Bang!
Suker and Terry collided hard. After falling to the ground, Suker barely regained his balance and rushed toward the ball's landing spot.
But Ashley Cole had already cleared it with a powerful kick.
"Damn it!"
Suker stopped.
In a full 15 minutes, this was the first ti he had created a real threat on goal with a pass.
Right now, Milan could only adopt a dense defensive posture.
The midfield was crippled, giving Suker very few chances to get the ball.
He had stood up front for a long ti before finally getting the opportunity, but the opponent's challenge imdiately nullified it.
Suker turned and began sprinting toward the center circle.
"Pass to !"
Suker shouted.
Ambrosini hurriedly passed the ball.
But the pass wasn't good — Suker had to chest-trap the ball to control it before turning.
At that mont, Lampard, Makelele, and Ballack surrounded him.
Suker pushed the ball sideways, trying a feint.
But Ballack charged fiercely; Suker staggered and fell.
Beep!The referee called a foul on Chelsea.
Ballack raised his hands and only received a warning.
Watching Suker clumsily get up from the ground, Ballack felt a dark satisfaction.
When he was at Bayern Munich, they had been miserably beaten by a peak AC Milan.
Back then, Ballack had also been isolated at Bayern.
Now, seeing Suker in the sa or even worse miserable situation gave him so pleasure.
Suker got up, brushed grass off his clothes, and threw the ball to Seedorf.
He then glanced at Ambrosini.
He wanted to complain, but held back.
More talk wouldn't help and would only harm the team atmosphere.
Suker turned and ran forward again.
In San Siro Stadium, AC Milan fans watched anxiously.
Suker was still performing well.
But the whole team was dragging him down!
They had lost Kaka, Gattuso, and Pirlo.
Midfield had almost collapsed, forcing more defenders to cover.
In attack, no one could support Suker.
Although Pato could make forward runs, he was still too inexperienced to compare with Kaka.
So in counterattacks and offense, Suker was seen fighting alone up front.
Suker silently ran.
He didn't complain or say anything else.
But comntator Aldo Serena couldn't stand it.
"Pass the ball! Find so space and pass! Football is a team sport of eleven players — not ten watching Suker play alone!"
"Run! Run! Even pulling so defenders away is sothing — don't let Suker face the entire Chelsea defense alone!"
Aldo Seirera was frustrated, knowing such a great striker was wasted — it was maddening.
Angrily, Aldo Serena silently added in his heart:
"This damn team! Get a transfer done!"
Ancelotti also kept shaking his head.
If the ball couldn't get out, Suker couldn't perform.
He couldn't expect Suker to drop back and solo-dribble against all Chelsea players.
That was unrealistic.
At minimum, the ball should be delivered to Suker's feet.
But AC Milan just couldn't do it.
The defensive pressure was too high.
Drogba, a beast, stood like a wall in front of the defense, pressing the Milan defenders until they could barely breathe.
Clearing the ball was difficult, let alone controlling it.
Mourinho stood at the sidelines, confident.
The match was progressing exactly as he predicted.
Once Suker was contained, Milan's crippled midfield couldn't mount enough counterattacks.
Chelsea kept pressing repeatedly, leveraging Drogba's presence.
How long could AC Milan hold out?
"Substitution!"
At 34 minutes, AC Milan made a change.
Simunic ca off.
Kaladze ca on.
Though no goals had been conceded yet, Simunic was already gasping under Drogba's pressure.
Twice Drogba physically overwheld him; if Nesta hadn't blocked, Milan would have been in trouble.
Seeing this, Ancelotti directly made a substitution.
He also glanced at Suker up front.
His tactics had problems.
Or rather, Mourinho's targeting was too strong.
Ancelotti wanted to simplify play and let Suker unleash his impact upfront.
But Suker was drowned by the opponent's defense; not to ntion breaking through, even receiving and controlling the ball was hard.
Suker's heading ability was completely blocked.
"Ancelotti is screwing ! Physical confrontation is useless!"
Suker shoved Terry hard, but before he could break through, Ashley Cole intercepted the ball.
Suker could only stop, his face full of frustration.
Huff! Huff!
Over 30 minutes, Suker fought against defenders, consuming huge energy.
But luckily, AC Milan hadn't conceded.
Just as he thought this, the crowd erupted.
"Danger! Drogba!"
Suker turned sharply.
In the penalty area, Drogba bore down on Kaladze, who was almost climbing on Drogba's back but still couldn't stop his turn.
Drogba spun with Kaladze on his back and fired a left-footed shot!
The ball flew toward the right goalpost and directly into the net.
43 minutes.
Chelsea 1:0 AC Milan!
"That beast!"
Suker scratched his head.
That bastard carried Kaladze and scored.
Kaladze was 186 cm and 76 kg, yet couldn't move the opponent.
After scoring, Drogba smugly swung his right hand, seemingly amazed by his own shot.
Near the corner, Drogba slid on his knees to celebrate.
Swish!
Suker craned his neck to look.
The classic three stripes!
"Bastard!"
"Drogba scores! Chelsea takes the lead, a very unfavorable ssage for AC Milan!"
"In the entire first half, AC Milan had only two effective shots, only one was on target."
Aldo Seirera said bitterly, "The team offers too little support to Suker!"
Chelsea's iron defense was a huge threat to Suker.
Moreover, Suker's running lanes were limited.
No one in current AC Milan could help open a channel for Suker to charge forward, further killing his impact.
During halfti, Suker returned to the locker room.
"Boss, I'm not questioning your tactics, but physical confrontation is useless, and I have to drop back! We can't get the ball out at all!"
Suker said to Ancelotti.
The other AC Milan players looked quite embarrassed.
When Kaka and Pirlo were here, Suker wasn't in this state.
But now, Milan just couldn't get the ball out, and Suker really had to drop back to solve the problem.
Ancelotti wasn't stubborn.
He thought for a mont.
"Filippo, warm up. You'll play striker in the second half. Suker, you'll play as No.10!"
Hearing this, Suker clapped hard.
"This should have been done earlier!"
Suker opened his system panel.
He put the three saved attribute cards directly into agility.
His agility jumped to 90 points.
Suddenly, his body felt incredibly light.
Though it was only 3 points, going from 87 to 90 agility made a qualitative difference.
"Bring it on! Big dumb bears!"
Suker gritted his teeth fiercely.
"Wait for the second half!"
anwhile, Chelsea were also arranging tactics.
But no major changes.
Mourinho was satisfied with his players' first-half performance.
Shevchenko sat on the bench, his mind sowhat dazed.
Watching AC Milan's performance, he felt a bit bitter inside.
Milan used to be nothing like this!
But in the past two years, Milan's decline was indeed too severe.
Maybe his own situation was the sa.
Both Shevchenko and AC Milan seed to be on the downturn.
"Hey, Andrei, what are you thinking about?"
Ashley Cole smiled.
Shevchenko turned.
Ashley Cole was one of the few players willing to talk to him, even though he lost his starting spot.
Shevchenko silently said after a mont:
"Watch out for Suker!"
"Huh?" Ashley Cole laughed.
"Didn't you see the first half? We shut him down!"
Shevchenko:
"If Suker was that easy to shut down, he wouldn't be the most expensive striker. Don't get left behind by him — once he's gone, you'll never catch up!"
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