"Milan! Milan! Milan forever!"
In the stands of the Stadio Olimpico, the AC Milan supporters were passionately singing their club anthem!
AC Milan's attacking waves on the pitch came one after another, giving Inter Milan no chance to breathe!
This was completely beyond what Inter Milan had anticipated!
It left the Inter Milan fans in the stands looking very quiet and subdued!
"Defend! Defend!"
"Hold firm! Hold firm!"
On the touchline, Mancini Jr. had abandoned his composed and stylish demeanour, shouting frantically at the players on the pitch without any care for appearances!
He could not afford to lose this match!
If Inter Milan failed to win the Coppa Italia this season, his dismissal was certain!
A league finish of eighth place was something the Inter Milan supporters simply could not accept!
However, the situation on the pitch was already beyond Mancini Jr.'s control!
Inter Milan could not even manage to make it an even contest!
In the 34th minute, Leon played a precise long pass from his own half, finding Torres on the edge of Inter Milan's penalty area!
Torres's role as a target man at AC Milan was becoming more and more prominent!
He flicked the ball on with his head, directing it into the penalty area!
Menez and Suso charged into the box at almost the same moment!
"Bang!"
Suso, with the advantage of youth, was a fraction quicker and poked the ball home!
Goooooooooal!
The goal came as though it were the most natural thing in the world!
Menez threw himself at Suso!
"You little cheeky devil, you stole my goal!"
"Hahaha!"
One teammate after another came rushing in and piled on top of them!
This time, at least, they did not sprint over to Leon to pile on top of him!
"Bang!"
The Inter Milan captain, Ranocchia, kicked the ball out of the net and into the air in frustration!
The entire Inter Milan defensive line had switched off at the same moment, himself included!
That made AC Milan's goal look so effortless!
1-0!
The AC Milan supporters felt they were getting ever closer to the only trophy of this season!
"Brilliant!"
"Absolutely brilliant!"
"Watching this live is absolutely brilliant!"
All eleven members of the Feng Fans group, Su Jing among them, were overcome with excitement at that moment!
So this was the magic of football?
"Dad! Dad! AC Milan have scored again!"
"It was Leon! Leon's long pass from the back!"
Young Devin George was bouncing with excitement and waving his arms!
"Dad! But I want to see Leon score!"
"This is his first trophy!"
"It would be perfect if he got a goal too!"
Young Devin George was clearly a little greedy, desperately hoping to see Leon get on the scoresheet!
"Haha! Son! Leon is a goalkeeper, scoring isn't exactly easy for him!"
Dave George laughed and ruffled Devin George's mop of blond hair.
"No! Leon's free kicks are as good as Cristiano's!"
"He can definitely do it!"
Young Devin George remained absolutely convinced that Leon would score in this match!
The AC Milan supporters nearby heard young Devin George and all broke into warm smiles.
Hey!
They genuinely did want to see Leon score!
Quite a few AC Milan supporters were thinking exactly that!
In the 41st minute, AC Milan won a free kick in the attacking half.
Every AC Milan fan in the stands instinctively rose to their feet!
Would Leon come up to take it?
The AC Milan players on the pitch actually had that thought too.
But Leon declined!
With the team leading 1-0 and the situation so favourable, there was simply no reason to take unnecessary risks!
Leon's free kicks were not guaranteed to go in every time!
There would always be a small element of risk!
When Bonaventura's effort flew straight into the stands, the AC Milan supporters were visibly disappointed!
If only Leon had taken it!
The reaction from their own supporters left every AC Milan player on the pitch feeling the pressure!
Whoever stepped up to take the next free kick would now face enormous pressure regardless.
That Leon, a goalkeeper, could place such pressure on his teammates when it came to free kicks truly was something unique to him alone!
The first half ended with AC Milan leading Inter Milan 1-0!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
At the door of the AC Milan dressing room, Inzaghi's forceful knocking suddenly rang out!
The laughter and chatter inside the dressing room fell instantly silent.
Inzaghi's expression was extremely grave!
As though it were AC Milan who were a goal down!
This left the AC Milan players briefly caught off guard.
It was genuinely rare to see Inzaghi looking this stern.
"The match is not over!"
"I have no desire to have a trophy within touching distance and then watch it slip away again!"
"In the second half, we keep attacking! Attack! Attack!"
Inzaghi hesitated for just a moment, then his resolve hardened.
The reason for such gravity was that Inzaghi had been reminded of the Istanbul miracle all those years ago!
In the UEFA Champions League Final against Liverpool, AC Milan had led 3-0 at half-time!
Yet they were ultimately turned over by Liverpool in the second half, and the trophy was ripped from their grasp!
In that match, Ancelotti had chosen to start Crespo, and Inzaghi had not been able to play.
This Coppa Italia final would be the first trophy of Inzaghi's managerial career!
So Inzaghi was being extremely cautious!
For the second half, Inzaghi had considered whether to drop the team into a defensive shape, but ultimately abandoned the idea.
AC Milan had played a full season of all-out attacking football, so if they suddenly switched to a defensive approach in the second half, could they really hold on?
Attack was the best form of defence!
In the Inter Milan dressing room, Mancini Jr. was furious!
On paper, Inter Milan were still the stronger side!
Guarin, Shaqiri, Palacio, Icardi, Ranocchia!
In terms of both potential and ability, they outranked that bunch of "walking wounded" at AC Milan!
AC Milan's squad this season was genuinely poor!
That was clear enough from the first Milan Derby of the season, when Inter Milan had demolished AC Milan 3-0!
But ever since Leon had arrived at AC Milan, everything had changed.
Mancini Jr. could understand how a creative midfielder could transform an entire team's control over a match!
He could understand how a top striker, banging in goal after goal, could carry a team forward!
But a goalkeeper making such a vast difference to AC Milan's results? What on earth was this?
One widely accepted truth in football was that a goalkeeper alone, no matter how inspired, could not keep a clean sheet on his own!
Any goalkeeper who managed 700 or more minutes without conceding had the collective strength of the whole team to thank for it!
Yet the unexpected had occurred with AC Milan!
For most of the time, Leon had genuinely, through sheer outrageous individual brilliance, turned away the opposition's shots time after time!
Absurd!
Absolutely absurd!
Mancini Jr. felt as though his very beliefs about football were on the verge of collapse!
So how should Inter Milan approach the second half?
After venting his rage, Mancini Jr. fell silent.