The fighting spirit of AC Milan players was aroused. After kick-off, they launched a crazy attack towards Barcelona's half.
However, playing football is not just about fighting spirit.
Under Barcelona's tight defense, once in the frontcourt, AC Milan's offense was unsustainable.
The two midfielders Busquets and De Jong blocked the passage in the middle.
AC Milan's attack can only start from the wing.
Although Barcelona's defense is not like the chain defense of Italy, the small-scale siege in groups of three makes AC Milan's offense always feel like there is one less person.
Mandžukić, who had made harsh words before the game, would never get a good chance in the frontcourt. De Jong and Busquets would always have someone not far from him. As long as he got the ball, he would definitely be surrounded by at least three people.
During an attack, Mandžukić wanted to forcefully turn around, but Lenglet and De Jong pinched each other, and Mandžukić was unable to move at all.
Lenglet saw the opportunity and poked the football out from Mandžukić's feet with his right foot.
Mandžukić was also brought to the ground by Lenglet's feet. He was so angry that he kept waving his hands, hoping that the referee would give a foul penalty.
But the referee just gave him a signal to get up and turned around and left.
Because, Barcelona's counterattack has begun.
The football poked out by Lenglet was caught by Pedri.
After Pedri received the ball, he passed it directly to Li Mingyu who was retreating in the middle.
Li Mingyu ran towards the football with his back turned, behind him was AC Milan's midfielder Bennacer.
When Bennacer saw Li Mingyu holding the ball, he felt like he was facing a formidable enemy. He was afraid that Li Mingyu would turn around and pass a fatal pass, so he could only follow Li Mingyu tightly and never let him turn around.
But when Li Mingyu was about to catch the football, he suddenly made a fake move to turn to the left, causing Bennacer's center of gravity to move to the same side.
However, Li Mingyu's next action made the entire San Siro Stadium sigh in disbelief.
Li Mingyu first made a fake move to the left, causing Bennacer to move to the same side as Li Mingyu, but Li Mingyu immediately twisted his body back and turned in the direction of the ball.
During the entire passing action, Li Mingyu's feet did not touch the football at all, but he had completely thrown away the opponent's defense.
Pass the ball without touching the ball.
This should be considered the highest level of excellence.
This requires not only technology, but also football IQ and psychological game.
The top midfielders are basically masters of dribbling without touching the ball.
Li Mingyu used such an action to make all San Siro Stadium fans sigh.
After Bennacer realized that he had been fooled, he wanted to chase back, but Li Mingyu's sudden acceleration made him unable to catch up.
Bennacer was chasing after Li Mingyu, and Li Mingyu's speed had already increased.
Although it does not have assault skills, Li Mingyu's own speed is already among the best in the world.
AC Milan's defense suddenly became panicked.
As Bennacer was easily passed by, AC Milan's defense line in the middle was wide open.
Soon, Li Mingyu rushed to the thirty-meter area of AC Milan.
The opponent's center back can only rush to defend.
If Li Mingyu is allowed to take another long-distance shot, AC Milan will not have to play in this game. It would be too embarrassing.
No matter what, Li Mingyu must be stopped. Even if it is a foul, he cannot be allowed to continue to be so arrogant.
Looking at the ferocious-looking Romagnoli, Li Mingyu's eyes froze. Suddenly, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a black and golden figure quickly thrusting into AC Milan's ribs.
Li Mingyu saw Romagnoli who was about to tackle him, and directly kicked the football with the instep of his right foot. A scalpel-like through ball passed directly from AC Milan's ribs into the penalty area.
Romagnoli looked back with a horrified look on his face, only to see that Messi had appeared there like a ghost in the defensive area that originally belonged to him. After receiving the pass from Li Mingyu, he adjusted his steps slightly and fired a beautiful left-footed volley, which made the goalkeeper helplessly raise his hands in surrender.
In the 20th minute of the first half, Barcelona led San Siro Stadium, leading AC Milan 2:0.
