Chapter 125 Return to New White Hart Lane
London, September 15, 2021.
Coming out of the arrival gate of Heathrow Airport, the Roma players saw an unprecedented scene - two groups of local fans were swearing at each other, with a human wall of police and security guards separating them.
One group is Mourinho's fans, just Mourinho's personal fans, because no one among them was seen wearing Roma jerseys or other items that could represent the Roma club. Instead, there were photos of Mourinho when he was coaching Tottenham and slogans of support. There were also a few people holding an inflatable English League Cup trophy and shouting things like "Tottenham owes you a championship."
The other group is Mourinho's haters, who held up banners that belittled him, as well as some ugly photos of themselves making faces and shouting words like "clown" and "rewhale".
The two groups cursed at each other passionately, like two teddy dogs separated by an iron fence , and many people's saliva sprayed directly on the face of the security guard in the middle.
The Roma players passed by one by one quickly from the sidelines, and the fans didn't care about them at all, as if they had nothing to do with the game the day after tomorrow.
When Mourinho came out, the atmosphere finally reached its climax.
The cheering people shouted passionately, while the derogatory people booed wildly.
Mourinho showed his signature confident smile, waved and gave a thumbs-up to various cameras and mobile phone lenses, then patted his chest to express his gratitude to the fans who supported him and pointed to the floor with both index fingers of both hands to those who insulted him.
Whether you welcome him or not, he is here.
He came with confidence and victory.
Two days ago, at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, the team struggled to defeat the visiting Sassuolo after rotating five main players in the second half.
In the 36th minute, Abraham broke through and was fouled, winning a free kick opportunity on the left side of the frontcourt.
Pellegrini pretended to make a powerful shot, but suddenly he sent a low ball straight into the middle of the penalty area. Cristante understood the hint and made a solo shot to score. Roma 1-0 Sassuolo.
In the 57th minute, Berardi, a member of the Italian European Cup winning team, received a pass on the right side of the penalty area. He made a very exciting turn to get past Smalling who was standing still, and passed the ball across the small penalty area. His teammate Juricic followed up and shot into the goal. Roma tied with Sassuolo 1-1.
The two teams' data on ball possession, shots, shots on target, pass success rate and more were very close. Just when everyone thought the game would end in a draw, Zaniolo scored the winning goal in the 91st minute!
Chen Xiaoliang got the ball on the right side of the center line and made a low pass to Wu Lei who was quickly running into the middle. Wu Lei and the opponent's defender both lost their balance and fell to the top of the penalty area during the physical fight. The ball was caught by their outstretched legs and rolled back.
Zaniolo followed up and shot directly into the far corner, hitting the right post and bouncing into the net!
The lore! Mourinho celebrated wildly! Roma won 2-1 against Sassuolo and Zaniolo also slowly walked out of the scandal with the cheers of the home fans.
After the game, Mourinho rarely praised the team's resilience in the locker room, believing that the three points were earned by everyone fighting until the last minute.
After this round, Roma, with 3 wins and 1 draw, has 10 points and moved up one place to third in Serie A. Napoli and AC Milan, who have won all four games and are making great progress, are still ranked in the top two.
Especially Napoli, after defeating Juventus 2-1, they directly kicked the Serie A giants into the 17th place on the verge of relegation...
Inter Milan tied Sampdoria 2-2 away from home, and dropped to sixth place with 8 points;
AC Milan defeated Lazio 2-0 at home. Immobile was completely threatening under the stranglehold of Milan's defense.
However, Fiorentina defeated Atalanta 1-2 away. Vlahovic scored both goals and currently leads the Serie A scorer list with 5 goals in 4 rounds.
Thanks to the victory in this game, Fiorentina scored 9 points and ranked fourth in the league, closely following Roma.
Mourinho is confident due to his outstanding performance in the league.
Although he will fly to Verona immediately after visiting London, his opponents are also facing a devilish schedule.
Tottenham Hotspur will also only have one day to rest after playing this Europa League group match, and then they will face the challenge of their city rivals Chelsea on the same stadium.
In the fiercely competitive Premier League, whether Conte can lead Tottenham back to the top four of the Premier League requires him to give his all in every game.
So before the game, some media had suggested that Tottenham should "strategically give up" the Europa Cup, but Conte sternly refuted this statement at a press conference the day before the game, and his remarks completely detonated the powder keg of this game!
