Chapter 10 The Clash

Chen Yingxiong hadn't even had time to absorb more nourishment and experience from Inzaghi, and then apply it to Inzaghi's old club.

He had only trained under Inzaghi's guidance for one night, and now he had to go to the battlefield. He hadn't even scratched the surface, so don't expect him to apply much of what Inzaghi taught him to the actual match.

Chen Yingxiong also knew that this was no last-minute cramming, and he couldn't rely on it.

So in the match against AC Milan, no matter how the opponent studied him, he still had to fight with his current best weapons.

On October 28th, the tenth round of the league, Napoli welcomed AC Milan to their home stadium.

The last time the two sides played against each other was in the twenty-ninth round of last season's league, when Napoli played against AC Milan at home.

Before that match, some people shouted the slogan that AC Milan was here for revenge. As a result, they didn't get their revenge. Instead, AC Milan lost 1:3 away from home, adding new hatred to old grudges.

This match was of special significance to Chen Yingxiong, because it was in that match that he won the confrontation with Maldini. Chen Yingxiong obtained Maldini in the training copy. These days, he always trained with Maldini, and his own strength had been improved. Maldini was indispensable.

Now, when the two sides meet again, Maldini is no longer in the AC Milan squad. If AC Milan fans knew that their Maldini had come to his copy and become his teammate... I really don't know what they would think.

This season, AC Milan's strength has declined slightly compared to before. Their legendary captain Maldini has retired, and their former pride and core, Kaka, was sold to Real Madrid for 65 million euros. As for the players who were added... obviously they cannot be compared with the people who were lost.

After nine rounds of the new season, AC Milan's record is four wins, three draws, and two losses. There are a few too many draws. One of the lost matches was the most demoralizing, that is, the Milan Derby in the second round of the league. They were defeated by Mourinho's Inter Milan 4:0 at their home stadium. AC Milan's coach, the Brazilian Leonardo, created a number of embarrassing records: This was AC Milan's most painful defeat in all official competitions since losing 0:5 to Roma on May 3, 1998. AC Milan also ended their record of scoring in 30 consecutive official home matches and 31 consecutive Serie A matches, failing to score in a league match for the first time since a 0:0 draw with Juventus in December 2007. At the same time, this was the biggest defeat in the Milan Derby in 35 years, and AC Milan's biggest league defeat in 11 years.

Mourinho stepped on Leonardo's corpse and embarked on the road to victory. After the match, he triumphantly declared that this was the Inter Milan he wanted, and he expressed that he was more confident in the battle for the Champions League. And his city rival, AC Milan's new coach Leonardo, was caught in a huge torment.

After that, Leonardo and his team were always in an unstable period of adjustment.

The performance and results of the game fluctuated, and they couldn't even win against teams like Livorno, Bari, and Atalanta.

It wasn't until after the last match that they achieved their first winning streak of the season - after successively defeating Roma and Chievo, Leonardo's Red and Black Army finally achieved two consecutive victories. With the victory in this match, their league ranking rose to eighth in the league.

In stark contrast to them is their city rival, Inter Milan, who, under the leadership of Mourinho, has a record of eight wins and one loss, with twenty-four points, holding high the top of the league, leaving everyone else far behind. Juventus, second in the league, is five points behind them.

It can be said that from the first round of the league, Inter Milan's strength has been unstoppable. If it hadn't been for the tenacious and crazy Napoli, Mourinho's team would have been able to achieve a record of nine wins in nine matches, which would have been even more terrifying.

Therefore, in such a situation, it was not easy for Napoli to beat Inter Milan 2:1 away from home. After that match, except for the Milan Sports Daily, almost the entire Italian media was singing praises for Napoli, praising Mazzarri as a coach who surpassed Mourinho. As if winning a match, Mazzarri led Napoli to vent their anger for the entire Italian football.

But the fact is also true. The outspoken Mourinho quickly offended his Italian colleagues after coming to Italy, and almost everyone hated him. His disdain for Italian coaches is obvious, so Mazzarri's ability to win in the confrontation with Mourinho can be regarded as a breath of fresh air for Italian football.

It's a pity that Napoli's own performance is even more unstable. When they are in good form, they can beat Inter Milan away from home. When they are not, they dare to lose to any team. The lack of experience in fighting on two fronts is their bottleneck. Otherwise, they could completely launch an impact on Inter Milan in the standings, not only defeating Inter Milan in one match, but also trying to defeat Inter Milan in one season.

But to continue to pose a threat to Inter Milan in a season, they can't just lose some matches casually like they do now.

Take this match as an example. AC Milan has won two consecutive matches. It seems that Leonardo and his disciples have completed their integration, and the team's performance is on the rise, full of hope.

