Chapter 336: The second championship match begins, one tall and one fast return to the arena
Inter Milan's players opened their mouths and looked at each other in bewilderment.
Lukaku never thought that he would become the spectator who escorted Chen Xiaoliang for dozens of meters without being able to defend him at all, just to watch him score a magical goal from a close distance...
It's such a shame...
I thought 2022 was an unlucky year and that would be fine, but I didn’t expect 2023 to be even more unlucky…
On the field, a female fan who rushed in from nowhere ran towards the celebrating Roma players, took off her top, exposed her breasts, raised her head, and ran towards Chen Xiaoliang frantically.
Fortunately, four or five security guards on the sidelines reacted quickly, rushed over and pushed the woman to the ground, then carried her out hand in hand, preventing a romantic encounter from happening...
On the Roma side, most of the players did not notice the intrusion of the female fan. They were still immersed in Chen Xiaoliang's incredible goal. For example, Cesco held his head in his hands for a long time, grinning in disbelief, and ran to Chen Xiaoliang to look at him.
Mourinho high-fived the coaches and players who were still celebrating on the bench, celebrating the league title in advance.
After the celebration and dealing with the fans' intrusion, it was already the 76th minute. The referee Paul Valeri blew the whistle again, Lukaku kicked the ball with his left foot to Correa, and the game continued.
After conceding the goal, it seemed as if Inter Milan's seal had been broken and they attacked completely.
Losing one is a loss, losing two is also a loss. They know that there is no problem with Inzaghi's tactical arrangement, but Chen Xiaoliang is really unstoppable. He can force you into a dead end and still score a world wave. Since this is God's will, the only way out is to attack wildly.
As for Roma, influenced by Chen Xiaoliang's goal and the thoroughly ignited atmosphere, and with the championship almost in their grasp, they did not want to be outdone by their opponents in their home stadium as the defending champions.
So, when there were more than ten minutes left in the game, the two sides actually started to attack each other fiercely. Many fans began to call their friends who could not stand the boredom of the previous game and went to sleep, asking them to come back quickly to watch the show.
In the 78th minute, Dimarco made a cross from the left, and the two forwards, Lautaro and Lukaku, in the middle, were just feinting. Dumfries at the back post shot under the interference of his national team teammate Malaysia, but the ball was not straight and was a bit off target.
Afterwards, Roma launched a counterattack. Chen Xiaoliang made a long pass to the left frontcourt. Dumfries, who came in, had no time to retreat. Without the defensive pressure, Kva drove straight into the penalty area and faced De Vrij's blocked shot in the far corner on the left side. Handanovic saved the ball from going out of the baseline.
Then, after a corner kick, Pellegrini, who replaced Dybala, kicked the ball to the middle. Cesco headed the ball but the angle was too straight and was caught by Handanovic.
Two minutes later, Correa made a long shot from outside the penalty area, which was blocked by Patricio. Then Roma attacked. Chen Xiaoliang was surrounded by Barella and Brozovic in the middle and was passed to the right. Wijnaldum followed up with a low long shot, but unfortunately the power was a little small and was confiscated by Handanovic.
For a moment, the two sides were a bit like they were playing a basketball game, competing with each other in fast breaks. As soon as the opponent finished their attack, as long as there was a chance, they would launch a quick counterattack and then immediately create a shooting opportunity.
However, Lukaku felt a little lonely. The attacks from both sides seemed to have nothing to do with him. He had no choice but to run out of the penalty area and retreat to ask for the ball.
In the 85th minute, Barrera dribbled forward and saw Chen Xiaoliang coming to intercept him. He immediately passed the ball to Correa in the left front. Lukaku retreated and spread his hands to indicate that he wanted the ball. Correa didn't even look at him, but passed the ball to Lautaro who also retreated with his right foot.
Oh my god, Lukaku was so sad. He shook his head and turned to look at Lautaro, only to see that he was one-on-one with Guadiol who was defending him in front.
Despite his recent poor form, Lukaku's awareness and sense of smell are still very good. He immediately forgot the sadness just now, squeezed Smalling and ran forward, spreading his hands again, signaling Lautaro to pass the ball to him.
