Chapter 319: Godly Screenwriter! The Magic Bird Returns to Stamford Bridge!
2-1, a score that made Juventus despair, also meant that this most successful old-brand giant in Italian domestic competitions no longer had the strength to challenge Roma.
However, Mourinho did not become complacent. He still reminded the team on the sidelines that they must maintain a stable formation and mental focus, and also asked Chen Xiaoliang to stay on the field to stabilize the team's offense and defense.
Although Juventus, who were one man down, replaced several players, they still conceded another goal to Roma after an unsuccessful counterattack.
In the 88th minute, Chen Xiaoliang made a steal and advanced to the frontcourt, passing the ball to Kva on the left. Kva passed the ball to Abraham . The Englishman was unguarded with the support of Cesco's running, and he rushed to the front of the goal, turned sideways and raised his left foot to cushion the ball into the goal.
3 to 1, the game was completely over.
Not long after, after the injury time ended as a routine, the referee blew the final whistle.
Chen Xiaoliang, his teammates, coaches and more than 60,000 fans celebrated the victory together, which widened the gap with second-placed Napoli by 9 points, meaning they have one foot in the door to winning the Serie A title again.
After the game, Allegri implicitly criticized the referee for disrupting the balance of the game, causing Juventus to lose the number of people necessary to control the game.
However, compared to the referee, he focused more on "sour" Mourinho.
He said that the appearance of Chen Xiaoliang changed Roma's temperament, making powerful players like Kvaratskhelia and Gvardiol willing to join and surround Chen Xiaoliang to resolutely implement tactics.
In addition, Chen Xiaoliang's ability to advance and connect the offense on the field made the ugly and outdated "certain tactics of certain people" become very flexible, not only being able to retreat and counterattack, but also being able to fully press forward and actively attack.
Chen Xiaoliang scored 15 goals and made 13 assists in the league, creating a total of 28 goals. This statistic alone is more than any other 8 teams in the league.
What he meant was that it was not Mourinho but Chen Xiaoliang who made Roma take off. Without Chen Xiaoliang, the team would not have achieved such results, would not have been able to attract good players, and would not have been able to defeat all the strong opponents along the way.
In the end, Allegri also added fuel to the flames, believing that a "real big team" would be willing to spend huge sums of money to buy Chen Xiaoliang, and by that time, it would be clear who was swimming naked after the tide receded.
Mourinho, who was holding a press conference after him, spent a lot of time to mock the Italian after hearing the reporter's retelling of Allegri's words:
"Yes, I am a coach who only relies on players, but I remember that some people personally let Dybala go, and he has scored 13 goals and 9 assists for us this season."
"Why would some people let such players go? Or why would good players not want to stay with some people?"
"Yes, I am really good at defending. We conceded 19 goals, first in the league, and I remember we scored 64 goals this season, also first in the league, so some people either have selective amnesia or selective blindness."
Mourinho spoke like a machine gun for more than 5 minutes, and was "praised" by fans for scoring 3 more goals at the press conference. Roma turned the score from 3-1 to 6-1 and defeated Juventus.
However, Chen Xiaoliang was a little disappointed that Di Maria's superstar mission still remained at 0/5. The Argentine's guerrilla-like playing style and the fact that he was substituted off after 60 minutes really left Chen Xiaoliang with no chance to attack .
However, the two sides may still meet in the Italian Cup final, so this task has not disappeared.
In this round, except for Napoli losing 0-1 to Lazio, Fiorentina also defeated AC Milan 2-1 at home, and Inter Milan defeated Lecce 2-0 at home.
Roma is in first place with 68 points, 9 points ahead of Napoli in second place, which in turn is 9 points ahead of Inter Milan in third place. Inter Milan is 3 points ahead of AC Milan with 50 points. The gap between the top four has further widened. For teams close to the top, the goal of this season has become fighting for third and fourth place.
After 6 days of rest, the next game against Sassuolo will still be a home game. The easy schedule allows Roma players to get enough rest.
On the evening of Saturday, March 11, Chen Xiaoliang flew to Paris again, but this time it had nothing to do with the Ballon d'Or. It was FIFA's annual awards ceremony, and Chen Xiaoliang was specially invited to participate. He had been notified in advance that he was needed to go on stage to receive the award, and it would be best if he could attend.
The subtext is not to be ungrateful.
As the face of Roma and Serie A, not only did the owner Dan Friedkin want him to go and show the club his face, but Serie A President Lorenzo Cassini also called personally, hoping that Chen Xiaoliang could go to prove that we still have people in Serie A.
