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Chapter 516
On April [-]th, Inter Milan arrived in Newcastle to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final two days later.

Five years later, Benitez, who led the team to Newcastle for the first time, still has such a rigid expression, but reporters who are familiar with him can see that Benitez's eyes are shining with excitement.

Although Mourinho is also the opponent that Benitez is least willing to meet, but he has already reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. There is not much difference between meeting here and meeting in the final. In the last season, Newcastle and Chelsea went from the league to the Champions League. In the Champions Cup, Benitez eventually gained the upper hand and eliminated the defending champion Newcastle in the semi-finals. However, in the league, Newcastle was more glorious. After directly defeating Chelsea, they won Newcastle's first league championship after the establishment of the Premier League with an unprecedented triple-digit score. You must know that Chelsea scored 04 points that season!

It was an unprecedented season and the craziest in the more than 100-year history of the four major European football leagues.

There has never been a season like that season. In the last round of the league, both teams have the opportunity to reach [-] points. There has never been a season where a team has scored more than [-] points and cannot win the league championship!
With their performance this season, Mourinho and Benitez became the top football coaches in the world in one fell swoop. In the subsequent league and Champions Cup, they led Newcastle and Chelsea to launch a comprehensive contest in various competitions. In the next two seasons, whether it was the Premier League or the Champions Cup, they became the world of these two teams. If you win the league championship, I will win the Champions Cup. After defeating Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester United in succession to achieve the treble, the crazy momentum of these two teams slowed down.

Then the contradiction between Benitez and Abramovich began to emerge. Finally, after the end of the 08-09 season, Benitez resigned as the head coach of Chelsea and went to Apennines to become the head coach of Inter Milan.

Benitez has done quite well in Inter Milan. He is the only head coach who has worked under Moratti for five years. Under his leadership, Inter Milan has maintained its advantage in Serie A after Calciopoli, winning four league titles in five years, and two years ago in the Champions League.

This season, Inter Milan is even more hopeful of hitting the Triple Crown. Even if they are as calm as Benitez, they will be very excited about the huge honor that may be obtained.

What's more, the opponent is Mourinho!Mourinho, who once fought himself to the death in England!

Naturally, Benitez, who came to Newcastle, became the focus of all reporters. From the moment he walked out of the airport, countless reporters surrounded him and asked various questions. Benitez did not answer any questions, but just walked out with his head down.

It wasn’t until he was about to board the bus that a reporter’s question made Benitez stop: “You have been the head coach under Pei Wei, Abramovich and Moratti. These three are all known for their generosity to the team. Can you comment on them?”

"Moratti is a good chairman. His love for football and Inter Milan is obvious to all. Although Pei Wei and I have only worked together for three years, I have a very good relationship with him. He is a good friend both in public and in private." Benitez replied briefly, and then boarded the bus, which drove away amidst the sound of the horn.

He didn't comment on Abramovich. Since the day he left Chelsea, even if there was no intersection between him and the Russian, although the two sides had a very pleasant cooperation moment, they eventually broke down.

When Pei Wei saw the news broadcast on the TV station that night, he laughed. He even had the urge to call Benitez, but he controlled the urge very well.

"It's been five years... Raphael, I think Jose is looking forward to fighting you again, right? In the previous fights, you won and lost almost the same number of games, but this time, I hope Jose can win, because if he wins, it means I win..."

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"Inter Milan is a very strong opponent. Although the current Italian Super League is not the era of the small Serie A World Cup, but their teams that can participate in the Champions League are quite good, not to mention the overlord of Serie A in recent years. Inter Milan...they have done a good job in localization and youth recently. Santon and Caldirola on the back line are all players trained by themselves. The defensive line is quite strong, and don't ignore the two old central defenders on their bench. Although Lucio and Samuel are almost 36 years old, they were once one of the best central defenders in the world. Attacking the midfielder, Sneijder is a midfielder with strong running ability. At the same time, his ability to play the ball is also quite good. At the same time, his long-range shots and free kicks must be paid close attention to. Beside him are Balotelli and Aguero. These two people can also be said to be forwards, but their running ability is good. They can also return to the midfield when defending. The front center is Destro. Assaulters, don't let your guard down on them."

After knowing that the opponent was Inter Milan, Mourinho began to collect information about Inter Milan’s matches, but he didn’t need to collect information specially. There are more than a dozen people in Mourinho’s coaching staff now, and two of them are assistant coaches who specialize in collecting video data of opponents in the league and possible opponents in the Champions League. Modern football is no longer an era where the head coach does everything.

"Their tactics change back and forth between [-]-[-]-[-]-[-] and [-]-[-]-[-]. The four attacking hands in the frontcourt, Balotelli, Aguero and Destro's positions are very active. Destro is more at the front, but he will also move on the side when counterattacking. Balotelli and Aguero take turns entering the penalty area and organize in turn. When returning to defense, Sneijder will also return to the penalty area to help defend. His running ability is quite good. It is not appropriate to use man-marking for the front midfielder, but it will make our midfield messy, so the best way is to stabilize the midfield and use zone defense to reduce their threat." An assistant coach said.

"In terms of defense, I don't think there is any problem. After all, Inter Milan's offense is not as good as their defense. The Italian team's defense is not so easy to attack. Inter Milan has never lacked excellent defenders." Shearer frowned. quality."

"Long Bisheng and Messi are both in good form recently. It should be no problem to let them start. Although Ranocchia has shown a high level in recent years, no matter how good he is, he will not be much better than Pepe. Long Bisheng will have no problem against him. In this game, the performance of the two forwards is still our best hope for victory." If we put too much pressure on the offense, our defense will be greatly tested. Both Balotelli and Aguero are capable of changing the outcome of the game alone. Destro is a very good bridgehead."

