Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions
Chapter 166 - 140: Icardi is anxious again! To win the European Golden Boot, he still needs to cling to Tang Long’s thigh!

Chapter 166: Chapter 140: Icardi is anxious again! To win the European Golden Boot, he still needs to cling to Tang Long’s thigh!

During halftime, Mancini made a bold personnel adjustment.

He directly substituted Tang Long!

In Mancini’s view, this victory was already in the bag, a foregone conclusion.

Not only because Inter Milan had a 2-0 lead in the first half.

More importantly, Verona’s offense was completely suppressed by Inter Milan.

The 37-year-old veteran Tony was, after all, just playing with half a tank of gas.

There are rumors that this season will be the last of Tony’s career, as he is about to retire.

Under the marking of the middle-aged international defender Ranocchia, Tony, despite all his efforts, could only lament, "The old general is indeed old!"

Ten years younger, Tony could crush Ranocchia, but now he can’t run after holding out for half a game against Inter.

Mancini substituted Tang Long at this time to give him enough rest time.

After all, Tang Long has been starting for several consecutive games for Inter Milan, and although he’s only 18, Mancini, considering the bigger picture, still needs him to have more rest time.

"Di Marco, get ready for your Serie A debut!"

Mancini said to Di Marco with a smile.

All eyes turned to this 17-year-old youngster.

Just last week he was promoted from the youth team to the first team, and this week he will make his Serie A debut—Di Marco was perfectly following Tang Long’s football path!

This time it was Di Marco’s turn to be dumbfounded.

He sat there dumbly, thinking he must have misheard it.

"Me, me, me... I’m going on, is it me?"

Di Marco nervously looked around.

When he got confirmation that it was indeed him, his eyes instantly turned red!

Di Marco was born in Inter Milan’s youth training, playing for the children’s team at Inter since he was 8 years old.

He honed his skills in the youth training team for 9 years, just for today’s match!

"I didn’t expect my debut to come so quickly, oh my god, and I even have 45 minutes, isn’t that too long, can’t it be shorter?"

Watching Di Marco continuously cross himself on his chest.

Tang Long, walking out of the player tunnel with him, kept comforting him.

"It’s okay, there’s no pressure in this match, Mancini is giving you a stage to showcase your skills fully, just demonstrate your crossing advantage."

Icardi somehow came up behind them.

He slung his arm around Di Marco’s neck and tugged him along a few steps.

"Hey, kid! If there’s a chance on the wing, just aim at my head directly, got it? I’m just one goal away from a hat-trick."

Icardi spoke with unquestionable confidence.

He didn’t know Di Marco before and was unaware of his technical traits.

But since Di Marco plays as a left-back and is good at crossing, just go ahead and aim at your big brother Mauro’s old noggin’, might as well help you get a few in.

Tang Long nodded to Di Marco, signaling him to do as Icardi said.

However, Icardi seemed somewhat sulky...

It was so hard for me to get a start in a match, Mancini, Mancini, you actually substituted Tang Long during halftime?

Winning the match isn’t a problem, but I am competing with C Luo and Messi for the European Golden Boot!

A gentleman should complete the good acts of others.

The one replacing Tang Long, Di Marco, played as a left-back.

So the starting Yuto Nagatomo switched positions with right midfielder Hernanes.

The Brazilian midfielder retreated, moving to Tang Long’s central attacking midfield position.

Mancini made a significant tactical re-arrangement to the formation.

While keeping the original 4-2-3-1 formation unchanged, he aimed to place each player in the position best suited for them.

"Hey, how do you feel?"

On the substitute bench, Berni handed Tang Long a white towel.

"Feel about what?"

"I mean partnering with Icardi, must be better than Bonazzoli, right? Your first assist, I’m not saying," Berni glanced stealthily at Bonazzoli sitting far at the end of the substitute bench, whispered, "if it were Bonazzoli, he definitely wouldn’t have connected with your ball!"

"Icardi is indeed strong, but Bonazzoli isn’t bad either, they are all excellent forwards."

Tang Long replied Berni nonchalantly.

In reality, now Tang Long doesn’t need to rely on Icardi’s support at all.

Once, as he was just promoted from the youth team to the first team, Tang Long couldn’t do without Icardi!

Though by then, Tang Long had already awakened the AI system, with advanced anticipation.

But limited by relatively poor personal football ability, his passing wasn’t precise.

Many times his technique couldn’t keep up with his intention, making some beautiful passes more of a fluke.

In the whole Inter Milan team with all the forwards, it was only Icardi — a striker with similar advanced anticipation — who could match his rhythm.

And Icardi also relied heavily on Tang Long; they interacted frequently on the pitch.

The nickname "Candy Bullet" for their partnership originated then.

However, now the situation has changed!

With Tang Long’s ongoing training in the AI Cloud Training Ground, his various football skills have significantly improved.

Especially in passing, with both long and short passes raised to over 80 ratings, the precision has greatly enhanced!

Even Bonazzoli, a solid bench player for Inter, as long as he runs diligently and grabs some luck, Tang Long could also assist him for a hat-trick.

Tang Long’s value no longer needs to rely on a high-level striker to be showcased.

On the contrary, an average striker, as long as he teams up with Tang Long, can also score many goals.

This identity change has made Tang Long a unique presence in the Inter Milan team.

Plus, after activating the Chess Awakening rewards, Tang Long had a qualitative leap in anticipating game situations.