Why not go if there is a prize to be won? The recent schedule is not tight anyway, and Italy and France are close to each other, so Chen Xiaoliang flew there directly.
Along the way he thought he might win the Puskas Award again, as his sideways volley against Juventus in the previous game and his overhead kick against Dortmund were both selected as candidate goals.
But when he arrived at the scene, the final result still surprised him a little.
The Puskas Award was not given to him, but to Polish disabled athlete Marcin Oleksi.
As a disabled person with a left leg amputated, he scored a beautiful overhead kick in a Polish Amputee Football Super League match with the help of sports crutches.
Although this goal did not involve a grand scene, a passionate atmosphere or lively celebrations, this act of strength proved to many people that in addition to winning and losing, football can also bring the spiritual encouragement of never giving up.
After Marcin Oleksi came on stage, Zebra Prince Piero presented him the trophy with both hands, and all the guests present stood up and applauded.
Chen Xiaoliang was also very happy and did not feel regretful for not winning the award. First, he had won it once. Second, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future. For people with disabilities, this was an unprecedented start and encouragement. Third, it meant that he was not going to win the Puskas Award today...
Just thinking about this makes me a little excited.
This was followed by a series of grand awards.
Messi won the best player award without any suspense, and the best women's football player was also an old face that Chen Xiaoliang knew, Putlas from the Barcelona women's football team. Like Messi, Putlas has swept all the highest individual honors in women's football in recent years.
As for the rest of the awards, World Cup champions Argentina and Women's European Championship champions England swept most of the individual awards.
As the award ceremony drew to a close, the answer to the mystery became clear to Chen Xiaoliang.
FIFA announced the best teams of the year for the men's and women's football teams. For the men's team, a 2-4-4 formation was fielded for the first time.
goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois;
Defenders Ashraf and Cancelo;
Midfielders: De Bruyne, Modric, Casemiro, Chen Xiaoliang;
Forwards: Messi, Benzema, Mbappe, Haaland.
Since no one from Real Madrid attended the award ceremony tonight, as a protest against FIFA's focus on the World Cup results, which "only accounted for one month in a year", and ignored Real Madrid's double of the Champions League and the league last season, Chen Xiaoliang stood between De Bruyne and Casemiro, who are also midfielders, when he went on stage to receive the award.
De Bruyne and Chen Xiaoliang met at the Golden Globe ceremony two years ago. When they met this time, he not only took the initiative to shake hands with Chen Xiaoliang, but also once again extended an invitation to represent Manchester City.
Casemiro on the side didn't want to say anything at first. "Fat Tiger" is usually not a talkative person, but when he heard that his city rivals were poaching players, he had to say a few words for his new club Manchester United. Moreover, under the leadership of head coach Ten Hag, although Manchester United suffered a crushing defeat to Liverpool, its overall form is currently good, and it will be necessary to spend money on signings at the end of the season.
Chen Xiaoliang only expressed his gratitude and did not directly respond to the two people's invitation.
As if trying to change the subject, De Bruyne said: "My wife is traveling in Rome with the children recently."
Chen Xiaoliang blurted out: "Oh, that's great, I can..."
He originally wanted to say: "I can entertain them and invite them to the stadium to watch our game."
But he caught a glimpse of Courtois, who was not present today but whose head portrait appeared on the big screen. This teammate and former friend who once gave De Bruyne huge cuckold, quickly shut up and said, "I can ask the club staff to take them to our home stadium..."
De Bruyne is a relatively simple person, otherwise he would not have taken the initiative to send his girlfriend into the arms of his "good brother" Courtois. He immediately thanked Chen Xiaoliang and said that he would call him if he needed anything...
When he returned to the hotel that night, Chen Xiaoliang looked at the small trophy again and again. Suddenly he thought of something, then he put the trophy on the bedside and turned on the system.
[World's Best Team Achievement Has Been Achieved]
Under the achievement, there is a √ behind "FIFA Best XI" and a √ behind "Ballon d'Or Top Ten", which means that both of the highest honors must meet the conditions to trigger this achievement.
[Achievement Reward: 3 times any hidden attribute +1]
Hmm... this reward doesn't seem to be as direct as increasing technical or physical attributes. The effects of hidden attributes are mostly subtle and not so obvious.
Leadership 19 → 20
The effect of this attribute is very direct. Talking in the locker room will naturally calm teammates down. Encouraging teammates on the court will boost their confidence. After new players join the team, they can gain their trust more quickly.
Injury 2 → 1
Chen Xiaoliang originally wanted to reduce the injury to 0, but he found that the lowest was 1, and there was no way to reduce it to 0...
