Chapter 283 The second Lampard? No, he is unique!
Last season, Inter Milan's last league match against Roma was also at the Meazza, with the score being 3-5. Chen Xiaoliang's amazing hat-trick led to Roma's big reversal.
The reason for this result is Mourinho's best tactic when facing strong teams - defensive counterattack. The Nerazzurri, the Nerazzurri fans who have experienced Inter Milan's treble, are obviously not unfamiliar with this.
Before the game, Inzaghi repeatedly stressed to the team not to give up too much depth, but Roma's active retreat forced Inter Milan to press forward in order to increase the success rate of the attack.
Just like that, one knew it was a trap, and the other knew that you knew it was a trap, and in the end both parties really stepped into it.
Facing this constantly strengthening Roma, there is actually a consensus in the Serie A coaching circle on how to deal with them. That is to let Roma attack more, make the game more open, and make their midfielders have no time to protect the back line, so that the weaknesses of the back line can be fully exposed.
Inzaghi, dressed in a neat suit, and his assistant Faris took advantage of the gap after the goal to call Calhanoglu, Lautaro and others, repeatedly emphasizing the execution of tactics. After Lukaku kicked off from the center circle to restart the game, Inter Milan played more directly.
Chen Xiaoliang and Barrera seemed like a pair of enemies and began to fight on the court.
In the 20th minute, Calhanoglu held the ball in the middle, and Barrera, who was moving forward to receive the ball, was closely watched by Chen Xiaoliang. Enzo moved to the front of Calhanoglu to defend as instructed by the captain.
Seeing that there was no good receiving point in front, Calhanoglu simply took a long shot himself.
30 meters outside the penalty area, the ball flew out like a rainbow under his feet and suddenly fell halfway!
Fortunately, the distance was a little far, and Patricio reacted as well as Handanovic's two consecutive dives just now. He fell to the left and dived sideways, blocking the ball before it flew into the lower right corner of the goal.
Seeing Calhanoglu, who was mainly responsible for organizing the attack and transferring the ball, start to shoot from long range, Chen Xiaoliang immediately understood that it was not that Inter Milan could not attack, but that they were no longer obsessed with passing the ball into their own penalty area.
After missing the attack, Inter Milan's three lines immediately retreated. As a result, Roma, who had the goal kick, could only fight a positional battle.
In the 24th minute, Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball forward from the midfield and Barrera got ready to block him.
Chen Xiaoliang controlled the ball and glanced at Kva on the left. Seeing that Kva was slowly moving from the side to the middle, he knew that Kva was ready.
Barrera came up and blocked Chen Xiaoliang's path with his body while trying to destroy the ball under his feet.
Chen Xiaoliang gently pushed the ball to his left with his right foot, then turned slightly to the left. Barrera thought Chen Xiaoliang was going to change direction, so he immediately moved to the right, continuing to try to block Chen Xiaoliang's way.
Unexpectedly, Chen Xiaoliang turned sideways to the left and continued to push the ball with his right foot, but this time he pulled the ball directly counterclockwise behind him, and easily completed a circle with the ball, facing to the right, leaving Barrera behind him.
Barrera's center of gravity was deceived and he immediately adjusted his force, but at this time Chen Xiaoliang had already gotten rid of Barrera and ran with the ball to the front right.
Although Calhanoglu is not good at defense and confrontation, it does not mean that he does not have the task of assisting defense on the court.
Seeing Barrera being dribbled past by Chen Xiaoliang, he ran over to try to slow down Chen Xiaoliang's dribbling.
There were blockades in front and pursuers behind. After moving more than ten meters, Chen Xiaoliang stopped. Barrera caught up to him again. This time, he and Calhanoglu blocked him together. The Turks assisted in defense, and he pressed forward again to try to steal the ball.
Zhang Lu: "The two of them are at loggerheads. Ever since Xiaoliang scored, Barrera has been following him like a shadow in defense. As long as Xiaoliang enters the midfield, Barrera will definitely stick to him."
