Zhuang Mingge, who missed this game, carefully watched the game video and keenly discovered a problem, that is, the expressions of the Sampdoria players who won the big victory showed that they were not happy.

"It seems that it is not only AC Milan that has the problem, but also Sampdoria!" Zhuang Mingge sighed. Milan's problem is just the decline in players' hunger for honor, coupled with the various adverse effects left over from the US World Cup. Sampdoria? Their problem is their own boss!

It is very simple to rebuild the Milan dynasty. Keep the current head coach Capello and form the team as he wishes, which can revive the team in two or three years.

And Sampdoria and Mantovani, the boss, himself, did not realize that the worst person in the club is himself. Who can expect Sampdoria to regain its glory?

Not to mention the various problems that Milan and Sampdoria have now, after a big victory over Padua, Fiorentina will participate in the European Cup of Winners' Cup quarterfinals again. This time, the opponent they drew was a team from Croatia, Dynamo Zagreb.

In the early 1990s, the situation in Yugoslavia was turbulent, and the people of all ethnic groups who were united under Tito's leadership had turned against each other and attacked each other. Around 1991, Yugoslavia was divided into six, and the historical hatred among the various ethnic groups in Yugoslavia further intensified and eventually turned into a civil war.

Before the split, the Yugoslav national team's skills were absolutely not inferior to any team. They were once practitioners of artistic football, they were once dancers on the green field, but they were ultimately political martyrs...

Memorial is a kind of memory, always remembering what you don’t want to forget. But under the control of another emotion, commemoration is just to forget, forget an unforgettable memory...

Take a look at the following string of names:

Mikhanovic, Jiukic, Prosinetsky, Stoykovic, Boban, Davao Suk, Mijatovic, Pantev, Savicevic, Yugovic, Boksić, Girni, Milosevic, Kovacic, brothers, Zahovic, Jolovic, Kovac, Kezhman, Stankovic, Modric...

Remember them and their football? Now they belong to different countries - Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. And now, Savicevic has a new nationality - Montenegro. But, remember, they once fought under the same name - Yugoslavia!

The Yugoslav youth army that won the championship in 1987 all appeared in the lineup of the name that later shocked the European football world. These represented the names of the era of Yugoslav football. From then on, they wrote a legend that belonged only to them!

Is the Italian summer in 1990? It was once the gorgeous stage of Yugoslavs. When they first went to the World Cup, they shone with dazzling light. But no one expected that this first time would become their last...

Although they lost to the strong German team 1-4 in the first game of the group stage, the young Yugoslavia has been in a state of great strength since then. Not only did they qualify from the group, but Stoykovic beat Spain, which had a free kick in overtime in the quarterfinals!

In the quarter-finals, Yugoslavia used ten people to suppress Argentina with Maradona as the core's 11th attack for 80 minutes (in the 31st minute of the first half, Sabanazauvic was misjudged by the referee and received the second yellow card and was sent off), and finally lost 2:3 in the penalty shootout! Stoykovic said after the game: "The failure of the penalty kick is nothing, the next World Cup is ours!" But what he didn't expect was that this game was a complete Yugoslavia masterpiece in the international competition.

In 1991, the Belgrade Red Star held up the Toyota Cup high in Tokyo. Savicevic's red card shortly after the opening game allowed them to face the complete team from Chile with ten players early, but what did we see? Three wonderful goals directly kicked the Chileans back to their hometown. But who would have thought that this was the last group performance of a group of Yugoslav geniuses!

This is a land of disasters - the Romans, Turks, and Austrians have occupied it. When no one can enslave them again, they themselves fell into a civil war. The Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians who once lived in harmony under the reputation of Tito (the per capita GDP of Yugoslavia was US$2,635 in 1979) fought against each other in the 1990s, and once stood together on this land Catholic churches, Orthodox churches and mosques could no longer live together. Suk and Savicevic, Boban and Stoykovic, Boksic and Pantev, Prosinetsky and Yugovic, helped become enemies overnight. The haze of politics shrouded football. Boban was allowed to pass the ball to Savicevic only in AC Milan...

In the 1992 European Cup, Yugoslavia was suspended; in the 1994 World Cup, Yugoslavia was suspended; in the 1996 European Cup, Yugoslavia was suspended, all of which was because of the damn war!! A generation of talented players wasted their great years, and the war wiped out their golden years. (In the 1992 European Cup, Yugoslavia, which could be called the "golden generation", was suspended, and the Denmark team that replaced them finally won the Delaune Cup.)

Croatia's independence, Bosnia-Herzegovina war... The continuous wars robbed this "powder barrel" full of genius over and over again for a full decade. These great players could only stand from afar in the stands of the European Cup and World Cup and look at it - this was originally their stage, but politics and war deprived them of their power to perform - they were just spectators - politics tarnished football!

The gorgeous movement is still played. However, there is only the first half of the movement; the other half is forever missing...

In Zhuang Mingge's world, Yugoslavia and Croatia finally made it to the stage of the World Cup in 1998, and the geniuses who had lost their youth shocked the world with their last glory! In that World Cup, Yugoslavia reached the top 16 and finally lost to the Netherlands in the penalty shootout; and Croatia even beat the opponents all the way and won the third place in the French World Cup!

...

Years of war have not kept the tenacious Croats away from their love for life. Now, the Croats who have been far away from the war are soothing the trauma brought to them by the war, while doing their best to pursue the life they love.

What should people who are far away from war do the most? Without this trip to Zagreb, Zhuang Mingge could imagine only the most common answers such as "supporting family and rebuilding their homes".

Yes, all of this is true. Zhuang Mingge felt this on the day he arrived in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. But he was surprised to find that almost all the local citizens he met were working hard to do these "normal things" while he was trying hard to do these "normal things" and the most common topic he talked about was football!

Almost every "stranger" Zhuang Mingge met after coming to Zagreb can find the common language of football, such as the taxi driver talking about his son who could kick the door panel of his neighbor at the age of six, and inadvertently heard from two guards in front of the hotel he was staying in. A wonderful street game will be played in the afternoon on a street that is rarely visited.

Football is something that can heal people's pain. Zhuang Mingge, who saw this situation, felt that this was true.

PS1: "Additional updates and completion plan" Chapter 8
Chapter completed!