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Chu Zhongtian did not stay at home for long, and the next day he flew with the team to Milan, Italy, to prepare for the Champions League quarterfinals at the Meazza Stadium. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info marriage, mother-in-law and other things are put aside for the time being, and he doesn't have time to think about it.

The first time he played in the UEFA Champions League, he reached the knockout stage, and Hoffenheim, the "dark horse" handpicked by UEFA, was full of color. Many people are expecting them to continue to move forward and create a dark horse myth. The German media, in particular, cheered them on.

A season ago, they said that Hoffenheim would be a step backwards for German football if it succeeded, but now they all admit that Hoffenheim is actually the hope of German football.

It is too difficult for Bayern Munich to support all the pride of German football on its own. Once Bayern Munich makes a mistake, German football will be able to watch the best football in Europe for the whole season.

Playing Inter Milan, the media was also full of optimism.

In fact, it stands to reason that Inter Milan's strength is higher than Hoffenheim, but Inter Milan's performance in the group stage this season is really not flattering, just started with a three-game draw, and lost to Barcelona away, and finally qualified with the second place in the group, they almost had to play the League Cup.

And Inter Milan is not good at playing the knockout round of the Champions League, whether it was Mancini or Mourinho before, their team could be majestic in the group stage, but when it came to the knockout stage, it seemed powerless.

All things considered, the media believe that Hoffenheim is not without the ability to compete with Inter Milan.

Some time ago, Chu Zhongtian's state was up and down, which made people worry, but now in the battle with Borussia Mönchengladbach, everyone has seen that normal Chu Zhongtian, and his confidence in Hoffenheim will naturally return. Bookmakers frequently adjust their odds, especially after Hoffenheim's game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and tilt the odds in favor of Hoffenheim, illustrating the importance of Chu Zhongtian to this team.

As soon as they came out of Milan's Malpensa airport, the Hoffenheim players saw a lot of media outside the airport.

They had already been to Manchester in the group stage, so it wasn't a surprise to them to play in the big cities. In the face of these media, Hoffenheim's players are also able to cope with it.

Chu Zhongtian is naturally the brightest star of this team. Hoffenheim have long been considered a team lacking superstars, and even when they won the Bundesliga last season, they were dubbed "grassroots" by the media. Chu Zhongtian is the only most famous star in this group of "grassroots".

Although Van Nistelrooy was once famous, he was old after all and gradually withdrew from mainstream circles. In addition, he has little to do with Inter Milan, and the lack of hype gimmicks naturally does not pay much attention to the media, except for two Dutch media interviews with him, Van Nistelrooy spends most of his time at leisure.

Chu Zhongtian was surrounded by reporters, from Germany, Italy, England and, of course, his native China. Everyone is concerned about his form and another important item is to hear what he has to say about Jose Mourinho.

'Jose Mourinho is a great coach and I think the trophies he has won speak for themselves.

Chu Zhongtian's answer was not leaky.

"How's your relationship with him?" The media is not giving up.

"I didn't know him well, and we didn't have a chance to work together. It's not good or bad. Chu Zhongtian can be regarded as telling the truth, he has no ill feelings towards Mourinho, although Mourinho always does not mention himself and seems to look down on himself. But Chu Zhongtian knows what type of coach Mourinho is, he is that kind of person.

However, the media regretted that they did not succeed in provoking the dispute between Chu Zhongtian and Mourinho.

Both of them are amiable, what should we do with this pre-game hype...... If you don't spit on each other, what do we journalists write? What do our readers see?

When Hoffenheim arrived in Milan, Inter were training at their Pinettina training base.

Jose Mourinho trained his squad behind closed doors the day before the game, with no media allowed in. At the end of the training session, the players are not allowed to go home, but the whole team must live in the training base. Doing this before the game helps to keep the players focused, easier for the coach to manage, so that everyone can prepare for the game without distractions and stay in good shape during the game.

Of course, it's not that Mourinho is particularly serious about this game, he takes every game very seriously. But staying at the training base before the game is a tradition for Inter Milan clubs, even Italian teams, and Inter Milan's rivals AC Milan also have a tradition of staying at the Milanello training base before the game.

It's just that the accommodation conditions at the former Pinettina training base were very simple, and the players didn't want to live there. Later, Mancini asked the team to stay in a hotel, and Moratti initially agreed, but then felt that it was too wasteful, so he renovated the rooms at the training base and let the team return to Pinettina.

Pinettina now doesn't have to let the players run out in the middle of the night, and the manager won't be upset by preparing for such an important game here.

Jose Mourinho, who has personally trained with his players on the training pitch, is asking striker Samuel Eto'o to be aggressive in his defence.

