Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions
Chapter 165 - 139: With an average age of 21.3, Inter Milan unleashes a youth storm in their attack!

Chapter 165: Chapter 139: With an average age of 21.3, Inter Milan unleashes a youth storm in their attack!

"It’s in, it’s in, it’s in, it’s in, it’s in, it’s in, it’s in!"

"Icardi has opened the scoring for Inter Milan.

"It took only 5 minutes and 32 seconds for him to break the opponent’s goal!"

"The assist was provided by the Chinese player Tang Long!"

"What an unbelievable assist, I can’t wait to review the slow motion!"

"From such a far distance, with so many defenders, how did the football cross mountains and rivers to land precisely at Icardi’s feet?"

"It’s simply a divine assist, like a precision strike missile!"

After Icardi scored, he once again performed his signature windmill ear celebration!

But this time, he didn’t run towards the north stand’s die-hard fans, he directed the gesture towards Tang Long.

And Tang Long responded with the same gesture towards Icardi.

The two of them exchanged smiles and finally embraced tightly.

When their bodies made contact, Tang Long clearly felt that Icardi used almost all his strength to hug him.

Even the ten fingers on his back were clenching with force.

The nails almost penetrated through Tang Long’s jersey, digging into his flesh.

"Hey, man, that’s enough, let go!" Tang Long hissed in pain.

But Icardi just wouldn’t let go.

His voice even choked up with emotion.

"It’s back, this feeling, I feel everything is back..."

Mancini was clapping happily on the sideline!

He was initially very worried about the condition of Icardi’s right little toe before the match.

But with this goal, whether it was Icardi’s run or the calm feint before the near corner shot against Verona’s goalkeeper,

the whole sequence flowed smoothly, extremely fluently.

There was no sign of the little toe injury affecting him, Mancini even felt that Icardi seemed more energetic than ever!

"Mauro, this kid, he’s truly young and resilient! Okay, you win." Mancini chuckled.

The big screen on the field started showing the replay of the goal, quickly drawing Mancini’s attention.

He stared intently at the slow motion on the screen.

"Hmm? What’s going on? This is too precise!"

Mancini felt quite astonished.

Even though as the team’s coach, he was closer to the pitch than anyone except the 22 players on the field.

He stood in the coaching area by the sideline.

Just a couple steps forward, and he would be on the pitch.

However, Mancini’s perspective was still a parallel one.

Plus, he was dozens of meters away from the far end of the pitch.

So Mancini didn’t see Tang Long and Icardi’s connection very clearly.

Especially Tang Long’s ground strike, whether in speed or power, rivaled De Bruyne!

It happened almost in an instant.

If Icardi reached it, he reached it; if not, it would have flown out of bounds.

And through the large screen in the corner of Meazza Stadium, Mancini could overlook the entire goal process from a god’s-eye view.

After watching the replay three times, Mancini was shocked!

Tang Long’s grounded pass and Icardi’s forward run were like two intersecting straight lines, meeting with a "snap" right in the opponent’s penalty area!

Seamless, without any margin of error!

It carried a beauty like a mathematical formula~

If the pass from Tang Long had been a bit stronger;

Or if Icardi had started a bit slower;

these two lines wouldn’t have converge precisely.

Mancini turned his head and suddenly focused on Tang Long.

He stroked his chin, pondering to himself, "It seems Tang has fully grasped an understanding of Icardi’s positioning."

Mancini’s analysis was spot on.

Though Icardi hadn’t played in the past few weeks due to injury,

Tang Long wasn’t idle.

He fed the system with a large amount of Icardi’s positioning videos.

And with the effect of the Chess Awakening feature, Icardi’s running trends could be visually displayed in blue lines in front of Tang Long.

You could say, when Icardi started his run—even when his right shoe spikes just left the ground, Tang Long had already predicted the precise spot Icardi would head to!

And the rest, Tang Long only needed to aim at the golden intersection points line to pass, following that path and he’d definitely connect with Icardi.

The beauty of a mathematical formula is that everything can be precisely quantified.

This far surpasses any textual description language!

Verona’s attack heavily relied on their veteran forward Tony.

This tall striker born in 1977 is about to step into his 38th year.

Tony has won Serie A Golden Boot, Bundesliga Golden Boot, and was once the European Golden Boot in the 2005-2006 season representing Florence.

He was also a member of the 2006 Italy World Cup-winning team.

This season, the aging Tony has appeared 23 times for Verona, scoring 17 goals.

At his age, maintaining such a first-class scoring efficiency is truly admirable!

However, Mancini wasn’t without tactics.

He arranged Inter Milan’s tallest center-back Ranocchia to closely mark Tony throughout the match.

Ranocchia stands at 1.95 meters tall, Tony at 1.96 meters, both almost equally tall.

But compared to Tony, Ranocchia has better mobility, stamina, and an edge in aggression and defense.

To suppress Tony, you can’t just focus on him,

you also have to suppress the flank’s crosses.

Suppress Tony at the first reception point during a positional attack!

Tony is slow, his movements are sluggish, making him no threat at all during counterattacks. This was the unanimous conclusion reached by Chiwo and Mancini in their pre-match discussions.

Due to the lack of sufficient crosses, Tony also gets lost within Inter Milan’s defense.

Catch the king first when capturing thieves. Once Tony is contained, the entire Verona team will fall into a leaderless state!

