Chen Xiaoliang was a little confused at first. With Leo's worth, talent, and ability, they were all better and higher than the frequently injured Chiesa, but he didn't know why he failed to become one of the rivals in his system.
Today he found out that this kid is really stupid...
If such a guy becomes an old enemy, wouldn't it tarnish the meaning and weight of the old enemy...
The fans in the barrage were all laughing, with words like "I've never seen anything like this before", "I was the traitor", "Kaka possessed the wrong body, he possessed his opponent" and so on floating everywhere.
On the field, Dybala, who was waiting for the kick-off, watched Chen Xiaoliang respond to Leo with gestures, and he had many indescribable feelings in his heart.
Before the game, Dybala rarely participated in Chen Xiaoliang's extra training. He is not young anymore, his skills have long been finalized, and his body is about to start to decline. Rest and recovery are often more important to him than training.
But that day he treated it as a relaxation after training, passing the ball to Chen Xiaoliang and the others and running around.
Perrone was also very happy to see the big brother of the national team get involved, and he also asked Dybala a lot about Messi.
After winning the World Cup, Messi became the common idol of almost all Argentines, and Perrone was naturally one of them.
Dybala is not surprised. When he was playing for Juventus, his teammates would often ask him this question.
After the extra training, when a few people were resting and chatting in the locker room, he started to talk.
At the young age of 22, he joined Juventus from Palermo and helped the Bianconeri win 5 Serie A titles, 4 Italian Cups and 3 Italian Super Cups.
For a period of time, he was the core and the most important person of this Serie A giant.
In the national team, as long as Messi is there, he has always been Messi's substitute or a wingman around Messi as the core.
But that's Messi, he didn't show any dissatisfaction or complaint.
It is an honor to be able to play alongside the football king in my mind, even if I am his substitute.
What's more, everyone is saying that after Messi retires, Dybala will be the one to take over the core status of Argentina.
And it doesn’t matter if he can’t be the core of the national team, he still has Juventus and Serie A to shine.
However, some people’s skills may not impress everyone, but they are born to be leaders, while some people’s skills are praised by everyone, but they are destined to be supporting roles.
In 2015 and 2017, Juventus lost in the Champions League finals twice, which made their board of directors make a painful decision to buy the 33-year-old Ronaldo.
With five Ballon d'Ors and five World Footballer of the Year awards, plus numerous other honours that need no elaboration, the arrival of the superstar is destined to become the soul of Juventus' offense, and Dybala's position and appearances have become awkward.
He really didn't expect that he would be able to work with the two greatest players of the time in his life, but sometimes he himself didn't know whether he could call it lucky.
That season, his goal tally dropped from 26 in the previous season to 10, the lowest in his Juventus career. However, despite this, he played a supporting role to Ronaldo and helped the team defend the Serie A title with 11 goals and 11 assists in the league in the second season after the latter joined the team. He was also named the Serie A MVP of that season.
He never resented Ronaldo. Just like he did Messi, there was no need and no qualification for him to resent a player who had so many incredible honors. The two had a good personal relationship, but he felt that the club did not respect his outstanding contributions to the team over the years.
Even when he is around Ronaldo, he can play more and be paid more attention.
In the end, he decided to leave, even though Ronaldo had already left.
In 2022, at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, in Juventus' last home game, he shed tears on the field after the game and bid farewell to the fans who once cheered for him.
The arrival of Mourinho gave him new choices, a famous coach of historical level and a competitive and young team, which is exactly where he can shine as a star player who has been working hard in Italy for many years.
His arrival was indeed received with courtesy and respect from the club, which also held a grand fan welcome ceremony for him.
But it seemed that fate played a joke on him again, because he met a genius who was younger, more energetic and more like a true leader - Chen Xiaoliang.
He is a teammate of Messi and once of C Ronaldo, but he has never seen the 18-year-old Messi and the 18-year-old C Ronaldo in person.
But there is one thing he is sure of, the 18-year-old Messi and Ronaldo must be far inferior to the new captain in front of him.