He almost shouted: Tarot! Tarot! Pass it!
Lautaro couldn't get past Guevadiol, and seeing Lukaku defeat Smalling in the confrontation, he immediately picked the ball in!
It’s true, the pass was perfect and fell right in front of Lukaku.
Lukaku held Smalling with his left hand, jumped up and dived to head the ball before Mancini came over to double-team him!
Although Patricio ran towards the near post, he had no time to react to the shot so close and could only subconsciously reach out to block it.
"Bang!"
The ball hit the post, bounced back, hit Lukaku's face, and bounced out of the baseline!
Lukaku fell to the ground, covering his face with his hands. It was unclear whether he was in pain from the ball or because he was too embarrassed.
Lautaro and the rest of his teammates seemed to be deflated, their shoulders drooped immediately...
Smalling was quite friendly. He stretched out his hands and pulled Lukaku up from the ground. The first thing the Belgian striker did after getting up was to give Lautaro a thumbs up and then clapped twice.
In the Red Country live broadcast room, the comments were full of excitement:
[Tarot, give and you will get it! ]
【Watch me dunk in Belgium】
[Mumble, how come this biang's empty goal can't go in? ]
[No matter what, I will give my first like today to my dear Tarot]
[Hahaha, I am dying of laughter. Why can you send voice messages? ]
…
Even commentator Zhu Xiaoyu had to sigh: "In today's football world, if we discuss who is the top superstar, it will inevitably lead to all kinds of debates and even verbal battles, but if we discuss who is the top comedian in football, the answers will definitely be surprisingly consistent..."
Young Inzaghi was speechless as he watched Lukaku on the sidelines.
To say he's not good, he can run out of position and head the ball into the goal post...
Let's say he's good, he can run out of position and head the ball into the goal post...
While Inter Milan was still sighing about missing a great opportunity, Mourinho replaced Kva with Zalewski to strengthen the backcourt defense.
In the last few minutes, both sides had another not very threatening attack. In the 94th minute, the referee Paul Valeri blew the whistle!
As soon as the whistle sounded, the fans who had been standing and waiting for a long time immediately raised their hands to cheer or hugged each other!
Roma players and coaches rushed into the field!
It doesn’t matter whether Napoli wins or loses tomorrow night. They are 14 points ahead with one more game played. With four games left, Napoli will only get 12 points if they win all of them.
The champion of the 2022-23 Serie A season has been born!
Roma successfully defended the title 3 rounds in advance!
Although there was no awards ceremony, the club had prepared a huge championship banner and a fireworks display on top of the stadium.
Inzaghi walked over gracefully to congratulate Mourinho, then walked silently into the player tunnel with his players.
At the press conference after the game, Inzaghi once again congratulated Roma on winning the championship ahead of schedule. However, in addition to saying that he would fully prepare for the next two Champions League matches against Roma, he also said, as if starting a psychological warfare, "If I were the board of directors of Roma, I would definitely try every possible way and provide all the conditions to keep this championship lineup."
As for the question of whether he will stay or leave next season, Mourinho's standard answer is always "Whether it is myself or the players in the team, we will not start contract renewal negotiations with the club until the end of the season. Now the goal of the club is to win the other two championships."
After a brief celebration in the locker room, the team returned to preparation the next day.
The Italian Serie A League was also very respectful. Not only did it send out official congratulations to Roma on its official website and social media accounts that morning, it also officially announced that it would present two individual awards to Chen Xiaoliang at one time.
They are the league's best player in April and the season MVP awards!
These two awards can be said to be unsurprising and well-deserved.
In this league, Chen Xiaoliang scored the only goal, a world wave, and not only won the game but also kept a clean sheet. He obtained a total of 10 training points (24→34), 2 recovery cards (2→4), and 1 breakthrough point (5→6).
The honor of the best player in April should have given him an injury recovery card, but Chen Xiaoliang, who had not been injured for a long time, had an injury recovery card that he had never had the chance to use. Only then did he realize that this thing was 1/1, which means that he could only have one at most...
