, the state of the field and other factors, the proficiency of the cooperation does not need to be said at all.

Thinking about it from this perspective, there is actually another reason.

There is no concept of 'English football' in world football, because the United Kingdom is divided into four teams: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but players from Wales, Scotland and other regions are free to play in the English league, and their talents are often carefully cultivated by English league clubs, which also leads to many stars cultivated in the English league, many of whom will go to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to play.

There are so many of them!

In the Millwall team alone, there are Braniff and Graham are Northern Ireland players, Alan Hutton is a Scottish player, and the number of other teams is even more, the Welsh national team and the Scottish national team are not soft persimmons, and the England team is head-to-head, and it is really difficult to say who wins and loses.

Imagine--

Combining teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to form a 'British Men's Football Team' would be a terrible team!

————

The outside media are trying to elevate the game to the level of a contest between the countries of 'England and Italy'.

Zhang Yang was noncommittal about this.

He doesn't have any feelings for the England team, just because Millwall is an English club.

It doesn't matter what the outside world says, in the face of the Champions League semi-finals, Zhang Yang doesn't need to motivate the players at all, everyone will go all out to play, as long as they can eliminate AC Milan, they will be able to enter the Champions League final, and the opponent will be Manchester United or Chelsea, they are still unbeaten against the two teams in the league, and every player is very confident when he thinks of definitely meeting Manchester United and Chelsea.

With this confidence, the players treated the match against AC Milan as if it were a Champions League final.

If you win, you will get infinitely closer to the championship trophy.

Failure, of course, there is nothing to say, the Millwall club can prepare for a vacation in advance.

Millwall and AC Milan's two-legged contest, the first leg is at Neil Stadium, the schedule is a little unfavorable for Millwall, the first leg is definitely to play an advantage, otherwise go to the San Siro Stadium, and then want to play a good state, beat AC Milan head-on, it will be too difficult.

AC Milan also want to play the first leg to the advantage.

The reason for AC Milan's rush to play to the advantage is not a lack of confidence in the second leg at home, but a question of league competition.

In fact, Millwall is not in the eyes of AC Milan.

AC Milan have enough capital to be proud of, they are the best team in the Champions League in recent years, and they are also the top giants in Europe, Millwall is just a sudden rise team, the league and the Champions League results are very good, but AC Milan believes that Millwall has not experienced enough challenges.

For example, the Champions League.

Millwall's biggest record, that is, eliminated Real Madrid, but everyone knows that Real Madrid's performance has declined very much in recent years, they have broken their wings in the Champions League round of 16 in a row, the veterans in the team have left one by one, and it takes time for newcomers to adapt, Real Adri's squad is gorgeous, but it is like a newly formed team, and it is very difficult to get any good results in the Champions League.

Millwall's elimination of Real Madrid is not a big deal at all.

Although Millwall is not in the eyes of AC Milan, but China has a good saying, 'strategically despise the opponent, tactically attach importance to the opponent', AC Milan still attaches great importance to preparation, head coach Ancelotti organized the coaching staff to study Millwall, study the most suitable playing strategy, and personally urge the players to prepare for training.

AC Milan will be aiming to get enough advantage in the first leg to return to the San Siro and they can easily knock out Millwall without surprises.

It's also a way to reduce pressure for the league.

This season, due to the 'phonegate' incident, AC Milan is in the standings, suppressed by Inter Milan and Roma, they have to juggle the league and the Champions League, and the pressure on the team has become very high.

If they can play enough in the first leg, they will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and focus on the league without continuing to distract themselves.

As the game approaches, the smoke of the big war has spread.

AC Milan flew to London a day earlier, after which the club manager, also a famous Italian footballer, Galliani, gave an interview to reporters and expressed his confidence in winning, "We came with the belief that we must win, the two legs, the first leg is also very important, we need to play enough to ensure that the second leg can be won consistently." ”

This statement is arrogant enough.

Millwall and AC Milan didn't play each other in the first leg, and they openly declared that they wanted to play enough to have an advantage, which almost meant beating Millwall in one round.

What's that concept?

Before Millwall and PSV Eindhoven played, Zhang Yang also thought the same, and Millwall won by five goals away from home, which was naturally enough to ensure the team qualified.

AC Milan vs Millwall, it will take at least three goals to play a good enough advantage to qualify.

This number is just over the line.

With the gap of more than three goals, AC Milan returned to the San Siro and defending was enough to beat Millwall.

Neither ball will work!

With Millwall's attacking prowes on display, a two-goal advantage does not guarantee victory.