He is not like Messi, who sometimes seems a little quiet as a leader, nor like Ronaldo, who would fly into a rage in the locker room after losing a game, blaming his teammates and himself. He hopes that everyone is as competitive as he is, and trains extremely rigorously and maintains a highly disciplined life.
Chen Xiaoliang is a person with a strong sense of boundaries. When he encounters something, he will speak up immediately, but he will not magnify it infinitely. The locker room rules he sets must be followed by the players, but he will not interfere with or force everyone to relax and have a rest in their spare time.
Just like Dybala himself, he rarely participated in Chen Xiaoliang's extra training, but still won the respect of the Roma captain on and off the court.
This is a leader that he admires wholeheartedly, but what makes him feel more miserable than Melo is that this leader is only 18 years old.
But fortunately this time, he is the main force of this team. He can coexist perfectly with this new teammate on the court, not only providing him with assists, but also often receiving wonderful passes from him.
He finally realized that perhaps he was destined to never have the opportunity to become an absolute leader, and was destined to assist one super genius after another.
In this case, he decided that even if he was just a supporting role, he would do it to the best of his ability.
Referee Lapuano blew the whistle, Giroud kicked off, and Dybala started running immediately.
Roma began to press forward, and some players in particular saw their teammates warming up on the sidelines and realized that they would soon be substituted, so they wanted to make more contributions before leaving the field and use up their remaining energy as much as possible.
The electronic clock on the big screen reached the 67th minute. Chen Xiaoliang came to the front right to get the ball. Leo's departure had greatly reduced AC Milan's offensive strength on the left. Salemacols, who came on as a substitute, had a clear gap with Leo in terms of personal ability and physical fitness, which can be seen from his market value of only 15 million euros.
However, there is one thing, the Belgian, who is also 23 years old, is much more active than Leo in defense. Seeing Chen Xiaoliang pulling to the side, he chased back and interfere with him with all his strength.
At this time, Dybala had already moved inside to the middle, leaving the open area in front of the right to Chen Xiaoliang, and he and Cesco completed a forward and backward position swap. He rushed into the penalty area to face the central defender, while Cesco attracted Krunic's defensive attention from behind.
Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball forward. Salemacols alone could not stop his pace. Bakayoko also came up to stop him, and Theo was behind him. Chen Xiaoliang was once again double-teamed.
At this point in the game, everyone knew that the two new players would be determined to contain Chen Xiaoliang even at the cost of committing fouls and getting cards. After losing 3 points, they had to fight to keep 1 point.
Chen Xiaoliang made a 45-degree cross from the right side, about 10 meters away from the penalty area line. The moment the ball came out, Dybala and Cesco pressed forward from the left and middle of the penalty area respectively!
AC Milan once had Beckham, although Beckham was already in the twilight of his career at that time. In order to maintain his form for the World Cup, he joined AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain on loan.
At that time, the team not only had Beckham, but also Ronaldinho and Pirlo. When taking free kicks, the three masters often stood near the penalty spot. It was a spectacular scene to think about.
As for corner kicks and free kicks on both sides, as long as Beckham is on the field, Pirlo will give up the right to take the penalty.
Although they saw the reappearance of the crescent-shaped strong arc cross on the court today, just like the replica of Kaka fighting one against three just now, it happened to their opponents, and it was the same person, which made them sigh.
The ball flew towards the goal like a lob shot, then drew an arc in the air and turned towards the small penalty area.
For this kind of cross with a strong arc and high speed, the opponent's defensive players cannot predict the landing point at the first time when the ball just flies out and the arc has not yet fully unfolded. After the arc is clear, the roughly predicted landing area is not too close to the goal, and the opponent's goalkeeper dare not attack easily. In case he misses, it is equivalent to directly giving the empty goal to the attacking side.
But the Roma players who had been working with Chen Xiaoliang day and night knew where Chen Xiaoliang was going to pass the ball.
That's what training is all about.
