Inter Milan still has a league game before the Champions League knockout draw ceremony.
On December 12, in the 17th round of Serie A, Inter Milan played against Cesena at home.
Cesena is currently ranked second from the bottom in the standings and is weak.
Although they tried their best to beat Inter Milan at the Meazza to stage a comeback and get the points they desperately needed to avoid relegation, the huge gap in strength cannot be made up by their efforts.
The game was unremarkable and Cesena lost to Inter Milan by a large margin in the end.
The only thing that excited Inter Milan fans was when Lu Wenbin scored the first goal.
In the 27th minute, when Lu Wenbin received a wonderful pass from Sneijder in the penalty area and turned around to shoot into the goal, the commentators and fans in the stadium shouted excitedly.
“Goooooooooooooooooooal…”
"11th consecutive Serie A goal, Lu scored 11th consecutive Serie A goal!"
"Lu has tied Batistuta's record of scoring in 11 consecutive Serie A games set in 1994!"
"In his first season in Serie A, Lu Wenbin tied the record for the longest consecutive goals in Serie A. It's simply amazing!"
Countless reporters and fans were fascinated by Lu Wenbin's goal and admired him very much.
Watching Lu Wenbin play football is a real pleasure.
Not only this goal, Lu Wenbin scored two more goals later. The other two goals were scored by Milito and Sneijder respectively.
Among them, the goal scored by Milito was assisted by Lu Wenbin.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 5-0. Inter Milan defeated Cesena at home and took all three points to continue leading the Serie A standings.
Lu Wenbin scored a hat trick in this game, bringing his total number of goals for the year to 93, just one goal away from his own record of 94 goals set last year.
At the same time, Lu Wenbin's goal in this game also brought his consecutive scoring streak in Serie A this season to 11 games.
After being shut out by Roma in the 5th round of Serie A, Lu Wenbin has maintained the record of scoring in every game from the 6th round until now.
With these 11 consecutive goals, Lu Wenbin tied Batistuta's record of 11 consecutive goals in Serie A set by Florence in 1994, becoming the focus of media reports after the game.
After this round of league, there was a few days of rest. On December 17, UEFA held the draw ceremony for the 2010/2011 Champions League knockout round of 16 at its headquarters in Switzerland.
The teams that entered the round of 16 this season are Inter Milan, Tottenham Hotspur, Schalke 04, Lyon, Manchester United, Valencia, Barcelona, Hoffenheim, Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea, Marseille, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal.
Among them, 15 teams are from the top five leagues, and only Shakhtar Donetsk is from Ukraine.
Although UEFA President Platini vigorously supported small leagues in order to win votes after taking office, after the fierce competition of the Champions League group stage, only the top teams from the five major leagues are still the mainstream of the Champions League.
Only the teams in the top five leagues have the funds and strength to form two or three lineups, fight on multiple fronts and achieve good results.
There will be one or two dark horses emerging from the minor leagues from time to time, but they won’t be the mainstream.
This is evident from the fact that there is only one team from outside the top five leagues in the round of 16.
The rules for the draw for the round of 16 are that teams that qualify from the same group will avoid each other, teams from the same country will avoid each other, and teams with the same ranking will avoid each other.
In other words, Inter Milan will not face Tottenham Hotspur and Roma, the two group runner-ups. Inter Milan's opponents will be the second-placed teams in other groups, including Lyon, Valencia, Hoffenheim, Marseille, Real Madrid and Arsenal.
Under the chairmanship of UEFA Secretary General Infantino, the draw ceremony officially began.
When drawing lots, a group of opponents will first draw the second place in the group and then the first place in the group. The first place in the group has the initiative to play away first and then at home.
The second team in the first group drawn was Roma, but their opponent happened to be the only team not from the top five leagues and the first in Group H: Shakhtar Donetsk.
This was a good draw, and the general manager of Roma who attended the draw ceremony had a big smile on his face.
Subsequently, one team after another was drawn, and the matchups for the round of 16 gradually became clear.
When Hoffenheim, last season's Champions League final opponent, drew Inter Milan, there was an uproar among the audience both at the scene and in front of the TV.
This is too much of a coincidence.
The two teams that were opponents in last season's final met again in the knockout round this season. With the gimmick of Lu Wenbin's transfer to Inter Milan, this game is undoubtedly the highlight of the round of 16.
In order to increase ratings, UEFA has tried every possible means.
Although there is no evidence, many commentators have bluntly stated in their live commentary that this must have been arranged by UEFA.
In addition, Arsenal's draw with Barcelona is also a strong dialogue among top clubs, and Real Madrid's encounter with Bayern Munich is a European derby of titans.
Of course, Real Madrid, which is in a bad situation, definitely does not want to face Bayern Munich.
Judging from previous match results, Real Madrid is more afraid of playing against German teams, let alone Bayern Munich.
Now that Mourinho has not gone to Real Madrid, the Galacticos under Pellegrini's leadership are not in good combat effectiveness, and they may be the "sixteenth round of the Champions League" again this year.
After the draw ceremony, all major media outlets were attracted by the replay of the Champions League final between Inter Milan and Hoffenheim.
Especially in the context of Lu Wenbin's recent transfer to Inter Milan, this quarter-final matchup seems very attractive.
After Lu Wenbin left, many successful Hoffenheim main players such as Hitzfeld, Nilsson, Jancker, Gustavo, Eduardo, Demba Ba and others transferred away.
Although Hopp introduced a lot of strong players, Hoffenheim's strength was still reduced a lot.
So far, Hoffenheim is only ranked seventh in the Bundesliga standings and only won second place in the Champions League group stage, which is far from the glorious record of winning the treble under the leadership of Lu Wenbin last season.
Compared with the lavish spending of Chelsea owners such as Abramovich, Hopp's rational investment in football and team building ideas are still a little lacking in generosity, and have also directly affected Hoffenheim's quality of signings and team reconstruction results.
Perhaps, the treble won under Lu Wenbin's leadership was an accident. Hoffenheim's original position was just the middle of the Bundesliga.
After the draw ceremony, naturally many reporters went to interview Lu Wenbin and asked him about his opinion on the draw results.
Lu Wenbin was naturally quite surprised by the result of the draw, and it was difficult for him to describe his complicated feelings.
He finally said: "Hoffenheim is where I started my career and I will always love it! However, now I am an Inter Milan player and I will try my best away from home to help Inter Milan beat Hoffenheim." (asking for monthly tickets)