On 21 November, in a focus match in the 13th round of the 2021-2022 Serie A season, Fiorentina hosted league leader AC Milan. Before the match, there was a record for the performance of both teams this season, AC Milan was unbeaten in the league so far this season, And Fiorentina was either win or lose this season, with no draw in 12 rounds. The first two teams are ranked 2nd and 7th respectively in the standings, which record will continue?
After a tense and exciting goal battle, Fiorentina, sitting at home, defeated AC Milan 4:3, continuing its win-win or-lose performance while also breaking AC Milan's unbeaten golden body in this season's league. Fiorentina relied on goals from Duncan and Sapolano in the first half to lead Milan 2-0, and in the second half Vlahovic extended the score to 3:0, then Ibrahimovic scored two goals to chase the score to 3:2, but Vlahovic scored another goal to extend the score to 4:2, and in injury time, Ibrahimovic's shot led to Fiorentina goalkeeper Oolong, and the score was finally locked at 4:3.
The focus of this game was originally on whether AC Milan could continue to maintain the unbeaten golden body of the league, but the wonderful performances of Ibrahimovic and Vlahović turned the game into a confrontation between the representatives of the new and old generations of center players in Serie A, although Milan lost the game, Ibrahimovic still won 3:2 (including that oolong ball) in the confrontation with the popular fried chicken in Serie A who was nearly 20 years younger than himself. Today, let's compare Ibrahimovic and Vlahović, who is the first center in Serie A?
Ibrahimovic's previous past records at Ajax, Juventus, Inter, Barca, AC Milan, Paris and Manchester United are not to be said today, if you take it out, it is not necessary to compare, today it is compared to the performance of Ibrahimovic and Vlahovic in the last two seasons.
Ibrahimovic in January 2020, ended the gold rush trip of the los Angeles Galaxy in the major leagues, and joined AC Milan again after 10 years, when Milan just ended the equity dispute before, the team was turbulent, although at the beginning of the franchise, there were still people who questioned Ibrahimovic's age, can the nearly 40-year-old Ibrahimovic still play a role in Serie A? Has AC Milan become a nursing home?
But Ibrahimovic used his performance to make everyone who questioned his age punch in the face, and in half a season of 17 games, Ibrahimovic came up with a report card of 9 goals and 5 assists to help Milan successfully qualify for the Europa League. But more importantly, due to the arrival of Ibrahimovic, the once leaderless Milan dressing room has a real leader, saying that he is a ball bully, in short, with Ibrahimovic, the Milan locker room is no longer chaotic, the team's mental outlook has also been greatly improved, personally believe that Ibrahimovic's role in this regard is no less than the goal on the pitch. On the other hand, after Ibrahimovic left Manchester United, all kinds of thorns in the dressing room jumped out to challenge Mourinho's authority, which eventually led to Mourinho's departure, if Ibrahimovic was still in Manchester United, who dared to do so, fell to the ground over the shoulder earlier.
In the first half of the 2021-2022 season, Ibrahimovic used his performance on the pitch to prove to everyone that he was still one of the best centre-forwards in Serie A. In the first round of the Milan derby, Ibrahimovic scored twice, helping Milan win 2:1, and Ibrahimovic scored 10 goals in just 6 appearances in the first 8 league rounds, helping Milan firmly occupy the top of the table from the beginning of the season. But after entering the middle of the season, after all, the years are not spared, Ibrahimovic began to have frequent injuries, attendance was greatly reduced, Milan's performance also plummeted, occupying the top position in the standings for half a season was also snatched away by Inter, and finally Milan won the 2021-2022 league runner-up, returning to the Champions League after 8 years.
This season, Ibrahimovic did not make a comeback until milan's home match against Lazio in the third round, and scored in the first game of his comeback, helping Milan beat Lazio 2-0, a goal that also set the record for the oldest foreign aid in Serie A history, and since then, Ibrahimovic has been constantly breaking his record with each goal. But then Ibrahimovic was caught up in a back-and-forth injury situation with less than 50% of his appearances, but even so, Ibrahimovic scored goals against Bologna and Roma, and with a double against Fiorentina, Ibrahimovic has scored five goals this season, becoming Milan's top scorer this season.