On the field, Chen Xiaoliang flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot, first moving it to the right as if he was going to break through. When Barrera and Calhanoglu moved their center of gravity to the left to block, he made another clockwise circle with the ball, this time controlling the ball to the left.
This time he did not carry the ball forward again. He had achieved his goal by bringing Inter Milan's two central midfielders to the right side from the middle of the midfield.
At this time, he pushed the ball hard with his left foot. Kva in front had been waiting for a long time. He started from the left sideways to the middle and received the pass from Chen Xiaoliang.
Zhan Jun: "Let's see! In the confrontation with Barrera, Xiaoliang used the action of dribbling and turning twice to get rid of the opponent's pressing defense."
Zhang Lu: "This is Xavi's signature move, dribbling the ball in circles and getting rid of the opponent's pressing in a small space."
After receiving the ball horizontally, Kva immediately rushed towards the penalty area with the ball. Aslani pounced on him. The middle of the penalty area was his defense area as a defensive midfielder.
To be fair, Aslani's performance so far has not been bad at all.
Running in the backcourt, creating space to receive the pass from the frontcourt, ensuring control of the ball, and then passing the ball in the backcourt, whether to pass the ball to the side or to pass it straight, there is no problem in the choice, and the turnovers are also very good.
In the counterattack where Roma scored the goal just now, he was preparing for a second attack at the front of the penalty area and therefore did not have time to return to defense. This was a tactical arrangement and was not his responsibility.
But the 20-year-old has the same shortcoming as Juventus' 19-year-old Mireti: he has talent, skills and potential, but he just doesn't have enough first-team game experience.
The season before last, he was still in the reserve league. Last season, he was promoted to the first team by Empoli. In Serie A, he made a total of 23 appearances, nearly half of which were as a substitute.
Because of his shown potential, he was retained by Inter Milan in this summer window on a lease-to-buy basis.
His first-team experience is unattainable for most young players, but despite the many hardships in the club, the 21-year-old Kva is used as a core player in Rubin Kazan, Dynamo Batumi and the Georgian national team.
The 21-year-old Enzo is the main midfielder of the Argentine giants River Plate.
Add to that the 19-year-old Cesco and the 18-year-old Chen Xiaoliang, and there is no harm without comparison.
Haaland became a starter at Red Bull Salzburg at the age of 18 and was bought by Dortmund half a season later. That season, he made 29 league appearances and scored 29 goals for the two teams combined, making him famous in the Bundesliga.
Mbappe became a main player of Monaco at the age of 17, joined Paris Saint-Germain at the age of 18, and scored 33 goals in 29 league appearances at the age of 19, plus 4 goals that ranked second in the World Cup and won the World Cup championship.
In addition, there is Pogba, who became a main player for Juventus at the age of 19, Pedri, who became the core of Barcelona's midfield at the age of 18, and Bellingham, who carried Dortmund's midfield and frontcourt behind Haaland at the age of 17.
Twenty years ago, when European football evaluated a player, 24 years old was the dividing line. If a player still couldn't play after this age, he would most likely be useless.
Players like Luca Toni who suddenly broke out at the age of 28 , won the first Serie A Golden Boot with more than 30 goals in 50 years and joined the top club Bayern at the age of 30 are outliers among outliers.
Ten years ago, this number dropped to 22 years old. If one showed talent before the age of 22, he or she could basically book a ticket to a top club.
Nowadays, being known throughout Europe before the age of 20 has almost become one of the necessary criteria for becoming a superstar.
At this moment, 20-year-old Aslani met 21-year-old Kwa. Although they were only one year apart in age, one still looked like a newcomer while the other already had the tone of a veteran.
Kva approached Aslani, first he made a bicycle kick fake movement with his left foot, then he lowered his shoulders and stepped his left foot to the left. This fake breakthrough shook Aslani's center of gravity.
