After the match between Inter Milan and Tottenham, the top four teams of this season's Champions League were all announced, namely Inter Milan, Schalke 04, Manchester United and Barcelona.
There will be no separate draw for the semi-finals this season. The semi-final matchups will be determined during the quarter-final draw.
Therefore, Inter Milan's semi-final opponent is Barcelona, which defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 6-1 in two rounds.
Obviously, this is a very strong opponent.
However, the first round of the semi-finals will not be until the end of April, so Inter Milan still has to play domestic games first.
On April 16, in the 33rd round of Serie A, Inter Milan will challenge Parma away.
As of the first 32 rounds, Inter Milan is 8 points ahead of second-placed AC Milan, which is still a relatively large lead.
In addition, the next game is the Italian Cup semi-final against Roma, so Inter Milan also made rotations in this away game against Parma to save strength for the next game.
With half of the players coming on as substitutes and playing away from home, Inter Milan had a difficult game.
Fortunately, Lu Wenbin still maintained his super high goal efficiency. Although he did not score any free kicks in this game, he scored twice through open play and a penalty kick, helping Inter Milan to draw 2-2 with Parma away and escape unscathed.
Three days after this league match, there will be the Italian Cup semi-final against Roma.
Now Inter Milan has reached the semi-finals of both the Champions League and the Italian Cup, and has always been firmly in the leading position in the league. Moratti and Mourinho both want to lead Inter Milan to complete the feat of winning Italy's first treble.
Therefore, Mourinho attached great importance to the Italian Cup semi-final against Roma and fielded all his main players.
The Italian Cup format is a bit strange. Before the semi-finals, the game is decided in one game, but in the semi-finals, it has to be played in two rounds, just like the Champions League.
In the first round of this season's Italian Cup semi-finals, Inter Milan will challenge Roma away, and in the second round they will return to their home court, which gives them a certain advantage in the schedule.
However, Mourinho still dare not be careless.
Roma has already been eliminated from the Champions League, has no hope of winning the league title, and even its qualification for the European Cup is in jeopardy.
The Italian Cup is also a way for Roma to qualify for the European Cup.
If we can win the championship, we can participate in the Europa League next season.
Therefore, this away game in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-final will not be easy.
At 9 p.m. on April 19, with the referee's whistle, the first leg of the 2010/2011 Italian Cup semi-final between Roma and Inter Milan officially began at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
Because of his participation in the Qatar Asian Cup, Lu Wenbin missed the first two rounds of the Italian Cup and did not participate. This is his first Italian Cup game.
The Roma team naturally conducted careful research and deployed defense on Lu Wenbin, not only to curb Lu Wenbin's breakthrough shots, but also to reduce the number of free kicks he took.
Relatively speaking, Roma has much more time for targeted training than Tottenham.
Therefore, in this game, Roma's tactical performance of advancing the defense line based on AC Milan was much better than Tottenham's.
In the 13th minute, Lu Wenbin was brought down when he was about to break through with the ball, but the place where Roma committed the foul was thirty-six or thirty-seven meters away from the goal.
Although Lu Wenbin activated the system skill, the free kick taken with the system skill hit the goal frame, but was eventually saved by goalkeeper Lobont because the distance was too far.
As for offside, Roma also played very carefully, and goalkeeper Lobont expanded his attack range from time to time, blocking Sneijder or Stankovic's through balls before Lu Wenbin.
In the end, throughout the entire game, Lu Wenbin simply used his dribbling skills to pass two people and scored a long shot outside the penalty area.
However, Lu Wenbin's passing and assisting abilities are also very good.
After discovering that Roma focused most of their energy on defending him, Lu Wenbin assisted Eto'o to score another goal for Inter Milan through passing the ball.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 1-2. Inter Milan won the first round with Lu Wenbin's pass and shot.
Although Roma achieved certain results by learning AC Milan's defensive tactics, they still failed to completely stop Lu Wenbin.
This also fully demonstrates Lu Wenbin's ability and value.
The world's number one superstar, his reputation is well-deserved, and he is impossible to defend against.
Although the victory was a little narrow, it was a win after all. Moreover, it was a win on the road.
Returning to their home ground for the second round, Inter Milan's chances of advancing to the Italian Cup final are definitely higher than Roma's.
After the match with Roma, on April 23, in the 34th round of Serie A, Inter Milan faced Lazio at home.
Lazio also used the method of advancing the defense line to defend Lu Wenbin.
However, this defensive approach is a double-edged sword.
If used well, teams like AC Milan and Roma can indeed have some effect in restricting Lu Wenbin's free kicks.
But if it is not used properly, like what happened in Tottenham Hotspur, it will give Lu Wenbin more space to counter offside and sprint forward.
In this game, Lazio's tactics were not used well.
Just 10 minutes into the game, Lu Wenbin got past Stankovic's through ball after being offside and shot into the empty goal from outside the penalty area.
Lu Wenbin scored the first goal, Inter Milan 1-0 Lazio.
In the 25th minute, Lu Wenbin made a cross from the bottom, Eto'o headed the ball in the middle, the ball was saved by the Lazio goalkeeper, but Sneijder who rushed up immediately after poked the ball into the goal.
Inter Milan 2-0.
In the 37th minute, Lu Wenbin successfully countered the offside again, received Sneijder's pass behind Lazio's defense, and then broke into the penalty area and shot into the far corner.
The ball went into the net and the Lazio goalkeeper was unable to reach it.
Before the first half was over, Inter Milan was leading 3-0.
Lazio failed to successfully apply the tactics learned from AC Milan and, like Tottenham, was beaten by Lu Wenbin.
15 minutes after the halftime break, the two sides changed sides and the Lazio coach admitted the failure of his tactics. He ordered his players to retreat and defend with the bus formation, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.
As for Inter Milan, the next game is the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona.
Therefore, starting from the 60th minute, Mourinho began to make substitutions one after another, using up all three substitutions. Even Lu Wenbin was replaced in the 76th minute.
However, before being substituted, Lu Wenbin finally got a free kick in a good position, activated his system skills and kicked the ball into the goal, completing a hat trick.
After Lu Wenbin was substituted, Lazio scored a counterattack goal in the 88th minute.
In the end, Inter Milan defeated Lazio 4-1 at home and continued to lead the Serie A standings.
Next up, it’s the semi-final battle with Barcelona! (Seeking monthly tickets)