Helplessly, this reward could only disappear into thin air.
The season MVP award can only be claimed when the season is concluded and reviewed...
But what’s interesting is that Inter Milan’s [Big Club Mission] allowed Chen Xiaoliang to draw a peak Ibrahimovic Scorpion Tail card, which gave him +3 shots when he was facing away from the goal.
He had been saving cards to improve attributes above 18, and after using the Van Basten zero-degree shot card, he made a new discovery.
Because in the past, whether it was Ronaldo's header, Modric's pass, Gerrard's long shot, or Batistuta's powerful shot, they all improved his attributes in a short period of time, but he didn't do anything special. These routine headers, long shots, etc., were also practiced repeatedly during daily training.
The only slightly special thing is probably Beckham's free kick card, but curved free kicks are not something uncommon, and his free kick attributes have not been upgraded, so I didn't pay much attention to it.
But this time was obviously different. Zero-degree shooting is a rare behavior in normal training, let alone actually doing it on the field. So after using up the card, when he recalled the process of scoring the goal and trying it again in training, the scenes of Van Basten, Roberto Carlos, Van Persie, Maicon and others shooting at zero degrees from the left and right wings would involuntarily appear in front of him.
It seems that after unlocking the skill [Good at difficult shots], after using the cards related to difficult shots, one can quickly "understand" the moves that those stars have used.
He tried a few free kicks in extra practice. Although his accuracy was a bit off due to his low ability, the curved ball he kicked out really had the flavor of Beckham...
Looking at these free kicks with great arcs but flying everywhere, Perrone thought that Chen Xiaoliang was developing some new style of kicking, and he hoped that he could take free kicks himself in official matches.
Chen Xiaoliang laughed several times and told him that there would definitely be a chance in the future.
Overall, Roma, who had already won a victory at home, was focused, relaxed and full of confidence.
As for Inter Milan, they did not return to Milan. Three days later, on May 11, they will once again challenge Roma away. The long journey will only increase their fatigue, so they simply stay in Rome and concentrate on preparing for the game.
At the tactical analysis meeting before the game, although there was nothing new, Mourinho repeatedly warned the players that Inter Milan did not go all out and send out all their main players in the last game.
Inzaghi's tactical thinking is very similar to that of the Japanese team that defeated Germany and Spain in last year's World Cup. Japanese head coach Hajime Moriyasu used players with good defense and active running in the first half of almost every game to consume the opponent's physical energy, and then sent strong offensive players such as Kaoru Mitoma, Takuma Asano, and Ritsu Doan to attack with one-third of the game left.
It is worth noting that if it were not for Chen Xiaoliang's magical goal and Lukaku's close-range header hitting the post, Roma might not have won the championship that night.
Moreover, under such tactical thinking, the opponent's starting lineup is difficult to predict. After all, Inter Milan is not an easy team. They have strong players and can come up with more and more complex combinations. Everything requires Roma's players to adapt themselves on the field at that time.
Mourinho also told all first-team players that everyone must warm up fully before the game and be ready to play at any time according to the changes of the opponent.
At 19:45 on the evening of May 11th, which is 1:45 on the morning of May 12th, Romania time, Roma's bus arrived at the Olympic Stadium 1 hour and 15 minutes before the game, while Inter Milan had arrived an hour earlier. After a brief warm-up, club chairman Zhang Kangyang and head coach Inzaghi were giving the players the final mobilization in the locker room.
The atmosphere before the game was very solemn, completely unlike the league game four days ago which had little suspense.
This is the charm of the two-round finals of the cup system. Even if there seems to be a gap in strength and different forms, no one can tell who will be standing and who will be lying on the ground after the short two 90 minutes.
At 20:03, Chen Xiaoliang led his teammates to change clothes and do a simple stretch before going on the court to warm up with the ball.
And three minutes ago, UEFA also announced the starting lineups reported by both sides one hour in advance.
For Roma, there were no other changes except replacing the left back with Malacia and one of the defensive midfielders, Matic, with Perrone.
But there are big changes on Inter Milan's side.