Kva kicked the ball with his right foot and broke into the penalty area from Aslani's left side. Left center back Bastoni came up to block him, but Kva did not give him a chance to get close and shot!
Handanovic made another wonderful save, he leaned to the left and blocked the ball outside the goal. Acerbi blocked Cesco and did not give him a chance to make a follow-up shot. He caught up with the ball, raised his foot and kicked it out of the baseline.
Roma gets a corner kick!
Bastoni stood up and patted Asrani.
Inzaghi was very annoyed, but before he could flare up, Lukaku started arguing with Barella.
Lukaku: "Go back, that's your position! You can't leave Asllani there alone!"
Barrera: "Shut your mouth! Mind your own business!"
Lautaro quickly came over and pulled Lukaku away.
Impatient, just like in the previous game between Roma and Atalanta, Inter Milan's players were involuntarily eager to change the status quo on the field.
Referee Massaro came over and warned Barrera that even if there was a quarrel between teammates, as long as it affected the entire progress of the game, they would be sanctioned by the referee.
Pellegrini stood at the corner kick spot, and many Roma players pressed forward, while Enzo, Malacia and Spinazzola stayed behind, with Chen Xiaoliang coordinating outside the penalty area.
On the Inter Milan side, even Lukaku returned to the penalty area to defend.
Referee Massaro signaled that a penalty kick could be taken, but Pellegrini took a run-up and passed a low ball. Chen Xiaoliang rushed to the right side of the penalty area to receive the ball.
Upon discovering that Roma had taken a tactical corner kick, Inter Milan's defense immediately dispersed. Lukaku, who was wandering near the near post, and Barella, who had been eyeing Chen Xiaoliang for a long time, rushed towards Chen Xiaoliang together.
Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball forward and prepared to go down the line. He took a glance halfway and saw the aggressive Barella, who was fine, but Lukaku was rushing towards him with all his strength, really like a running African rhinoceros trying to knock him over.
Roma's attacking players readjusted their positions during the tactical corner kick on the wing. Sesco got rid of Acerbi's close defense under the cover of Gvardiol and Matic. Chen Xiaoliang raised his right foot and made a cross. As soon as the ball flew up, it was blocked by Lukaku who rushed up and jumped high to block the ball with his body.
Seeing Lukaku falling from the sky and flying towards him, Chen Xiaoliang quickly dodged. If he was hit, he would feel chest tightness for a while.
Mbappe's speed and Lukaku's physique are truly the two most extreme players he has ever encountered while playing football.
Pellegrini was again at the corner post.
A tactic used once cannot be used a second time. Just now, the tactical corner kick was disrupted by Lukaku. Chen Xiaoliang returned to the top of the penalty area, Lukaku returned to the near post to defend, and Barrera still followed Chen Xiaoliang like a shadow, staring at him closely.
Pellegrini's corner kick was passed directly into the penalty area!
However, because he is a right-footed player, he uses the inside of his foot to take a corner kick on the right side, and the ball rotates towards outside the penalty area.
Just now, Cesco was shielded and escaped from the defense, so this time Acerbi was more cautious about the shield in advance.
As a result, while the two were still fighting, the ball had already been headed out by Bastoni at the front point.
Seeing that they failed to grab the first point, the players in the penalty area of both teams immediately loosened their legs outside the penalty area!
Chen Xiaoliang, who was responsible for supporting outside the penalty area, immediately chased the ball horizontally along the penalty area line. Barella also rushed over, but the Inter Milan midfielder knew that with his height and bounce, he had no chance of winning against Chen Xiaoliang in the aerial header. However, in this position outside the penalty area, even if he headed the ball, he could not directly threaten the goal. So his strategy was to block Chen Xiaoliang's three routes if he could not get the second ball, so that he could not take a long shot directly from outside the penalty area.
The two people who were running without the ball had about eight hundred thoughts in their minds at this moment. Chen Xiaoliang saw that Barrera was not going to jump, so he knew that he would defend against shots but not headers.