And what about Napoli? They just lost 0:1 to Fiorentina away from home, dropping from sixth to seventh in the league, suffering a setback.

One is going up, the other is going down. In terms of development momentum, AC Milan has the advantage.

But even AC Milan themselves dare not take it lightly.

The reason is simple - this match is Napoli's home game.

How terrifying is Napoli's home stadium? There is a data that can explain some problems. In the nine rounds of the league this season, Napoli has played four home matches, with three wins and one draw, remaining unbeaten. In the three rounds of the Champions League group stage, Napoli has played two home matches, and they have defeated Lyon and Zenit St. Petersburg successively, with a perfect home record.

Any team that comes to the Stadio San Paolo will be deeply impressed by the crazy atmosphere here. Lyon's players talked about the atmosphere at the Stadio San Paolo in an interview after the match: "...I have to say, it's really terrible! They (Napoli fans) never seem to know fatigue, as if they are not human, but machines..."

Lyon coach Puel also admitted that the team's poor performance in the first half was entirely because the players were disturbed by the fans and failed to get into the game for a long time: "...The performance of the Napoli fans affected my players, they were distracted and cared too much about those fans. But in fact, those fans, apart from shouting loudly, can't jump down from the stands and punch you, so what's there to worry about..."

There is also data that can illustrate how狂热 (kuangre - fervent) Napoli's fans are - last season, Napoli's average home attendance was 40,797, ranking fourth in Italy, behind only Inter Milan, AC Milan, and Roma, and also in the top thirty in Europe. Napoli has incredibly loyal fans. When they were still in Serie C1, 51,000 fans attended the league's final match to cheer for the team, setting a historical record for that level. Last season's home match against Juventus, the match in which Chen Yingxiong scored his first Serie A goal, a total of 58,666 fans poured into the stadium.

And the number of fans traveling to away games may better illustrate the fans' loyalty - in last season's away match against Bologna, as many as 15,000 fans followed the team, with a huge momentum.

With such loyal fans, Napoli's home stadium, Stadio San Paolo, is indeed a difficult stadium to conquer for many visiting teams...

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"Since we can beat Inter Milan away from home, why can't we beat another team from Milan at home?"

This is not what anyone said, this is a sentence posted in the home team's locker room at the Stadio San Paolo.

Mazzarri put it up himself.

Every Napoli player who walks into this locker room can see this sentence when they look up.

Mazzarri uses this method to encourage the players, telling them that beating AC Milan is not difficult.

Yes, for Napoli, perhaps when they are away from home, they will have doubts about winning against Inter Milan, but when they return to their most familiar Stadio San Paolo, in the cheers of Napoli fans, they never have doubts.

It is the away team that should have doubts!

Chen Yingxiong sat under this slogan, next to his good friends Arshavin and Cassano. In this match, Cassano passed his two-match suspension period, and now he can return to the competition.

His return is definitely good news for Napoli.

Cassano is an important combat force against AC Milan.

The starting center-back pairing that AC Milan put out in this match is Thiago Silva and Nesta, which is AC Milan's main center-back partnership this season.

Thiago Silva was signed by AC Milan in December of last year. At that time, due to the restrictions of Serie A that each season can only have a maximum of two non-EU players joining, he did not actually join the team until July 1 this year, and got the opportunity to play for AC Milan.

Relying on his excellent performance, he became the team's main center-back as soon as he arrived at the team, and gained a foothold in the defense.

The center-back combination in this match is fresh for Chen Yingxiong. He played against AC Milan twice last season. Unfortunately, Nesta did not play in either of these two matches. The first time he faced AC Milan's center-backs Kaladze and Senderos, the second time he faced Kaladze and Maldini.

He had only heard about Nesta's power, and he had never personally experienced it. Thiago Silva is even more of a Serie A rookie.

Chen Yingxiong lacks understanding of these two center-backs.

But he doesn't care. Understanding the opponent is something that defenders need to do - Chen Yingxiong has always thought so.

Nesta and Thiago Silva, you'll know what kind of center-backs they are after playing against them once!

Experience must be gained by one's own body! Instead of listening to what others say, just like he studies Inzaghi again and again in the copy, accumulating experience.

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ps, a big explosion tomorrow, five updates! A full five updates!

And it will be released all at once, and I won't release a chapter every few hours to whet everyone's appetite!

Five chapters at a time! It will start at eight o'clock in the morning! Because it is using automatic updates, each chapter must be spaced ten minutes apart, so it will take fifty minutes for all of them to be updated, and it will be fine by nine o'clock.

Tomorrow is Sunday, everyone can sleep in and get up to see all five chapters at once, how awesome and exciting!

In addition, taking advantage of this explosion opportunity, I would like to ask everyone for some monthly tickets and recommendation tickets!