Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions
Chapter 204 - 175: UEFA Europa League Semifinal Flames Rekindled! Inter Heads North to Anfield!

Chapter 204: Chapter 175: UEFA Europa League Semifinal Flames Rekindled! Inter Heads North to Anfield!

If the cup competition is likened to a 100-meter sprint, then the league is a grueling marathon.

From the 1st round to the 38th round, as the matches progress, the players become increasingly fatigued, both physically and mentally.

Looking at the entire 2014-2015 Serie A season.

Apart from Juventus, who had established a strong lead early on.

The second-tier teams, Inter, AC Milan, Rome, and Napoli, cannot afford to slack off for a second in their quest for Champions League qualification from the moment they open their eyes each day!

Even a moment of respite could allow the ever-vigilant competitors behind them to suddenly overtake them.

For lower-tier teams like Palermo, Cagliari, Parma, Cesena, and Empoli, survival was their sole objective set at the beginning of the season.

Some of these teams, like Palermo and Cesena, had just emerged from Serie B last season and entered the hallowed halls of Serie A.

None of them wanted to ride the league’s elevator, running into a dead end and then plummeting back into the abyss of Serie B.

Napoli lost to the relegation team Palermo, while Inter, on a similar vegetable patch, won the subsequent clash against another relegation team, Cagliari.

From this perspective, in Inter’s race for the top three, towards the final sprint of the season, they performed more maturely and stably than Napoli!

Though they failed to defeat Napoli in their six-point battle.

Their advantage in steadily scoring against weaker teams is the Blue-Black Corps’ trump card in advancing towards the objectives set at the beginning of the season under Mancini’s leadership.

Temporary lead is not worth boasting about.

Only those who can last are real men!

However, this rainy battle in the mud exhausted Inter’s key players significantly.

The ball was heavy with water, and the players’ drenched clothes increased their burden.

On the flight back to Milan from Sardinia, starting players like Tang Long, Icardi, and Podolski all fell into a deep sleep.

In the vast charter plane, there was not a sound.

Only Berni nodded his head to the faint sound of rock music from his loud headphones.

After returning to Milan, the first thing Mancini did was to immediately represent Inter Club and file a serious protest with the Serie A Alliance!

In this strongly-worded protest, Inter’s official side accused the Serie A’s lax verification, allowing Cagliari’s stadium to gain league admission.

According to regulations, at the start of each season, the Serie A Alliance conducts a rigorous qualification review of stadiums hosting Serie A matches.

Evaluating from multiple dimensions such as audience capacity, fire safety, infrastructure, and turf quality to assess whether a stadium can host Serie A games.

Putting other things aside, could Cagliari’s terrible drainage system even host Serie A matches?

"The club unanimously believes that playing on such a pitch exacerbates our players’ injury risks, thereby putting the club’s most valuable assets in danger."

The Serie A Alliance received Inter’s complaint and could only respond with a non-committal letter, starting to play it off.

What else could they do?

Who doesn’t know that the Sant’Eliya Stadium, with a capacity of just 16,000, is the smallest and most outdated venue among the 20 home grounds this season?

But can the Serie A Alliance revoke Cagliari’s right to participate in Serie A just because their stadium is rudimentary as the only team from Sardinia?

That would be too harsh, and the authorities couldn’t do it.

Besides, if regulations were strictly enforced, 1.6 million Italians from Sardinia might rally north and wreck the Serie A Alliance’s headquarters!

The pressure from public opinion is immense, difficult indeed!

The only solution is to have Cagliari invest in renovating the stadium.

But therein lies a new problem; across Italy, except for the large and powerful Juventus, no other team has its own independent home ground.

All stadiums are owned by the local city hall.

Every team is forced to spend millions or tens of millions of euros annually to rent their stadiums from the city halls.

For small teams like Cagliari, the rental fees of several million are already their largest expense besides player salaries, so where would they find funds to repair the stadium?

Moreover, the property is rented; making luxury renovations just benefits the landlord.