"Someone once said that I was crazy walking around the sidelines, and I responded that this person just forgot that he used to like doing this, so tomorrow's game, I hope that the forgetful Alzheimer can sit quietly in the coaching seat and focus his eyes on the court instead of looking at me.
And when we win, I will celebrate like crazy, and maybe he will say something weird, but losers always do that, thinking about taking back the victory in the press conference."
Faced with this string of provocative words, the reporters certainly did not miss the opportunity to fan the flames! The following questions all turned to the personal grudges between Conte and Mourinho!
The origin of the verbal fight between the two was in October 2016, when Conte, who led Chelsea to a 4-0 home win over Manchester United, ran back and forth on the sidelines, shouting passionately and punching wildly.
This made Mourinho, the then Manchester United coach who was sitting behind him, very unhappy. He criticized Conte to the media at the post-match press conference, saying that Conte's actions were impolite and humiliating his opponents.
Conte did not respond at the time, until the pre-season preparations in the summer of the following year, when he escalated the feud between the two in front of the media.
He told the media at the time: "Two years ago, Chelsea was also the defending champion, but the new season only won 10th place. I don't want that to happen again. Everyone knows the difficulties faced by the defending champion in the new season. At this moment, I hope to avoid the 'Mourinho tragedy' from happening again in Chelsea."
Mourinho quickly responded to the media, saying that he had many ways to hit back at Conte, but he was reluctant to do so because he would lose his hair whenever Conte was mentioned...
Since then, the war of words between the two continued to escalate and lasted for a long time until both left the Premier League.
Unexpectedly, this time there was a sudden turn of events. Levy actually used Conte to take over the stall left by Mourinho, and UEFA directly brought the two together again!
UEFA President Ceferin proudly told the media that many people think that the Europa League is a useless tournament created by UEFA to make money, but the fact that tickets for this match are hard to get is enough to prove that it is a very attractive and successful tournament.
After Conte's press conference, Mourinho was immediately notified by the team's press officer, and all of Conte's words were relayed to the Portuguese verbatim.
At a press conference held in Rome later, Mourinho first praised Tottenham players including Kane and Son Heung-min, and then changed the subject: "Some people are always chasing me, in Italy and England. I don't know if the teams I coached are particularly attractive, or if he wants to prove something through this behavior. But unfortunately, the championships he has won are far less than mine, and don't forget that he was suspended in Italy for match-fixing."
It seems that some media felt that the verbal battle between the two was enough to fill the entire front page, so they brought the topic to the feud between him and Levy, asking directly: "When Levy fired you, he said that the locker room no longer supported you and it was the best time to let you go before the League Cup final. But later news came out that he was very angry about your failure to renew Chen Xiaoliang's contract, and you never responded to this issue afterwards."
Mourinho has always spared no effort in protecting his trusted generals.
He can calmly accept the media focusing all its firepower on him, but he cannot accept the groundless speculation about his players.
"Chen's case is a thing of the past. No one could have imagined that he would grow so fast in Scotland, including you smart media people who make predictions all day long, and of course, our shrewd chairman Levy did not expect it.
He should perhaps reflect on why he greedily set an unnecessary release clause for a youth player. Why doesn't he learn from some Spanish clubs and set a release clause of 100 million euros for a 17-year-old Spanish player, which will rise to 1 billion euros when he turns 18?
He naively believed that the £35 million buyout clause would prevent academy players from being poached by other teams at low prices, just as he naively believed that if he fired me, Tottenham could still win the League Cup. Of course, this was not a problem with the players and the coach, but his behavior caused the team's instability. "
"Do you think Chen Xiaoliang will be welcomed by Tottenham fans the moment he steps onto the pitch?"
"This is not something I should care about. This game is not Chen Xiaoliang against Kane, nor is it me against Conte. It is just an ordinary game among the six group matches.
But I know very well that Kane is the most popular player in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, and when Tottenham go to Rome, I believe our fans will also welcome Kane. "
Soon, the video of the two head coaches quarreling with each other went viral on the Internet, and the content of the quarrel was translated into various languages and published in every sports magazine and newspaper.
The focus of the game has completely become "Kong Erlangzi vs. the Magic Bird".
However, in the Red Country, there is one point that fans are looking forward to, that is, "Can Chen Xiaoliang defend against Son Heung-min?" and "Who is the real No. 1 in Asia?"
