Chapter 168: Devil's schedule - 2
When Inter Milan reversed Juventus with a total score of 5:4 to advance to the Italian Cup final, countless media outlets were shocked. Their pre-match belittlement of Inter Milan seemed to have turned into a resounding slap in the face, hitting them hard.
What else could they do? In order to save face, these media outlets could only praise Wang Feng in various ways and harshly criticize Juventus.
The Milan Sports Daily used a photo of Wang Feng celebrating a goal as its front-page cover and wrote in its report: "Wang Feng defeated the entire Juventus team single-handedly, and his hands pointing to the sky in celebration have become his iconic celebration gesture. What is he thinking at this moment? Is he thanking the heavens for giving him unparalleled talent and strength?"
The Rome Sports Daily wrote that Wang Feng helped Inter Milan successfully reach the cup final with two goals and one assist.
"Throughout the journey, Inter Milan has never been favored by anyone, but now they are realistically moving towards the grand goals set at the beginning of the season, all because they have superstar Wang Feng in the team!"
"This is not the first time Wang Feng has come forward to save Inter Milan. We dare to assert now that signing Wang Feng is definitely the most successful signing for Inter Milan in this century!"
The Turin Sports Daily criticized Juventus coach Lippi severely: "To be reversed under such circumstances, Juventus management should consider changing the coach."
"The coach's response in the second half was completely inadequate. When Inter Milan scored their first goal, tactical adjustments should have been made promptly, but Lippi didn't do it, ultimately leading to a loss of control."
The report also mentioned that some Juventus players completely relaxed after the end of the first half, thinking they had the game in the bag. This was also due to the coach's failure to urge them on.
Looking at Inter Milan's upcoming match schedule, both the coaching staff and the players felt both worried and fortunate. In the next 16 days, they would have to travel to three different places to complete five matches, including two Champions League games.
Fortunately, Inter Milan had already advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals, so they could field a completely substituted lineup for the two Champions League games. Only the match against Udinese in the league would be a tough one, with the other two opponents relatively weaker.
"Fortunately, they didn't schedule matches against AC Milan or Juventus during this period, or else I would really curse," Materazzi said on the plane to Bologna.
The players nodded in agreement. They all felt very tired. Since the start of the second half of the season, tough matches seemed to never end, and most of the main players had been playing continuously, pushing their bodies to the limit.
Coach Cooper discussed the lineup for the upcoming matches with the coaching staff: "We can directly give up on the two Champions League matches without any impact. What about these three league matches? We are still in fierce competition with AC Milan."
The assistant coach said, "We still need to secure the league, at least win two matches. I think we can field the main lineup against Udinese and rotate in the other two matches."
Others nodded in agreement. After some consideration, Cooper also thought this was the most appropriate solution.
On March 9, in the 24th round of Serie A, Inter Milan challenged Bologna away. Cooper sent out a fully substituted lineup for this match, with players like Concic and Vivas, who had not had many opportunities to play, starting.
Although Bologna was not high in the standings, only 11th, they were known for being tough, especially at home. Both Juventus and AC Milan had overturned there before.
After the match started, the home team quickly took control of the field, while Inter Milan retreated to defend near the penalty area, defending rigorously while looking for opportunities to counterattack.
But Inter Milan's substitute lineup was not outstanding, and their form was not good enough. They could only defend passively and couldn't produce a decent attack. In the 41st minute, Bologna seized a slight gap in the defense and broke the deadlock first.
In the 70th minute of the second half, Cooper substituted Wang Feng to strengthen the attack. Six minutes later, in a counterattack by Inter Milan, Concic dribbled the ball through the midfield and sent a long diagonal pass to the right side of the field.
Wang Feng, overpowering Bologna defender Falconi to win the first touch, vigorously pushed the ball forward, then rushed forward to volley, equalizing the score for Inter Milan.
After scoring, Wang Feng went to the Portuguese Concic and hugged him. He knew that Concic's time with the team was coming to an end, and there wouldn't be many opportunities to fight alongside him.
The final score was fixed at 1:1, and Inter Milan earned one point.
On March 12, Inter Milan hosted Bayer Leverkusen at home. Cooper still sent out a fully substituted lineup. Bayer Leverkusen had no hope of advancing, and they had a miserable season. The players had no desire to fight anymore and started to play poorly.
Both sides played at a historic low level, with mistakes in the match that could have been made into several minutes of highlights. The final score was 2:2.
On March 16, Inter Milan hosted Como at home. As one of the teams destined for relegation, Como and Turin were truly weak teams. Como lagged behind second-to-last Piacenza by 10 points, while Turin was even worse, trailing by 15 points.
There was nothing much to say about the match process. Wang Feng scored twice in the 31st and 62nd minutes and assisted Ribery to score in the 42nd minute, contributing two goals and one assist.
He was substituted in the 65th minute, and in the 81st minute, Como finally pulled one back through center-back Obonaya.
The final score was 3:1, and Inter Milan took all three points.
On March 20, Inter Milan traveled to England to face Newcastle in the last round of the group stage of the Champions League.
Inter Milan had no desires, while Newcastle was struggling to survive. They needed to win by a big margin and hope that Barcelona would lose in order to advance to the quarter-finals.
In the end, Inter Milan cleanly lost 0:2, but on the other side, Barcelona also defeated Bayer Leverkusen. The English team could only accept their fate of being eliminated.
On March 24, in the 26th round of Serie A, Inter Milan challenged Udinese away.
In another match that ended earlier, AC Milan exploded with all their energy and defeated Juventus 2:1 at home thanks to Shevchenko's brace.
As long as Inter Milan couldn't win, AC Milan would top the table!
In the dressing room after the match, all AC Milan players nervously stared at the TV screen, which was showing Inter Milan's match. The time came to the 79th minute, and the score was still 0:0.
"We mustn't make any mistakes." Inzaghi whispered. Just as he finished speaking, Wang Feng was seen on the TV screen dribbling horizontally near the edge of the penalty area, then suddenly shooting.
This shot was unusually tricky, initially flying towards the middle of the goal, then suddenly changing direction halfway, straight into the upper right corner. The Udinese goalkeeper was caught off guard and could only watch the ball go into the net.
Accompanied by the excited shouts of the commentators on TV, Inzaghi finally couldn't help but curse, "Can't Wang Feng give us a chance?" He said indignantly.
Rivaldo was calmer. He responded, "Don't we still have one more match against Inter? That should be the decisive battle for the championship!"
The AC Milan players nodded, a strong sense of battle brewing among them.
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