While others are at the first or second layer, Tang Long has already reached the stratosphere.

...

Happiness arrived too suddenly!

Who would have thought, Di Marco’s first touch after coming on provided an assist to Icardi?

It was the 49th minute in the second half.

After being on the field for 4 minutes, and running around, Di Marco finally got a chance to receive the ball in an open space.

After Tang Long went off for a water break, Hernanes became the team’s playmaker and commander in the attacking midfielder position.

Although this player might be physically weak and not very fast, his years of experience in Serie A have given him excellent vision.

"Baldy, hurry up and make a forward run!"

As he beckoned Di Marco forward, he delivered a guided pass to him.

The so-called guided pass means intentionally hitting the ball harder, passing it in the direction the player is running.

This is advantageous for the player to receive the ball while running at high speed, minimizing the pause when receiving and speeding up the attacking rhythm!

After both sides exchanged fields, the left-back position where Di Marco was located was directly opposite Inter Milan’s bench.

The 17-year-old left-back was just about to trap the ball with his left foot when he heard Tang Long shouting from behind:

"Look up at Icardi! If there’s a chance, pass directly, don’t stop!"

Di Marco memorized Tang Long’s teachings, and immediately tensed up!

The following pass made use of every football technique he had learned in his 17 years.

The curve needed to be big, the ball fast, with height but not too high, ideally at a height Icardi could just jump up to and head.

Bang!

The curving ball was extremely comfortable!

Icardi nailed the drop point precisely between two center-backs.

The forehead just needed a slight nudge to easily hit a far corner goal!

Hat-trick!

"Kid, you really got some skills."

After scoring, Icardi was quite surprised by Di Marco’s assist, quickly giving him a thumbs up.

He was a bit surprised.

Di Marco didn’t look very tall or sturdy, and at just 17, he already showed early signs of balding, yet his cross was surprisingly good.

First touch in Serie A and already made a cross, Di Marco’s confidence soared!

"I told you, Serie A games aren’t as tough as Tang Long made them out to be!"

Back on Di Marco’s first day with the first team.

When they were having lunch together, Tang Long told Di Marco that the intensity of Serie A far exceeded what they faced in youth matches!

It mainly shows in the extremely fast pace of offense and defense.

As an attacking player, even before you control the ball, opponents often close in on you.

So you must anticipate beforehand what the next move will be!

When you get the ball, if you stop first, then run, then look—it’s sure to be intercepted.

Just when everyone thought that yet another youth player as promising as Tang Long was about to shine.

The 17-year-old Di Marco was quickly brought back to earth~

The problem was still with the perennial issue of rhythm.

Having just been promoted from the youth team, and with only a few practices integrating with the team, Di Marco struggled to keep pace even in training, not to mention matches.

Quickly, whenever he held the ball, even if slightly slow by two seconds, he was immediately double-teamed by Verona players.

Di Marco consistently lost possession in the left-back position, allowing the opponent to intercept.

Fortunately, Verona’s only attacking focal point—Tony, was tightly marked by the experienced Ranocchia.

So although Di Marco kept making mistakes, he didn’t provide Verona many lethal opportunities.

Mancini had anticipated this situation, continuously encouraging Di Marco without blaming him.

After all, that pass to Icardi had already won Mancini’s approval—given time, this kid definitely has potential.

The 3:0 score held till the end of the match.

"Won! Inter Milan comfortably secured a 3:0!"

"Now that all the Serie A round 28 matches have concluded, let’s take a quick look at the live standings."

"Juventus ranked first, second is Rome, while Napoli remains third. However, their lead over fourth-placed Inter has closed to just 3 points!"

"After this match, Inter has closed the gap to the Champions League spot, taking another solid step towards a top-three league finish."

"I remember, Inter and Napoli have a direct face-off in round 34, a match worth 6 points!"

"Who will earn a Champions League place next season this season?"

"Let’s wait and watch, viewers, see you next week!"

This was a victory won with minimal exertion, to which everyone in the Inter Milan team felt extremely satisfied.

However, one person wasn’t too pleased, and that was Icardi.

As early as when Mancini announced that Tang Long would be substituted at halftime, Icardi was anxious!

That’s right.

Icardi was anxious again and again!

The lad always gets worked up, which isn’t a good habit, hey.

Ah, damn!

I was just one goal away from a hat-trick!

Last round Bonazzoli got a hat-trick, if I don’t score three or four this round, it really doesn’t look good.

Makes me seem inferior to him.

Di Marco’s first assist sent Icardi on a high of happiness~

He thought if they went at this pace, it wasn’t just four or five goals, six were possible!

Faced with a weak team like Verona, not capitalizing on this is foolish, right?

But what Icardi didn’t expect was that Di Marco was just a flash in the pan.

Completely unable to adapt to the rhythm of Serie A, apart from that opening cross at the start of the second half, the rest of his performance was disastrous.

It was only because of Verona’s lack of offense.

If it were another team, he would have been exposed, let alone providing another assist.

Ah!

If Tang Long were here, facing a weak team like Verona, I could at least have scored five goals.

Tang Long, oh Tang Long, seems like if I, Mauro Icardi, want to win the European Golden Boot, I can’t rely on anyone else; the whole Inter team can only depend on you!

(Icardi: It’s not going to work, to win the European Golden Boot, I still have to rely on Tang!)