Chapter 547 The collision between the Premier League and Serie A
After passing AC Milan, Inter Milan's victory seemed irresistible - in the next two rounds, they defeated Ascoli and Parma again, especially in the Champions League.
This weekend before the start of the knockout round, even with all the substitutes sent out, they still defeated the powerful Parma 4-0, increasing their winning streak to 22 games, only one step away from the winning streak in the entire Europe.
Three games left!
In the standings, although Roma has been winning consecutive games recently and is clinging to Inter Milan, they are still 18 points behind Inter Milan. With nine rounds left in the league, their hope of winning the championship has begun to fade.
It’s getting slimmer and slimmer…
With such a winning streak, Inter Milan went to an away game to challenge Chelsea.
Before this game, the last time Inter Milan did not win in an official game was back in the final round of the Champions League group stage against Bayern. In that game, they tied Bayern one to one.
Since then, they have won fifteen league games, two World Club Cups, four Italian Cups, and two Champions Leagues in all competitions for four consecutive months, winning a total of twenty-three games.
During this period, they also encountered strong opponents like AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Valencia, but no team could stop their progress!
Compared with Inter Milan, which has extremely strong momentum, Chelsea, which also won two consecutive league championships after Mourinho took over, has begun to decline in momentum this season. Although they entered the quarterfinals in the Champions League, they were in the league.
The situation is not particularly good, especially during the New Year and Christmas period. They only won one game in the five league rounds and were directly distanced by Manchester United. Although they had been in the league after losing to Liverpool.
After seven wins, Manchester United's performance is not worse than theirs. Now they are still six points behind Manchester United in the Premier League standings. With such a gap, with only six rounds left in the Premier League, it may be difficult for Chelsea to catch up.
The dream of three consecutive championships has encountered a huge challenge.
Meeting Inter Milan at this time will obviously make them more distracted in the league, but Mourinho is also a bold head coach. In the league before the start of this game, he was equally bold in sending out
All substitutes were used, and in the end, Watford was defeated by teenager Kalou's goal in the 90th minute. While maintaining the gap with Manchester United, it also allowed the main players to be in better condition to face Inter Milan.
In fact, from a paper point of view, Chelsea this season is unreasonably strong. The three superstars Drogba, Shevchenko, and Adriano are on the front line, and Robben, Duff, and Joe Coe are on the wings.
There are four wingers in Er and Wright Phillips, four strong midfielders such as Lampard, Ballack, Makelele and Essien in the midfield, and there is also Terry Carvalho, Gremy and Ashley Cole in the defense.
Ferreira and other strong players, coupled with the double insurance at the goalkeeper position, the main Cech and the substitute Cudicini, whether it is the starting lineup or the thickness of the bench, they can compete with Inter Milan, and even far behind in some places.
beyond...
It's just that Mourinho is a little unlucky that although he has a good hand, it is not as good as it seems...
The three forwards, on the surface, Drogba in the middle, Shevchenko and Adriano on both sides are a perfect combination. However, in fact, except for Drogba, who has ushered in an explosive period this season.
In addition, neither Shevchenko nor Adriano were able to show their form in Italy at Chelsea. Shevchenko's form had begun to gradually decline last season, but it was not yet.
Obviously, Adriano also fell into a low ebb after the World Cup, but he is younger than Shevchenko and has more expectations. As for wingers, Robben has been tackled by Premier League defenders in the past two years.
It's terrible. He played very little this season and spent most of his time recuperating from injuries. Duff is no longer in the same state as in the previous two seasons. As he gets older, his speed begins to decline, and speed is his most powerful weapon. Joe Cole
Never met people's expectations for him, Wright's performance after joining Chelsea was a disaster...
Several superstars in the midfield have performed quite well, but Makelele is not young. Essien has suffered some injuries since the beginning of this season. Ballack needs to slowly adapt to the Premier League. Only Lampard is the most reliable.
, on the defense line, they have never been able to find a most suitable right back, but the left back has become more stable after Cole joined.
The current Chelsea is not as strong as it looks on paper, otherwise it would not be so far behind Manchester United in the league. Not only because Manchester United has begun to rise this season, Chelsea's own competitiveness has begun to decline.
It is also an indisputable fact.
Before the start of this season, Mourinho faced the same problem as Dick, that is, the joining of new players will bring some almost subversive changes to the team. Inter Milan will have the same problems because of the joining of Ibrahimovic and Maicon.
To make Inter Milan's core transition in the frontcourt and defense more aggressive, what about Chelsea? The joining of two top centers made Mourinho abandon the previous four-three-three and use more of the four-four-two.
