Chapter 285: German Spear vs Italian Shield "Even Lucio is attacking. Bayern's goal in this game is very clear!" "In fact, this game is not very important for both teams. If both sides can have a better understanding, it would be the best result for both teams to replace their substitutes." "You can't say that. A lot of fans chose to watch the live broadcast of this game, isn't it because of the reputation of Bayern and Inter Milan? If they use a pure substitute lineup, the excitement of this game will definitely be greatly reduced, and it will become a waste for the fans." In fact, the commentators don't want both teams to send out substitutes. Because a pure substitute lineup has no appeal to fans, many people may turn on the TV and see a bunch of unfamiliar faces, so they choose not to watch it, and their commentary becomes an empty show. Bayern attacked fiercely, but Inter Milan was not a fish that could only be slaughtered without fighting back. Although Inter Milan did not play with all their main players, but under the leadership of most of the main players, they were still able to launch an offensive that threatened Bayern. Seven minutes into the game, Grosso made a low pass into the penalty area from the right, trying to find his own striker in the penalty area. But Lucio predicted his pass and got the ball out of the baseline first.

After the corner kick, Lucio again got the first point in the goal and headed the ball out of the penalty area to clear the situation. In the opening few minutes, Brazilian defender Lucio made his presence felt to the fullest. Not only can we see him actively participating in the offense, but we can also see his rock-solid defense on the defensive end. Lucio performed well, but Inter Milan also has a guy nicknamed The Rock, and his performance is no worse than Lucio. In the 11th minute, Xiaozhu made a straight pass from the left rib of the frontcourt and passed the ball to his teammate Ma Kai. After receiving the ball, Makaay was about to shoot, but Samuel came up to him immediately. Makaay dribbled the ball to create a new angle, but Rock saw through his feint and decisively kicked the ball away. In the 13th minute, Bayern's full-back Lahm kicked the ball from the wing and wanted to pass it into the penalty area. Samuel blocked the position again, not giving the opponent's forward a chance to receive the ball, and he almost made a counterattack after stealing the ball. In the first ten minutes of the game, the two sides went back and forth on the court with a very fast rhythm of offense and defense, which made the fans who watched the live broadcast very excited. Although Bayern, playing at home, had a slight advantage in the number of attacks, the number of chances created by both sides was almost the same. And judging from the defensive strength of both teams and the condition of their respective defenders, there probably won't be too many goals in this game. Inter Milan's starting central defender combination is Samuel and Barzagli, neither of whom is actually the team's main defender. Mancini chose the combination of Materazzi and Cordoba more often last season and this season. After all, they have been partners for a longer time and have a better understanding of each other. But in fact, the strength gap among Inter Milan's four defenders is not that big, it's just that their personal characteristics and defensive styles are somewhat different. Except for Materazzi and Barzali who cannot partner up, the other players can partner up with each other, and the results are pretty good. For example, in this game, the central defender combination of Samuel and Barzagli was very powerful. In the first 20 minutes, relying on the tacit cooperation between the two, they resolved the opponent's attacks again and again. Mancini was very satisfied with the performance of the two players. Last season, Inter Milan's defense was in a dilemma with no one available because the main defenders were injured or suspended, which forced him to promote young players from the youth team to fill the gap. Young players who have not experienced the tempering of high-level competitions seem extremely uncomfortable with Serie A and the Champions League. Not only did their joining fail to solve the team's defensive problems, but they also became problems themselves. It is precisely because of the stimulation of last season that Inter Milan invested heavily in its defense this summer, introducing three defenders who can play as the main force in one go, completely solving the dilemma of the team having no one available in the defense line. National fans can even boast that in the entire top five leagues, Inter Milan is not inferior to any team in terms of bench depth in the back line.