Goalkeeper Onana;
The three central defenders are Skriniar, Acerbi and Bastoni;
The three midfielders became Barella, Calhanoglu and Gosens. Especially in the UEFA starting position, the central midfielder of the three midfielders was Calhanoglu, who was good at organization , long shots and set pieces.
The wingbacks on both sides are still Damian and Dimarco, and Dumfries is still sitting on the bench;
The forwards are the classic combination of Lukaku and Lautaro, one tall and one fast;
Lautaro served as the captain in this game.
Although Cameroonian goalkeeper Onana did not play in the previous two games against Roma, he is actually Inter Milan's main goalkeeper this season and has played more league games than old captain Handanovic.
His average number of goals conceded per game is 0.89, which is significantly lower than Handanovic's average of 1.6 per game.
In 2019, when he was still at Ajax, he was also selected as one of the candidates for the best goalkeeper at the FIFA annual awards ceremony.
However, Onana was first found to have tested positive for drugs in 2021 and was banned for 12 months worldwide by FIFA. Although it was later found after investigation that he had accidentally taken the medication for his wife's illness and his sentence was reduced to 9 months, it still had a great impact on his condition and reputation at his prime.
After coming to Inter Milan, due to the problem of locker room balance, Onana, who was originally a sure thing in the first place, had to often give up the starting position to the locker room leader Handanovic, resulting in his appearances being not very stable even though he was in obviously better shape.
At last year's World Cup, because he didn't want to see his country's Cameroon team slowly passing the ball after falling behind, he rushed out of the penalty area to organize an attack. This directly angered the coach and teammates, and he was expelled from the team by the Cameroon Football Association.
But after experiencing a series of events, Inter Milan has been facing tough games this season, whether it is the group stage against Bayern, Barcelona or the knockout stage against Porto, the starting goalkeeper is Onana.
Tonight, although Inter Milan still has a backup plan, it also fielded its strongest lineup.
The two-round, no-retreat semi-final begins.
Before the game, Chen Xiaoliang and Lautaro led their respective teams into the stadium and stood on both sides in front of the huge Champions League logo covering the center circle.
As the UEFA Champions League theme song "Kick Barcelona, kick Barcelona, kick Bayern Munich, our factory has collapsed!" ended, the home team Roma, led by Chen Xiaoliang, walked towards the three referees and shook hands with the visiting team one by one.
I just met you a few days ago, met you again today, and know I will meet you again next week. The feeling of shaking hands in this situation is quite magical.
Zhan Jun: "Good evening, fellow fans. You are watching the live broadcast of the game brought to you by Penguin Sports and Mobile HD. Today's two teams are from Serie A, the home team Roma wearing red uniforms and the visiting team Inter Milan wearing blue and black uniforms!"
"My commentary partners for this game are Coach Zhang Lu and Coach Dong Fangzhuo!"
"The referee team for this game is from England, and the referee is Anthony Taylor, who is well known to Premier League fans!"
"Two assistant referees, Beswick and Newne, and two video referees, Atwell and Paul Tierney, are also from England."
"The fourth official, Greenfield, is from Israel!"
"Okay, the referee blows the whistle, the game begins! The home team Roma kicks off first!"
Under Zhan Jun's passionate commentary, the number of people entering the Penguin Live Room as soon as the game started exceeded 60 million. The official also specially listed the big data. In addition to the Red Country, many people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and even North America watched the game through their platform.
According to real-time data received by UEFA, about 400 million people were watching the game, which has set a record for the viewership of the Champions League semi-finals.
In the 2018-19 Champions League final, Liverpool played against Tottenham, setting a Champions League record with about 720 million people watching.
Ten years ago, the 2008-09 Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona had a record audience of 109 million.
Thanks to the popularity of live streaming around the world, the number of people watching football matches has increased significantly in the past 10 years.
After the game started, Roma was not in a hurry to attack. Due to the changes in the lineup and the uncertainty of tactics, Mourinho let the team stabilize for a while and test the opponent's arrangement tonight before deciding how to attack.
Just as most players had guessed before the game, Inter Milan indeed retreated and defended after the opening.
