Chapter 321: The First Round of the Euro Cup Qualifiers is Here

There are still more than ten days before the league resumes.

AC Milan is currently focusing on preparing for the new season.

During this time, Milan needs to take the opportunity to recover.

Injuries to players like Gilardino, Kaká, Inzaghi, Seedorf, and Nesta have almost crippled Milan's lineup.

They need time to rest and recover quickly.

Fortunately, Milan's medical center is quite authoritative.

Targeted injury diagnostics and recovery assessments are conducted with high standards.

Currently, the one recovering the fastest is Kaká.

After all, he's young, and young bodies heal quickly.

Watching Kaká grow stronger day by day, Suker finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't in vain that he had been taking such good care of Kaká—preparing nutritional supplements every day, and even giving him exclusive access to the rehab facilities in the fitness area.

Under such attentive care, the injury healed quickly!

This is supposed to be Kaká's breakout season, and Suker is determined to cash in on that.

He still needs Kaká to assist and feed him passes—this guy can't be lying in a hospital bed too long.

Last season, Shevchenko won the league and Champions League golden boots.

This season, Suker wants that glory for himself.

But Shevchenko took advantage of Suker's breakout season—eating up assist after assist—and then left.

Suker doesn't mind Shevchenko's departure.

After gaining honors, he wanted to chase a bigger payday—understandable.

After all, the Russian tycoon at Chelsea had been trying to lure Shevchenko with cash for a while.

Finally, during the "Calciopoli" scandal, Chelsea managed to take him away.

Shevchenko's departure certainly impacted Milan.

But for Suker, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

There's now a spot open in the front line—Suker can step up and take it.

Given his current performance, unless something unexpected happens, he'll be Milan's offensive core this season.

Ancelotti agrees with this idea.

Last season, Shevchenko benefited from Suker's emergence.

This season, Suker wants to benefit from Kaká's.

In his villa, Suker watched Kaká gobble down food and nodded slightly.

"Eat more! It's time for you to start producing results!"

"Today's your re-evaluation, right?" Suker asked suddenly.

Kaká licked the corner of his mouth and nodded, "Yeah, I should be able to join training soon."

Suker thought for a moment, "Check your groin area too!"

"Huh?" Kaká looked confused.

Suker said, "Trust me, get it checked—it's free anyway!"

Kaká's groin is a sore spot for Suker.

It's the injury that ultimately ended Kaká's peak early.

Kaká's injuries stemmed from his playing style.

His "rush and charge" style relies on youthful energy, which can be destroyed by injuries.

Even Messi and Ronaldo quickly adapted and changed their playstyles based on their talents.

One became a poacher.

The other evolved into a midfield playmaker.

It's a must—players need to transform as they age to minimize injuries.

Kaká is a case of failed transformation.

And of course, the guy was kind of reckless—he played through injuries even after being diagnosed by Milan's medical center.

After more than a year, Suker and Kaká had become close.

In the past, Suker wouldn't have cared.

But now, he felt the need to say something.

Finally, Kaká's injury report came back.

He was recovering well and could rejoin training.

Thanks to Suker's suggestion, Kaká also had his groin checked—there were no problems.

Clearly, Kaká hadn't pushed his body too hard recently.

His recovery was a huge boost for Milan.

But soon, more good news followed.

On August 18, a transfer Milan had essentially abandoned suddenly saw a breakthrough.

Their bid for Real Betis's Brazilian forward Ricardo Oliveira was accepted.

Real Betis had been stunned when Milan backed out so decisively—leaving them no room to negotiate.

Oliveira found out that Betis had suddenly raised the price and was furious.

He felt the club was blocking his transfer and trying to use a last-minute price hike to force him to stay.

In his anger, Ricardo Oliveira confronted the club.

If they blocked his transfer to AC Milan, he would go on strike next season!

This left Real Betis in an awkward position.

They didn't want to keep him so much as they wanted more money.

But now they had a mess on their hands.

To reconnect with Milan, Betis had no choice but to lower the price.

Eventually, both sides settled on a €13 million transfer fee for Ricardo Oliveira.

Suker vaguely remembered this Oliveira being called a "flop striker" at AC Milan—only stayed one season before leaving.

AC Milan even gave him Shevchenko's number 7 shirt, but he performed terribly!

This transfer embarrassed Milan's vice president who had pushed for it, and Oliveira was eventually sold back to the Brazilian league.

Before the Serie A season started...

The Italian Super Cup kicked things off first.

This is similar to the English Community Shield.

It's a single match between the Serie A champions and the Coppa Italia winners.

This year's match featured last season's Serie A champion Inter Milan and Coppa Italia winner Juventus.

It was quite an interesting game.

Juventus had been relegated, lost many main players, and their strength dropped sharply.

Meanwhile, Inter Milan had absorbed two Juventus stars—one of whom was Srna, who had switched sides!

Although, to be fair, Srna had wanted to leave for a while.

Zlatan Ibrahimović and Patrick Vieira, who also moved from Juve, were relatively respectful—after all, it was their old club.

But Srna, who had been benched by Capello, played with fury and determination.

Srna was smart.

Realizing he couldn't beat new signing Maicon for the right wing, he switched to the left.

Back in his days at Dinamo Zagreb, he had played as a left-back alongside Suker.

Here, he kept charging up and down the flank—driving Juventus's defense crazy.

Suker could tell Inter Milan were going easy on Juventus.

Otherwise, with Inter's current lineup, they could have crushed them.

The whole team was holding back—except Srna, who was going full throttle.

Thanks to his relentless effort, he assisted Ibrahimović for one goal...

And then, in the 88th minute, scored a free kick himself.

One assist, one goal—he dominated the match!

"He really hates Juventus, huh!" Kaká commented, watching Srna celebrate furiously.

Suker shook his head, "Being sidelined for a season and only getting two chances—wouldn't you be mad too?"

Right now, it's Juventus.

Soon, it'll be Capello.

Coincidentally, Capello should be taking over as England's national team manager in 2007.

And Croatia shares Group E with England in the Euro qualifiers—they'll definitely clash.

Suker shook his head and sighed.

"It's just karma."

Suker pushed himself up from his knees.

"Tomorrow I'm heading back to Croatia. You train hard and get your form back!"

Kaká was confused: "Going back again?"

Suker nodded. "September 6, first round of the Euro Cup qualifiers—we're playing Russia away!"

With national team duties now, Suker had to travel a lot.

But this kind of match—he couldn't miss.

Especially against Russia.

If it were a weaker team, maybe Bilić wouldn't have called up Suker. But in this Euro qualifying group...

England and Russia are the real threats.

Meanwhile, Russia was also training hard.

Although Croatia's recent performances hadn't been great, this year they had a new coach and a rebuilt squad.

With young talents like Suker and Modrić joining, the team had newfound energy and fighting spirit.

Now, many Croatian players were in top European clubs.

With a Champions League winner like Suker, Russia had to take them seriously.

On August 31, the Croatian national team regrouped at Dinamo Zagreb.

After four days of training, on September 5, coach Bilić led the squad to Moscow.

They were to play in the famous Luzhniki Stadium.

This was a formal national match...

And the opening round of the Euro Cup qualifiers—high pressure for both sides.

Only the top two from each qualifying group would go through.

With England, Russia, and Croatia all in Group E, each match between these teams was crucial.