Crossing tactical training always practices attacking designated areas, such as the near point, front post, penalty spot, back post, and far point. It is divided into direct attack and secondary header pass. Direct attack is also divided into high header attack and low ball attack, or secondary shot after the cross is in position.
What the crosser has to do is to pass the ball to the target area he thinks is reasonable based on his own observation of the positions and movements of the offense and defense, and then ensure that the passed ball can reach the target accurately.
What the offensive players have to do is rush to that area and decide on the offensive method based on the situation of the ball and the status of the defensive players.
Although Roma only had two attacking points close to the goal, Calabria still retreated to protect the far post because Chen Xiaoliang's cross was too cunning.
Lou Yichen: "The arc is very strong! Pass it to the middle!"
"In front of the penalty spot, Maignan didn't attack!"
"Sesco!"
"The location is not good, choose to go back!"
"Get in the back row!"
"Very nice attacking cooperation, Wijnaldum, but unfortunately the shot was a little high!"
Liu Yue: "Milan's defense is now in a dilemma. Xiaoliang has too many different ways of attacking. If you defend against his passing, he can break through. If you defend against his breaking through, he can pass. The accuracy of his crosses was particularly high today. Don't forget, he also has the ability to shoot from long range, which he has not yet fully utilized today."
"Pioli is now planning to double-team him in an area less than halfway through the game, but this will create a defensive problem, that is, there will be only one defensive midfielder left in front of the penalty area. Once Dybala and Cesco rush into the penalty area, the other defensive midfielder will have to retreat to the penalty area to help the two central defenders defend, and there will be no one in front of the penalty area."
Xie Hui: "That's right. Cesco was very calm just now. He headed the ball back and Wijnaldum made a shot. Unfortunately, it was a little high. But AC Milan must pay attention to this offensive routine. If they double-team Xiaoliang like this again, Xiaoliang will still deliberately stay away from the middle, creating a lot of offensive space for the offensive players in the middle."
Pioli was indeed in a difficult situation. After much deliberation, he decided to replace Giroud with Poberga and play with three defensive midfielders.
The game was thrilling several times. Leo forced himself to score a goal with his personal ability, creating the illusion of winning, but then he buried the dream he created himself.
Pioli has already told his players through substitutions that maintaining a 1-point margin has become AC Milan's most realistic option. After warming up, Ibrahimovic had no choice but to accept the reality and return to the bench.
In the 75th minute, 80th minute, and 85th minute, with AC Milan's compressed formation close to 4-6-0, Roma almost surrounded the half of the court.
Mourinho also replaced Cristante and Celik with Matic and Spinazzola after 70 minutes to improve the team's passing ability.
Wijnaldum played his most active game since coming to Roma on loan. When Chen Xiaoliang moved to the wing, he would immediately step up and serve as an attacking midfielder, frequently moving inside and outside the opponent's penalty area.
In the 87th minute, it seemed that the 26-year-old Calabria's physical strength was finally exhausted, and Kwa, who had no highlights tonight, began to play on the left.
He received a cross from Matic down the middle, cut inside and broke through to Calabria, creating space for shooting along the penalty area line. Before Krunic came over to block him, he shot towards the far post, but Maignan dived sideways and blocked the ball with both hands out of the bottom line.
Then Dybala took a corner kick from the right side, Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, Wijnaldum, Guevadiol and Smalling all pressed forward, and AC Milan had 9 players returning to defense, with only Diaz wandering outside the penalty area.
After the ball was kicked out, Tomori and Bakayoko almost each hooked one of Chen Xiaoliang's hands and "locked" him to the ground. Even if Chen Xiaoliang was extremely strong, it would be difficult for him to knock over two strong black players at once while standing.
However, he still pretended to jump hard when the ball approached to help his teammates share the defensive pressure.
The ball passed over his head, then over the head of Cesco in the middle, and flew straight above Smalling at the back post.
The English veteran, who had changed his hairstyle to dreadlocks after arriving in Rome for a while, used all his strength to press down Pobega who was defending him and jumped up to make a dunk, but Maignan, who was also bloodthirsty, got there first and punched the ball out of the penalty area.
