Chapter 41: The Butcher's Edition of Kaka
When sitting on the bus and looking at the San Siro stadium, Leon's mind did not flash a football superstar who had galloped and shined in this stadium.
His reaction was very simple, just like when he first saw the Bernabeu Stadium, and he felt the same emotion in his heart as he did when he first visited the San Siro Stadium after coming to Milan.
"Sure enough, it's a 'big' club!"
Both the Bernabeu and the San Siro are some of the largest football stadiums in Europe, and the capacity of the two stadiums is almost the same, at more than 80,000 each.
The thought of being able to play in front of nearly 80,000 fans makes any player feel excited.
Naturally, Leon is no exception.
If there's one thing he's most most memorable about his first-team experience at Real Madrid, it's those days at home.
"They'll be cheering for you today."
Just as Leon was looking out the window of the car at the countless Milan fans in red and black jerseys, a voice sounded behind him.
Leon turned his head to see that it was the acting captain Gattuso who was comforting him, and Pirlo, who was sitting next to Gattuso, also winked at him.
"As long as you play normally, no problem, right?"
Leon grinned as he looked out the window at the red and black fans huddled together holding their scarves high towards the Milan bus and singing the team song over and over again.
"No problem!"
β»β»β»
"Pay attention to the insertion of the two full-backs of Udinese, you have to pay attention to that! Their midfield doesn't really have a lot of creativity, we contain their two flanks and lose the shells that Isla and Pasquale send forward, Di Natale can only rely more on Sanchez to help him attract defensive firepower in order to get the ball and the space to get up, Leon, keep an eye on Sanchez, cut off the connection between him and Di Natale, you know what I mean?! β
Allegri made the final tactical emphasis in the dressing room before the game, and Leon, who was named, nodded without hesitation and took over his tactical task.
At present, he is the only one who does this job, and the speed cannot keep up with Sanchez's Gattuso and Pirlo at most to help him make up for the leaks.
Whether he can withstand the impact of Udinese's offensive will basically depend on how effective his side is on Sanchez and Pasquale.
"I'll help you more, don't worry."
Antonini smiled and patted Leon on the thigh to cheer him up.
Bonella, who was sitting on the other side of Leon, also came over, "It's okay, it's okay to let them go once in a while, Thiago and I will take care of them!" β
As soon as Shen Feng let go, Li Ang's heart suddenly tightened, and Gattuso's face changed even more, and he stepped forward to quickly change the topic.
Joke!
It's better not to have a camera on the field, and when Shenfeng has "played", it will be difficult for Milan to win this game.
After the hiccup, Milan's starters gathered around Gattuso for one last pre-match mobilization, and then shouted two sentences and walked out of the dressing room.
Amid the cheers and shouts of more than 70,000 Milan fans, Leon took a deep breath and plunged headlong into the stadium, which was shrouded in the winter afternoon sun.
βLeββonββοΌοΌοΌβ
βleonββοΌοΌοΌβ
Under the guidance of the DJ, the cheers of the Milan fans at the scene made Li Ang himself surprised.
After calming the excitement in his chest a little, Li Ang also smiled and raised his hands to applaud to thank the home fans.
In the big shot of the live broadcast, Li Ang's smiling face suddenly appeared, and the handsome face under the winter sun was even more sunny and handsome.
There was another uproar in the stadium.
After all, Kaka has only been away from San Siro for a year and a half, and now there is a sunny and handsome middle-haired teenager, how can these Milan fans not think of the teenager Kaka who came to Milan City in the first place?
What makes Milan fans feel more palpitating than the similarity in appearance is the similarity in demeanor.
Such a sunny confidence and cheerfulness have not been seen in San Siro for a long time......
With the filter on, Milan fans really can't do anything but not have a good impression of Leon.
At the beginning, some extreme fans turned their heads to support Leon because of the coexistence of Leon and Pirlo, not to mention other ordinary Milan fans.
After a simple opening ceremony, the players on both sides took their positions one after another, and the captains of both teams routinely picked sides.
Commentators from various countries seized the gap before the start of the game to quickly introduce the starting formations of the two teams today.
Udinese was a guest at San Siro today and directly put on a three-five-two formation.