Seeing that the opponent's frontal defensive ability was outstanding, Bayern changed its offensive strategy, changing from positional warfare to mobile warfare. He began to take advantage of Inter Milan's mistakes in the offensive phase and launched counterattacks, trying to use speed to tear open Inter Milan's defense and not give the opponent's defenders the opportunity to get into position and defend. Inter Milan made the same choice almost at the same time. Bayern's defense seemed impeccable in positional warfare, so they tried a fast break. Based on the experience of the Italian team playing against the German team, once the Germans' speed increases, their discipline and defensive awareness will decrease, which will give the opponent opportunities. Of course, the German tanks charge very fiercely. If a team has weaker defensive capabilities, it is likely that they will not be able to stop their fast break and will be directly crushed. So next, it’s time to force a draw and see whether the Italian shield is stronger or the German spear is sharper. Fans cannot see the confrontation between the coaches of both teams behind the scenes, but they can clearly feel that the pace of the game is now faster than before. The most obvious feature is that the number of fouls and setbacks in the midfield began to increase for both sides. In the 25th minute, Schweinsteiger and his teammates completed a steal in the midfield and tried to counterattack, but before he could pass the ball, he was knocked to the ground by Inter Milan's midfielder Vieira. Vieira received a yellow card for this. Bayern's free kick was sent into the penalty area. Pizarro's header was saved by Cesar. Oter got the ball outside the penalty area and passed it again. Makaay's turn and shot from 13 meters away from the goal was confiscated by Cesar. Bayern's attack posed a considerable threat to Inter Milan's goal. This continuous shooting in a short period of time left the defenders with very little reaction time. In addition, there were too many players on both sides of the goal. Once they lost concentration, they would easily be left behind by the opponent's forward and get an excellent shooting opportunity. Makaay was a little anxious just now. If he had passed the ball to his teammate in the open space on the left, Bayern might have scored their first goal. Although the ball did not go in, it made Bayern fans smell the scent of a goal. So they continued their efforts, trying to break down Inter Milan's defense in one fell swoop. In the 28th minute, there was another successful steal. Bayern midfielder Salihamidzic made a long pass behind him, but the two Inter defenders cooperated well and successfully blocked Makaay, preventing him from getting the ball. Two minutes later, Schweini took a free kick from the left side, and Van Bommel volleyed with his right foot from 20 meters in front of the goal, but the shot went wide of the left post. In the 32nd minute, Lahm cut inside and passed the ball to the middle, and the following Schweini shot hit the left post. This was the closest Bayern came to scoring in the first half, but unfortunately it was blocked by the goalpost at their own stadium. The Bayern fans who came to the Allianz Arena to watch the game saw the ball being blocked by the post. They all sighed and then applauded Schweini for his performance. Although the ball didn't go in, it was very close to scoring. All we need to do next is keep up the good work and I believe the goal will come soon. In the final stage of the first half, both teams had good opportunities. In the 39th minute, Lahm launched a counterattack. Schweinsteiger got the ball on the right and knocked it back. Makaay received the ball near the penalty spot. But unfortunately, he didn't adjust his body properly, and his hasty shot went wide of the goal frame. The Bayern coach shook his head as he watched from the sidelines. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he simply couldn't believe that the ball could go wide. In fact, all of Makaay's statistics at Bayern showed a significant decline last season. When he just transferred from Super Laco in the 04-05 season, he was able to score 20+ goals and provide 10+ assists in the league in a single season. But last season, his number of goals in the league dropped to 17, and his number of assists dropped sharply to 5. Ma Kai was born in March 1975. In four months, he will be 3 years old. For professional players, this age marks the end of their career.