What if they decide not to rent it to us someday?

Such a deal doesn’t add up anyway; nobody wants to be the fool!

This is where Italian football differs from other leagues like Spain, England, and Germany.

The poorer the place, the less willing they are to spend money on stadiums.

Inter Milan is also not uninterested in having its own stadium.

As early as 2007, the then Inter chairman Moratti mentioned building a stadium.

But eight years have passed, and not to mention breaking ground, even the feasibility report for the new stadium hasn’t passed the municipal review.

Inter longs for its own stadium, to not have to share the century-old Meazza/San Siro Stadium with their city rivals AC Milan.

They long for each ticket money to go into their own pocket.

And on non-match days, they hope to rent it out for concerts to earn income.

But these beautiful dreams can only be realized in dreams, in every Inter fan’s FM game.

Reality remains cruel!

The uniquely lengthy approval process in Italy, coupled with the relatively problematic government departments, truly doesn’t offer a good business environment.

No wonder Inter’s current owner, Indonesian Toshihiko, privately complained to the sports director Ossilio, saying:

"I regret buying Inter; the business environment here is far from that in the U.S.! Had I known, I wouldn’t have been cheap back then; I’d rather spend the same money to buy a lower-tier team in the Premier League, it would be much more comfortable!"

"It’s so annoying, I’m hanging up; I’m at the scene watching my Philadelphia 76ers’ NBA game!"

Whether it’s Italy’s business environment and economic strength, or Inter’s indefinitely postponed new stadium,

all are long-term issues beyond the control of a small football club at the moment.

For now, returning to the game, Inter just flew back from Sardinia to Milan, and without resting a few days, they are gearing up again, heading to the airport to board a flight to Liverpool International Airport!

This time, heading north to England, they are set to engage in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League semi-final against the Red Army.

Carrying a substantial 4-1 advantage from the first leg, the whole Inter team holds an absolute psychological advantage.

They are eagerly anticipating the UEFA Europa League final match!

On the other side, Seville narrowly won 2-1 against Zenit at home in the first leg.

Their destination this week is further away, in distant Saint Petersburg.

Based on live updated odds, the UEFA Europa League winning opportunities are as follows:

1. Seville 1:2.8

2. Inter Milan 1:3.1

3. Liverpool 1:6.0

4. Zenit 1:10

Inter’s flight landed at Liverpool International Airport.

Stepping out of the terminal, Tang Long looked up at the sky.

It was a thick, gloomy overcast.

Even the sea at the pier of this port city was drearily somber.

"England always has this damned weather," Berni said to Tang Long, "Ten days, eight days overcast, one day rain, the remaining day, half a day of sun, that’s England."

"Many Spanish and Italian players say they don’t like England’s weather; perhaps, being accustomed to everyday sunshine and beaches, it’s really hard to adapt to eating fish and chips under the overcast sky, haha, it’s not enjoyable at all!"

Liverpool, the city hailed as the largest industrial heart of the United Kingdom, its name resounding globally during the wave of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution, like a dazzling pearl embedded in the river of history.

Heaven seems to always play subtle jokes on humanity~

It is stingy in sprinkling the glorious sunshine generously over every corner of this city, yet it generously nurtured the climax of the first Industrial Revolution on this land, intertwining the roar of machinery with sparks of innovation into a magnificent industrial symphony.

In this city, rich with historical sediment and modern vitality, the Inter Milan Football Club bus slowly traversed through Liverpool’s streets.

The blue bus experienced the industrial flavor and football passion unique to this city interwoven in the air, feeling the ancient factories and modern buildings on both sides of the street.

The sound of the rolling wheels harmonized with the faintly audible dock bells in the distance, jointly narrating stories of glory, transformation, and dreams.

Tang Long gazed out of the window, the sky seemed lightly covered by a pale gray veil, which made the colors of the surrounding buildings appear gloomy as well.

At this moment, a bright red almost piercing through this layer of gray burst into his vision, exceptionally striking—

"Look, Anfield!"