Millwall are confident of that, and AC Milan must be well aware of that.

When Zhang Yang learned what Galliani said, he was still lying down at home to rest, recuperating and preparing for tomorrow's game, this is the benefit of the home field, AC Milan is full of labor, to come to London a day in advance, can only enter the hotel to rest, the home team can rest at ease and normal, adjust the state and prepare for the game.

Zhang Yang did not reply immediately.

It wasn't until the next day, when Millwall was warming up for the morning, that reporters found Mr. Zhang.

Zhang Yang walked out of the court, faced a group of reporters, and said without thinking, "Have you ever played the game?" It's an online game, like an RPG upgrade game like "World of Warcraft", which is very interesting, especially with a group to fight the boss, which is very intense. ”

A group of reporters looked at each other, not knowing what Zhang Yang was going to say, could it be that he was looking for a partner to play with?

Of course not.

Zhang Yang said with a smile, "I know that kind of game, it's very interesting, a group of people go to fight the boss, usually before the group fights the boss, the boss will always say a bunch of nonsense, or very ironic, such as 'I can kill you all with one slap', 'you are doomed to sink to endless hell', 'become undead', of course, that is of no practical significance, because the final boss has only one result, that is to fall!" Fall again and again! I feel sorry for these bosses......"

Zhang Yang shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, and continued, "In short, only the weaker side will constantly emphasize that they are powerful, and villains are often easy to die of talking too much. ”

The surrounding British media burst into laughter.

The Italian media all have a black face, and at the same time feel a little interesting: Galliani, who is the leader in Italian football, was ridiculed as a game boss and ridiculed as a villain.

————

Neil Field.

In the Champions League semi-finals, Millwall's home match against AC Milan has officially begun.

Millwall is in high spirits at home, AC Milan is not bad at all, but the game between the two sides is not intense, football is passing around most of the time, Millwall is not in a hurry to attack, and AC Milan is not in a hurry.

The game lasted 15 minutes, the tempo was still a little slow, and the attack intensity of both sides was not too strong.

This is the temptation stage.

Millwall is a new team in the Premier League, participating in the Champions League is the first time in history, in the past hundred years, Millwall has only had one European experience, or was eliminated in the qualifying stage, naturally will not meet the traditional giant AC Milan.

This is the first time in history that the two sides have met.

Millwall's knowledge of AC Milan is limited to video studies of the game and media coverage.

The reverse is also true.

AC Milan are completely new to Millwall.

In this game, Millwall used the new and familiar 4231 formation, but the core of the whole game was not the starting forward Braniff, but Jody Morris, who played as a midfielder.

With Morris as the core, the division of labor between the two midfielders is clear.

Livermore's job is mainly to defend, while Morris is responsible for maintaining the team's rhythm and transitions throughout the team, and he is also Millwall's captain on the court.

Taking advantage of the tentative time in the opening period, Millwall was also familiarising himself with the new formation.

Millwall's tactical core has not changed, but the new formation still needs to adapt to the time, the opening tempo is relatively slow, the players are more accustomed to running, and when the tempo is fast, it will not be chaotic.

Ten minutes, that's enough.

Millwall can't be said to be completely familiar with the new formation, but there will be nothing wrong with using it.

Compared with the 'dual-core' two-forward style of play, Morris and Livermore's parallel positions, coupled with Braniff in front, form a midfield triangle position, strengthening the defensive thickness near the midline, and the control will be correspondingly enhanced.

In addition, with only a single defender, the support for the forward line is certainly not as good as the 'double core', and in order not to be disconnected from the midfield, the two players in the forward line - Darren Bent and Jamie Vardy - will also run relatively deep.

This also increases the control of the midfield.

The 4231 formation also makes it easier for the strikers to get the ball, rather than every time they get the ball, they will have more room to play, and Darren Bent and Vardy will have more room to play.

These are all advantages.

No formation can be without flaws, and the midfield is much less flexible than the 'two-core' style of play, and the forward line is a little less threatening due to the reduced support in the midfield.

In summary, the new formation is to sacrifice a certain amount of offensive ability, supplement the thickness of the midfield, and increase the midfielder's ability to control football.

Although the formation is just Morris from a defender to a midfielder, the formation is a whole, a player's position changes, other players will also be affected, from a positioning point of view, the new formation is definitely old, more defensive focused.

It was also in response to a possible quick counter-attack by AC Milan.

Italian teams are good at counter-attacking defence, and AC Milan are the best of them, AC Milan's strength is already strong, and it is unthinkable for them to easily play a threatening counter-attack, and the game will become more difficult.