Midfielder

I really don't know how those Milan fans sitting in the San Siro Stadium survived the first half of the game. Milan's two giants have always been so dull, and physical confrontation and conflict will always surpass the excitement of goals.

They have not had sparks flying between them, but Italian teams have always been like this. Once they reach such a life-and-death competition, they will subconsciously regard defense as their mission.

Even the midfielders have such a string in their minds. At critical moments, they can also be used as defenders.

Don't expect these Italians to make mistakes easily on the field, especially when they are defending with all their strength. They rarely leave opportunities for their opponents. This is one of the reasons why Mourinho is unwilling to meet them in the knockout stage.

"Don't meet Italians in the knockout stage, otherwise you will definitely get hurt." This is a sentence that has been circulating in European football for a long time. Although it is a bit arbitrary, it also represents the truth.

Many people have said this when discussing who can beat Chelsea, which is almost invincible in the Premier League. Mourinho's defensive counterattack tactics may be most afraid of encountering the same type of team.

For example, Italian clubs, such as Juventus and AC Milan, may rely on their equally strong defense to trap Chelsea's offensive, and then use their rich experience to defeat Mourinho.

And this statement has been recognized by many people. Some people even said that in the knockout stage of the European war, Mourinho has only defeated the declining Lazio team so far, and has not won many games.

Mourinho did not respond to these people's speculation, but from his own inner feeling, encountering Italian clubs in the knockout stage is a very severe test for both Chelsea and himself.

If they really meet, it will definitely be a game of internal strength. Both sides will not make mistakes easily. Mourinho is not afraid of anyone, but for him, such a confrontation is better as soon as possible.

The confrontation between AC Milan and Inter Milan is like this. The physical collision between the two sides lasted for 45 minutes.

It was not until the injury time of the first half that AC Milan, playing at home, relied on Pirlo's free kick on the wing to launch an offensive, and the tall Dutchman Stam headed the ball into the opponent's goal in Inter Milan's penalty area.

No one could predict who would be the first to knock on the opponent's door in this game before the game. After all, the two sides are too familiar with each other. They can probably guess the size of the other's underwear.

But this time Mancini did not guess that AC Milan relied on the cooperation of set pieces to capture his own goal, and it was even more impossible to predict that Stam, the old iron tree that never bloomed, could stir up trouble in Inter Milan's penalty area.

It is estimated that before Pirlo passed the ball, all Inter Milan's defensive players were looking for Shevchenko's shadow. The Ukrainian talent was their eternal nightmare, but just a moment of distraction allowed Stam to find the best header position in the penalty area, and Cordoba was simply unable to stop the Dutchman's attack.

There is really no way. Cordoba's height is too small in front of Stam. If you don't calculate the difference in jumping ability, it is estimated that Cordoba's height can only hover around the Dutchman's armpit.

It is really difficult for Cordoba to stop Stam's high-altitude bombing with the height difference.

Facts have also proved that this is basically a dream, and Mancini also cursed in a low voice on the sidelines. He also kept complaining there, "Damn the back line, why can't you give me a qualified central defender!"

The central defender shortage is no longer a problem that Inter Milan has to face. It is a problem that many teams need to deal with. Now it is harder than climbing to the sky to find a good central defender in the transfer market.

But Chelsea can still have Terry, Huth, Carvalho, and other defenders in this context.

I really don't know if Mancini is envious of Mourinho in London at the moment when Inter Milan lost the ball. There are too many soldiers that can be used by that guy, so many that Mancini can only drool on the side.

Now, not only Mancini covets Chelsea's defense, but many European clubs also value Chelsea's defensive players, but they can't resist the Russians' big checks.

"Don't try to compete with a desperate man to see who is more desperate." This is a proverb, but it also applies to Chelsea, because now you must not try to compete with Abramovich to see who can spend more money on the football field.

Although this Russian is not the richest man in the world, he is at most a middle-class billionaire, but he can definitely be regarded as the leader among many wealthy club owners in terms of spending money.

Who wants to poach people from Chelsea now? Bayern Munich did this before, but the result of this action is also very educational. Chelsea not only did not agree to let Huth enter the summer transfer list, but Kenyon filled in Ballack's name on Chelsea's summer player acquisition list.

And this guy definitely didn't just say it. He actually said this in an interview with the media, "The best clubs should have the best players, and Ballack is one of them."

