The flas in the city gate spread to the fish in the pond!
The external anger towards Mancini’s intentional sabotage in the UEFA Europa League quickly reached Inter’s behind-the-scenes owner, Indonesian sports tycoon Toshihiko.
As one of the owners of Indonesia’s largest consortium, the Astra International Group, aside from owning two basketball teams in his holand, Toshihiko is also a shareholder of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. In 2012, he also beca the major shareholder of the Major League Soccer team, D.C. United.
As a foreign investor, since 2013, after acquiring 80% ownership of Inter from the Moratti family for 280 million euros, Toshihiko has always acted discreetly within Italy’s football circles.
He carefully rembers the teachings of his predecessor Moratti, behaving cautiously, and spending extra money every year for networking.
Even so, Italy is not like the United Kingdom; the business environnt here is conservative, with strong xenophobic sentints among governnt officials.
Foreign businessn wanting to make money here still face various invisible obstacles.
This UEFA Europa League incident has beco a platform for many left-wing politicians to speak up, fanning the flas.
"If all teams were like Inter, abandoning the UEFA Europa League for Champions League qualifications, our league’s European points would continue to decline in the future. Who knows when we’ll regain four Champions League spots?"
"This isn’t isolated; in recent years, Lazio, Ro, Florence, they are practically replicas of Inter this year!"
"I never initially favored Toshihiko. His sports industry spans globally; inherently, he’s a sports rchant dealing back and forth. His profits from Inter will eventually flow elsewhere; Inter is just a machine to provide him blood, an ATM for withdrawals!"
"Italian football has been frequently invaded by foreign investnts in recent years. Even a century-old giant like Inter Milan no longer belongs to us, which is a sha for Italian football!"
"If it continues like this, once all 20 Serie A teams are sold to foreigners, Italian football will be completely dood!"
"Inter Milan belongs to the Italian people; Toshihiko, get out of Inter!"
"We don’t welco these foreign capitalists!"
"They are eroding the foundation of the Italian people!"
Toshihiko was furious about this; he hadn’t anticipated that one UEFA Europa League match would escalate to xenophobia.
Had he known the Italian business environnt was like this, he would rather have bought a Premier League relegation team than get involved here.
Despite saying this, having spent nearly three hundred million in real money, Toshihiko can only turn to Moratti for help.
Moratti did not sell all of Inter at once but retained a 20% stake and continued as the chairman of Inter, fearing exactly such situations.
After negotiating, Moratti stepped in for diation, Toshihiko spent money for networking, and almost bought out the Rolex flagship store next to Milan Cathedral, thus silencing those left-wing politicians.
However, these are matters at the governance level, while Mancini, the working man of the coaching team, can’t escape being scolded by the higher-ups!
"No more sabotage, the second leg against Wolfsburg, we must advance!"
What’s Mancini supposed to do?
He’ll obey!
Honestly, he already wanted to compete for the UEFA Europa League. After all, in his coaching career, whether at Inter or Manchester City, his European record was quite bleak, and now there’s a chance to reach the semi-finals, why not fight for it?
I, Mancini, returned from the Premier League to Serie A to prove myself once again to Italian football!
At 50, Mancini is in the pri of his coaching career; ti hasn’t worn away his ambition, and he still has grand aspirations.
Thus, falling in line with the boss’s decision, they’ll seriously fight in the second leg!
If they win, he can shirk the bla. The decline of Serie A is all because of those politicians ruining the country and causing economic downturn; they shouldn’t expect him to take the fall.
However, Toshihiko is also using a carrot and stick approach, not entirely condemning Mancini.
He particularly ntioned Tang Long, praising Mancini for his youth promotions of Tang Long and the club asset appreciation, which contributed significantly.
Using the sports director Ossorio’s words:
"The boss specifically told that your use of Tang Long was excellent. Transfermarkt just updated this month; this kid’s value skyrocketed from 500 thousand euros to 10 million euros, a full 20-fold increase! The boss instructs you to continue nurturing and appreciating value; there’s hope for a big sale in the sumr window!"
Perhaps sensing external pressure on the team.
Inter’s fans are incredibly united at the mont.
Typically, these UEFA Europa League matches at the azza during weekday evenings only see about 40,000 to nearly 50,000 attendees.
Yet, this match sold 81,000 tickets!
Achieving the highest attendance rate in nearly three years, historically!
Aside from so upper-tier stands not being open for safety reasons.
All other available seats were cramd full!
To the extent that, when Wolfsburg players entered for warm-up, they were imdiately dumbfounded.
This montum, this capacity, this decibel, truly lives up to the century-old stadium azza; they cannot compare.
The north stand even presented a giant TIFO, with the slogan:
[Reject all slanders, we will give our answer on the field!]
With fans so supportive, how could the players not step up?
The combination of Tang Long and Icardi once again beca the brightest stars in azza Stadium!
In the 8th minute of the match, Inter broke the deadlock.
Even though he was marked tightly by two center-backs, and Icardi had limited space to maneuver, while Tang Long was caught in the midfield encirclent, but as soon as he struck, it was like a sharp knife slicing and snapping all the entangling ropes!
"Typically, players look for gaps before passing!"
"But Tang Long is different, once he passes, the gaps automatically appear!"
"It’s hard to imagine what strange thing is in his mind; he always makes crushing predictions three seconds ahead!"
Icardi’s explosive scoring was equally spectacular, almost at zero angle, shooting the ball over the goalkeeper’s head, making azza Stadium resonant!
Fans shouted: "Icar-tang!"
Then shouted: "Tangcardi!"
This is the na given by CCTV for the "sugar-coated cannonball" duo in Italy; while the depth of Chinese is profound, Italian fans prefer straightforward simplicity, combining Tang Long and Icardi’s nas together like a hymn, echoing through azza Stadium’s sky!
Wolfsburg was well aware of Inter’s dia pressure, and were ntally prepared for Inter fielding their full strength for the second leg.
Coach Black Gold strictly executed defensive counterattacks, moving the three lines deep back, even after conceding quickly, they were not eager to push out.
Wolfsburg had their own confidence; just snatch one away goal, and Inter would need three goals to eliminate them.
In the stalemate, Belgian midfielder De Bruyne started to explode!
Despite Mancini deploying the muscular Gualin to tightly mark De Bruyne throughout the ga, the Belgian, through wide-range running and teammates pulling, created a montary two-step gap with Gualin and sent a high-quality pass!
Again, it’s a ground strike!
Like an airship skimming across the water at 100 km per hour, the ripple spreads to the end, which is at Inter Milan’s central box!
Dost inserted behind Ranocchia, and before Handa could respond, made a sliding shot to score!
to 1!
Within 20 minutes, two teams scored one goal each!
After De Bruyne scored, he smiled, intentionally or otherwise looking at Tang Long not far away.
A week ago, they agreed at Volkswagen Arena to co to azza next week for another showdown.
How about it, my ground strike earlier was good, wasn’t it?
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