The Celtic Park, packed with sixty thousand spectators, fell silent!
The shirtless, burly Scotsn stood motionless, like dummies from a soccer video ga, frozen in place.
They had taken the lead early, their chants once deafening!
But at the last minute of the first half, they were overtaken, rendered speechless.
In just 45 minutes, from paradise to hell.
Emotions from volcanic heat to icy cold.
And the architect behind all this was Inter Milan’s number 99 player, Tang Long!
During half-ti.
Tang Long sat down, barely able to drink water before feeling a stabbing pain in his ribs.
"Hiss..."
His sharp inhalation drew Berni’s attention.
Berni lifted Tang Long’s shirt, revealing a red and swollen rib.
"Tang, you can’t play anymore, you must rest!"
"The team doctor said it’s just a rib contusion, no big deal."
"Nonono," Berni said sternly, "Your contusion is quite serious. If you insist on playing, it could delay your recovery. It’s not worth it for a UEFA Europa League match!"
Berni imdiately reported to Mancini, who after personally examining Tang Long’s injury and consulting with the team doctor, decided to substitute Tang Long at halfti.
It was enough.
After 45 minutes of experintation, Mancini was assured.
The 4-2-3-1 formation could work!
There was no need for Tang Long to risk worsening his injury.
In the second half, Tang Long was substituted by Hernanes.
Mancini took this substitution as an opportunity to see if Hernanes, a rotational player, could replace Tang Long.
The effect of the substitution was imdiate!
Of course, negatively.
Hernanes is technically proficient, seasoned, and an excellent midfielder.
But compared to Tang Long, his midfield orchestration and situational judgnt visibly fell short!
Especially the precision of key passes was always just a bit off.
Neither Podolski, Palacio, Shaqiri nor Icardi, who ca on as a substitute in the 70th minute, managed to score.
Luckily, Gualin’s disruptive defense in the backfield was diligent enough to prevent the opponents from equalizing.
The match, a bit dull, ended with a 2-1 score.
When the referee blew the final whistle.
Celtic’s center-back Van Dijk, with hands on hips, looked at the rainy sky, his eyes sowhat bewildered.
Both goals conceded happened in the first half.
All involved him.
Or more directly, 90% were Van Dijk’s responsibility!
Twice he rashly charged forward, losing his position, allowing Tang Long to exploit the gap behind him and send the ball out.
This situation, neither in Eredivisie nor Scottish Super League, had Van Dijk ever experienced!
He was originally an aggressive defender, decisive in challenging and disrupting the ball path, which was always his strong suit.
This skill beca a secret weapon on the team’s defense line, repeatedly thwarting threatening attacks from opponents!
Why was facing Tang Long today so dismal?
"Seriously, I’m taller, stronger, and faster than him, why couldn’t I intercept his ball?" Van Dijk looked up at the gloomy sky, posing the question to the heavens.
But this 23-year-old Dutch center-back, for the first ti in his career, began to doubt his defensive style.
Many years later.
Van Dijk achieved fa and success at Liverpool.
Premier League, Champions League, UEFA Player of the Year, gathering nurous awards.
His value soared to a hundred million euros!
His defensive trademark action, "retreat, retreat, retreat", beca a nightmare for Premier League forwards.
During an interview with journalists, the Dutch defender reminisced about the past, expressing his inner thoughts.
"You say I like to retreat in defense? Well, back in 2015, when I played for Celtic in the Scottish Super League, the UEFA Europa League match against Inter totally changed my defensive style. Tang made realize that sotis, rashly charging forward could lead to catastrophic consequences!"
...
Upon returning to Milan, Tang Long didn’t participate in the next day’s training.
He was in the club’s dical laboratory undergoing instrunt examination.
The results showed that his bones had no issues, but the contusion was rather serious.
There was a hematoma in the rib area.
He needed to rest for a week, and would thus miss the weekend’s away league match against Lazio.
Mancini was quite annoyed by this result!
Originally, the plan was to use the UEFA Europa League to test, let Tang Long play for 60 minutes then rest, to check the effect of the 4-2-3-1 new tactic in a non-critical match.
Unexpectedly, it resulted in losing a key player, missing the league he valued most.
Team striker Icardi was very concerned about Tang Long’s injury.
After training, he hurriedly ran to the dical room.
Seeing Tang Long with a bare torso, his ribs swollen, Icardi felt a piercing pain, as if he himself had been injured instead.
"Siris, can Tang’s injury really heal within a week? Won’t it take a month?" He anxiously asked the team doctor.
"At most a week, or even less if lucky. Don’t worry Mauro, it’s a contusion, not a fracture."
Icardi’s heart was slightly at ease.
Tang Long said to him: "Well, since you got a red card suspension, and I’m injured, we can watch the ga against Lazio together on TV."
Icardi said: "Tang, you have to recover well. If I’m back and you’re still injured, who’s going to assist ? I’ll suffer, and if I can’t win the European Golden Boot because of it, I’ll co for you, haha!"
The 22-year-old Icardi spoke straightforwardly.
Among the whole Inter squad, Icardi was most worried about Tang Long’s injury.
One was number 9, the other was number 99.
This combination of artillery shell and sugarcoating was deeply bonded together.
Though Icardi could score, with excellent goal-poaching instincts.
As a striker without ball-holding skills, highly reliant on midfield support, Icardi understood that without Tang Long on the field, neither Hernanes, Kavacic, nor Shaqiri could provide him with sufficient firepower support.
Even more annoying was that Gualin, who loved wild shots and was reluctant to pass the ball to him.
Damn Colombian!
These days, Tang Long didn’t participate in team practice but under the physiotherapist’s guidance, he did recovery training alone.
Joining Inter for the first ti and pausing due to an injury, Tang Long was very serious about this.
The AI system didn’t give him any injury immunity cards to forever avoid injuries.
After repeatedly watching the collision with Van Dijk on his phone, Tang Long sought out Chiwo, hoping to hear advice from the Inter treble-winning veteran on how to maximize injury prevention in matches.
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