The ball landed right in front of Diaz. He was in excellent form in this game and immediately dribbled forward. At this time, only Spinazzola and Malacia were in front of him.
He chose to go to the right and attack Malaysia, who had played for almost the entire game like him and was also starting to breathe heavily.
The season is almost over. This Spaniard, who came from Manchester City's youth training, was bought by Real Madrid and was loaned to AC Milan twice, has made 24 league appearances this season, scoring 5 goals and providing 4 assists. As a winger, these statistics are very good.
He is eager to give himself a good ending at the end of the season, whether it is returning to Real Madrid to play in the rotation or staying in AC Milan to end his "temporary worker" status.
He worked particularly hard today. Seeing the opportunity to create the winning goal and then make a splash, he was highly focused. Facing the retreating Malaysia, he dribbled forward quickly without any hesitation.
In the penalty area, Chen Xiaoliang was the first to rush back, followed by Kva, Gvardiol, Smalling, Matic and others who all started to chase back at full speed.
Although the distance was obviously far, no one would think about it at this moment. They just believed that their teammates could hold Diaz back, and then wait for them to catch up and defend the ball.
The same thing happened on AC Milan's side. Bennacer, Salemachos, Krunic and Poberga, who were on the defense just now, also rushed forward. In this round, Inter Milan will play against Lazio, which is ranked 4th, at home tomorrow. Lazio's chances of winning are not great. If they can win tonight, they may be able to reduce the points gap to 3 points.
Among these players who are on the rise, who doesn’t want to play in the Champions League, who doesn’t want to stand on the highest stage and perform?
In an instant, more than 10 people from the home team Roma in red jerseys and the away team AC Milan in white jerseys ran at full speed to the other side of the field like the ebbing tide.
Of course, the fastest one was still Chen Xiaoliang, but even he couldn't catch up with the long distance in a short time.
At this time, Diaz was about 15 meters away from the penalty area. Seeing that Spinazzola had run a little further back, Malaysia began to change direction and press towards Diaz.
As the two were getting close, Diaz pushed the ball to the left with his right foot and shook Malaysia off with a quick and elegant change of direction.
It seemed that the frequent up and down sprints had caused the calf muscles to reach the critical state of cramping. After being shaken, Malaysia tried to turn around and chase, but she stumbled and fell to the ground on one leg.
There was only one defender left in front of Diaz: Spinazzola.
Spinazzola knew that if he was passed again, the game would most likely be lost, so he bent down, lowered his center of gravity, and slowly backed away, with his hands slightly open to both sides, determined to hold the man back even if he got a red card if he couldn't stop him.
After Diaz rushed forward with the ball, he suddenly pushed the ball with his right foot, but instead of shooting, he kicked the ball between Spinazzola's legs. Then he instantly accelerated and flashed past the Italian defender who wanted to turn around, chasing after the ball he kicked out!
Spinazzola felt a chill in his heart. He turned around and chased back, while stretching out his hand to grab Diaz!
It's already 89 minutes. As long as he is outside the penalty area, even if he commits a foul and gets a red card, it's worth it to be able to stop the opponent here and prevent him from having a one-on-one opportunity!
Just as Spinazzola turned around and was about to pull Diaz over, Patricio had already rushed out from the goal!
When the old Portuguese goalkeeper saw Diaz pass the ball through his teammate's crotch, he immediately rushed forward from the small penalty area line and kicked the ball to the front court before Diaz could catch up!
Lou Yichen: "A crucial clearance! Patricio deserves the honor of being the European Cup champion goalkeeper!"
"Wijnaldum took control of the ball after a long kick to the front court. All the Roma players who were retreating turned back and charged forward again."
"Give it to Xiaoliang. Let's see how Xiaoliang will handle it at this critical moment!"
"Facing Theo's defense, the others hadn't come over yet, so there was no double-team!"
"Xiaoliang! Start passing!"
"Pass it, pass it to Dybala!"
"Dybala feints and cuts inside along the penalty area line!"