, however, the difference between the two is that Inter Milan's signings were advocated by Dick, while among Chelsea's signings, neither Ballack nor Shevchenko was wanted by Mourinho, although Mourinho
Ouye promptly adjusted the new tactics according to the personnel situation at hand, but this adjustment was not proactive, but passive, which directly led to the decline in Chelsea's performance this season.
Now Inter Milan's new tactics have been fully formed, while Chelsea is still swinging between 442 and 433, although the collective poor condition and decline of the wingers have led Mourinho to use this group of centers more.
But it also had a certain impact on their tactics.
"Meeting Chelsea again? No, meeting Chelsea this time is different from last season. Last season it was in the group stage, and the pressure on both sides was not too great, but this time it is the knockout round. Under Mourinho
After two years of operation, Chelsea has become the most difficult team to beat. Even we can't beat them easily. But we play away from home first, which is more beneficial to us. If we want to win the Champions League
To win the championship, you have to face the challenge of a strong team. Chelsea is a very good opponent. I can’t wait for the game on the 5th.”
After leading the team to London, Dick said in an interview - Although this Chelsea team is not as good as the previous two seasons, it is still very strong. Historically, this season they are actually closer to the league championship and Champions League championship.
It's not too far away. In the league, they lost to Manchester United in the end, and in the Champions League, Liverpool was defeated again by the talented Benitez in a penalty shootout. In fact, the goal that Liverpool equalized in the second round was offside.
Suspicious, it is not easy to beat Chelsea.
"Chelsea and Inter Milan are currently the strongest teams in Europe. When such teams meet now, it has to be said that it is a loss for the European Champions Cup. But now that we have met, we have to deal with our opponents well. The physical fitness of our current players
Very good and in good condition. We will try our best to defeat Inter Milan at home. In the two rounds of the game, we don’t need to think about defeating the opponent in one time. This will be a 180 minutes or even longer contest. Mackle
Will Lai play? I think he will, he is still an important member of our team. Adriano? He encountered some troubles before, but now he has found his form, he will be good against Inter Milan
important member of."
Mourinho also accepted an interview. Although the current results are not very good, Chelsea still has a chance to win the double crown. For Mourinho, he is certainly not willing to admit defeat now. In his opinion,
Chelsea's biggest opponent in the quarterfinals is now Inter Milan. If Inter Milan can be eliminated, Chelsea's winning rate will be much higher no matter who they face next!
This is also the reason why he took the risk of using all the substitutes in the last round of the league. He knew that Inter Milan’s biggest advantage was that they could devote their full efforts to the Champions League, and his previous risk-taking success was also to a large extent
Offsetting the advantage of Inter Milan, Chelsea is now at home again. If they can beat Inter Milan, they will perform better in the away game.
To say that Chelsea is unlucky enough, they have performed well in the past two years, so they have never had an easy time in the Champions League - in fact, the same is true for Inter Milan. In order to balance the situation, UEFA will often take measures against teams that perform well.
With some targeted moves, Inter Milan continued to encounter strong teams in the knockout rounds of the Champions League for two consecutive years, and Chelsea had no luck in the Champions League for three consecutive years. This factor all played a role in it.
In the two Champions League quarter-finals played in advance on April 4, AC Milan was beaten 2-2 by Bayern at home, while Liverpool easily defeated PSV Eindhoven with three goals in the away game.
Having already entered the semi-finals one round ahead of schedule - having met the most teams in the quarter-finals, Liverpool is lucky, but this also has a lot to do with the fact that they met Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
If you encounter a strong team in the first round, the possibility of encountering a weak team in the second round is very high.
Liverpool was praised, while AC Milan was criticized by the media. Although they played well at home, they were given two away goals by Bayern. This situation will not be good for AC Milan in the next game.
, their performance in the league this season is average, and if their performance in the Champions League is no longer good, then Inter Milan will be a complete failure this season.
After these two games, it is finally Inter Milan's turn - at this point on April 5th, Inter Milan will challenge Chelsea away from home, and in another game, Manchester United will challenge Roma away from home. These two games
It is considered a rivalry between the Premier League and Serie A. As a league with three teams entering the quarterfinals, when La Liga is completely wiped out, the Bundesliga is not very competitive, and the Eredivisie is even worse, these two leagues will
Compete for this season’s Champions League!
Which league will this Champions League belong to? In the past two seasons, Liverpool won the 0405 season and Inter Milan won the 0506 season. What about this season? Who will have the last laugh?
Everyone is looking forward to the start of these two games. The collision between the Premier League and Serie A is the biggest counterattack made by Serie A after the Premier League surpassed Serie A.
