Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions
Chapter 99 Tangcardi! The triumphant song resounds above the sky of Meazza Stadium!

Chapter 99: Chapter 99 Tangcardi! The triumphant song resounds above the sky of Meazza Stadium!

The flames 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 homeland, Toshihiko is also a shareholder of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. In 2012, he also became 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 remembers 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 environment here is conservative, with strong xenophobic sentiments among government officials.

Foreign businessmen wanting to make money here still face various invisible obstacles.

This UEFA Europa League incident has become a platform for many left-wing politicians to speak up, fanning the flames.

"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, Rome, Florence, they are practically replicas of Inter this year!"

"I never initially favored Toshihiko. His sports industry spans globally; inherently, he’s a sports merchant 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 investments in recent years. Even a century-old giant like Inter Milan no longer belongs to us, which is a shame for Italian football!"

"If it continues like this, once all 20 Serie A teams are sold to foreigners, Italian football will be completely doomed!"

"Inter Milan belongs to the Italian people; Toshihiko, get out of Inter!"

"We don’t welcome 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 environment 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 mediation, 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 prime of his coaching career; time 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 blame. 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 mentioned 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 me 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 summer window!"

Perhaps sensing external pressure on the team.

Inter’s fans are incredibly united at the moment.

Typically, these UEFA Europa League matches at the Meazza 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 some upper-tier stands not being open for safety reasons.

All other available seats were crammed full!

To the extent that, when Wolfsburg players entered for warm-up, they were immediately dumbfounded.

This momentum, this capacity, this decibel, truly lives up to the century-old stadium Meazza; 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 became the brightest stars in Meazza 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 encirclement, 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 Meazza Stadium resonant!

Fans shouted: "Icar-tang!"

Then shouted: "Tangcardi!"

This is the name 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 names together like a hymn, echoing through Meazza Stadium’s sky!

Wolfsburg was well aware of Inter’s media pressure, and were mentally 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 game, the Belgian, through wide-range running and teammates pulling, created a momentary 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 come to Meazza next week for another showdown.

How about it, my ground strike earlier was good, wasn’t it?