In that case, let's take advantage of the situation. Chen Xiaoliang jumped high, shook his head and pushed the ball hard, sending it to the left side of the penalty area!
The players from both teams, who were originally running out of the penalty area one after another, saw the ball being headed back, and retreated back into the penalty area like a tide.
Gvadiol, who was attacking on the left, reacted the fastest. He had not made his presence felt in the offense since arriving in Rome. When he saw the ball coming over, he immediately moved forward and chased after it!
Skriniar, who was defending this route, also returned to defense immediately, but was blocked by Mancini halfway and watched Gvardiol head the ball at the bottom line on the left side of the small penalty area!
But the angle of the ball from the goal was too small and the landing point was too deep to be stopped by the feet. Gvadiol knew that heading the ball at this point was just a pure waste of opportunity. In a flash, he saw several red figures moving in the middle, so he swung the ball with the right side of his forehead and headed the ball back to the middle between the penalty spot and the small penalty area!
Barrera, who was marking Chen Xiaoliang, habitually looked back at where the ball went after Chen Xiaoliang headed the ball, just like all defensive players will look back after the opponent's shot to see whether the ball was saved by the goalkeeper, blocked by the defender, went out of the baseline or something else, so that they can make a second reaction in time. This is a habit developed over time and is also the inevitable result of high defensive concentration.
But Barrera was destined to regret his subconscious look back this time, because when he looked back again, Chen Xiaoliang, who was originally in front of him, had disappeared!
At that moment, Barrera felt as if the air around him had solidified, and the whole world turned into a space of only three colors: black, white and gray. Only the No. 33 of Roma, who had left him several steps behind, appeared in his eyes like blood.
Zhan Jun: "Gvardiol's header and rub!"
"Middle! Header!"
Zhan Jun's voice rose an octave, while Zhang Lu seemed to have lost the ability to organize his words: "Huh?! Eh?! Oh!!"
Zhan Jun: “This ball goes in!”
"A beautiful header and aerial combination!"
"Xiaoliang! Score another goal in the 27th minute of the first half! Today the Pope came to the Meazza, headed and kicked the ball , it was crazy!"
"This ball seemed to be parallel to the ground! Barrera's missed defense and the defenders' eyes were all looking at their own goal, so Chen Xiaoliang had no defensive pressure in the middle and headed the ball very powerfully. Although Handanovic made a save, the ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and flew into the goal, making his save in vain!"
"Let's watch the replay! This escape was the key. When Xiaoliang headed the ball to Gvardiol at the far post, Barrera turned his head to look at his own penalty area! And Xiaoliang rushed into the penalty area from behind him on the right, bypassing his field of vision!"
Zhang Lu: “Although this ball was not as intentional as the first tactical corner kick, and was headed out by an Inter player in the middle, it was a mistake. But we can see that whether it was Gvardiol’s header back or Chen Xiaoliang taking advantage of the gap caused by Barrera’s distraction, they all demonstrated a strong sense of coordination and ability to use space!”
"This Gvardiol has changed the bad habit of Roma's central defenders who were rash and prone to mistakes. He performed well in the first few games. He defended Lukaku well today and also showed his ability in attack. If he is in charge of Croatia's defense at the World Cup at the end of the year, it will be really interesting ."
Zhan Jun: "Zhang Zhi, he has been the main central defender in recent national team matches, including the UEFA Nations League!"
"Kvaratskhelia who created the corner kick just now, Dybala who has scored 5 goals in Rome this season, and Gvardiol will all be highlights of the World Cup. It's a pity that Cesco and Xiaoliang can only watch the game as spectators like us!"
Zhang Lu uttered a helpless yet meaningful sneer: "Haha."
In the 27th minute, Roma's players were very excited as they took a two-goal lead away from home. Even Dybala and Celik on the bench were very excited and hugged and high-fived to celebrate.
Gvardiol came over to join Chen Xiaoliang's celebration, and turned back to thank Mancini.
