Chapter 149: Fighting Milan! The man who is legally pretending!
After the game, Roma players walked around the field to thank the fans.
Although many fans left after the game to avoid traffic jams, about half of the fans stayed to celebrate with the players.
Without the cheers and support of the fans, perhaps the outcome of this game would have been different.
When more than 70,000 people shout and cheer for you together, it is like a super strong mental nitrogen pump.
As for Napoli, although the loss was a blow to morale, the players were also relieved that they no longer had to bear the pressure of winning streak.
To Chen Xiaoliang's surprise, when he walked to the entrance of the player tunnel and was stopped by the media and was about to be interviewed, Koulibaly and Anguisa both ran up and offered to exchange jerseys with him.
This was the first time that two people came to exchange jerseys with him, and he was stunned for a moment.
Finally, after a brief discussion, Anguiza gave up the jersey to Koulibaly. However, Chen Xiaoliang saw that Anguiza was a little regretful and promised to send him another jersey - because the one he was wearing was already a spare jersey... At the moment, he couldn't find a third jersey of his own...
The reporter who stopped Chen Xiaoliang was Portman, who also interviewed the coaches of both teams before the game.
This scene was also captured by the media. Portman asked Coulibaly if he was a fan of Chen Xiaoliang. Coulibaly politely said that he thought Chen Xiaoliang played very well and showed enough strength to change the game.
It means "no".
When asked why he wanted Chen Xiaoliang's jersey, Koulibaly told the truth and said that his 5-year-old son liked Chen Xiaoliang very much.
As the camera was filming, the league had clear requirements on the language and attire of players when being interviewed, so Chen Xiaoliang did not take off his jersey immediately. Instead, he agreed to sign Koulibaly's name on the jersey before returning to the locker room.
After Coulibaly left, Chen Xiaoliang was speechless when he saw Portman again.
This female reporter is really haunting.
But it is obvious that she is not an ordinary female reporter.
The fact that she was able to obtain exclusive interviews on the sidelines before and after the games shows that she has connections in the media circle, including in the Serie A committee.
For any media, this first-hand interview opportunity is an important means to increase traffic.
However, Portman began to test Chen Xiaoliang with the first question.
"After Mourinho was sent to the stands, you made changes and the team's offense immediately became smoother, but we did not see Mourinho or Joao giving you any instructions directly or indirectly. Is this the power given to you by the team?
And does it mean that the defensive tactics played by the team for most of the game were wrong? "
Well, she starts with a hypothetical question. This is Portman's usual style. She won't stop until she makes big news.
"The head coach pays great attention to tactical execution, both in defense and offense. However, in counterattacks, since the situation is unpredictable, he also gives us sufficient freedom. He only made clear requirements on the time limit of counterattacks in training, requiring us to advance the ball from the backcourt to the opponent's penalty area and complete the shot within 12 seconds.
I think today's tactical arrangement was successful. We consumed too much patience of Napoli and forced them to keep pressing forward. In the positional battle, they couldn't play their speed advantage, and they lacked tall players. Although we lost two goals, we scored 4 goals against them in the counterattack.
Nobody has done that this season, so it was a big success for us tonight .”
The conventional answer was completely within Portman's expectations. This was not the first time that she and Chen Xiaoliang had "contested", so she immediately asked the second question:
"You just said that Mourinho cares a lot about the execution of tactics, but today when you tried your best to defend, you still lost two goals. Many fans of the clubs he coached in the past also said that Mourinho's tactics were too conservative. What do you think?"
"I don't know what the coach has been like at other clubs but at least at Roma I think he is doing the right thing.
In the world of football, results are indeed the most important, but results can also be accidental. Just like today, without the restriction of Napoli's attack and the consumption of physical strength in the first 80 minutes, there would be no comprehensive counterattack in the last 10 minutes.
Today we seized the opportunity and scored 4 goals. It is possible that in the next game the head coach will ask us to attack, but we failed to score. Whether it is defense or offense, in the end it all serves the result.
I believe that by the end of the season we will convince the fans that we did the right thing."
