Chapter 166: Huge Controversy! Who is the strongest in the world?
In the second half, in the 49th minute, Roma took advantage of a set-piece from Veretout and Smalling scored another goal. The score of 0-5 was enough to take away 3 points. Mourinho did not want Shevchenko, who was making his debut, to be too embarrassed, so he started a large-scale substitution.
Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, Veretout and Karsdorp were replaced by Mkhitaryan, Marayol, Darbo and Calafiori.
Chen Xiaoliang gave the captain's armband to Mancini before leaving the field.
Although the team still held the initiative, without Chen Xiaoliang, the pressure from the midfield and the speed of attack-defense transition were greatly reduced, and there were not many threatening shots.
In the 77th minute, Mourinho replaced Abraham with young player Gian.
I thought the game was over, but Gian gave a performance that was eye-catching.
In the 92nd minute, Genoa players who were ready to accept the fact of the crushing defeat were waiting for the referee's whistle, but Mkhitaryan advanced 20 meters in the middle, passed Genoa substitute midfielder Gadels and made a diagonal pass to Gian who was cutting into the penalty area. Gian pushed the ball and it rolled into the far corner.
0 to 6!
Roma's biggest single-game goal difference this season!
A minute later, the referee blew the whistle, and Mourinho walked over to shake hands and hug Shevchenko, and talked to him a lot.
Any coach will face huge pressure after such a devastating defeat, even if you are a football legend.
Perhaps thinking that the post-match greetings between the two were not enough, Mourinho praised Shevchenko again in the post-match press conference, saying that he was a very talented head coach and that a crushing defeat did not mean anything.
Reporters inevitably asked about Chen Xiaoliang's new position, his and Cesco's explosive performance in this game, and whether captain Pellegrini would be kept on the bench for a long time in the future, or even let Chen Xiaoliang take over the captain's position completely.
Mourinho was very proud in his heart, but he was very careful in his words.
The Golden Boy Award ceremony will be held the night after this press conference, and there are still eight days before the Copa Award selection. Anything he says at this moment will not only represent himself, but will also affect Chen Xiaoliang's final ranking.
It was the first time that the 59-year-old wanted to help one of his players win personal honors.
This is naturally due to his favoritism towards Chen Xiaoliang, but it is also for the purpose of proving that he still has a huge influence in the core circle of European football.
"Pellegrini has played almost all the games this season and needs to be rotated properly. I have to ensure the health of every player.
The season is only a third of the way through, and I can tell you in advance that Pellegrini will start in the next game against Vitesse and continue to serve as the team captain.
As for Chen Xiaoliang, there is no need to say much about his ability. He is fully capable of playing in the center midfield position, and today's performance also proved everything.
His potential, talent, and speed of improvement are the highest and fastest of all the players I have ever seen, but the hard work he puts in to realize his talent is also rare in his age group.
You just mentioned Cesco's performance today. I would like to say that he has been improving since he joined the team and has now become our most important offensive point.
He and Chen Xiaoliang often came to the training base together and practiced together after training. Of course, Abraham, Wu Lei and others would also be there sometimes, but the two of them almost never stopped.
Even sometimes I would ask them to stop practicing and go back to rest early, they would still say: 'Hey, boss, let's play for a while and then leave.'
I asked Gerrard, who was the one who loaned Chen to Rangers, and he told me that Chen had to train almost every day when he was in Glasgow, regardless of whether the team had training arrangements or not.
What I want to say is that Chen Xiaoliang is of course a genius, but all the outstanding performances you saw today were earned through his hard work. I don’t know how Cesco performed in Austria, but after he came to Rome, he also worked very hard under the leadership of Chen Xiaoliang.
Training hard and then participating in every game seriously is the path that can truly help young players improve, not just something that a few stupid reporters who don’t know the truth or don’t understand football write. ”
After Mourinho finished, Shevchenko came to the press conference with a stern face.
Although he was in a bad mood, he still expressed his recognition of Mourinho's team, praising Roma for their obvious progress under the Portuguese.
Talking about Chen Xiaoliang, Shevchenko said that his performance today was unforgettable for him. He had a very good sense of space in the midfield and was always able to avoid the defensive forces he had arranged. At the same time, he used a simple pass to distribute the ball to his teammates on the two flanks as quickly as possible.
As for his cross, the Ukrainian, a legendary striker, said it was the cross that all strikers dream of.
Back home it's another day of rest as usual.
Chen Xiaoliang was not idle. He took the sisters who also liked sports, as well as Cesco and Wu Lei, out to climb the mountain in nearby Topano early in the morning.