This also means that there is still a possibility of injury to some extent.
The last point he added was to the lowest value of sportsmanship, 11→12. To be honest, he didn't fully understand the use of this attribute. He just thought that it might not be effective because it was not high enough.
After returning to Rome, the club first held a simple celebration ceremony at the Trigoria base and temporarily took away Chen Xiaoliang's trophy to make a one-to-one replica and place it in the honor display room of the club's exhibition hall. Before the home game against Sassuolo on the evening of March 13, another trophy display ceremony was held in the stadium to allow fans on the scene to celebrate his winning together.
Sassuolo ranks 13th in the league, but is 11 points away from the relegation zone, so they are basically worry-free about relegation. In the last 6 Serie A games, they have achieved 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and the opponent they lost was Napoli.
However, seeing that Roma has been in such a hot and burning state recently, Sassuolo head coach Dionisi is not prepared to fight Roma head-on. The direct dialogue in the relegation group against 17th-ranked Spezia at home in five days is the game that the team needs to fully commit to.
Several main players such as Berardi, Pinamonti, etc. either did not play or clocked out early after playing for more than half the game.
Seeing the opponent's "go-ahead", Mourinho, who originally wanted to rotate, decided to stop while he was ahead. After the score was 2-0, he replaced Chen Xiaoliang, Kva and others, and sent in Zalewski and Volpato to level up, and let Perrone play the whole game.
The two goals were Abraham's penalty kick in the first half when Kwa broke into the penalty area and was tripped, and Pellegrini's direct free kick in the second half.
Just before the end of the game, Sassuolo scored a goal from a corner kick by center back and captain Ferrari.
The final score was 2-1, and Roma got another 3 points.
Inter Milan lost to Spezia, and the gap with Roma has opened up to 21 points, and the gap with Napoli, which defeated Atalanta in this round, has also opened up to 12 points.
Another 6-day break between matches, but Chen Xiaoliang and Pinto flew to Nyon, Switzerland again...
He is only 18 years old and is almost becoming the club's ambassador.
The purpose of going there is very direct, which is to represent the club in the draw for the Champions League quarter-finals.
The guests who drew the lots were two retired famous players, Altintop from Turkey and Kluivert from the Netherlands.
This time was different from the last draw for the round of 16. The godly move of the two legends made UEFA's first bomb detonate the entire European football scene in the first instant!
The first team Kluivert picked out was Chelsea from the Premier League!
And then, Kluivert drew out the Blues' opponent.
Chen Xiaoliang was sitting below and couldn't see the note in Kluivert's hand on the stage, but when he heard the host's words, he couldn't help but whispered "WTF"!
Roma! It was Roma! Roma coached by Mourinho! They were going to face Chelsea, a team that had an indelible imprint of Mourinho and also left a deep imprint in Mourinho's life!
At this moment, Mourinho, who was watching the live broadcast on TV at his residence, laughed and shook his head, and countless fans excitedly expressed their opinions online:
[The Goose is going back to Stamford Bridge, I am excited just thinking about it! ]
[UEFA's draw is really cool, ratings are not a problem]
[Porter finally made it to the Champions League quarterfinals and was forced to survive, but now it’s probably over…]
[Roma may not win against Chelsea]
[Do you watch football? This year's Chelsea? The little ragtag team that only scored 1 goal in more than 2 months? Or have you forgotten Liverpool?]
[Is it bitter? Think about Liverpool now...]
…
Although Chelsea has not performed well this year, the team has gathered a large number of very capable players under the "hundred-million-dollar" crazy purchases of owner Burley.
In addition, Roma is not like the Premier League team where everyone knows each other every day and is very familiar with Chelsea. Everything about Chelsea is unfamiliar to most people in Roma.
Chen Xiaoliang didn't pay much attention to the subsequent draw for a while, as his mind was full of thoughts about Chelsea's games this year and the characteristics of the starting players.
Compared to Chelsea, Chen Xiaoliang would rather face the two Milan giants and Benfica, which is the weakest on paper. But no matter what, Chelsea is better than drawing Real Madrid, Bayern and Manchester City.
It wasn't until the eight teams were drawn and the upper and lower draws were decided that he came back to his senses.
The final draw was pretty good, with Chelsea vs. Roma and Inter Milan vs. Benfica being placed in the upper half, while Real Madrid vs. AC Milan and Bayern vs. Manchester City being placed in the lower half.
This means that as long as Roma defeats the unfamiliar Chelsea, the probability of reaching the Champions League final will be very high!
