Before the start of the game, Li George received Inter Milan's starting lineup.
After seeing this lineup, he frowned, and he saw the changes made by Inter Milan.
First of all, Cordoba did not play, which George Li did not expect. George Lee thought that Mancini would still line up the combination of Materazzi and Cordoba, so he did not send Matteisen today, but asked Albuchesson to partner Woodgate, just to keep up with the previous game. Use the advantage of set pieces to open up the situation, but Mancini did not give him this opportunity.
Secondly, for a few days, Inter Milan's midfielder consisted of Cambiasso, Zanetti, Vieira and Stankovic, preparing to play a diamond midfield configuration and giving up the attack from the wings.
Similarly, Mancini also discovered that today at Leeds United, Smith once again returned to the left, while Milner was on the right, and the midfielder was still the combination of Parker, De Jong and Graveson.
The lone forward is Kuyt, Kevin Davis did not play.
After the game started, Inter Milan began to control the ball, hoping to patiently find Leeds United's loopholes. But Leeds United were not in a hurry, they just kept harassing and pressing.
It's just that Inter Milan's defense was very solid today, and the midfield was also very patient. Several veterans made no mistakes and kept passing the ball, looking for Leeds United's defensive loopholes.
However, it was Leeds United who took the lead in attacking.
In the 5th minute of the game, Ibrahimovic pulled down Parker who was defending him due to a foul during the scramble. Just when Ibrahimovic was still dissatisfied with the referee's penalty, Leeds United had already taken a free kick from the backcourt.
Parker got up and kicked the ball to Graveson in front.
Inter Milan quickly protested to the referee, but the referee ignored them.
Graveson stopped the ball very steadily and then handed it to Smith on the left. George Lee, who had no one available today, still put Smith on the left, even though Smith had felt uncomfortable playing that position before.
However, Smith also understands the difficulties of the head coach. As long as the team needs him, he will still appear in any position on the team and be 100% committed.
After Smith got the ball, he saw Maicon's defense. Although the head coach mentioned this player before the game, his opponent's performance in the last game was not good, so Smith underestimated the opponent this time.
Maicon correctly judged the direction of Smith's breakthrough and blocked the ball.
After Smith was intercepted, he immediately put away his contemptuous attitude and turned around to chase the ball.
After Maicon intercepted the ball, he took a step forward to observe his teammates.
"Be careful!" Zanetti, who was not far away, warned loudly.
But it was over. Smith accelerated and snatched the ball back from behind again.
This time Smith did not dare to be careless, but chose to use his body to resist Maicon.
"Damn, this Brazilian is still strong." After Smith made contact with Maicon, he found that he did not squeeze Maicon away. Instead, he was bounced away, almost losing control of the ball and leaving his range.
Maicon knew that Smith was going to hit him, so he took his position in advance, otherwise he would not be able to withstand the confrontation.
Then he saw that Smith was about to lose control of the ball, so he stretched his legs to grab the ball.
It's just that Smith's feet were faster. He touched the ball forward in advance, and then jumped up quickly to avoid Maicon's legs.
This time, Smith successfully broke through Maicon's defense and easily passed the ball to the center without anyone marking him.
Kuyt, who had already moved forward twice, finally waited for the opportunity this time. He predicted the position in advance and took off before Samuel.
"Dong~"
Facing the incoming ball, he directly hit it with his head.
Inter Milan goalkeeper Cesar reacted in time and lifted the ball over the crossbar with his hand.
"Huh~"
The Inter Milan fans at the scene were all shocked into a cold sweat.
Smith, who was in the distance, also turned his head when he saw that the ball had not been scored, and shook his arm fiercely.
Kuyt held his head in regret.
After that, the game continued to be controlled by Inter Milan.
Today Vieira appeared on the left side of the midfield to help Grosso complete the defense on the left, and the effect was very good.
When Mills didn't dare to attack, Milner was basically unable to pose a threat when facing Vieira and Grosso alone.
In the 16th minute of the game, Woodgate's hand touched the football during a duel with Crespo in the penalty area, but the referee did not whistle.
2 minutes later, Inter Milan got a good offensive opportunity. Stankovic's shot from 30 meters away from the goal changed direction because it hit Matteisen's head. Scott Carson had no time to react. I could only watch the ball fly to the other side of the goal.
Fortunately, the ball hit the outside of the post and flew out of the baseline.
Leeds United dodged a bullet.
But luck has not always been on Leeds United's side.
In the 35th minute of the game, Cesar drove the ball into the frontcourt. Crespo headed the ball to Zanetti before De Jong. Then the Inter Milan captain made a through ball and pushed the ball to Isla, who was already in place. cloth.
Ibrahimovic broke into the penalty area, first passed Carson with a fake move, and then scored with a powerful shot.
1 to 0.
The Italian presenter at the scene led the fans in chanting Ibrahimovic's name.
Although Ibrahimovic's full name is very long and convoluted. But the excited Inter Milan fans shouted in unison five times before stopping.
After conceding the ball, Leeds United started to panic a little and were completely caught by Inter Milan.
"Don't worry, let's stabilize the situation first."
"Don't panic, there is still a chance."
George Li kept shouting to the players on the sidelines, hoping that they would not be impatient.
But the more this happens, the more nervous Leeds United players become.
Gradually, the movements began to become bigger in the rush. During a scramble, De Jong received a yellow card for making too many movements.
Then Parker pulled Vieira in order to delay the opponent's attack.
Just when the Leeds United players began to be dissatisfied with the referee's penalty and prepared to attack, Inter Milan responded in kind.
It was also a quick free kick, quickly passing the ball to Crespo's feet in the penalty area.
The Argentinian took the ball and turned around, pushing the shot from the left side of the small penalty area to the far corner and just missed.
It shocked the entire Leeds United team into a cold sweat again.
At the end of the first half, Stankovic pretended to take a long shot from outside the penalty area and deceived Albuchesson.
Then he distributed the ball horizontally to Vieira who came in from the left.
The French midfielder almost changed the score again with a powerful long-range shot.
After the ball flew out of the baseline, the referee also blew the whistle to end the first half.
With the score behind, the Leeds United team entered the depressed visiting team's locker room with dark faces.
^^^
In the stands, there was a person who saw Leeds United lagging behind, and his expression was equally bad.
The camera swept across and it was Robin Van Persie, the Leeds United striker who had been absent due to injury.
Van Persie suffered an injury at the beginning of the season and has been absent for nearly two months. In these two months, he has missed several important Champions League games for Leeds United.
Van Persie is very confident. He believes that if it were not for his injury, the team might not lose to Bayern or draw with Shakhtar.
The team will not be troubled by the lack of wingers, at least today they will not be unable to pry open Inter Milan's defense.
Seeing his friend Smith struggling on the wing in the first half, Van Persie clenched his fists harder.
