Golden Greenery

Forty-two-year-old Paul Bento stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed, his eyes filled with helplessness and desolation.

Bento only retired in 2004. Broadly speaking, he also belongs to Portugal's golden generation of players and is the oldest among them. One year after retiring, he became the head coach at Sporting Lisbon, where he remains today.

A week ago, Paulo Bento's Sporting Lisbon was beaten 5:0 by AC Milan at home, which shocked the European football world and directly made today's game meaningless. But before the game, coach Bento still made a mistake.

He knows that AC Milan will definitely send a considerable number of substitutes. After all, the advantage in the first round is so huge, and the main lineup has just experienced a fierce battle with Inter Milan. It is time to take a rest, but this is where Bento is in trouble. .

5:0 is too naked a shame, it will become a stain on Bento's coaching career. Lisbon is not a third-rate player, but a giant in the Portuguese Super League. Bento didn't expect to come back in the second round. That was not realistic at all. His only desire was to regain some dignity.

It stands to reason that the entire main lineup should continue to be used in this battle. If they can win away from home, they will naturally save their face. But still don’t win? Then there will be more saliva outside. Let's follow AC Milan's example and send in a substitute, I'm afraid I won't be able to regain my dignity.

After thinking about it, Bento still played half of the main lineup and the main defense line, but the only two players in the midfield and frontcourt who can be regarded as the absolute main players are Moutinho and Vukcevi. The rest of Rosenbach, Leedson, Roman Greeno and others sat on the bench.

However, as soon as the starting lineups of both sides were announced before the game, Bento's heart went cold and he secretly said that something bad would happen today. AC Milan has indeed entered the substitute lineup. There is only one absolute main player, but this one is Zhuo Yang.

Zhuo Yang strongly requested to play, and Ancelotti didn't try to dissuade him. There is no way, Zhuoyang just thinks playing in the Champions League is more interesting than the league.

AC Milan is said to be a substitute lineup, but this lineup is still quite scary. Shevchenko is the single forward in front, with the two attacking midfielders Zhuo Yang and Seedorf, the three defensive midfielders Flamini, Emerson, and Brocchi, and the defense line of Antonini, Nesta, Senderos, and Bo Nella, goalkeeper Dida.

Perhaps coach Paulo Bento infected the team with hesitation. After Sporting Lisbon resisted and harassed them symbolically after the start, they quickly became distracted. Failure to concentrate is a recipe for death at San Siro.

In the 7th minute, Zhuo Yang passed the ball to Flamini on the left at the front of the penalty area. After he turned back and ran away from Toner, the ball was passed back in time by Matthew who understood it. Zhuoyang immediately stepped on the penalty area line and shot hard with his left foot. The ball hit the goal and entered the corner, 1:0.

Starting from this goal, Bento was no longer calm, because he suddenly felt that something was not good, very bad.

He spent the next time in fear. AC Milan's sharp offensive in the midfield and frontcourt made the Lisbon team as busy as a group of tops. Fortunately, although goalkeeper Patricio is young, he looks like he has seen big scenes before. His high pass and resistance kept the goal intact.

Zhuoyang has played against Sporting Lisbon. After Xiaozhu and the others left Madiburg, he led the team to the UEFA Cup final in the 2004-05 season. The opponent they defeated 4:1 was Sporting Lisbon.

In that game, Lisbon's old captain Barbosa was so tired that he almost died from cramps in order to keep an eye on Zhuo Yang for the whole game. Zhuo Yang also volunteered to help him stretch for a long time, and he was even more tired than playing in the game. Four years have passed, but Barbosa has never said thank you to Zhuo Yang.

In the 34th minute, the second goal finally arrived. Brocchi lifted the ball from the wing and lobbed it into the penalty area, which was a bit big. The 21-year-old Lisbon young goalkeeper Patricio picked the ball from high altitude after attacking, but it collided with the center back Anderson Polgar. This is a problem of tacit cooperation, and it is also a problem of young goalkeepers who have not seen enough in the world. The football has disappeared under their own squeeze and interference.