"Samuel, you know, you're not a striker, you're a defender! A defender! Mourinho said to Eto'o. Your main task is not to attack, but to defend! ”

If you let others hear this, you will be surprised, and the requirements for strikers are not offense, but defense. But looking at Eto'o's expression, he was not frightened at all, but nodded in acceptance!

The rest of the players did not dispute the manager's arrangement.

This is the "magic weapon" that Mourinho used to deal with Hoffenheim - defense.

The away game against Barcelona made Mourinho realize that playing with this kind of team, don't talk about ball possession, follow Barcelona's set, the result is to lose his own characteristics, be brought to their rhythm by Barcelona, and finally lose the game, and lose very badly, setting off Barcelona as the most gorgeous team in the universe.

This is not the outcome Mourinho would like to see. He wants to win, but to win, especially against a team like Barcelona who are good at controlling the field and the tempo, Mourinho's solution is to give away possession. Then stick to the 30-meter area, keep the formation compact and complete, and don't give the opponent any loopholes.

The game of offense and defense, to put it bluntly, means that the attacker does everything possible to find or create loopholes for the defender, and the defender must do everything possible to prevent the attacker from succeeding.

Mourinho's guiding ideology is that the defender must not make any holes in the game, and without loopholes to exploit, the attack will be out of line.

The match against Hoffenheim was an opportunity to test his tactical philosophy. Hoffenheim obviously don't have the level of Barcelona, but they also have a talent in their squad who is good at controlling the scene and tempo, and that is Chu Zhongtian. Hoffenheim are inferior to Barcelona in every way, but it also allows Inter to experiment with less pressure.

Mourinho doesn't know if UEFA deliberately arranged it, or if he and Barcelona numerology are compatible, anyway, he is very close to this team, first in this team as a translator for the old Robson, and then Van Gaal came, and as a translator and an assistant coach without a name. Later, he left Barcelona and slowly became the head coach, and he has played against Barcelona many times. Every time I play against Barcelona, I can pull out a lot of wonderful off-field scenes, such as the match between Chelsea and Barcelona, Mourinho broke the news that Barcelona's club officials entered the dressing room of Swedish referee Friske at halftime, which eventually led to Frisque's early end of his refereeing career, which pushed Mourinho to the forefront.

Although he is from Barcelona, he is an enemy of Barcelona and he supports everything that is the opposite of Barcelona. For example, Barcelona emphasizes "gorgeous football", while Mourinho's teams all follow the principle of "results are more important than the field", and he will do whatever it takes to win, and he doesn't care if the scene is ugly.

Hoffenheim and Barcelona have similar football concepts, both focus on attack, and both have beautiful scenes. Of course, Hoffenheim's football is nowhere near as flashy as Barcelona, and you may not be able to find a more flashy team in the world...... For Mourinho, Hoffenheim can be seen as a "copycat Barcelona" with shrunken stats, and it is fitting to test his new tactics.

In order to consolidate the defence, he sacrificed Eto'o and asked him to drop back frequently, and many times he looked less like a forward and more like a full-back.

Of course, defense is not everything, if you only defend and do not attack, the team will not be able to win the game, after all, this is the first leg of the knockout round, and it is still at their own home stadium, no goal if you don't attack, even if Mourinho's team can keep Hoffenheim scored, it is not a wonderful trip to go away with a score of 0:0.

So defending and counter-attacking is Mourinho's tactic. It's not surprising at all, so you won't think there's anything clever about it. But this is the most appropriate tactic, against an attacking team, it is stupid to attack them, and a defensive counterattack, although spurned, is the most appropriate tactic.

Samuel Eto'o dropped back and looked like a defender, but he was able to make the most of his pace and dribbling to create the possibility for Inter to counter-attack. Sneijder is also the brains of the team's midfield, and his passing and possession will ensure that the team can still get the ball up front under intense defensive pressure.

Sneijder at Real Madrid is a bit frizzy and can often be seen taking football out of the way. But when he arrived at Inter Milan, the frizz disappeared, and instead he became a faithful executor of Mourinho's tactics, no matter what the tactics were, he executed them meticulously. Maybe his footwork isn't flashy enough, maybe his style isn't elegant, but his tireless running and aggressive pressing up front always help the team create a lot of killings. This kind of forward is very special, but it is the most important piece in Mourinho's team.

With him, how about Chu Zhongtian, Mourinho can't look down on him.

Beside Sneijder, there are also Mota, who is good at controlling the tempo, and Cambiaso, who is both offensive and defensive, and the two midfielders provide enough protection for Sneijder to play to his heart's content.

In addition to Samuel Eto'o, Sneijder, Motta and Cambiaso, Inter also have world number one right-back McConn. The Brazilian's outstanding assist ability is a top jewel for Inter Milan, and he is very dangerous when he breaks down the flanks and crosses. Not only that, but McCone is also good defensively, he is not the kind of full-back who shines on attack but is like a sieve in defence. It's hard, he's both offensive and defensive.