Although it seemed that Mancini did not do anything, it was his containment of Skriniar during the move that protected Gvardiol, allowing him to finally head the ball and assist Chen Xiaoliang.
This is also the first statistical achievement of Gvardiol on the offensive end since he came to Serie A.
Foti on the sidelines was very excited and said to Mourinho: "Jose, I think we can try to let Chen play as a front midfielder behind Stroke, or even as a No. 9 and a half. He definitely has the ability! He can become the Lampard of Roma!"
Mourinho responded: "Lampard doesn't have his defensive ability."
Of course, what Forti said is well-founded. Not to mention that Chen Xiaoliang is far ahead of other players in the team in terms of forward passing and long passes, as for the offensive data since the start of this season, as of this game, he has 5 goals and 3 assists in 8 league rounds, 1 goal and 3 assists in 2 Champions League games, and a total of 6 goals and 6 assists in 10 games. Not to mention the midfield, this is enough to be comparable to most of the strikers in Serie A and even the top five leagues.
Mourinho wanted to make such an arrangement during the summer warm-up and also told Chen Xiaoliang about it, but deep down, he attaches great importance to defense. After Wijnaldum was seriously injured, he considered that once Chen Xiaoliang moved forward significantly and increased the frequency of attacking the opponent's penalty area, he would inevitably reduce the intensity of defense in his own half or even near the penalty area.
In his football philosophy, scoring goals is of course important, but as long as the defense is good, the offense only needs one goal to win the game. Without defense, even if three goals are scored, the game can still be lost.
While the two were communicating, the extremely dissatisfied Inzaghi called Barella from the opposite coaching bench. Although Barella was very angry, he did not directly respond to the head coach like he did to Lukaku, but chose to listen quietly, although his expression was very unpleasant.
Barrera is indeed a very strong and comprehensive player, but his strength lies in his overall ability. If you take one of the two ends of offense and defense separately, his strength cannot be said to be top-notch.
But now, because of his recklessness, he thought that he could cut off Roma's attack by locking up Chen Xiaoliang. As a result, not only did he fail to defend Chen Xiaoliang, but he was also led by the nose by the opponent, who took advantage of his positional confusion and launched a series of successful attacks. Inzaghi did not care about the player's face and started scolding him directly on the sidelines.
Inter Milan fans seemed to have lost their patience and began attacking the club's board of directors and their own team in the stands.
As the defending champion last season, they only finished third, not only behind Roma, but also lost to their city rivals AC Milan. They were also uncompetitive in the Champions League, losing to Liverpool 1-2 on aggregate in the first knockout round and were sent home.
This season, the team sent away veterans Vidal, Sanchez and Kolarov in the summer transfer window, which reduced a lot of salary costs. However, except for Lukaku, the other signings did not make the fans feel that the board had the ambition to reach the top again. After 7 rounds of the league, the team was only ranked 7th, 5 points behind the top, which made the fans worried.
In addition, external media continued to report that Chairman Zhang Kangyang had been sued by creditors in many places because of overdue loan repayments. With all these factors combined, it seemed that the team had lost the game in 27 minutes at home, which naturally caused the fans' dissatisfaction to burst out.
"Get out of the club!"
"Give us the team back!"
"There is no chance of winning the championship with such performance! Stop treating Inter Milan as your toy!"
"Simoné, your on-the-spot command is a piece of shit!"
All kinds of abuse and criticism are heard everywhere.
After accepting the congratulations from his teammates, Chen Xiaoliang did not forget to glance at Barrera who was being "scolded" on his way back.
He didn't know whether the Italian midfielder would get rid of his provocation after being scolded, but he was sure that although Inter Milan was not in the best condition, they would definitely not give up in this game.
Just then, Chen Xiaoliang looked around and waited for Inter Milan to kick off from the center circle and continue the game, when he discovered that Lukaku was clapping and loudly encouraging his teammates.
Chen Xiaoliang also turned around and said to Enzo: "Wait for a while and see what other tricks they have."