Near the penalty spot,

Football got here inexplicably, but Zhuo Yang was already waiting.

The two losers were still lying in a heap on the ground. Zhuo Yang simply jumped up from the spot and performed an overhead hook like a goshawk striking the air, giving Patricio no chance to correct his mistake. 2:0.

Just 5 minutes later, Zambrotta took a corner kick on the right. Polgar, who had just made a mistake, made another new achievement. He headed the ball directly into his own goal under the pressure of Shevchenko. The banquet was a waste of time, but it was disrespectful, 3:0.

The coldness in Coach Bento's heart has spread to his internal organs, and there is a refrigerator in his stomach. He confirmed that his ominous premonition just now was correct: today is not a good day, and he doesn’t know if we can return to Portugal alive.

Worried, his players suddenly gave Bento a shot in the arm.

In the 42nd minute, Sporting Lisbon took advantage of AC Milan's slack after scoring. Moutinho received a pass from Yannico's ribs and took a long shot from the front of the penalty area. The football drew an arc and went straight to the dead center of the goal. Dida suffered a loss. He failed to save and could only watch the ball go into the net. 3:1.

In fact, it would be better not to enter, but if it does, it will become a provocation that will not help.

One minute after the restart, Zhuoyang received Zambrotta's inverted triangle pass at the top of the arc and scored another goal with a volley. Zhuo Yang has always felt that it is easier to score goals in the Champions League than in Serie A. He scored a hat trick at halftime. Zhuo Yang said to the whole of Europe: Your uncle is still your uncle.

No one can believe it!

AC Milan finally beat Sporting Lisbon 7:1 at home. Before Zhuo Yang was replaced by Ronaldinho in the 70th minute, he received Shevchenko's header in front of the goal and scored him with a blast. The fourth goal of the game brought the total number of goals in this Champions League to 14.

Shevchenko and Seedorf scored the first goal respectively.

12:1 in the two rounds. This score set the record for the largest disparity and largest score in the knockout rounds since the Champions League was restructured. What Zhuo Yang and AC Milan saved was Werder Bremen. Their score record of 1 loss in the Champions League in the 2004-05 season passed away. In that round of the game, Werder Bremen lost so much that they lost all their pants, and Zhuoyang didn't even have the nerve to call Klose to comfort him.

Zhuoyang didn't care at all how coach Paul Bento and his team went back to Lisbon with their faces covered after the game. He only cared about the results of some other games.

In the away game in Athens, Madibao defeated Panathinaikos 2:1 with goals from Erva Muller and Gomez, advancing to the quarterfinals with a total score of 3:2.

At the Alpi Stadium in Turin, Juventus took the lead twice, Drogba and Ribery equalized twice, and Chelsea advanced with a total score of 3:2.

Bayern Munich, which suffered a 0:4 defeat to Barcelona in the previous round, was better than Sporting Lisbon. Toni's goal allowed them to draw 1:1 with Barcelona at the Allianz Stadium, leaving some dignity, and Barcelona advanced 5:1.

Bayern kept their pants, but Real Madrid lost everything. They were torn apart by Liverpool 4-0 at Anfield. Casillas cried bitterly at the end of the game, and the butcher De Jong smashed a chair in the locker room.

Cristiano Ronaldo kicked the ball, and he scored his first goal in this Champions League; Mertesacker's grandpa kicked the ball, and scored with a header from a corner kick in the 3rd minute; Brother Meng hadn't kicked the ball yet, He didn't even get up.

Manchester United advanced to the quarter-finals. Inter Milan invited Mourinho here just to make a breakthrough in the Champions League. This time, Mancini could smile disdainfully.

Juventus stopped, Inter Milan also stopped at 1:1 at home. The final penalty shootout was not decided until the eighth round. Tonetto fired a cannon to send Arsenal into the next round. .

AC Milan, the only remaining player in Serie A, has once again become the dignity of Apennines in Europe.