In addition to McConn, striker Milito is also the kind of low-key shooter who is inconspicuous but can always kill you. He currently leads the Serie A scorers' charts and is not as well-known as Samuel Eto'o, but he outperforms his Cheetah team-mates in terms of goals.

At the back, Lucio and Samuel have been a solid pairing, with Samuel already a world-class centre-back, but his partnership has been unsatisfactory in previous seasons. This season, Inter Milan poached Lucio from Bayern, and the two top central defenders in South America were paired together, and Inter's backline was suddenly solid.

On the goalkeeper, Giulio. Cesar is known as one of the world's top three goalkeepers, and he has even surpassed Buffon in Italy.

※※※“…… These are the men of threat to Inter. On the evening of his arrival in Milan, during the tactical meeting, Rangnick analysed the players who were dangerous for Inter. As soon as he analyzed it, everyone found that Inter Milan basically did not have players who were not threatening, almost all of them were threatening.

"Didn't Mourinho also say that we are all threatens in our team?" Some players joked, causing everyone to laugh.

'Sneijder is the key to their midfield and no matter what, limit his play. This man is up to you, Lorik. Rangnick gestured to Sana.

Sana nodded.

'Our defenders have to pay attention to defending Eto'o and Milito, Eto'o is fast, Milito is good at taking chances, they have different characteristics, so you have to adjust your strategy.

"As for offensively...... McCone likes to assist, and the space behind him could be exploited. Zanetti is old and not as fast and physical as before, so we will focus on these two wings! ”

Rangnick looked confident. Hoffenheim are characterized by attacking from the wings, and in the Bundesliga, Salihovic, Eduardo and Weiss played very smoothly on the wings, and now with Azavag, the power on the flanks is even stronger.

Rangnick will be confident of finding a gap from the flank to open the door to victory.

"Inter Milan are on their home stadium in the first leg and away in the second leg, and the schedule is not in their favour. Just in case, they have to score as many goals as possible in the first leg to get the win, and at the same time keep us from scoring, so it's more difficult for them to play. This is our chance, remember, to be patient. 'Rangnick analysed the game for the players. They're going to press out and McCone is going to have a lot of assists so they can't keep their backline intact and we have to take those attacking opportunities. ”

"Chu, Sneijder is not a simple forward midfielder, he also takes on defensive tasks in the game, you have to be careful not to fall into the encirclement of several people on the other side."

Chu Zhongtian nodded: "I know." ”

In terms of midfield ability alone, Inter Milan is perhaps the strongest of all the big teams he has faced so far, Manchester United and Bayern Munich are slightly weaker in midfield, and Inter Milan's strength lies in the reasonable and balanced combination of personnel.

Such teams often have few loopholes, and it may not be easy to find loopholes in Inter Milan...... ※※※ On the day of the game, Emily flew from Germany to Milan, and she had to watch the game live. She prefers the atmosphere of the scene to watching TV. In the United States, there is no way, but now in Europe she has such conditions, even if she flies to watch the game, it is very convenient.

This time, she did not hide her whereabouts, from the moment she boarded the plane in Munich, she was very high-profile, did not do anything to hide her identity, and appeared in front of many media in a grand manner.

So when she arrived in Milan, Italy, she was not surprised to see many entertainment media reporters appear at the airport.

The reporters came up and asked, "Emily, aren't you cultivating in the United States?" ”

"I only talked about cultivation, but I didn't say where I wanted to."

"What are you doing in Milan......

"No, no, I came to Milan just to watch the game." Emily laughed, and then showed the reporters the tickets in her hand, which were Hoffenheim's tickets to Inter Milan.

Now everyone knows that she flew to Milan to watch her boyfriend's game.

I don't know what her mother's attitude is, Emily can only help her build momentum through these media.

She's going to be high-profile, high-profile, high-profile.

"So what are you expecting from this fight?"

"Of course Chu's team won." With that, Emily waved at everyone and got into the car that had been prepared for a long time.

Emily didn't go to the hotel, but went directly to the Meazza Stadium, when she got off the plane, it was already six o'clock in the afternoon, and there were still more than two hours before the start of the game, so she didn't need to go to the hotel again, so she went straight to the venue.

When she arrived on the periphery of the stadium, it was already crowded, with about 5,000 Hoffenheim fans in the crowd unnoticed, and all the eyes could see were Inter Milan fans in blue and black sword stripes.

Inter Milan fans lined up to enter the stadium while singing the Inter Milan team anthem and cheering for the team in advance.

She whistled and it looked like the home fans weren't going to make Hoffenheim feel better today.

(To be continued)