Chapter 362: The Only Representative of Italian Football (67/134)

There are more matches in the Champions League quarter-finals, so they are divided into two weeks.

First of all, this week, there are four Champions League quarter-finals.

Four more next week.

Lazio, the defending champions, will only feature next week.

This week is played by two other Serie A teams, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The Milan duo made their debut at the same time.

AC Milan's away game against Tottenham Hotspur made many people feel that there is no suspense.

Although Tottenham Hotspur eventually reached the knockout stages as runners-up in Lazio's group, they faced the experienced AC Milan. Don't look at AC Milan in the domestic league Cup, Lazio pressed and beaten, but it's okay for them to go out and teach other teams a lesson.

Especially Tottenham Hotspur, a team that has reached the Champions League for the first time in more than 40 years, is no different from bullying a newcomer.

After AC Milan drew Tottenham Hotspur, many AC Milan fans or commentators were optimistic that AC Milan would advance to the quarterfinals.

Because in terms of strength and experience, AC Milan have the advantage.

Tottenham Hotspur's lack of experience is their biggest weakness.

As the second-placed team in the group, the schedule is not very favourable for them.

Playing home first and then away means that you have to adjust yourself to the best form in the first leg and try to kill the suspense of the two-legged game at home.

The problem with playing home first and then away is that if you have an accident at home, then you are cornered. You will only have to go to the second leg away from home to fight your opponent.

That's exactly the problem for Tottenham.

So everyone is optimistic about the emergence of AC Milan to advance.

They performed quite well in the group stage, equaling the points of Real Madrid and beating Real Madrid by a win-loss relationship. Ranked first in the group. It was this outstanding performance from last season that earned Allegri the favour and support of the Milan hierarchy.

AC Milan's away game against Tottenham Hotspur was also the first of the season's Champions League quarter-finals.

There is no suspense in this game. Despite being an away game, everyone believes that AC Milan can win.

Even if you can't win, it's a draw.

And AC Milan will certainly have goals, and with a few away goals in hand, Tottenham Hotspur will be in a "cornered" situation.

AC Milan will knock Tottenham Hotspur out of the tournament at their home turf.

But the end result was a big surprise!

Tottenham Hotspur, playing at home, beat AC Milan 2-0 thanks to a header from Olivier Giroud and a solo strike from Bale.

The first Champions League quarter-final was an upset!

Coming to Nesta confirmed that he would turn to Lazio at the end of the season, which was a blow to the team's morale. Now they have been beaten by Tottenham Hotspur by two goals away from home.

Before the game, everyone thought that the only suspense in the game was how many goals AC Milan could win away from home.

If they can beat Tottenham Hotspur by a big score away from home, they can completely kill the suspense of the second leg in the first leg.

So as soon as the game began, AC Milan launched a fierce attack towards the Tottenham Hotspur goal, wave after wave.

Then their porous backline was completely blown up by Bale and Lennon.

The duo used their speed to break through the AC Milan defence due to Nesta's injury. There is only one Thiago Silva at centre-back.

But against a strong centre-forward Olivier Giroud, he didn't have the upper hand.

When Giroud was still at Lazio, he played against AC Milan's Thiago Silva.

His method of dealing with Silva is very simple, that is, he uses his body, which is quite unreasonable, but it works very well. This was what Chang Sheng had asked him to do.

In the end, he scored a header in the game.

There was no fluke in AC Milan's defeat in this game, judging by the spectacle. If it weren't for their luck, they wouldn't have lost just two goals.

Even more so the goal against Bale.

Taking advantage of the fact that AC Milan wanted to attack aggressively, Tottenham Hotspur played AC Milan with a quick counter-attack.

Bale started from the midfield and raced forward.

Throughout the process, he relied on his speed to break through all the AC Milan players who came up to defend him.

Especially on the edge of the penalty area, he forced his way through Thiago Silva with his speed. Then send the ball into the goal guarded by Abbiati.

During the whole process, none of the AC Milan players touched the ball.

Bale simply played the ball vigorously and then chased the ball, and it was such a simple way to break through and get rid of the entire AC Milan backline.

The defeat in this game seems to have made many AC Milan fans even more unhappy with Allegri.

Voices demanding Allegri's dismissal from class came and went.

But this time. Galliani chose to side with Allegri.

He came forward to say that the club has a lot of trust in Allegri and they believe that Allegri can bring a bright future to the team.