This goal made San Siro Stadium, which was originally like a volcanic eruption, fall into silence like a cemetery.
Many fans already had tears of despair in their eyes.
Eight years away from Europe's top competition stage, it's like a gap has passed. Now, the gap between AC Milan and Barcelona is already so big that it makes people despair.
In fact, not only AC Milan, but the entire Italy football has lagged behind world football.
The era of the Serie A League and the seven Serie A sisters, which used to be known as the "little World Cup", has long gone with the wind.
The techniques and tactics of world football have undergone earth-shaking changes in the years when Barcelona and Spain National Team dominated football.
But Italy football's response seems to have been a step slower.
Chain defense, defensive counterattack, and the practical score of 1:0 are all the original sins that make Italy football lag behind modern football.
What is even more disappointing is that the defense that Italy football relies on for its survival is now somewhat different.
For example, in the goal just now, Li Mingyu used his super personal strength to turn AC Milan's defense upside down. The huge gap in the back line allowed Li Mingyu and Messi to find an opportunity. A quasi-single goal opportunity allowed AC Milan to concede another goal.
This goal completely extinguished any trace of luck in AC Milan's heart.
The disparity in strength is too great.
After Li Mingyu and Messi celebrated, looking at AC Milan who was a little lost, they couldn't help but show a trace of ridicule. They are not strong enough, but they still have to fight against us. Isn't this asking for death?
Zhang Shuai on North Stand, together with the fans next to him, were so excited that they couldn't help themselves.
As a fan of Li Mingyu, as a fan of Inter Milan, seeing AC Milan in such a mess, Zhang Shuai felt a double pleasure in his heart.
The passionate celebration involved a bruise at the corner of his eye, which made Zhang Shuai couldn't help but grit his teeth, but the pleasure brought by the goal soon made him forget about the injury and continued to celebrate crazily.
After the ball resumed, it was obvious that AC Milan had become completely honest.
The rhythm was firmly controlled by Barcelona.
In the 43rd minute, Li Mingyu kicked a through ball from 35 meters away. Messi succeeded in countering offside. Facing the attacking goalkeeper, he did not take any credit. He flicked the ball and Griezmann caught up and scored in one go.
With the referee's whistle, the first half of the game was over.
0:3, AC Milan playing at home was behind Barcelona by 3 goals.
San Siro Stadium There was a deafening boo.
The players of Barcelona were very happy with the angry boos for this kind of incompetence.
But the AC Milan players lowered their heads and quickly left the court and returned to the tunnel.
On North Stand, Barcelona fans who came from afar sang and danced, crushing their opponents at their home court. This feeling is the happiest moment for a fan.
AC Milan sent a large number of security personnel to seal North Stand tightly. They were surrounded by security personnel holding anti-explosion shields and anti-explosion sticks. They looked seriously at the surrounding AC Milan fans who wanted to attack and warned them not to mess around.
Fans from both sides sprayed Spain and Italy slang that each other couldn't understand through the security personnel. They were not serious words anyway. They were either going down the street or greeting each other's female relatives.
This feeling is like being in a group of funny videos, with two dogs barking at each other through a fence.
But what is different from the video is that if these security personnel really leave, the personnel from these two parties will never shut up like the two dogs in the video. They will definitely make the entire North Stand a mess.
The Barcelona players returned to the locker room very relaxedly. Koeman discussed some arrangements for the second half with the assistant coach outside the door before entering the locker room.
Seeing the head coach come in, everyone's voices dropped.
Koeman first expressed his recognition for everyone's performance in the first half and hoped that they can continue their efforts in the second half and must not take it lightly.
After all, three-goal reversals are common in the football world.
I still remember that unforgettable Istanbul night in 2005.
The Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan started the championship competition of the 50th Champions League League between Turkey and Istanbul.
AC Milan had the advantage in the first half, leading Liverpool cleanly 3:0.