"Tried to shoot, attracted two defenders!"
“Three people!”
"Turn around, it's coming out!"
“Good shot!”
"Xiao Liang!!!"
“Hit the door!!!”
“Got it!!!”
The three commentators shouted in unison:
“A decisive blow!”
“A decisive blow!!”
“A decisive blow!!!”
The stands surrounding the Olympic Stadium were all shaking as if the earth was shaking. Not a single spot was not vibrating!
Referee Lapuano pointed to the center circle and indicated that the ball went in, but this didn't matter because it was a perfect goal with absolutely no problems.
The players on the bench rushed into the field in an instant, and Mourinho clenched his fists and kept raising them to the sky!
There were sighs and groans on Milan's bench. Pioli lowered his head and sat back on the bench from the sidelines. Giroud, who had already put on warm clothes, held his chin, as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. Even the proud Ibrahimovic frowned and kept shaking his head.
Chen Xiaoliang rushed to the sidelines, put his right hand behind his right ear again, and turned his head, as if to say to the fans: Can you cheer a little louder? !
When the fans saw their king calling them, they roared even more wildly. Several guys in the front row even wanted to jump from the several-meter-high stands to rush towards their idol, but were stopped by the fearless security guards and pinned to the ground.
His teammates rushed over and surrounded him. Veteran Smalling even carried Chen Xiaoliang on his shoulders to accept the worship of the crowd.
Xie Hui: "2 assists, 2 goals, Xiaoliang is the well-deserved king of Serie A!"
Lou Yichen: "It was a thrilling match, which fully proved that Roma is now unbeatable in Serie A!"
"The goal replay is here, let's watch it again!"
"Xiao Liang passed the ball forward to Dybala on the right side of the penalty area. Facing Bakayoko's defense, Dybala made a feint and cut directly into the penalty area line."
"He kept cutting inside and created an opening for his shot, but Tomori and Kjaer came up to prevent him from shooting."
"At this time, Xiaoliang had already quickly moved forward diagonally and was about to enter the penalty area. Dybala turned around and sent a straight pass with the outside of his left foot to his left rear, which happened to be in front of Xiaoliang who was moving forward."
"Theo behind him could no longer run and could only watch Xiaoliang catch the ball and rush into the penalty area to get a single shot."
"Facing Maignan, Xiaoliang calmly pushed the ball into the far corner, and it was too late for Maignan to save the ball when he fell to the ground."
Liu Yue: "Diaz's one-on-one shot was resolved by Patricio, and players like Bennacer, Krunic, Poberga and others didn't have time to return to defense, so the ball was hit by Roma in the front court."
"Dybala's cut-in was a bit like Messi's. He attracted three defenders in an instant and passed the ball beautifully, creating an opportunity for Xiaoliang to break into the penalty area and score alone."
Lou Yichen: "Two assists in this game and 17 assists in the league this season. Not only did he break the single-season assist record in Serie A history, but he also scored 20 goals this season, only two goals behind Napoli's Osimhen."
"Of course, it is impossible to break the Serie A single-season goal record. Xiaoliang is a midfielder after all. The Serie A single-season goal record is 36, which were set by Rossetti in the 1928-29 season, Higuain in the 2015-16 season and Immobile in the 2019-20 season."
After Chen Xiaoliang was put down by Smalling, he warmly hugged Dybala who gave him a key assist, and kept pointing at Dybala to the fans, indicating that the credit for the goal should go to the Argentine.
After the restart, AC Milan realized that defeat was inevitable. They tried two long shots, but reluctantly accepted the defeat after the final whistle.
Ibrahimovic was still very generous. He took the initiative to walk into the stadium after the game, greeted Chen Xiaoliang, and congratulated him in advance on his successful defense of the title.
Ibrahimovic also asked Chen Xiaoliang if he had decided on his plans for next season. Chen Xiaoliang shook his head and said that it was not the time to make a decision yet and he would consider everything after lifting the trophy.