After the warm-up, Portman began to drop her bombshell: "It seems that you trust Mourinho very much, and he thinks highly of you, so this is why Pellegrini has become the team's nominal captain due to Mourinho's intervention, and you are the leader in the locker room?"
At that moment, Chen Xiaoliang's face was frozen. He tried hard to appear relaxed, then quickly searched for the right words in his mind and organized them together.
However, he found it difficult.
He could not admit it publicly, because doing so would be tantamount to slapping Pellegrini in the face to everyone, and even confirm the speculation that Pellegrini was involved in the previous nightclub scandal.
A well-known crosstalk artist once said: The best way to discredit someone is to deny him morally.
The same goes for players. If the captain of a club has a moral stigma, it will have a huge negative impact on the club.
But Chen Xiaoliang cannot deny this matter directly, because doing so may remove external pressure, but when he returns to the locker room, his teammates - whether they are the rookie team that supports him or the Italian team that is not part of his social circle - will think that he is a hypocritical person who tells lies in public.
What’s even more depressing is that it’s impossible to just make up some excuse to get away with it.
The fact that Portman could ask such a question proves that she has an insider in the club.
Leadership in the locker room is like the right to speak in a company office. Is the chairman or general manager in the public sense really the de facto top leader of the company? In the leadership team, which managers belong to one faction and which belong to another faction?
In any company, these issues would only be discussed privately with tacit understanding and would never be announced publicly.
The same is true for football clubs.
Obviously, what Portman knew was beyond Chen Xiaoliang's expectations.
What should I do? What should I say?
Chen Xiaoliang didn't say anything for about 10 seconds.
Portman was very proud. Even if Chen Xiaoliang turned away without saying anything, it would be big news that could trigger a lot of speculation.
Unexpectedly, Chen Xiaoliang suddenly laughed, and it was a knowing smile!
He did not speak in Italian, much less English, but in his native Chinese:
"The monkeys on both banks are crying incessantly, and the boat has already passed through thousands of mountains."
According to the regulations, the three questions had been answered and Chen Xiaoliang immediately left and walked into the player tunnel.
What does this mean?
What is he talking about?
Portman was both excited and shocked.
What excited her was that Chen Xiaoliang's reaction exceeded all her expectations;
What shocked her was that she could tell it was Chinese, but she had no idea what it meant. She had to quickly find someone who understood Chinese to interpret the words!
This conversation was quickly relayed to Mourinho by the club's press officer. The Roma head coach spent a lot of space in the post-match press conference to insinuate that "some media in Turin do not report on the team they support unconditionally, but always focus on digging up gossip about other teams", and accused this practice of being both shameless and ridiculous.
Compared with Chen Xiaoliang, Mourinho's experience in bickering with the media is completely on a different level.
Looking at the entire football world in this matter, the Portuguese madman is second, and no one dares to say that they are first.
But he was also very curious. After the team returned to the training base and disbanded, he specifically pulled Chen Xiaoliang aside to ask what the two sentences he had said meant.
Chen Xiaoliang told him with a smile that he had no choice but to do so in a hurry.
He first explained that these two sentences were actually verses from a great ancient poet of the Red Country.
Then he told Mourinho that he was also thinking about how to answer at that time, and suddenly he thought of the classic story of French superstar and Manchester United "King" Cantona.
At that time, Cantona kicked a fan on the sidelines during the game and was banned for 8 months by the English Football Association, shocking the world.
Later, the local court sentenced him to 120 hours of community service. At the press conference after the verdict, Manchester United's lawyer made a long statement. When the microphone was handed to him, he said this:
"The seagulls follow the fishing boats because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
Afterwards, not just that year, but even in the next decade or so, many media and gossipers were analyzing what Cantona meant by this sentence, and many interpretations emerged at once.
Earlier this year, Cantona gave his own answer in an interview with the media:
This is completely meaningless bullshit. The lawyer told him he had to say something, so he just said this casually.
The same is true for Chen Xiaoliang today. Since he will fall into the trap carefully designed by Portman no matter what he says, he might as well imitate Cantona.
