"Shane! Shane! Shane! Beautiful! Beautiful! A gorgeous volley! He has scored his 10th Champions League goal of the season!"
"Two-one! Atlético Madrid are back in front! AC Milan pushed hard late on and briefly equalized, but Shane Carter has struck again to crush Milan's momentum. Now Atlético not only lead away from home, they also have two away goals!"
"AC Milan are in real trouble now! Even the most confident Milan supporters must be feeling uneasy. Two away goals give Atlético plenty of confidence for the second leg at the Calderón!"
Amid the commentators' excited roars,
Shane spread his arms and sprinted toward the bench and coaching area.
Halfway there,
Griezmann leapt onto his back.
Shane staggered slightly, steadied himself, and kept running with Griezmann on his back.
Just like that.
One man on his back,
another whole line of teammates following behind him.
The delighted Shane plunged into the sea of joy in front of the bench.
"Beautiful work!"
"That strike was gorgeous!"
"Unbelievable!"
Everyone was shouting, slapping him excitedly.
Atlético Madrid were celebrating wildly on AC Milan's home ground.
...
The AC Milan players looked a little grim.
They felt that after equalizing, they should have been able to use the home advantage to pressure the opponent.
Even if they failed to score again,
they should at least have been able to avoid losing.
A 1-1 draw would not have been ideal for AC Milan either,
but the players felt that a one-goal deficit was not an impossible mountain to climb.
At the very least, they still would not have lost.
But now,
with Shane's goal,
the Milan players had nearly lost all confidence in the second leg.
Could they really go to the Calderón trailing 2-1 on aggregate and turn it around?
Could they beat Atlético Madrid, who were in such absurd form this season, at the Calderón?
Allegri opened his mouth,
but he didn't know what else to say.
The goal had come in the dying moments of the match.
Even if AC Milan wanted to do something,
there was no time left.
And even if there had been time, what could they do?
Atlético Madrid's players and fans were celebrating wildly in San Siro.
The roar from the traveling Atlético supporters shook the whole stadium.
By this point,
the dazed Milan supporters finally reacted.
Whatever the case,
they had to do something.
So they booed.
But now,
even the boos from the overwhelmingly numerous AC Milan supporters sounded weak and powerless, unable to drown out the cheers of the five thousand Atlético fans who had traveled to Milan.
...
Shane's goal came in the 87th minute.
By the time the celebration ended and the players returned to the pitch,
it was almost the 89th minute.
Not much time was left for AC Milan.
Once play resumed,
the Milan players looked desperate.
Their attacks became direct and rushed, as if anyone who got the ball immediately wanted to take a shot.
That kind of approach required a superstar's individual brilliance to work.
If Milan still had Kaká in the squad, they might have had a slight chance.
After all,
a flash of genius from a true superstar can absolutely win a match.
But unfortunately,
this AC Milan side no longer had a superstar.
And there was no flash of genius to be had.
Balotelli's mind was already a complete mess—what was he supposed to "flash"?
On the touchline,
the fourth official raised the board for stoppage time.
Five minutes were added at the end of the match.
That was already quite generous to the home side AC Milan.
But the Milan supporters in the stadium did not accept it.
They booed loudly,
protesting that the refereeing team had given them far too little added time.
But in the final five minutes,
AC Milan still failed to create anything meaningful.
Shane had completely abandoned attacking.
He stayed right at the top of the box, actively helping defend, and whenever he won the ball, he launched it long and high.
As long as the score stayed 2-1 until the end,
Atlético Madrid's chances of advancing in the second leg would be over 90%.
That was all they needed.
Allegri kept waving his arms on the sideline, shouting for Milan to push forward and attack.
But he had forgotten something.
This Atlético Madrid side was, at its core, still a team with a huge number of defensive players.
The reason their attack looked so sharp
was largely because of Shane.
When even Shane was fully focused on defending,
AC Milan's chances of scoring became almost impossible.
So when the referee blew the final whistle,
the score had not changed.
Atlético Madrid had beaten AC Milan 2-1 away from home.
You could say that half a body had already entered the quarterfinals!
"Full time! Full time! Atlético Madrid have beaten AC Milan 2-1 away from home and are taking a victory back from San Siro!"
"Across the two legs, Atlético Madrid are now in complete control!"
"Just look at the expressions on the AC Milan players' faces—this victory for Atlético Madrid is hugely significant!"
Atlético's players celebrated wildly in San Siro,
as if they had already qualified for the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the AC Milan players walked off the pitch with their heads down.
"AC Milan have lost at home to Atlético Madrid, and that has cast a shadow over their path to the next round..."
The Milan Sports TV commentator said with a helpless sigh.
By rights, Milan's performance in this match had actually been pretty good.
But they still lost.
The former Champions League giants
had now fallen to the point where they were being beaten one after another by Málaga and Atlético Madrid from La Liga.
In truth, wasn't that also a reflection of Serie A's decline?
Just look at this season's Champions League.
Only two Italian clubs were participating: AC Milan and Juventus.
Serie A was supposed to have 2.5 spots.
The third-placed Italian team from the previous season was supposed to enter the Champions League playoff round.
But last season's third-place team, Udinese, was eliminated in the playoffs by Braga from Portugal.
The old "Little World Cup" of Italian football had declined to the point where only two teams were entering the Champions League proper...
And now, the once-dominant European giant had been beaten on its own ground by an Atlético Madrid side that had been absent from the Champions League for five years.
Scenes like this
made many Chinese fans sigh in emotion.
Times had changed.
...
After shaking hands with Simeone, Allegri hurried off the pitch.
Now San Siro belonged to Atlético Madrid's players.
They all ran together to the away end.
Atlético's fans were seated high up in one corner of the stadium.
From that distance,
they would probably need binoculars to see clearly.
For any home team, cutting off the away fans from the pitch is standard practice.
That way, the bond between the fans and the players can be severed.
Fans are the team's "12th man."
Their cheering and support
can often become a source of strength for the players.
And yet,
even so,
Atlético Madrid's fans had repeatedly outshouted the home crowd during the match, giving the players on the pitch visible support.
The Atlético players joined hands and ran to the stand below.
They applauded, bowed, and waved thanks to the fans above them.
The Atlético fans answered with a massive roar.
And against that roar,
the boos around San Siro became thinner and thinner...
Shane was in the line of players too.
He received the loudest cheers of all.
Inside his mind,
the system was already giving him a prompt.
Ding! Match ended, calculating rewards...
Match intensity: High. Match rating: Excellent!
Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained a Gold-tier random chest! Open it?
Shane silently thought:
"Open it!"
Ding! Congratulations! You have obtained: Tackle Specialist (Gold tier)!
...
Tackle Specialist: Improves your ability to read your opponent's passing lanes; when you step up to challenge, your speed and agility are greatly enhanced; there is a chance of receiving a hint for the best moment to make the tackle.
Shane shook his head slightly.
He had been hoping to pull a module from a legendary AC Milan icon.
Instead, he got this.
Still, it was practical enough.
He was Atlético Madrid's first trigger for counterattacks.
And if he wanted those counterattacks to become even faster,
then there was nothing better than...
winning the ball himself and launching the break directly.
Shane closed the system and turned back to join the celebration.
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