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AC Milan's city rivals Inter Milan also failed in this round of the Champions League.

They are at home against Shakhtar Donetsk. Lost 2:3.

Lost at home and conceded three away goals.

Inter Milan's prospects for promotion are in jeopardy.

At this time, some people began to miss Mourinho. I think that at the beginning, Mourinho's Inter Milan could still reach the last four of the Champions League.

Now in the quarter-finals can be so bullied by Eastern European teams.

When Mourinho was ousted by them, they cheered and celebrated.

Now they are starting to miss Mourinho again.

Therefore, people, what is lost is the most precious. Without loss, you will never know to cherish.

But sadly, even now they know to cherish, after a while. They will forget this again, and still repeat the bloody drama routine of "don't cherish it after you get it, and regret it when you lose it".

It's just human nature.

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Lazio's Champions League fixture is next week.

However, looking at this trend, they are likely to be the only seedlings of the Italian side in the Champions League this season.

No matter how dark the Italian media is, Lazio cannot change this fact - in the Champions League in recent years, Lazio is the Italian team that has been the most competitive for them, and it is they who are defending the dignity and glory of Italian football and fighting for the interests of Italian football.

Although Lazio did not have a Champions League game in midweek, they did play one game. That is the rematch of the seventeenth round of the league.

In the first half of the season, Lazio had to go to Qatar to play the Club World Cup in the last two rounds of the league, so the 16th and 17th rounds of the league were rescheduled.

Sixteen rounds of league games have already been filled, and seventeen rounds of league games have only been made up now.

Lazio host Udinese.

Considering the period of consecutive weekly doubles – the previous week was also a double, although there was no Champions League. Almost on average, there is a race every three days.

So Chang Sheng continues to rotate.

The match with Udinese, although it was at home, won often but did not rank the strongest team.

Lazio played very relaxed, but a little too relaxed.

Let Udinese score two goals away from home.

Fortunately, in the end, Lazio scored four goals and won the game without danger.

After the game, Chang Win was not satisfied with the team's performance.

"I'd rather lose this game so maybe it will make my players more sober." He said it very seriously in his post-match press conference.

The media have said that they understand why Chang Sheng is so serious.

Because this game is the most goals conceded by Lazio in half a season, so how can it be so unpleasant to win often?

But that's what to say. It's going to upset the other teams – if you concede two goals in a game, you're conceding the most goals?

How are you going to let us teams mix?

But that's just the way it is. In twenty-five league rounds, Lazio scored sixty-five goals and conceded only nine.

One goal has been conceded in seven games, which is also the most for Lazio in a season – one goal is the most conceded. It speaks volumes about how strong Lazio's defense is.

By the time it came to this game, Lazio had finally conceded two goals.

It also made Udinese the first team in Serie A to score two goals in a single game in Serie A this season.

They are also the second team in the whole of Europe to be able to do so.

The first is Atletico Madrid, in the UEFA Super Cup before the start of the season. Atletico Madrid scored two goals from Lazio and lost 2-3.

Lazio's defense has been really strong this season. They haven't conceded a single goal in the Champions League group stage!

With such a good performance, Chang Sheng certainly had reason to be unhappy with the team's performance of conceding two goals in this game.

This is really not hypocritical.

If he could, he would like to win a season without conceding a goal.

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In the 26th round of the league at the weekend, Lazio hosted Bari.

In this game, Lazio continued to rotate, but not with a relatively weak lineup, but with a relatively strong lineup.

Against a team like Barry, using this lineup inevitably gives people a feeling of killing chickens and knives.

Chang Sheng doesn't seem to care that the Champions League is next week.

Of course, he sent this lineup not because he looked down on Bayern Munich and felt that his defeated Bayern Munich was not as important as Bari.

He only did this to punish the players who played in the last game.

All the players who started in the last game were all on the bench or not in the squad at all.

Because they don't take their game seriously.

Chang Sheng told them that since they didn't value the opportunity to play so much, then they should not play.

So in this game, none of them started the game.

And it's not just this game.

Chang Sheng intends not to give them a chance to play in their next Champions League game against Bayern Munich.

Until these players reflect on themselves, they will not stop.

Facing the weak team Bari, Lazio, who played with a stronger lineup, won easily.

5:0, a complete one-sided massacre.

After this game, Lazio will have to travel to Munich, Germany, to challenge Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.