That night, Riise and David also gathered together, and everyone ate and drank while watching the European Golden Boy Award ceremony being held in Turin.
When Portman appeared in the camera of the award ceremony, everyone in the room couldn't help but look at Chen Xiaoliang.
As the person closest to him, everyone more or less knows what this female reporter did.
The ceremony began with the presentation of the Ballon d'Or, also known as the "Tottenham Ballon d'Or" for the best player of the year.
Bayern Munich's Lewandowski ranked first and won the award, followed by Italy national team captain and Chelsea midfielder Jorginho, and Messi third.
Barcelona women's football team's Dutch striker Martens won the "Women's Metropolitan Sports Ballon d'Or".
Then, Rummenigge, the former Bayern chairman of the board who retired this summer, was awarded the Special Career Award in recognition of his contribution to football.
AC Milan center back Simon Kehl, who bravely rescued his Danish national team teammate Eriksen at the European Cup, became the winner of the Scirea Professional Role Model Award.
It is worth mentioning that the legendary player who named this award, Scirea, is a famous player of Italy and Juventus. As a defender, he has never received a red card in more than 700 professional games. His character and playing style have been unanimously praised. In 1989, he went to Poland as a Juventus scout to observe the opponent and unfortunately died in a car accident. He was only 36 years old.
Since then, many awards for fair play and sportsmanship in Italian football have been named after Scirea.
The last and most important award of the ceremony, the 2021 Golden Boy Award, was given to Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Pedri, just as the odds had been expected.
In the ranking, Bellingham surpassed Chen Xiaoliang and ranked second, while Chen Xiaoliang ranked third.
Although everyone had expected it, they all felt sorry for Chen Xiaoliang.
After all, before meeting Portman, Chen Xiaoliang's odds had caught up to almost the same level as Pedri, and there was even a trend of reversal.
After that, it seemed that the bookmakers also noticed the change in the direction of the media reporters, and Chen Xiaoliang's odds increased significantly for several consecutive days, while his recent performance was overwhelmingly better than Bellingham and Pedri who was still lying in the hospital bed.
David even said angrily that if Chen Xiaoliang agreed, he would find someone to teach that Italian bitch a lesson.
Chen Xiaoliang laughed out loud, broke his rule, and poured half a glass of red wine to thank everyone present for their kindness.
He also told David, Wu Lei's wife and children that he would invite them to the box to watch the home game the day after tomorrow.
Of course, the sisters cannot be left out.
He has been training intensively these days, practicing together and practicing again for three days, for a total of 15 hours.
Training value 16 → 31
In addition to being included in the roster and playing in the last game, he also had three assists and gained 9 training points.
However, after the game, the best player award was given to Cesco who scored a hat trick.
Training value 31→40
The two tasks of winning and not conceding a goal also gave you 2 more stamina recovery cards.
Stamina recovery card 2→4
However, he unexpectedly discovered that three assists in a single game could actually complete the task of [achieving a hat trick in the next game]. This was the first time he had accomplished this task in more than a year since he had the system!
[Reward: Any technical attribute +1]
40 training points, 1 point for any technical attribute!
He first used this 1 point to add to the already 18 points of the cross, but no one responded after clicking!
【Boom boom boom! 】
[This task reward cannot increase the attribute to more than 18]
After listening to the system's prompts, he finally understood that to upgrade to levels 19 and 20, he would have to rely on star cards, or some achievements and tasks that had not yet been triggered.
In that case, there is no need to hesitate.
First use 40 training points to increase the pass to 15.
Pass 13 → 15
Training value 40 → 0
Use this 1 point again and go!
Pass 15 → 16
16 passes! 18 crosses!
This means that no matter where he is on the court, as long as he is given an opening, he can make a pretty good pass!
On the afternoon of the 25th, the team gathered and did some warm-up exercises, and then took a bus to the Olympic Stadium together.
It seems to be intentional, or more like it is not wanting to waste any opportunity to earn traffic, Turin Sports Daily has taken action personally this time.
On the front page of the publication the day after the awards ceremony, they reported the results of the awards ceremony last night.
And in the award speech read to Pedri, there was an intriguing passage:
"He is the best under-21 player in the world right now, probably the best one.
His talent and ability are unique among players whose age fluctuates by 2 years.
His performance on the field, like that of his predecessor and current Barcelona head coach Xavi, cannot be simply reflected by crude data.
Use passing to organize the offense, use running to contain the defense, and use positioning to cut off the opponent's offensive routes.
There were no dangerous tackles, fierce confrontations or brutal headers. The long-standing tradition of Spanish football was fully reflected in him.