Verona’s strategy is straightforward: long balls looking for the focal point and then using his ball protection to wait for teammates to approach, thus pushing all three lines forward.

If Tony can’t hold the ball amidst Ranocchia’s disruption, then Verona’s attacking system will fall into paralysis.

In the 31st minute of the first half, due to Tony’s unsteady ball control, interfered by Ranocchia and Medel, his long legs got tangled and he lost possession.

Medel immediately brought the ball forward and before the opponent’s attacking midfielder could block, quickly passed the ball to Tang Long.

"It’s fruitful as soon as it’s given!"

Seeing Tang Long grab the ball, Icardi seemed like he took a stimulant, pants on fire, and zinged along with his understanding of his running path, starting a diagonal dash.

Tang Long’s retina swiftly displayed two golden pass lines.

One was a direct pass to Icardi.

However, Tang Long realized that the golden pass line and Icardi’s blue running line intersected about a meter outside the baseline.

Indicating insufficient space!

This time, Vidona’s defensive line was apparently keeping an eye on Icardi.

They didn’t recklessly press forward but withdrew deeply.

Compressing the space as much as possible for Icardi’s forward dash!

If Tang Long insisted on doing a direct pass to Icardi, however accurate the pass may be, it couldn’t allow Icardi to comfortably receive the ball inside the penalty area.

Football is an art of space, and without space, precise passes are futile ~

Thankfully, the lines were not limited to one, there were two!

Tang Long opted for another golden pass line!

This line was directed at the right-back Santon.

In this match, Santon’s position was moved from left-back to right-back, better suited to his habitual right foot.

This golden line, compared to the one for Icardi, shimmered with a brighter gleam—indicating it was a more reasonable line!

Just as Tang Long anticipated, the golden line to Santon intersected with Santon’s blue running line at a blank space near the corner area of Verona.

There, a two-square-meter area emerged, with four big characters above:

[Crossing Area]

Although Tang Long faced the direction of Icardi with his supporting foot, his toe aimed at him, yet at the moment his right foot was about to touch the ball, suddenly his little toe shook at the outer part of his right foot, instantly turning his whole body towards Santon on the right!

"Santon, watch the ball!"

Swiftly and unexpectedly, before the defending players could react, Tang Long executed a steady instep push pass.

The abrupt change in rhythm caught the opponents off guard!

Though the speed of this instep pass wasn’t fast, it spanned across the entire half, yet no Verona player could intercept it.

"Haha! I knew Tang would see my side!"

With heartbeats as intense as drumbeats, the young Santon strides forward on his tall 1.87-meter legs, "thump, thump, thump," charging several steps, akin to a leopard poised for action, ready for imminent contact with the rolling ball.

In this lightning-fast moment, Santon’s mind seemed to be struck by an invisible pebble, a "clunk"—

Words from Tang Long during training echoed in his ear like a reverberation:

"Santon, your fundamentals on the flank are solid, be bold and play openly if given the chance! You might try a first-touch pass, you’ve got the ability for that, and the threat will exponentially increase!"

A one-touch pass!

This thought darted like lightning through Santon’s mind.

He instantly abandoned the traditional strategy of stopping and observing, his eyes focused keenly, swiftly looking up, capturing Icardi’s shadow with his peripheral vision.

Icardi’s instincts need no words!

He had already detected the fleeting opening in the center of the penalty area, sprinting towards the penalty spot at full speed.

"Ground ball!"

Santon’s rough shout was like a war drum, deafening.

He raised his left arm high like a lighthouse guiding the direction, his thigh drove his right calf, like a precise machine, accurately targeting the touch area slightly inside the central top part of the ball, fiercely pressing!

This pass not only conveyed superb technique but also represented a gamble in high-speed motion.

If not pressed right, it’s just a plane!

Santon almost threw his entire center of gravity forward!

At the instant of completing the pass, his body fell heavily to the ground like a kite with its string cut, rolled once, and completely lost sight of the ball.

"Mauro, I aimed at the front point in the small penalty area, make sure to rush there!"

Santon, amidst the tumble, mentally chanted.

"Bang!"

A crisp sound of the ball being struck broke through the noise of the stadium like a victory horn!

Santon urgently struggled to rise.

"Great pass, Santon! Precisely the front point!"

Icardi’s cheer was the best annotation to Santon’s superbly executed pass!

Watching this scene, the audience in the live broadcasting room were also boiling.

"Damn! This direct pass without stopping the ball, while also carrying a ground strike, Santon’s got skills!"

"Are you kidding! He had single-handedly defended against C Luo in 2009 and was part of Inter Milan’s treble-winning team in 2010, his skills are not to be underestimated!"

"Tears in eyes! Even without both menisci in his knees, Santon still retains such sturdy combat strength, it seems this Inter Milan is truly unified!"

"Wait a minute, no one’s praising Tang Long’s pass? Feigned an intention to pass to Icardi, yet with a ’schlap’ turned around, placed it to Santon’s position, and that spot was completely open!"

"Candy bomb and Downton Abbey! Seeing two connection combinations in one match, truly exhilarating!"

"Boss, another serving of crayfish, please!"

Tang Long, Icardi, Santon.

The three young men tightly embraced each other this time.

One is 18, another 22, and the oldest Santon is only 24 years old.

Average age 21.3 years, Inter Milan sparked a youthful storm in the attack!

(Off to watch the Olympics gymnastics, another Chapter will be released late at night. You can wait to read it tomorrow morning.)