While defending in central midfield, their strikers Alexis Sanchez and Di Natale are also very dangerous and suitable for counter-attacking tactics.
Milan, on the other hand, continued to put on a 442 midfield diamond-shaped position.
In this round of the league, Milan has made changes to the starting team in the front, middle and backfield.
At the back, Zambrotta was rested, Abate was deployed at right-back, and in midfield, Boateng replaced Seedorf, who had some calf discomfort, as the starting midfielder.
And up front is the normal rotation of Robinho and Pato.
Normally, when Milan plays as a double striker, only Ibrahimovic can play, and Pato and Robinho take turns to start depending on their game status and fitness.
However, if they play three forwards in the future, the two of them will be able to start together, after all, Ronaldo, who was able to compete with them before, has now returned to Brazil.
For the rest of the game, Milan's starting line-up was exactly the same as in the previous round.
Nesta's injury did not heal, with Thiago Silva and Bonella continuing to start in a two-man centre-back pair.
Originally, this position was probably the most feared by Milan fans.
But with the last round of Leon running more than 12 kilometers in a single game and contributing key defensive statistics many times, the Rossoneri have also settled down for the time being.
As long as the "Shenfeng" does not frequently face the offensive impact of the opponent, relying on Thiago Silva's super individual ability, Milan's defense line can still be stabilized.
At 15:00 in the afternoon, the game officially began, and Udinese, who had the right to kick off, quickly spread out the formation in the midfield, and the right wingback Isla advanced with the ball to make an offensive test at the beginning.
In addition to Isla, there are Asamoah and Sanchez on this side, so it is also the focus of Udinese's attack at the moment.
Isla dribbled the ball past half the pitch, looked at Antonini who was pressing up, and passed the ball directly to Asamoah, who raised his hand on the inside.
Seeing this, Antonini quickly turned around and went to force Asamoah with Big Boateng.
But before they could get together, Asamoah simply hoisted the ball straight to Sanchez, who started to cut forward on the left side of Milan!
"Chilean Ronaldo" is only 22 years old now, with good skills, fast speed and confidence.
Even if Milan's left half at the moment still has Leon who is dragging behind and Pirlo who is leaning over and ready to make up for the defense at any time, he is not afraid at all.
After the start, Sanchez anticipated the landing point of the football and went all out.
But it was difficult to see diagonally behind him, and Leon was barely able to keep up with his speed and gradually ran to the landing point of the football.
"Mine!"
At the moment when the ball was almost perfectly unloaded, Sanchez was overjoyed, looking at Li Ang who pounced on him, he pouted, even stopped the buckle, and was about to change direction to throw Li Ang away.
But he didn't expect that Leon stopped the momentum of continuing to pounce on the ball at the moment when he was about to pounce on the football landing point, and at the same time turned his body and decisively stuck in his inward route!
It's just right, it's not bad at all!
"Nice defensive anticipation !!"
The commentator of Italian Sky Sports spoke excitedly.
And Leon also took a decisive horizontal step after the change of direction route that stuck Sanchez, and squeezed Sanchez, who was a lot shorter than him, to the side!
The ball still rolled into the 30-metre area of Milan, and Asamoah, who was quick to react, stepped forward to get the ball away before Pirlo's interception.
But Leon didn't stop his defensive pace after squeezing Sanchez away.
Asamoah wants to take the ball away?
I haven't asked him for his opinion yet!
Suddenly stepped forward, and when the speed was inferior and he didn't catch up with Asamoah, Leon directly chose to put the tackle in advance from the flank!
The ball was rubbed off track by Leon first, and Asamoah was then brought down by Leon's calf.
The referee on duty, who was at a competitive distance and could see it more clearly, ignored Asamoah, who suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, and signaled for the game to continue!
And Leon, who had just completed a successful tackle, with a little grass clippings on his face, immediately got up from the ground with his hands and feet, and began to resolutely push forward with Pirlo's forward pass!
Milan fans' "beautiful" filter on Leon was once again ruthlessly shattered.
But they were not annoyed at all, but roared passionately, roaring and applauding for Li Ang's successful continuous wonderful defense!
They cheered for Milan to have another "junior Kaka".
Well, this time it's the butcher's version!