The passing and control experience of La Liga giants Barcelona gave him further support.
He is Pedri, a true top midfielder and a strong contender for the next best player in Europe."
However, what is embarrassing is that in the online voting they set up, Chen Xiaoliang won 17.36 million votes and 88% of the votes, far ahead of the second place, Salzburg Red Bull's German striker Adeyemi, who received 580,000 votes.
It is said that fans from the Red Country contributed 15 million of these tickets.
"Torino Sports Daily" announced that it would not give out this year's Internet Golden Boy Award due to "server technical failure and statistical errors".
This combination of operations has attracted the attention of people who originally didn't care much about this matter.
Within a day or two, major Internet platforms launched a fierce attack on Turin Sports Daily, especially under the account of those reporters who continued to slander Chen Xiaoliang. Tens of thousands of fans, most of whom were fans from the Red Country, Scotland and Rome, left messages questioning and even insulting them.
As time went on, fans of Inter Milan and AC Milan also joined the war of words.
Then, Barcelona fans came as reinforcements to support Turin Sports Daily, while Real Madrid fans followed behind and chased Barcelona fans all the way.
For a while, the debate between Pedri and Chen Xiaoliang about who should win the Golden Boy Award even surpassed the debate between Lewandowski and Messi about who should win the Ballon d'Or.
Of course, the Ballon d'Or here refers to the real Ballon d'Or of France Football.
After all, Messi's fan base is much larger than Lewandowski's, and most of the fans who think he is not qualified to win the award are Ronaldo's fans...
Many of Chen Xiaoliang's teammates were also angry, especially his rookie team in the locker room.
Portman and the others have seen her. Before and after every game, she is often the one interviewed in the player tunnel.
Although it's so big that people can't help but take a few more glances, in the glamorous world of Rome, is it bigger than Portman? There are so many. Thornton and El Shaarawy can name 100 girls who are bigger than Portman that they have seen in nightclubs in the eighth district of Rome.
Especially after the nightclub scandal was announced, Zaniolo immediately deleted Portman's contact information, and was extremely angry.
I spent money and fell into your trap, and almost lost my position as the main player.
In this wave, Zaniolo stood on Chen Xiaoliang's side.
There were no major twists and turns in the match against Vitesse. Roma continued its good form and made full use of the home advantage.
Mourinho fulfilled his promise at the press conference. Pellegrini returned to the starting lineup and wore the captain's armband, forming a double midfield with Cristante.
Chen Xiaoliang returned to the position of single defensive midfielder.
Wu Lei, who had not started for a long time, got the chance to start again.
Inside the stadium, Roma fans held up banners supporting Chen Xiaoliang and satirizing Turin Sports Daily.
In the 23rd minute of the first half, Chen Xiaoliang made a long pass from the backcourt and found Zaniolo who was offside on the left.
Zaniolo dribbled past two defenders at the bottom line and passed the ball across the goal. Wu Lei easily blocked the ball into the goal with an empty net.
1 to 0!
Vitesse was still much stronger than Mura. Before the end of the first half, Thomas Budink received a cross from his teammate Bello and headed the ball to equalize the score, beating Kumbulla, who started the game.
However, in the 74th minute of the second half, Vitesse, whose physical strength had obviously declined, still failed to stop Roma's quick counterattack.
Karsdorp, who missed the opponent Bello in the first half and caused the ball to be lost after his cross, ran all the way to the penalty area and made an inverted triangle pass. Zaniolo, who assisted in the first half, shot from the penalty area line and the ball flew directly into the upper left corner of the goal.
2 to 1!
This score remained until the end of the game.
After five rounds of group matches, Roma had 4 wins and 1 draw, accumulating 13 points and securing the qualification to advance as the group leader.
Vitesse is second with 7 points;
Tottenham Hotspur only brought half of the team to Slovenia in the away game. In order to maintain the top four in the league, Conte had strategically given up this event and eventually lost 2-1 to the persistent Mura.
Tottenham Hotspur is third with 5 points and still has a theoretical chance of qualifying;
Mura finally won its first victory, but still ranked last with 3 points.
At the post-match press conference, Mourinho did not talk much about the game, but he specifically brought up Chen Xiaoliang, who was at the center of the heated discussion.
The selection of the Golden Boy Award has caused a lot of controversy, but L'Equipe and France Football remained silent before the Copa Award ceremony, insisting not to respond to the dispute between Messi and Lewandowski, as well as the dispute between Chen Xiaoliang and Pedri.