In the Red American media, the evaluation of Son Heung-min has always been positive. After all, he and Park Ji-sung, who was once in Manchester United, are the two most accomplished and successful Asian players in the top five leagues.
It’s just that in private communication among fans, they like to tease him with a stick.
But in the Italian media, hatred towards Koreans is deep-rooted.
The 2002 World Cup match was the darkest day in the history of football for this country!
Ahn Jung-hwan, who scored the winning golden goal, was immediately released by Perugia club.
Later, South Korea used a similar method to "hack" Spain again...
Since then, there have been basically no Korean players in Serie A and La Liga.
Compared with the ridicule of the Red Country fans, the Italian fans are much more radical.
There were all kinds of messages, asking the Italian players in Roma to tackle Son Heung-min's legs, to elbow Son Heung-min the same way Kim Tae-young elbowed Piero, and to headshot Son Heung-min the same way Lee Chun-soo kicked Maldini's head...
In short, it was as if the venue of this game was not the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but the Colosseum in Rome...
Although the surrounding news has been much more popular than the Champions League matches in the same period, with everything from coaches and players to historical grudges being dug up by the media and the Internet, Mourinho still asked the players to stay calm during the field adaptation training and repeatedly gave them warnings - they will encounter unprecedented boos and shouting.
That is simply not comparable to the jokes and songs made up by Salernitana fans.
The English are much more direct. Except for racial discrimination which is strictly prohibited, there is nothing they cannot curse about, from organs to family tree.
When Chen Xiaoliang heard this, his face remained expressionless, but he chuckled in his heart.
The tactics of trolls are the same all over the world.
At 18:30 on the afternoon of September 17, 2021, the bus carrying the Roma players slowly drove into the player-only entrance of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
This stadium, which was called "White Hart Lane" for 118 years before it was completely renovated and rebuilt in 2017, was officially renamed "Tottenham Hotspur Stadium" after its completion in 2018.
However, in the hearts of veteran Tottenham fans, they do not accept this undistinguished name, and they prefer to call the stadium "New White Hart Lane".
The starting rosters for both teams have been handed over to UEFA's tournament committee.
For Tottenham, Conte deployed the 4321 Christmas tree formation that he usually uses this season.
The starting goalkeeper was No. 22 Gollini, who was loaned from Atlanta. He played as the cup goalkeeper, while Lloris sat on the bench.
On the defensive line, from right to left are No. 2 Doherty, No. 14 Rodon, No. 4 Christian Romero and No. 3 Reguilon.
The defensive midfielder is No. 5 Hojbjerg, with No. 20 Dele Alli on the left and No. 28 Ndombele on the right.
Two attacking midfielders, No. 10 Kane and No. 18 Lo Celso.
The one who is at the forefront is No. 7 Son Heung-min.
Many of these players were brought in against all odds when Mourinho was in charge.
He had also arranged Roma's lineup in a targeted manner.
There are still three central defenders. Zalewski, who has been praised many times by Mourinho recently, continues to play as left wingback, and Karsdorp is still on the right.
The two defensive midfielders are Veretout and Chen Xiaoliang, the two attacking midfielders are Pellegrini and Mkhitaryan, and Abraham is the only one forward.
Even without Mourinho's arrangement, the players knew that this game would definitely go in the direction of defensive counterattack when they saw this lineup and formation, and they didn't have to think about the ball possession rate.
However, what Mourinho emphasized was Kane's retreat.
Conte targeted Roma's excellent defensive midfielder intercepting ability and insufficient central defender running ability, and let Son Heung-min, who is fast and good at dribbling, challenge the three central defenders in the penalty area, while letting Kane, who is excellent in ball control and physical fitness, retreat to compete with Chen Xiaoliang for the fulcrum role.
One is the true British star after Rooney, and the other is a well-deserved Asian superstar. Whether Sun Kai's connection can be defended basically determines the outcome of the game.
Although they are double defensive midfielders, Mourinho did not divide the areas for Veretout and Chen Xiaoliang. Chen Xiaoliang's goal is to cut off the connection between Kane and Son Heung-min as much as possible, while Veretout will assist in defending Lo Celso, a member of the Argentina America's Cup champion team who may advance at any time.
It can be said that whether Mourinho will be criticized by Conte after the game or will be able to trample this Italian enemy under his feet depends on Chen Xiaoliang.