The assistant coaches nodded at the same time. Their thoughts were similar to Mourinho's. One assistant coach couldn't help but said: "If the guest first, then the host, our tactical arrangement will be much easier..."

Mourinho glanced at him, and said lightly: "Since the schedule has been released, there is no need to say these things...Everyone should think about it now, how can we minimize the possibility of conceding goals and make our offense more efficient."

The assistant coaches immediately chattered and discussed, and finally formulated the final policy. Although after so many people's unanimous thinking, it may not achieve the expected results, but this kind of preparation is extremely important.

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In the training of the past few days, Newcastle has been advancing layer by layer around the offense without making any mistakes. After losing the ball in the frontcourt, they quickly counterattack and the defender immediately returns to the defense. Although various tactics have been practiced by Newcastle in the usual training, the concentrated rehearsal of tactics before the game is to let the players understand the tactics that will be used in this game, and secondly, to make the players more proficient in this tactic.

In the confrontation within the team, Mourinho first arranged the main lineup, and then asked the substitute players to imitate Inter Milan's offensive style to compete with the main lineup. Although it may not be exactly the same, at least it can make the team more familiar with Inter Milan's style of play.

The training for the past few days has been completely sealed, and the reporters are not allowed to take any shots. The players also kept silent to the inquiries of the familiar reporters, which made the reporters worry about how to write the manuscript during this period.

The same is true for Inter Milan. Since coming to Newcastle, their training camp has been completely sealed. Newcastle also disdains to use some off-court means to interfere with Inter Milan's preparations. After all, Newcastle will go to Milan as a guest in two weeks. No one dares to break this rule.

Once in the Champions League, the Turkish clubs used the method of making fans shout all night next to the hotel where the visiting team stayed to affect the rest of the visiting team. However, after this kind of thing was done, the Turkish clubs were retaliated when they played games abroad, and no one dared to do this kind of thing anymore. Basically no club dares to use this kind of off-the-board trick.

However, for the reporters, although the training content of both sides is strictly confidential, they can't find gimmicks to write about. For Mourinho and Benitez, two coaches with extraordinary eloquence, the war of words before the game is inevitable, but it is only limited to the war between the two coaches, and the players did not participate in it.

Even Balotelli, the most rebellious and rebellious player in the Inter Milan team, remained silent before the game. Among other things, Mourinho and Benitez's control of the locker room can be seen from this point.

Even so, the war of words between the two is still exciting.

It was not Mourinho but Benitez who took the lead. He always had a sense of superiority towards Mourinho. Although the two men were equally famous and paid the top coaches in the world, in terms of personal honor, Benitez was still slightly higher. The honors won by both of them in the Premier League were similar.

"Newcastle is the club with the best performance in the Champions League in the past ten years? Maybe that is the case, but it does not mean that Mourinho is the head coach with the best performance in the Champions Cup in the past ten years. The head coach with the best performance should be me. I have won the Champions League three times in total, and the team I led did not stop in the top sixteen once." Benitez said in an interview.

"His words may be very reasonable, but why did such an excellent head coach change three clubs in the past ten years? The most important thing for a coach is continuity and stability, so Ferguson and Wenger are the greatest coaches in the past 20 years. I am now moving towards this goal, but I don't know if Benitez has the opportunity to become such a great coach." Mourinho immediately countered.

"Did Jose say that? It just shows that he was lucky. He met such a great chairman as Pei Wei earlier. I came to Inter Milan just a few years later. Mr. Moratti is also a great chairman. If I had worked at Inter Milan for ten years, I would have achieved better results than him. If I had been the head coach at Newcastle at that time, then Newcastle's current trophy room would definitely have several important honors." Benitez rebutted Mourinho by the way. Flattering Moratti and Pei Wei made everyone sigh with emotion, it really is a person who can't be judged by his appearance.

"Luck is also a part of strength. Who made Rafael leave Pei Wei on his own initiative? I waited patiently, so I got what I wanted. As for the assumption he said, the assumption can only be an assumption. I can also assume that if I were in his position, maybe Inter Milan would be able to win the Triple Crown every year. After all, the competition in the Italian Super League is far less intense than the Premier League. I can focus more on the Champions League." Mourinho continued to retort unceremoniously...

"Newcastle's recent games are too intensive, even if we win, there is nothing to be proud of." Benitez said.

"Unfortunately, Inter Milan will feel very humiliated after the two rounds of the game, because they lost to a team with a much denser schedule than them, and the difficulty of the two leagues is completely incomparable. Most Italian Super League teams will surrender when they encounter Inter Milan, and any Premier League team will go all out to fight Newcastle. It is impossible for the flowers in the greenhouse to defeat the pine trees that are used to the severe winter."

As the game approached, Mourinho and Benitez, who were attacking each other on the tip of the nails the day before, both shut their mouths at the same time. The two teams became silent at the same time. This kind of silence only deepened the atmosphere before the war. Suddenly, the feeling of stormy weather enveloped the entire city of Newcastle.

With only one day left, the first round of the Champions League semi-final is about to begin. Fans from both sides began to look forward to the teams they supported defeating their opponents and entering the final of this season's Champions Cup. Even the UEFA people began to get nervous. They did not hope that the Champions League final would turn into a civil war among English teams. Inter Milan was their only hope to stop the Premier League team.

(End of this chapter)