When asked this question, Chen Xiaoliang's answer was easy and simple:
"Any selection has its own rules. It is an honor for me to be mentioned together with those outstanding players."
When asked what he thought about many people believing he was better than Pedri, Chen Xiaoliang did not respond directly:
"The media always wants things to ferment and generate more traffic, but for me, the team's current good condition is the most important thing.
Who is better, Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi? Who deserves the Ballon d'Or more, Messi or Lewandowski? No matter how we discuss these things, there will always be an answer, and there will never be an answer without an answer.
Stars like them can't tell the difference, so for me, such comparisons are even less important."
Although he spoke gently, Chen Xiaoliang's feet were not gentle at all.
These days he has been almost completely immersed in the world of training. From morning to night, all he does is training.
The 13th round of the league has been completed.
A focus battle unfolds between Inter Milan and Napoli.
Napoli scored the first goal by Zielinski, while Inter Milan scored three goals in a row by Calhanoglu, Perisic and Lautaro. Napoli also had Mertens score a goal in the 77th minute.
In the end, at the Meazza, defending champions Inter Milan won 3-2, giving Napoli their second defeat of the season;
Fiorentina fought a fierce battle against AC Milan at home and finally won the game 4-3;
Juventus challenged Lazio away and won 0-2 to narrow the gap with the top four again;
Atalanta beat Spezia 5-2 at home;
In the standings, Napoli and AC Milan, who both lost in this round, still lead the standings with 31 points and 30 points respectively;
Roma and Inter Milan followed closely behind, ranking 3rd and 4th with 28 points each, but the gap with the top is only 3 points;
Atalanta ranked fifth with 24 points and continued to closely follow the Champions League zone;
Juventus quietly caught up to 6th place with 19 points;
Lazio and Fiorentina are ranked 7th and 8th with 18 points each, and have clearly widened the gap with the leading group.
Chen Xiaoliang's teammates, especially the young people, have also been training very hard recently, as if they were infected by Chen Xiaoliang. It seemed as if everyone could attend the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. Even Mourinho was secretly happy.
But the reason is very simple.
At this point in the Copa Award, the Ballon d'Or winners have already known who they voted for, but the candidates will not be notified in advance to prepare their acceptance speeches until the morning of the ceremony.
It is no longer possible to change the outcome through performance.
But by some coincidence, Roma's next opponent is none other than Torino Football Club from Turin.
Speaking of which, although Tuttosport is known as the mouthpiece of Juventus, they are actually also supporters of the Torino team, and they also openly support this city team in the content of the newspaper.
These players have no way to deal with those black reporters hiding on the Internet, but they cannot let Torino go when they come to their doorstep.
They now have 17 points, 5 wins, 2 draws and 6 losses, ranking 12th in the league.
Although they are ranked in the lower half of the standings, the teams above them from 7th to 10th have 18 points each, which means that Torino has the potential to move into the upper half of the league by winning at any time, and is not a bottom-ranked team.
Before the game, Mourinho specifically asked Chen Xiaoliang for his opinion on which position he wanted to play.
Chen Xiaoliang said that as long as he is in the middle, whether as a central midfielder or defensive midfielder, he can display his full abilities.
Mourinho considered for a long time and finally put him in the position of single defensive midfielder.
The team's locker room has overwhelmingly leaned towards Chen Xiaoliang because of his explosive performance and the strength of the rookie department.
For all discussions within the locker room, it was Chen Xiaoliang who made the final summary speeches and decisions.
Although he didn't win the Golden Boy Award after finishing third, it's still a remarkable achievement for a club like Roma.
At the same time, according to his estimation, Tuttosport took advantage of the dispute between Messi and Lewandowski for the Ballon d'Or and deliberately awarded their own "Tuttosport Ballon d'Or" to Lewandowski to stir up heated discussions among fans, while France Football has been unwilling to respond positively.
If things continue to develop in this way, France Football, which is far more authoritative and influential than Turin Sports, will definitely end all doubts and speculations with practical actions at the awards ceremony.
If, just if, Chen Xiaoliang can be recognized by those Ballon d'Or legends at the Copa Award, he will be the second player in Roma to win the most authoritative non-statistical individual award in Europe.
The last winner was Totti, who won the Golden Foot Award in 2010 and the UEFA President's Award when he retired in 2017.
By then, Chen Xiaoliang's position in the Roma locker room will be extremely stable, and Mourinho will be able to completely complete the transition of leadership in the locker room without any active intervention.
However, there are still 24 hours before the award ceremony, and the most urgent task now is to send Torino off to the road with great satisfaction at home.