Speaking of ancient poetry is also to make it seem more profound and mysterious, and to make it easier for Portman to be confused.
To put it bluntly, Chen Xiaoliang just casually said the first ancient poem that came to his mind.
Meaning? What the hell.
When Mourinho heard this explanation, he laughed and told him to go home and rest early because the team was about to set off to continue their league journey.
Sure enough, in the major Italian sports newspapers and websites published early the next morning, in addition to introducing the results of each team in the 9th round of the league, they were all analyzing what Chen Xiaoliang meant by this sentence!
Facing this hotshot of Serie A, Italy's three major sports media convened a meeting overnight with Chinese language experts, literature experts and senior journalists to discuss the matter and made the following analysis:
The Gazzetta dello Sport, which has the largest circulation, is neutral, believing that the "two sides" refer to the league and the European Cup, and that the meaning of this poem is that the team's goal this season is to go as far as possible in these two events like a "light boat". Chen Xiaoliang quoted this poem to express that although the team is divided, it is united as a whole to achieve its goals.
The Corriere dello Sport, which is more supportive of the Roma club, believes that the "ape voice" refers to the outside world's doubts, the "light boat" refers to the Roma first team, and the "million mountains" represent all kinds of difficulties. To sum up, it means that the team is getting on the right track and moving forward quickly amid doubts, and there is no such thing as a power struggle in the locker room at all.
The Turin Sports Daily, which is known as the Juventus team newspaper by the outside world, made some fierce "speculations".
Obviously, Portman contributed a lot to this. They believe that "both sides" refers to the players and coaches of Roma, and "light boat" refers to Chen Xiaoliang himself.
This means that no matter what different opinions there are among the various parties in the team, the task of replacing Pellegrini has already been "overcome with difficulties" and there is no difficulty at all.
This is just the analysis and speculation of the three major Italian media. In other media and even in the football forum of the Red Country, there are many analyses of these two lines of poetry, and each one of them is very confident that they are the correct answer!
After being called "Pope", many people began to give Chen Xiaoliang the nickname "Poet"...
At the same time, Riise was not idle either. After basically finalizing the transfer intention of Wolfsburg right-back Baku, he went to France to discuss the transfer with Lille's Celik.
He called Chen Xiaoliang specifically to tell him:
1. The advertising contract for Nivea Men's Facial Cleanser has been signed, 1.2 million euros for 2 years. Next, we will wait until Chen Xiaoliang is free to shoot a few commercials.
Chen Xiaoliang later thought about it and decided that he still had to earn the money because he had a big plan that required funds to realize.
2. Regarding Chen Xiaoliang’s big plan, he has sent a team to Nigeria to speed up the progress and will respond as soon as there is news.
3. He has already investigated Portman’s background and sent it to Chen Xiaoliang’s email address.
After hanging up the phone, Chen Xiaoliang immediately opened his email.
It turns out that Portman was just her nickname when she was a journalist, or a pen name when she published reports in newspapers.
Her real name is Maria Luisa Jacobelli.
Her father, Javier Jacobelli, is a well-known Italian media . Before his retirement, he was the editor-in-chief of Corriere dello Sport and Turin Sports!
This also explains why she always gets exclusive interview rights inside the stadium.
What's even more shocking is that before Portman changed her name, the most explosive news was that she claimed to have spent the night with Mbappe in a five-star hotel in Paris! But there were no selfies or photos taken by others.
No one believed what she said. They all thought she was trying to attract attention and dig up more information about Mbappe.
Obviously, after changing her name, she has grown a lot and her means of obtaining news have become more sophisticated, but for some reason, she actually set her sights on Chen Xiaoliang.
Putting all of the above aside, in the last game, Chen Xiaoliang played arguably the best game he has played since becoming a professional player.
Two goals and one assist, this is an epic performance for a defensive midfielder.
This also allowed him to obtain 14 hours of training value and 1 physical recovery card through the mission reward.
