The first day of the last 16 Champions League knockout match was not only a surprise, but also a martyrdom day for the home team. In addition to Arsenal's 2-1 home defeat of Barcelona, Rome lost 2-3 to miner Donetsk at home, old giants AC Milan lost 0-1 to Tottenham at home, and Champions League regulars Valencia was also tied by Schalke 04 at home and was taken away with an away goal by their opponents.
This result made the four home teams in the second match day take a breath, especially Inter. In the four games in the second match day, inter and Manchester United are the closest. Manchester United are in better condition. Inter have the advantage of home court. If the advantage of home court does not exist, it will be more difficult for Inter to win.
The head coach Leonardo is superstitious. Yesterday he made the decision to take the initiative to attack, but today he saw that the home team didn't play well on the first day of the game. He changed his mind and decided to insist on stability, defend and counterattack. First, he won't let Manchester United get away goals, then he thought about winning.
The players of Inter Milan are speechless and helpless. Although Leonardo is a 42 year old young coach with only one year's experience, he can't compare with Jose, Mancini was very young when he was in charge of Inter, but he didn't change as quickly as Leonardo.
Before the game, inter boss Cambiasso said sarcastically on his twitter, "our coach is a genius, not to mention that Ferguson can't guess his tactics, we can't guess ourselves."
At 8:45 p.m. on the 23rd, after a week's warm-up, the focus war between Manchester United and inter finally opened at the meacha stadium.
In addition to the match between Arsenal and Barcelona, the match between Manchester United and Inter is the most topical. Whether it's Manchester United's revenge or Gao Xiaodong's return home, it can arouse the enthusiasm of countless inter and Manchester United fans.
In order to watch the match, many fans from outside Italy came to Milan three or four days in advance, and many fans who didn't buy tickets also came to Milan to try their luck and see if they could get a refund.
Due to the poor performance of Inter Milan this season, meiacha has not been full for a long time, but today's match with Manchester United, the stands were full an hour ago, and many Italian local stars and celebrities also came to meiacha to support the focus battle.
Inter president Moratti naturally won't miss such a match. He also came to the box of the stadium early. With him is Manchester United's young owner Joel. Glazer.
Players from both sides came out of the dressing room and there were bursts of cheers in the stands.
"Eto'o!"
"Sanetti!"
"Cesar!"
“……”
Inter fans chanted the names of their idols with one voice.
However, when the players of the two teams went to the stadium to shake hands, the fans found that Manchester United's captain's armband had been put on the arm of vice captain Gao Xiaodong. They were surprised and stopped calling their players and began to talk.
"Gao Xiaodong put on the armband of the captain?"
"What's going on? Vidic is here. "
"Even without Vidic, Gao Xiaodong will not be able to wear the team's long sleeve logo."
"What does Ferguson mean? What about us? "
……
Not only did the fans talk about it, but also the commentators from all over the world were very surprised. They knew that Manchester United had a team Committee, and the vice captains were on duty in turn. However, recently, the captain's armband of Manchester United was mainly worn on Vidic's arm, and Ferdinand occasionally wore it, but Gao Xiaodong and Rooney never wore it.
He Hui, a Chinese commentator, said in surprise: "I didn't expect that in such an eye-catching match, Sir Alex would let 21-year-old Gao Xiaodong wear the captain's armband. Obviously, Sir Alex is playing a psychological war with Inter Milan. He just let the fans, players, coaches and presidents of Inter Milan see that Gao Xiaodong has a good life at Manchester United and is very important. But Sir Alex has too much courage. I don't know if he has considered Xiaodong's feelings and pressure. This is Xiaodong's first time to return to meachambi. He can't treat it like an ordinary game. He will definitely have pressure, captain The label is on his arm again. I'm a middle-aged man in my forties. I can't stand it. "
In the VIP box, Moratti also saw Gao Xiaodong wearing the captain's armband. Moratti was a little serious, but now he became more gloomy.
Ferguson, Ferguson, are you demonstrating to me? You robbed Gao Xiaodong from me,
you even put the captain's armband on Gao Xiaodong in such a match. What do you mean, I dare not use it, or I will not use it.
Ferguson, you want revenge, right? Wait. Inter are not as weak as you think. Meiacha is not a place for you to go wild.
United's young owner Joel did not expect that Ferguson would let Gao Xiaodong wear the team's long sleeve logo. He showed a smile and said that although the old man is 70, his heart is not old, but I'm afraid we have to wait for the game to see the effect.
On the field
sanetti shook hands with Gao Xiaodong with a smile and hugged him, "Gao, Congratulations, you're the captain."Gao Xiaodong said with a smile: "rotation, when a fun."
Saneti gave the flag and badge to Gao Xiaodong and said, "this is to train you as a reserve Captain. Otherwise, why don't you let Rooney wear it?"
Gao Xiaodong said with a smile: "it's the old man's fear that I won't perform well and give me pressure."
Good performance, saneti heart a Ling, but he knows Gao Xiaodong's power, heart, today Gao Xiaodong as captain, must make efforts, we have to say hello to our teammates, strictly guard, can't give him a chance, especially can't let him easily start long-range, now Cesar's state is not good.
Captains of the two sides exchanged flags and badges, and commentators began to introduce their starting lineups to fans.
Although Manchester United are away today, Ferguson is not conservative at all. He has a 4-3-3 formation: goalkeeper 1-van der Sar; four guards 3-evra, 15 Vidic, 12 Smalling, 22 O'Shea; three midfield 18 Scholes, 10 Gao Xiaodong, 24 Fletcher; three forwards 17 Nani, 9-berbatov, 7-rooney Qiu, is to fight for a victory in meiacha, at least to get away goals, so back home to play.
However, inter changed their formation today. In training, Leonardo prepared three sets of tactics and began to choose the offensive 4213 formation. However, seeing that the first day of the game was not good, he temporarily changed the formation into 451, focusing on defense.
Inter's starting goalkeeper is 1-cesar; defender: 13 Maicon, 15 lanozia, 5 Lucio, 26 ziwo; midfield: 4-zanetti, 19 Cambiasso, 8-motta, 10 Sneijder, 5-stankovic; striker: 9-eto'o
Inter's starting goalkeeper is 1-cesa