"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Seeing Bonaventura score that crucial goal, Leon could not hold back his excitement and pumped his arms repeatedly before leaping into the air with joy.
The enormous pressure was released with that goal.
Then Leon smiled and spread his arms wide to receive Bonaventura, who came sprinting the full length of the pitch towards him.
"Captain! I did it!"
Bonaventura was clearly beside himself with excitement.
Having the captain around was a reassuring feeling.
Teammates swarmed in from all sides and piled straight onto Leon, stacking up in a heap.
"Jian! You say something! I'm too emotional right now, I can barely speak!"
In the commentary booth, Jackson was genuinely moved.
Never before had a player from the East put in a performance like this at a major club.
No, there had never been a player from the East who had joined a major club in the first place.
When Sun Jihai was at Manchester City, Manchester City were still a lower-mid-table side.
Leon was different.
Truly different.
Not only was he holding down the starting goalkeeper position at AC Milan, he was genuinely influencing the course and outcome of matches.
Football in the East had perhaps finally produced a player who could stand tall on the world stage.
Even if that player was a goalkeeper.
"Damn it!"
On the touchline, Rudi García slumped back onto the bench.
Such a promising position had been turned on its head by that one goal.
The remainder of the match would not be easy for Roma at all.
Neither side created anything threatening for the rest of the first half.
AC Milan walked back to the dressing room leading 1-0.
"Captain!"
"Ha!"
The moment they returned to the dressing room, the AC Milan players all stood as one and shouted "Captain!" in unison at Leon.
Even Diego López and Agazzi did the same.
AC Milan's momentum was simply too strong to deny.
Whatever any individual player might have been thinking, winning was what everyone wanted.
After all, a good run of results did wonders for a player's own market value.
Plenty of players had seen their valuations soar after a spell at a big club.
In that moment, Leon's status as captain was truly cemented.
"Right! Let's keep pushing in the second half!"
Leon said with a grin.
In that moment he seemed like nothing more than an 18-year-old boy.
Quite a contrast to the figure he cut out on the pitch.
"Ha!"
"Is the captain going shy on us?"
The AC Milan dressing room was in full celebration.
Meanwhile the Roma dressing room had a completely different atmosphere.
Although this was not a knockout cup tie, for a Roma side looking to challenge Juventus for the title it was a match they could not afford to lose.
Head coach Rudi García sat with his brow furrowed, going over the first half again and again with his assistant coaches, and found himself feeling strangely powerless.
Roma had looked fine both in attack and in defence.
The goal AC Milan scored on the counter had come purely because Leon made that reckless, completely unconventional charge out of his area.
Without that, Roma's defence would not have been caught so badly out of position.
How do you even defend against that kind of madness?
"Luck is on AC Milan's side today."
"Is there really no hope of challenging for the title again this season?"
Rudi García did not believe there was anything wrong with his tactical setup.
His players had created a large number of chances on the pitch.
They had hit the post twice.
Yet the ball simply would not go in, and he could only put this one down to fortune.
"Coach."
Captain Totti walked quietly over to Rudi García's side.
"We can win this."
Totti said it plainly, and the two men held each other's gaze for a moment.
Rudi García smiled.
They had the Wolf King, Totti.
What decides a match is not only technical ability but mental strength too.
Rudi García refused to believe that an 18-year-old goalkeeper could have stronger mental fortitude than Totti, who had been playing for 20 years.
There was still a full half to play.
Nothing was over yet.
The second half kicked off.
"Welcome back, everyone! The second half is under way!"
"In the first half, thanks to a brilliantly timed tackle and the counter-attack Leon set in motion, AC Milan scored a vital goal!"
"Roma are going to find the second half very tough going!"
"Oh!"
In the commentary booth, Jackson, who had been lavishing praise on Leon, suddenly let out a cry of surprise.
Out on the pitch, Muntari made a clumsy attempt to bring the ball down and turn in his own half, and Totti immediately stepped in and robbed him of possession.
That hunger and intensity was nothing like a man of 37.
Totti then lofted the ball with his right foot in a sweeping arc that curved straight towards the top left corner of the goal.
Another shot into the dead angle.
Totti's shooting technique had clearly reached a level of complete mastery, looking almost effortless.
Fortunately the pace on the shot was not too great and Leon dived to tip it out for a corner.
Totti's expression was serene; he showed no concern over whether a single shot went in or not.
Just keep applying this pressure to the goal; there was no way Leon could hold out forever.
"Phew."
Leon got to his feet and exchanged a look with Totti.
Their eyes met and the air between them crackled.
"That was a close one!"
"AC Milan still need to stay sharp!"
"This is Roma's home ground! It won't be easy for AC Milan to take anything from here!"
Jian quickly filled the gap with a few words, covering for Jackson.
The praise had gone a little too far just now.
Listeners could have been forgiven for thinking Roma had no way back into the match.
If Roma went on to score now, it would be very hard to walk that back.
"Pippo! Our midfield is an absolute mess!"
Assistant coach Tassotti watched Muntari lumbering around and could not help letting it out.
"It's all we have to work with."
"Next season, if I'm still in the manager's seat, I'm going to pull heavily from the youth team."
"They might lack experience, but they won't necessarily be worse than these starters."
Inzaghi shook his head, more than a little resigned.
When he took charge of this AC Milan side, it was already in this state.
As far as Inzaghi could see, Berlusconi had genuinely lost all appetite for investment.
Galliani only wanted to bring in players on free transfers with high wages.
The problem was those players were simply not good enough.
This season AC Milan had spent just 11.25 million euros in transfer fees.
As many as nine new arrivals came on free transfers or on loan, including Menez, Diego López, and Bonaventura.
On the outgoing side, they had sold Balotelli to Liverpool for 20 million euros and sold one of the rare products of their academy in recent years, Cristante, to Benfica for 6 million euros.
Net spend: minus 17.25 million euros.
It was enough to bring tears to Inzaghi's eyes.
What Inzaghi did not know, however, was that after seeing AC Milan's results surge this season, Berlusconi's gambler instincts had flared up again.
He was planning one last wild spending spree at the end of the season.
If AC Milan could lift the Champions League again next season, the club would fetch an extraordinary price when sold.
That final burst of spending would yield returns many times over.
Of course, none of that would happen until the season was done.
For the remaining matches this season, Inzaghi could only make do with the squad he had.
Inzaghi pulled his thoughts back and fixed his eyes on the pitch again.
He wanted to win this match.
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