The two chatted for a while, and when Chen Xiaoliang returned to the locker room, the other players and coaches had already arrived. When they saw Chen Xiaoliang come in, they immediately burst into enthusiastic cheers.
There are still five league games left and they are already 11 points ahead. Everyone knows what this means. As long as they win two of the last five games, they can lift the Serie A championship trophy for the fifth time in the 94-year history of Serie A.
You know, before Mourinho and Chen Xiaoliang came, they had only won three times, not to mention with such a big lead and the possibility of winning the championship ahead of time.
The players are all very happy, regardless of whether they have statistics , play well or not, or have enough playing time or not, every one of them is with the team tonight.
Of course Dybala is also very happy. He obviously experienced the happiness in Rome that he could not experience in Juventus.
Although he is still a green leaf, even the green leaf closest to the red flower, he still cannot become the brightest protagonist.
In fact, he was not the only one who had similar thoughts. There was also Mourinho, who was sitting on the side, hooking his arm around Patricio and watching the young man jumping and dancing with a smile.
Born with a strong personality, the madman naturally would not tell others all his thoughts, but he is indeed experiencing the most relaxed period in his coaching career.
This team that overcame all difficulties did not consume a lot of his mind and energy as the outside world speculated. On the contrary, he did not encounter many problems here that he would encounter in previous clubs:
Insiders leaked the team's numbers, the core players suffered frequent injuries, factional confrontations in the locker room, and the board of directors forced itself to use people it didn't want to use...
Here, he is the head coach who controls everything, or in other words, he is the head coach who can easily control the team without deliberately trying to control it.
This allows him to focus more on adjusting training plans, understanding the opponent's situation, arranging targeted tactics, and working with the coaching team and medical team to scientifically arrange player rotations.
The instability in the locker room, which is a headache for many coaches, became his biggest boost here.
The last game of April is over, and the next one will be an away challenge against Monza in 4 days. Considering the devilish schedule that will begin in May, Mourinho announced on the spot that all players will have a day off.
"yeah!!!!!!"
This simple sentence once again ignited the atmosphere in the locker room.
The boys' happiness was so simple, everyone was shouting and celebrating as if they were experiencing a celebration after winning the championship.
Mourinho smiled and asked Forti to lead the players to wait for him on the bus after resting, while he rushed to the post-match interview session.
The high-spirited Roma players walked out of the locker room and boarded the bus one after another, but several reporters who had been waiting for a long time stopped Chen Xiaoliang.
A reporter: "How does it feel to win this game?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "There's no special feeling, just the feeling of winning, which means we are very close to successfully defending the title."
A reporter: "Was the competition difficult?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "I'm sorry, it's getting late, and this is not the designated interview area. We have to get back to the base, so I can't answer too many questions."
The reporter stopped him and said, "One last question. We just saw a new update from Leo on his social media. On the one hand, he said that he was not injured and would be back after a few days of rest. On the other hand, he also said that if he had not left the field, AC Milan would have won the game today, and he would have defeated you in a head-on confrontation. What do you think?"
Chen Xiaoliang didn't want to get entangled with reporters. According to the contract, players cannot accept media interviews without authorization outside the designated interview area and interview time. Even if it is an exclusive interview with authoritative media, they must inform the club in advance and determine which topics can be covered in the interview and which content is prohibited from being disclosed.
But when the reporter showed Chen Xiaoliang Leo's personal social media page, he decided to say a few words:
"Leo is a very good player and he showed that today. He reminds me of a mythical figure from our national legend."
Reporter: "Oh? Which one?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "Nezha, I don't know if you have heard of him, but after he learned it, he had a very powerful ability called three heads and six arms."
Chen Xiaoliang also explained what three heads and six arms looked like and what it meant.
The reporter asked again: "Do you mean that Leo can also do the work of three people like this... Nezha...?"
Chen Xiaoliang nodded seriously, "Yes, I believe he may be able to do it in the future, but he is still a little short of it now."
After that, Chen Xiaoliang began to move his feet, and before walking away, he turned back and said one last sentence to the reporter:
"He still has one head and two arms."