After all, they are the ones who play away first and then at home. If they can lose slightly or draw with Roma in this game, they will have the home advantage and psychological advantage when they go to Meazza in the next round.
There was another point that was soon discovered by the entire Roma team, that is, Onana was in very good shape tonight.
Chen Xiaoliang had a long shot after forcing space in the 3rd and 6th minutes respectively, both of which were pretty good, but Onana resolved them easily. One time he dived sideways to catch the flying ball in the air, and the other time he blocked it to his teammate, so Roma didn't even get a corner kick with both long shots.
And today Inter Milan's two forwards played very hard. They limited the range of harassment and pressing to the middle. No matter whether the central defender or the defensive midfielder had the ball, Lukaku and Lautaro would harass them nearby to reduce the passing comfort of Roma's midfield and backcourt as much as possible.
Calhanoglu, who moved back, became the first initiator of the counterattack, a bit like Pirlo's attacking midfielder in the past. When the offense and defense switched, he could retreat to the penalty area line and receive the pass from his teammates in the first time, and then deliver the quick counterattack bombs to his teammates through long-distance passes or direct passes.
Barrera and Gosens became two door panels, blocking Calhanoglu, especially Gosens, whose primary task tonight was to defend Chen Xiaoliang closely.
In the 8th minute, Inter Milan launched a counterattack from the relatively strong left side. Lukaku received a pass from Calhanoglu in the midfield, then leaned against Wijnaldum with his back, and passed the ball to Dimarco who was next to him with a heel.
Dimarco drove straight into the game, and although Bigna was next to him, he did not have enough speed to press.
Dimarco led the ball to the left side of the penalty area, stopped suddenly and sent a straight pass to the middle with his right foot. Lautaro quickly inserted the ball and rushed up from between Mancini and Guevadiol to get a one-on-one chance!
Seeing that both central defenders were shaken off, Patricio immediately left the goal and attacked. Lautaro adjusted the ball from his right foot to his left foot and took a few steps forward to the left to create an angle for the shot.
Just as Patricio was about to approach Lautaro, the Argentine striker shot!
The hearts of nearly 67,000 Roma fans and all the Roma club members on and off the field were in their throats... Many people's minds were blank at that moment and they were just waiting for the final verdict!
Zhan Jun: "Left foot shot!"
"Lautaro! This ball...was hit too high !"
Zhang Lu: "It's such a good opportunity. Lautaro was in very good form for a while after returning from the World Cup. He played two poor games in Argentina at the end of March, and then his form started to improve with each passing day after returning to Inter Milan."
Dong Fangzhuo: "Patricio had already fallen to the ground and was about to dive forward. He could have scored with just a light flick, but he chose to hit the ball into the top corner and the ball was not held down."
Zhan Jun: "It has always been said that Sterling's presence can easily cause Manchester City coach Guardiola to have a cerebral hemorrhage. Now Inter Milan fans should worry about the health of Inzaghi!"
Zhang Lu: "Hahahaha... But Roma must be careful. Lautaro just suddenly got offside in the middle of the field. The two central defenders were looking at the left side, thinking that the opponent would follow. They were almost scored. So I have always believed that Roma's biggest problem is still in defense. This semi-final may not be as easy as the outside world predicts to win against Inter Milan."
Lautaro, who fell to the ground after the shot, couldn't believe that he had missed such an absolute opportunity shortly after the start of the game. He stood up and shook his head helplessly, and saw Lukaku clapping at him to cheer him up.
The two men came closer, and Lukaku said, "Taro, why didn't the ball go into the empty goal... If you don't score next time, you can pass it back to me. I was just behind you just now. If you pass it to me, I will have an empty goal, give it to me!"
Lautaro: "What's the difference between me passing the ball to you and me shooting it myself..."
"Pfft, I mean you talk like you can get in..."
Lukaku: "It's meaningless if you say that. A dog can score a goal like that."
Lautaro: "Who hit the goal post last time?"
Lukaku: "Hey, can we not talk about the past..."
After saying that, Lukaku, feeling a little embarrassed, gave a thumbs up to Dimarco who had just made a beautiful through ball...