It seems that it is time to find a new top scorer for the team, but it is said that the club's top management has already locked on Klose from Werder Bremen, so he doesn't have to worry about this matter. What he needs to consider now is how to win the game. At the end of the first half, Inter Milan also had a great opportunity. In the 43rd minute, Grosso made a straight pass from the left sideline, Lin Feng knocked the ball across with his right foot with his back turned, and Vieira volleyed a powerful shot with his right foot from 28 meters away from the goal, which hit the crossbar. When the football hit the crossbar, Bayern's entire goal was shaking, and the sound was so loud that it drowned out the noise from the nearby stands. But unfortunately, I didn’t get in! Both teams hit the goal frame once, and the first half ended with a score of 0:0. In general, judging from the scene, Bayern had the upper hand in the first half. They possessed the ball for over 8% of the time and had 4 shots, 5 on target, and corner kicks. Inter Milan had only half the number of shots as their opponents, but they had 3 shots on target, which means that although Inter Milan had fewer attacks, the threat was no less than that of their opponents. It is still unknown who will win this game. After the halftime break, both sides returned to the court. After changing the venue, Inter Milan broke their usual habit and began to take the initiative to attack. In the 46th minute, Figo's breakthrough on the right caused the opponent to foul. Lin Feng's free kick was passed diagonally to the back post. Samuel's header from 7 meters in front of the goal was saved by Kahn with one hand over the crossbar. This ball made the home fans break out in cold sweats. Samuel's header was too close to the goal, leaving almost no time for the goalkeeper to react. If Kahn hadn't chosen a good position, the ball would most likely have gone in. In the 53rd minute, Lin Feng successfully intercepted the ball from Oter and was about to launch a counterattack, but was unexpectedly knocked down from behind by Lahm. After the foul, Ram apologized to Lin Feng with an apologetic look on his face. Lin Feng did not bother with him, smiled at him, and shook hands with him in a friendly manner. The two are not actually in a positional relationship, but Lin Feng often pulls to the right wing to launch attacks, and Lahm has a large range of activities and often goes to the midfield to defend, so the two have faced off quite a few times. At this time, Ram was not as strong as he was in his peak period. Lin Feng had a slight advantage when fighting with him, but Ram was very flexible and chased back very quickly. Even if he passed him, it was difficult to get rid of him. Once he couldn't get rid of him, it would give Ram the opportunity to foul, just like what happened just now. The referee awarded a free kick on the right side. Lin Feng tried to shoot directly, but because it was far away from the goal, the ball gave Kahn enough time to react during its flight, so it did not pose a threat in the end. Inter attacked for five minutes in the second half, but retreated immediately after failing to score a goal. After all, this is not their home court, and the team is not in its best lineup, so they do not have enough strength to maintain this kind of oppressive attack. If they don't withdraw, the empty backcourt will be easily attacked by Bayern. As soon as Inter Milan retreated, Bayern immediately attacked. In the 56th minute, Salihamidzic made a cross and Schweinsteiger chose to break through in front of the penalty area. But Barzagli and Samuel once again closed the door in tacit understanding, the ball failed to pass through, and Schweini fell in Inter Milan's penalty area after being blocked. There was an uproar in the stands, and many Bayern fans began to boo and put pressure on the referee, as if they wanted a penalty. However, the referee was unmoved. He believed that the Inter defender did not commit a foul and it was a very clean and successful defense. The referee's decision seemed to cause some fluctuations in the mentality of Bayern players. In the next few minutes, they were all in a state of looking for a whistle, as if they had to ask the referee for an explanation.

In the 59th minute, Schweinsteiger made a low pass from the left, and Van Bommel's right-footed shot from 20 meters in front of the goal was slightly off the left post. During this process, the defensive players in the penalty area did not touch the ball, but Van Bommel insisted that the ball hit the opponent's defender and asked the referee to award a corner kick, but the referee still ignored it. There were bursts of boos at the scene. The fans didn’t actually see clearly what happened, but when they saw their own players protesting, they also followed suit to put pressure on the referee. In the 61st minute, the unbalanced Van Bommel knocked down Vieira during a header and was given a yellow card warning. The referee finally responded to him, but it didn't seem to be the answer he wanted. The boos from the audience became louder, and even Magath angrily protested to the fourth official on the sidelines about the referee's decision. But a minute later, everyone shut up! In the 62nd minute, Bayern launched a quick counterattack. Taking advantage of the opponent's distraction, Salihamidzic made a long diagonal pass from the right, Makaay took the ball with his left foot while being sandwiched by two defenders, and quickly volleyed the ball with his right foot 14 meters in front of the goal. The shot was hit very decisively and at a tricky angle. Cesar reacted quickly, but the ball still went under his armpit and into the lower left corner of the goal. The score became 1:0, and Bayern broke the deadlock first. As soon as Makaay scored the goal, the boos from the audience and the roars of Magath on the sidelines suddenly disappeared. Instead, there were deafening cheers from more than 70,000 fans in the stadium! Although the goal came much later than they expected, it was still a goal after all! Now all we need to do is keep up the good work and defeat our opponent once and for all. (End of this chapter)