Training value 53 → 67
Stamina recovery card 1→2
The team only rested for half a day the next day and took a plane in the afternoon to Cagliari, a city on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia in southern Italy, to play an away game against Cagliari.
Since there is also a gap of 3 days after the match against Cagliari, Roma will face AC Milan, which has been getting stronger recently, at home, so Mourinho rotated many players in this round of the league.
Firstly, he needs to save his strength for the game against AC Milan. Secondly, Cagliari is currently ranked last in the league and has extremely limited strength. Finally, he also needs to give more players in the team the opportunity to rotate and play in order to maintain their competitive form.
Cristante, Carles Perez, Niles, Trippi and Wu Lei all got the chance to start, and of course Chen Xiaoliang must also start. Mourinho no longer dares to be overconfident and underestimates the enemy, and all the points that should be earned must be earned.
At 19:30 on October 27, the game started in front of 20,000 fans at the Sant'Elia Stadium.
Both sides were tied in the first half. It was felt that the game with Napoli had only ended a few days ago, which had indeed had a significant impact on the players' physical strength.
In the second half, in the 52nd minute, Cagliari made a cross, and Binya hit the ball into the opponent's main striker's foot while returning to defense, giving away a goal!
Fortunately, Rome has accumulated confidence through several major wars.
In the 71st minute, Ibanez received Pellegrini's corner kick and the ball hit the hand of the Cagliari goalkeeper, but it still bounced into the goal. Roma tied the game 1-1 away!
In the 78th minute, Pellegrini took a free kick in the frontcourt and kicked a world-class goal from 23 meters away from the goal. The ball flew directly into the upper right corner of the goal!
Roma reversed the score 1-2 away!
Afterwards, despite 6 minutes of stoppage time, Cagliari was unable to turn the tide.
After 10 rounds, Roma, who won the last two games, has 23 points and ranks third;
After losing to Roma, Napoli beat Bologna 3-0 at home this round, with 9 wins and 1 loss in 10 games, and 27 points, ranking second;
AC Milan first defeated Bologna 2-4 away, and then defeated Torino 1-0 at home, ranking first with 28 points, still maintaining its unbeaten record;
Inter Milan drew 1-1 with Juventus , and defeated Empoli 0-2 in the 10th round, ranking 4th with 21 points;
Juventus suffered a major upset in the 10th round, losing 1-2 to Sassuolo at home and falling to 9th place again.
Chen Xiaoliang played well in this game and played the whole game. He got 3 hours of training points and 2 physical recovery cards. In addition, he got 3 hours of adaptive training the day before the game. The total accumulation is as follows:
Training value 67→73
Stamina recovery card 2→4
They hurried back to Rome because their next opponent, AC Milan, is also one of the three giants in Serie A like Juventus. However, in stark contrast to the struggling Zebras, they have risen to first place in the league while Napoli lost.
9 wins, 1 draw, and no defeat yet.
The experienced Pioli has brought great differences to AC Milan after taking charge of the team, showing a new and better look both in tactics and team management.
Especially in the winter window of 2020, the arrival of the man who calls himself "God" added a strong spiritual attribute to the team!
He is already 39 years old and has played in the Eredivisie, Ligue 1, Serie A, La Liga, and the Premier League. Except for the Bundesliga, he has played in almost all five major leagues and won championships in all of them.
5 Serie A titles, 4 Ligue 1 titles, 1 La Liga title, 10 league titles alone are enough to make most players unable to catch up in their lifetime.
What's more, he has 23 cup trophies, including the Europa League with Manchester United and the Club World Cup with Barcelona.
Although he is definitely "old" among the players and his speed has become slower, his strength, power and balance are still top-notch. What's more, his mental willpower and strong competitive spirit are hard for ordinary people to match!
In addition, his skills as a striker, such as receiving the ball, shooting, heading and long-range shooting, have not only not declined, but have shown signs of getting stronger with age, which makes him still one of the top strikers in Serie A!
This person is Cesco's idol, the world's best striker, the unruly man who calls himself God, and is nicknamed the Great Fengxian by the Red Country fans - Zlatan Ibrahimovic!
