Chapter 42: The Winter Break
On November 29th, AC Milan played Parma away, Peng Weiguo's absence led to the collapse of the Chinese derby in the first half of this season's Serie A, and the Rossoneri also seized the opportunity to win 2-0, Fowler and Zahovic scored a goal each.
In other games in this round, Juventus lost 0:3 away to Bologna (historical real score), Fiorentina was forced to draw by Bari, Inter Milan defeated Salernitana with a difficult 1 goal at home, Lazio and Roma's city derby, 1:3 behind the situation Blue Eagle scored two goals in the last 11 minutes to help the team stop the losing streak, and finally let the manager Eriksen get a rare respite, Udinese did not drop the chain, 2:1 repelled Cagliari, and surpassed Juventus in fifth place.
The difference between the Rossoneri and second-place Roma has widened to 7 points, followed by Parma and Fiorentina with 20 points, followed by Udinese and Inter Milan with 19 points, Bologna and Juventus with 18 points, and Lazio ahead of Cagliari and Bari with 14 points and tied for 9th.
The next day, the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was held in Paris, and the list of the top 8 was as follows:
Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Juventus, Parma
From the list, you can see the strength of Serie A in this era, and the top 8 actually occupy half of the country! Interestingly, the draw for the top 8 of the Champions League should also be based on the principle of avoiding the same country, so it is very interesting that there are only 4 glass fish tanks on the table of the draw, which are pasted with Manchester United, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern Munich's team logo, and there are only 4 table tennis balls in these 4 cylinders, corresponding to the 4 teams in Serie A, because these 4 teams cannot be drawn together, so there will inevitably be a situation where the Serie A teams meet in advance, and Serie A will therefore take advantage of it. Because if all 4 teams play well, the Champions League will be equivalent to the Coppa Italia. Of course, the chances of this happening are too small, and at present, the strength of the four Serie A teams from low to high should be Parma, Inter Milan, Juventus, and then AC Milan.
The first to take the stage to draw lots was Lord Fu, the old man pinched the frame of his glasses before reaching into the fish tank, and then calmly took out a table tennis ball. Under Platini's gaze, Ferguson unscrewed the ball and showed the note inside to the audience without even looking at it. Then when Ferguson noticed that the people sitting below were looking at Inter Milan, the old man had already gotten what was written on the note.
The next draw for Real Madrid was the backbone of the defense Hierro, this guy may be afraid of bad luck, and actually waved his hand at Platini who came over to shake hands, making the French curly chicken a black line. But when the results came out, everyone laughed off the pitch because Hierro's luck was really good and he drew Parma. Platini looked at his right hand mockingly when he saw the results, then turned around and shook it vigorously in the air.
If Arsenal goes up to draw lots, then Bayern can only be forced to choose the last remaining team, considering that Manchester United has already gone up in the Premier League, so this opportunity was given to Bayern Munich by UEFA. The lion king Karn walked up to the stage with a serious face, when he found that Platini was actually waiting to see the results with his hands behind his back this time, Karn shook his finger towards the audience, and then stepped forward to grab the other party's hand and shook it, the atmosphere was definitely in place.
The draw resulted in Bayern Munich's vs Juventus, so the remaining group was Arsenal and AC Milan. The final draw results are as follows:
Top half 4.7/4.14
Real Madrid vs Parma, Bayern Munich vs Juventus
Bottom half 4.8/4.15
Manchester United vs Inter Milan Arsenal vs AC Milan
AC Milan is still relatively satisfied with this division and the draw, from the book Arsenal, Inter Milan this kind of offensive team is much easier to deal with than the first half of Real Madrid, Bayern, Juventus, the three counter-attacking masters, as for Manchester United at this time, at least in the eyes of Li Bern is not a threat.
During the temporary suspension of the Champions League, AC Milan's three opponents before Christmas were Udinese, Vicenza and Sampdoria, among which Udinese was slightly trickier.
As expected, AC Milan smashed the turtle shell with three punches at the San Siro at home on December 5, and the trident of Weah, Poggi and Bierhoff did little to threaten the home side, after all, when a team barely had 30 per cent possession in midfield, how many chances did the front line have?
In the opening 19 minutes, Fowler's back-heel pass in the box was inserted into Zahovic, who made it all in one fell swoop, and Milan led 1-0.
In the 33rd minute of the first half, Li Bern broke the ball in the middle of the field and advanced at high speed, the opponent fouled at the top of the penalty area, and Baggio's free kick hit the left crossbar and bounced into the goal, 2:0!
Bodø, who came on as a second-half substitute, counter-attacked with a textbook lion flick in the box, and AC Milan sealed the win with three points and three wins in a row.
In this round of games, except for Juventus and Inter Milan, the two teams only won one draw and one loss, and the other teams won their opponents one after another, and were not continued to be pulled away by Milan, and even Lazio won all three points in the away game against Juventus.
On December 13, AC Milan won 1-0 at home to Vicenza, and Bodø, who came on as a substitute in the second half, fell to the ground in the penalty area and scored a goal, which was provided by full-back Cafu.
Juventus suffered consecutive defeats, following a 0-1 loss to Lazio in the previous round, and this round of away to Fiorentina, again by the opponent in the second half of the goal of the goal, this time the hero of the purple lily is the baguette from the Guangzhou Sun God team.
Apart from this match, Roma drew away to Parma, and several other strong teams won against their opponents.
On December 20th, in the 14th round and the last round before the winter break, AC Milan defeated Sampdoria 2:1 away, winning 4 consecutive victories!
Back at home, Inter faced a menacing Roma, with a brace from Novak Djokaeff, Recoba and Ronaldo to help the team win over their arch-rivals and take the precious three points.
Fiorentina was held to a draw by Perugia, but Lazio found their form, beating Udinese 3-1, and a wave of two consecutive wins finally allowed Eriksen to return to Sweden for a comfortable Christmas.
From December 20th to January 6th, Li Boen got a rare 17-day vacation, and the teenager also planned to take advantage of this time to return to China to meet his family and friends, and by the way, he helped Xi Lao, who had recovered from his injuries, to open a martial arts gym in Guangzhou.