After the Manchester City Derby, the Champions League 16 knockout round is near.

Manchester United's opponent is Inter Milan, the former boss of Gao Xiaodong, last season.

If Manchester United fans could know in advance that they would face Inter Milan in the round of 16 knockout round at the beginning of the season, Manchester United fans would definitely be scolded.

But now Manchester United is in a much better mood, and I would like to say thanks to former Reds coach Benitez.

Of course, Benitez is also the former Inter Milan coach now.

Although Mourinho and Gao Xiaodong, the two cornerstones of Inter Milan winning the triple-champion, left Inter Milan in the summer, the basic framework of Inter Milan is still there, and the core has been reduced by half from Gao Xiaodong to Sneijder, and the head coach has been reduced by half from Benitez to Mourinho.

Such Inter Milan dare not say how good it can continue to achieve in the Champions League. There is still guaranteed to be a semi-finals, and there will be no suspense in Serie A.

However, after Benitez coached for half a year, Inter Milan's locker room was in chaos, and its condition was sluggish, and it was a mess, which was simply unbearable to look back.

Benitez's Serie A debut was tied 0-0 by Bologna, which also indicates that the Spanish coach's path to coaching is doomed to be difficult. After the next three consecutive victories, Inter Milan reached the top position, which was the position that Inter Milan was most used to, but it turned out to be a flash in the pan. Losing 0-1 to Rome in the 5th round to become a turning point in the fate of the Nerazzurri in the new season. After they drew 0-0 at home in the 6th round, they lost their position as the leader, and were then suppressed by their arch rival AC Milan and could not turn over again.

Starting from the 10th round of draw with Brescia, Inter Milan began an embarrassing four-round defeat, and from the 12th to the 15th round, he suffered three defeats. The home loss to AC Mi has made a record of 46 unbeaten at home with a record of 967 days, and was sealed. It was also the end of 53 games in various competitions since November 2008, and the "happiest Europe" home game ended. The away loss to Lazio also made the record of 7 years of living up to the Blue Eagles, and the opponents in the city took the opportunity to leave Inter Milan far away.

After half a trip, Inter Milan was left with 13 points by the leader AC Milan and dropped to fifth place, which was the worst record for Inter Milan in the past six seasons, so that the Nerazzurri had to fight for the Champions League place after the New Year.

The league is so dismal, and Inter Milan's performance in the Champions League is also disappointing. Their group opponents are not strong. Tottenham, Bremen and Twente can only be regarded as second-rate European teams, but their record of qualifying for the second in the group with only 7 points has also made the Nerazzurri the worst defending champion since Porto in 2004-05. A 1-3 defeat to Tottenham and a 0-3 defeat to Bremen. Bale's hat trick in Meacha are all memories that Blue and Black fans can't bear to look back on.

The draw of Manchester United, who is in Europe in the quarterfinals, almost indicates that defending champion Inter Milan's Champions League path this season may end in the quarterfinals.

During the winter break, Inter Milan won the Club World Cup, which is a good thing for Inter Milan. No matter what, this is a trophy for club competitions around the world. If handled well, it may become a turning point for Inter Milan to regain its strength.

However, the Club World Cup not only did not give Inter Milan a lifetime, but instead intensified the internal conflicts of Inter Milan. As Benitez relied on the confidence to win the Club World Cup, the policy of signing against Moratti was too stingy.

Morati just won the triple-winning championship last season. When he was extremely arrogant, he heard Benitez criticizing his signing policy. Morati, who was supervising the game in Tokyo, came up with anger. When he returned to Italy, Morati directly fired Benitez and invited former archenemy head coach Leonardo.

The treble-champ Inter Milan has fallen to this point, and the biggest sinner is of course Benitez.

Espanyol took over Mourinho's treble-winning team in the summer with confidence. Since the day he stepped into the base of Pinetina, Benitez has been determined to erase the mark left by the madman in Inter Milan. Benitez asked to remove Mourinho's portrait, which also caused dissatisfaction among the players and created a gap between Benitez and the players.

In terms of tactics, Benitez and Mourinho's core ideas are very different. Espanyol emphasizes high-pressing tactics and requires the team to pay more attention to control the scene. Mourinho rarely emphasizes ball control and high-pressing, and focuses on counterattack. After Benitez changed his tactical style, Inter Milan has a high ball control rate, but his offensive efficiency is extremely low. He cannot win against weak teams and loses against strong teams.

Of course, the poor grades were not caused by Benitez alone. He could not take such a big blame. Inter Milan's second biggest sinner was Chairman Moratti.

After more than ten years of investment regardless of cost, Moratti, who has achieved merits, seems to be depressed by continuing to fight.

The transfer market last summer was the most frugal season since Moratti served as chairman. Inter Milan let go of Gao Xiaodong, but after getting 80 million euros, it only introduced a substitute goalkeeper Castellazi, while Biabiani only redeemed half of the ownership, and Coutinho was a deal that had been finalized two years ago. The team was old and insufficient investment, and no one would take over once injuries. This is obviously an important reason that affects Inter Milan's performance.

In addition to the head coach and the chairman taking the greatest responsibility, Inter Milan's core players are also to blame. In addition to Etoo's brave state and scoring all seven games this year, Milito, Sneider, Macon and others have all declined sharply after winning the triple-winning title. Milito is no longer as tough as last season's goal, and Sneider's most Serie A shots but no goal was scored. Macon was completely beaten by Tottenham's Wingsboare in the Champions League.

After such a group of "old men" lost their fighting spirit, it is no surprise that Inter Milan's flash crash was collapsed.

In this half season, Inter Milan fans miss the most are Mourinho and Gao Xiaodong. Almost all the Nerra groups believe that if one of these two people is left, Inter Milan will not collapse at least this season.

Of course, some media and fans think that Mourinho and Gao Xiaodong are just a pair of slippery heads. They just saw that Inter Milan's condition and luck last season could not be replicated, so they left resolutely at the end of the season.

The result proves that Mourinho and Gao Xiaodong are winners in life. After changing to another club, Mourinho's Real Madrid is second only to Barcelona, ​​while Gao Xiaodong's Manchester United has become the hottest team in the whole European state.

After Leonardo succeeded, Inter Milan's performance improved, with seven wins and two losses in seven Serie A games.
Chapter completed!