During the halftime break, AC Milan's locker room had already begun to celebrate their victory. I heard that at that time, they had already opened the red wine they prepared to celebrate after the game.
If God wants to destroy it, it must first make it crazy.
AC Milan's arrogance and relaxation caused them to suffer the greatest humiliation in Champions League's history.
At the beginning of the second half, in 6 minutes, Liverpool scored three goals in a row, bringing the total score to 3:3.
AC Milan's players were stunned.
In the end, both sides failed to achieve anything within 120 minutes, and the outcome could only be decided through the most brutal penalty shootout.
Liverpool's goalkeeper Dudek became the most critical person in this game.
He successfully prevented the three AC Milan players from scoring penalty kicks. In the end, Liverpool won the 50th Champions League championship through a penalty shootout.
Although two years later, in 2007, Greece, AC Milan and Liverpool once again entered the finals of Champions League, and AC Milan passed With two goals, Inzaghi defeated Liverpool 2:1 and won their seventh Champions League trophy. However, the night of Istanbul in 2005 will always be a pain in Rossoneri's heart.
After the second half of the game started, AC Milan really wanted to take advantage of the opening opportunity and wanted to sneak attack Barcelona's defense.
However, this season, Barcelona has suffered such losses several times.
Therefore, Barcelona will maintain concentration in both opening moments of the first and second halves, and will never let anyone easily succeed in a sneak attack.
Mandžukić's sudden advance with the ball was interrupted by De Jong and Li Mingyu's back-and-forth attack.
The angry Mandžukić pushed De Jong hard after losing the ball, which also caused some unnecessary conflicts on the court.
Since the referee was nearby, he quickly stepped forward and stopped the players from both sides from continuing to push.
The referee showed mercy to Mandžukić who caused chaos and only showed him a topaz War God card. However, the referee gave a very stern verbal warning to Mandžukić, asking him to pay attention to his actions.
In this game, Mandžukić had almost no chance to face the goal. Every time he got the ball with his back, he couldn't turn around at all.
He said such strong words before the game, but performed so unproductively during the game, Mandžukić's mentality changed.
The next game was back on track again.
To be precise, it is back to the rhythm of Barcelona.
Li Mingyu is in the midfield, steadily doing the organization and passing work in the frontcourt, and sorting out the entire team's offense very properly.
AC Milan's defensive formation could only passively follow Barcelona's passes and run out of energy.
Barcelona, who has a three-goal lead, is in no rush to attack. Like a seasoned hunter, he always keeps a certain distance from his prey and lures the opponent out.
The players of AC Milan showed a very desperate performance. The technical level gap between the players on both sides is not too big, but the crushing of advanced technical and tactical levels is the most desperate.
Just like in war, you are equipped with the most top-notch weapons during World War II, but the opponent directly uses long-range attacks beyond visual range, so that you can't see the enemy and your entire army is wiped out. Your top-notch weapons have become scrap metal.
The cheers of the fans in the stands became smaller and smaller. This game made AC Milan fans completely understand how big the gap between their team and the world's top teams is.
In these years, AC Milan has not been able to participate in the Champions League competition, and the results of other teams of Italy in Champions League are also disastrous.
But AC Milan fans couldn't help but laugh at these teams, thinking that they had lost the face of Italy football.
However, when AC Milan actually came to Champions League's competition venue, they realized that they were the frogs sitting at the bottom of the well.
Seven Champions League championship trophies, at this time, do not have any halo blessing for AC Milan.
Their performance is not even as good as some La Liga mid-range teams.
It's not that their abilities are poor, but it's because they haven't seen the pace of a top team's game for a long time.
In the 60th minute, Griezmann was brought down by the defender of AC Milan in the frontcourt, and the referee awarded a direct free kick.
Li Mingyu kicked Power Free Kick with a speed of over 180 kilometers per hour. AC Milan's face turned pale. The goalkeeper was unable to make any reaction and stared blankly at the football rolling out of the goal.
This violent shooting gave them great fear of Li Mingyu.