Chapter 2132 - 550: His Majesty the Emperor’s Trending Topic
Inzaghi was grinning foolishly while holding up his phone.
Ambrosini slapped him on the back of the neck and cursed jokingly, "Even if you’re the brand ambassador, you don’t need to report everything to us."
Inzaghi turned the phone volume up to max, and everyone crowded around the bonfire to listen to the draw.
"Real Madrid–Bayern Munich!"
With those two teams drawn, the remaining matchup was clear.
Milan’s opponent in the semifinals would be Chelsea.
"I bet John is going to call us now!"
Ramos said with a wicked grin.
"Good, let’s see just how strong this so‑called second‑best left winger in the world, Gareth, really is. Don’t you get destroyed out there."
Huang Kaiwen reminded him.
"Relax, in the second leg I’ll definitely show him what I can do. I just worry they won’t last until the second leg."
Ramos said.
He would still be suspended for the first leg of the semifinal.
After listening to the draw, Inzaghi started clamoring for ghost stories again.
Huang Kaiwen told a story he’d rewritten himself about a Venetian witch alarm clock, scaring quite a few people into a bad night’s sleep.
The next day they played around for half a day, then the whole team headed back to Milan City.
After having a meal together at a restaurant, everyone went home.
It had to be said this camping trip really worked well.
When the whole team returned to Milanello, their mental state was clearly much improved.
"The papers said you guys had a great time, that puts my mind at ease."
Guardiola stood on the touchline and said, "For tomorrow’s match against Florence, I want to see a more energetic team. Any problems with that?"
"No!"
After dismissal.
Van Persie immediately teased, "I hear that Jovetic is the Montenegrin Messi. Want to teach him how to play football?"
"Forget it."
Messi shook his head.
But the next day.
San Siro Stadium.
Jovetic broke through Milan’s goal after just seven minutes.
Lia Yiqi slipped a through ball, and Jovetic, one‑on‑one with the keeper, calmly took the ball and scored.
Guardiola flung his arms out on the touchline and yelled, "What the hell are you playing at? How does that suddenly turn into a one‑on‑one? Why is there still someone lagging behind as the last man? Damn it, is that what you call an offside trap?"
Sven Bender’s head was about to sink down into his crotch.
Because his positioning was off, the Florence player had such an easy one‑on‑one chance.
Zambrotta walked over, patted Bender on the shoulder and said, "Relax, it’s not just on you."
"But my positioning was wrong, it’s mostly my fault."
Little Bender said softly.
"We’re not going to lose over this, it’s fine."
Zambrotta said.
"How do you figure?"
Little Bender asked instinctively.
Then he followed Zambrotta’s gaze to the sideline, where Huang Kaiwen was sitting, joking around with Torres.
But before Huang Kaiwen even got on.
In the 33rd minute of the first half, Ibrahimovic received a long pass from Ramos in the box and pulled off a spectacular bicycle‑kick goal.
"Ibrahimovic! Ibrahimovic always scores goals this spectacular."
"Yeah, these AC Milan players are all incredibly gifted. Inzaghi included, each of them has a pile of amazing goals, haha, it’s really impossible to rank who’s first or second."
"Florence are playing pretty well today."
"Right, coach Delio Rossi is quite a familiar face too. When Huang Kaiwen first arrived in Serie A, he was coaching Atalanta and Lazio, and now he’s in charge of Florence."
"You can see these Italian coaches all have their own ideas about how to beat AC Milan. Getting a win over Milan in Serie A is a pretty big honor."
"Messi is out of the squad today due to a fever, so fans hoping to see Messi versus the Montenegrin Messi will be disappointed. But Huang Kaiwen is still sitting on the bench."
"Yes, and the way this is going, it feels like Huang Kaiwen will get on sooner or later. With Van Bommel out and Pirlo starting instead, AC Milan actually aren’t playing that smoothly. This season Pirlo has only played 16 times, quite a bit less than last season."
"Mainly because Milan have too many midfielders, and every single one of them is top‑class."
Neither side managed to score again in the first half.
The two teams went into halftime at 1–1.
Shortly after the start of the second half, Delio Rossi replaced Lia Yiqi with Ruben Oliveira, taking off a forward for a midfielder, switching to a 3‑6‑1 and swarming Milan in midfield.
There wasn’t much of a reaction from the stands at San Siro Stadium.
It was perfectly normal for other teams to come here and try to grab a draw.
But as time passed and Milan still couldn’t find another goal.
The Rossoneri faithful were getting restless.
"Bring on Kevin!"
"Bring on Kevin!"
"Bring on Kevin!"
After more than 70 minutes, chants urging a substitution rang around San Siro Stadium.
"Should we make a change, Pep?" Domenec Torrent walked to the touchline and asked.
Arms folded on the sideline, Guardiola said, "Tell Robin to get up and warm up."
"Not Kevin?" Torrent asked in surprise.
"No."
Guardiola said.
The papers were already saying that whenever he ran into trouble, he’d just throw on Huang Kaiwen.
Even if that was the truth, Guardiola still wanted to test himself, to see if he could solve it without bringing on Huang Kaiwen.
Florence also kept making changes, further shoring up their defense.
Van Persie’s introduction didn’t change much.
Florence’s defending was extremely resolute today, they were putting in plenty of challenges in midfield, and with the referee letting a lot go, Florence had even more room to impose themselves.
Seeing the fourth official raise the substitution board.
Huang Kaiwen immediately chose to use the lottery.
[Ding, you’ve obtained: 1988 Copa Libertadores second leg, Newell’s Old Boys vs San Lorenzo, Gabriel Batistuta 24‑hour Experience Card]