On July 15th, the entire AC Milan team arrived in Dragon Kingdom and began a three-week trip to Dragon Kingdom.
Before playing Inter Milan for the Italian Super Cup on August 6, AC Milan has already confirmed three preseason games, namely Changzhou Hengtai, Maritime East Asia, and Jingcheng Guoan.
Of these three teams, two are strong teams in the Chinese Super League, and one is from the Chinese League One.
Of course, for Milan, it doesn’t make much difference whether they are in the Super League or not.
This choice of opponent is mainly because you can follow the route from south to north, pass through the three big cities of the Dragon Kingdom, and then arrive at the Bird's Nest for the Super Cup decisive battle.
By the way, you can also earn some appearance fees.
Since Allegri had already confirmed that Pan Yi would be in charge of the first game, the tactical training in the past two weeks was mainly led by Pan Yi.
Pan Yi practiced two sets of tactics.
One set is for dealing with intensive defense.
When there are a large number of defensive players in the opponent's midfield and backfield, Pan Yi asks the center back to pass the ball to the wide-open winger, further inducing the opponent's backfield defense to move laterally to the wing on the side with the ball.
Then, through return passes and "wing-to-wing" long passes, they can hit the opponent's side area without the ball in a wide range, and use the time difference of the opponent's midfield defense line to move laterally to complete the breakthrough or cross to grab points. .
Because Changzhou Hengtai can only be regarded as the younger brother in front of Milan, he will definitely be forced to defend in his own half in a real fight, so it is necessary to practice such tactics.
At the same time, this tactic can also be applied to situations when facing weak teams in the league.
The other set is the conventional pressing tactics, which are the tactics he uses in team competitions.
No matter which tactics they used, the players practiced smoothly under Pan Yi's careful guidance. Even players with a high vision like Ibrahimovic often gave Pan Yi a thumbs up.
The four trial players also performed well in training, which strengthened Allegri's determination to sign them - even if they can't replace the original main players in the end, it will definitely not be a loss if they sign. Rent it out for leveling.
Therefore, Galliani also acted quickly and secured the contracts of the four trial players.
When players have a strong desire to join, the transfer process is actually very easy.
Coupled with the blessing of Milan's big club and Galliani's superb negotiation skills, Milan spent less than 1.5 million euros to secure these four future top stars.
Salah + Mane + Van Dijk + Kante = 1.5 million euros!
If Galliani knew that the combined worth of these players at their peak in the future might reach more than 300 million to 400 million, would he give Pan Yi a few knocks?
…
On July 17, AC Milan arrived at Tianhe Stadium to prepare for their first preseason game.
Tianhe Stadium is the home court of Changzhou Hengtai, and now the stadium is already a sea of red.
But if you take a closer look, you will find that most of the fans are indeed wearing the red home jersey of Changzhou Hengtai, while a considerable number of other fans are wearing Milan's red and black arrow-striped jerseys.
AC Milan's support rate in the Dragon Kingdom has always been at the forefront, even if it has been in decline for more than ten years, let alone they have just won the Serie A championship.
Their opponent today, Changzhou Hengtai, although only a newly promoted team from the Chinese Super League this year, remained undefeated in the first half of the season and topped the Chinese Super League standings.
In fact, starting from this year, Changzhou Hengtai will win seven consecutive Chinese Super League championships and create an era of their own in the Chinese Super League—until a thunderstorm, which will be discussed later.
Because of this, this friendly match also attracted the attention of CCTV5, which broadcast the game live.
The commentators for this game are Duan Xuan and He Wei.
Duan Xuan: "The game is about to start. We saw players from both sides entering the stadium and lining up to greet the fans."
He Wei: "The fans are very enthusiastic. It's really loud with gongs and drums, firecrackers are blasting, and red flags are waving. There are huge crowds of people."
Duan Xuan: "Haha... Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both sides. Changzhou Hengtai team basically sent out all its main players today. It seems that they want to perform well in front of the hometown folks..."
At this time, the starting lineup was also printed on the TV screen.
Lee Jang-soo, the Korean head coach of the Changzhou Hengtai team, still arranged his customary 352 formation.
Forwards: Gao Lin, Muric.
Midfielder: Zhao Yuanxi, Zheng Zhi, Yang Hao, Kongka, Wu Pingfeng.
Defenders: Sun Xiang, Feng Xiaoting, Bao Long.
Goalkeeper: Yang Jun.
On AC Milan's side, it's Pan Yi's 433.
Forwards: Mane, Ibrahimovic, Salah.
Midfielder: Kante, Ambrosini, Gattuso.
Defenders: De Sciglio, Nesta, Van Dijk, Abate.
Goalkeeper: Abbiati.
Basically, it is the lineup that best embodies Pan Yi's tactical philosophy in current training.
In other words, it is the strongest lineup in Pan Yi's ideal.
Although the opponent is not strong, this is his first official coaching game after all, and he must make sure to win.
He even felt a little nervous.
How could a man not be nervous for his first time?
And this game also has special significance.
As a fan in his previous life, he often watched Changzhou Hengtai's games. After all, they often defeated Japan and South Korea in the AFC Champions League and won the championship. It was regarded as the flag of Dragon Kingdom football for a long time.
Like Muriqi, Kongka, Gao Lin, Zheng Zhi, Feng Xiaoting...
It can be said that Pan Yi is very familiar with them. They are all stars that many Dragon Kingdom fans like.
In his previous life, Pan Yi might have had difficulty even asking them for an autograph or taking a photo with them.
But now, he has to lead the world-class giant AC Milan to defeat the stars he once looked up to.
It does feel a little weird, but it's more...
excited!
Pan Yi sat on the bench, staring at the players on both sides of the court, his fists clenched.
Allegri and Tassotti, who were sitting on the left and right of him, both patted Pan Yi on the shoulder.
Although they didn't know what Pan Yi was thinking specifically, they also knew the significance of this game to Pan Yi and made him relax.
At this time, Duan Xuan had already read out the starting lineups for both sides.
Duan Xuan: "There are many new faces in Milan's starting lineup today."
He Wei: "Yes. Considering that they still have some players participating in the America's Cup, and this is just a pre-season warm-up match, they may want to send some young players for inspection first."
Duan Xuan: "That should be the case. The broadcast camera is now focused on AC Milan's bench."
"There are also many stars here. We saw Boateng, Cassano, Seedorf, Inzaghi..."
"We now see a familiar embarrassed face, this is their coach Allegri."
"Beside him...eh? Why does he look like a member of our Dragon Kingdom?"