In response, Rummenigge, a member of the Bayern Munich board of directors, publicly criticized Kenyon's approach in the media.

"Chelsea's robbery in the transfer market is really unworthy of their title of a century-old club!"

But in Kenyon's view, this protest and criticism is nothing more than the other party's cowardice after the provocation failed. Everyone knows why Bayern Munich chose this time to seduce Huth. Chelsea is just fighting back.

You can seduce my players publicly, so can't I fight back? Can I just sit here and watch you do tricks in front of me?

There is probably no such reason in the world, not to mention that Chelsea has never been reasonable in the transfer market.

Since you dare to poach my people, then you have to know what it feels like to be poached by me. This is Kenyon's way of fighting back. Similarly, the check that Abramovich gave him behind his back is also the confidence for him to dare to do so.

However, Kenyon's counterattack is also insidious enough. The Bundesliga is unlikely to pay players particularly high salaries. They may pay more attention to the balance of income and expenditure. Even clubs like Bayern Munich are not immune.

In the past two years, their biggest spending on buying players was to buy Ballack from Leverkusen.

This is because after they won the Champions League in 2001, the competitiveness of the entire team began to decline sharply. In order to extinguish the dissatisfaction that had accumulated in the hearts of Bayern fans for several years, they made great efforts to buy players.

Bayern Munich is not without money. They even have the money to compete with Chelsea in the transfer market, but the habits of the Bundesliga clubs have made Bayern forget how to spend money and become a little timid in the transfer market.

Kenyon's transfer conditions are very strong. The most effective way to deal with Bundesliga teams is to directly increase the salary of players. Coupled with Chelsea's recent fierce state, this is undoubtedly a sharp double-edged sword.

But in the end, Kenyon's seemingly huge acquisition plan, how many people can really fall into Chelsea, even he himself has no idea in his mind, after all, those are all well-known big names.

In addition to dealing with their salaries, Kenyon also needs to consider whether Mourinho really needs them.

During Ranieri's tenure as coach, Kenyon had already spent a lot of money in vain. Now he doesn't want to continue wasting money like this, otherwise, no matter how generous Abramovich is, there will be a day when he can't stand it.

Anyway, no matter what Chelsea will do in the summer, Inter Milan has already made up its mind to buy players. Mancini vowed that no matter how much money he spent, he had to buy a few good defenders to fill the facade.

The goal just now made Mancini unable to tolerate his own back line, but he couldn't change anything.

This may be the best scoring opportunity contributed by the players of both sides after trying their best in the first half. In the remaining 45 minutes, they were all practicing how to crawl on the grass, or how to foul.

But Stam's header still ignited the enthusiasm of the Rossoneri fans. The noise they made at the San Siro Stadium was probably heard by the whole city of Milan. At this moment, AC Milan fans did not need to restrain themselves.

Especially in front of their old enemies, AC Milan fans have never been so kind. Their roars are simply venting, because they were overtaken by their opponents in the league, and now they can only take revenge in the Champions League.

Sitting in the stands, Moratti can only helplessly watch his team fall behind again in the Champions League.

The league championship is obviously not as attractive to Inter Milan as the Champions League, at least for Moratti himself. This chairman who has dedicated almost his entire life to Inter Milan now only wants a Champions League trophy.

"The Great International Era" is a dream that Moratti will never get rid of in his heart, but at this moment, in the shouts of the Rossoneri fans, this feeling of being haunted seems to have reached the edge of being defeated again.

In addition to being unwilling, Moratti may have no other ideas. The large amount of money he has spent in the past few years has not been able to bring back the glory of Inter Milan. It is estimated that this number one oil tycoon in Italy is now a little melancholy.

Especially when Moratti saw Abramovich's money play a role on the field, he was even more depressed.

He spent a lot of money, but his team was always a little bit short of the championship, which made people feel unbalanced.

But now there must be people who are more depressed than Moratti, such as Magath, who was suffering in Stamford Bridge. At this moment, his eyebrows were almost twisted together, because the embarrassing score made him extremely depressed.

2-0 was enough to give Magath a headache, but now the score has been rewritten to 3-0, which is really a reality that made the German fans at the scene bleed in their hearts. . .

(The Trail Blazers were not strong today. They could still fight in the first three quarters, but the offense started to fail in the fourth quarter. They can't be so nervous, right?)