And Vlahovic, who has scored two goals in this game, has scored 10 goals this season, including four penalties, and is currently tied for the first place in the Serie A top scorer list this season with Lazio's Immobile, while Fiorentina has only scored 20 goals so far this season, Vlahović has scored 50% of the goals, in addition to two assists, Fiorentina 60% of the goals are related to him.
Born in January of the millennium, Vlahovich is only half the age of Ibrahimovic, but his height has reached 190 centimeters, which is simply a replica of the little Ibrahimovic. Vlahović moved to Fiorentina from his parent side Partizan Belgrade of Serbia for 1.5 million euros in July 2018, and spent his first season hovering between youth and first-team substitutes without scoring. In the 2019-2020 season, he gradually became a first-team standing player, making 31 Serie A appearances, scoring 6 goals and 4 assists.
Vlahović made his career last season, making 36 league appearances, scoring 21 goals (including six penalties) and three assists, eventually finishing fourth in the Serie A top scorers list behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Lukaku and Muriel. This season Vlahovic's offensive efficiency has improved compared to last season, scoring 10 goals and two assists so far. In addition, in the World Cup qualifiers in the European zone, Vlahović scored three goals for Serbia, helping Serbia to push Portugal to qualify as the top of the group.
Vlahović's playing characteristics are also very similar to Ibrahimovic's, 190 cm tall is slightly inferior to Ibrahimovic, the physical fitness is very good, can protect the ball, excellent technology, the foot work is extremely delicate, superb shooting, playing as a striker, but can retreat to the midfield to get the ball, has a strong depth of attack ability, likes to move on the side, fast speed, excellent dribbling ability, excellent passing vision, good at cutting inside. The weakness is that although he is tall, Vlahović is not good at headers, his ability to fight for the top in the air is weak, the success rate of confrontation is poor, as a left-footed player, he is seriously biased, Vlahović scored 18 of the 21 goals last season with a left foot, 1 header, and only 2 were right-footed. However, Vlahović's biggest advantage is that he is young, and as long as he strengthens his physical training and improves his air confrontation ability in the future time, he will become an opponent that every defender is not willing to face.
However, unlike Ibrahimovic, who is close to the end of his career and will most likely retire milan in a year or two, Vlahović's career is just beginning, but such excellent performance has already attracted the attention of major European giants. As early as this summer, Simeone's Atletico madrid was interested in taking it under his wing, but the Fiorentina boss Comiso still rejected the offer of nearly 70 million euros, and he did not know whether he was short of money or really regarded the young man as his own son, and was reluctant to sell. In this regard, Vlahović and his agent are very angry, directly saying that Vlahović will not renew his contract with Fiorentina in the future, either transfer and leave, or leave for free after the contract expires, so Vlahovic, whose contract expires in June 2023, will most likely leave Fiorentina next summer, and may even be advanced to January 2022. Potential players include Paris, Bayern, Atletico, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Tottenham and even Newcastle.
Back to the comparison between Ibrahimovic and Vlahovic, from a single game point of view, the dominance on the pitch, as well as the ability to master the rhythm of the game and the ability to seize opportunities, Ibrahimovic is significantly stronger than Vlahovic, but the physical fitness and speed are not as good as the lads; from the perspective of the whole season, Ibrahimovic's leadership ability in the dressing room is incomparable to Vlahovic, but there are too many injuries, the attendance rate is too low, and the overall contribution to the team is not as good as Vlahovic; in the long run, one is that the sunset is infinitely good but it is near dusk. One is the rising sun, let alone the comparison.
It's just a pity that such a promising young centre-forward, having just successfully trained in Serie A, is about to follow in the footsteps of Lukaku, Donnaruma and Ashraf to the richer Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga and even the Bundesliga. Juve and Inter of Serie A, although they also looked at him, but the banknotes were not allowed.
Originally, the 4:3 AC Milan battle between Fiorentina and Milan could become a handover battle between the new and old generations of Center In Serie A, but it seems that it is likely to become the best exhibition window for Vlahović to other giants in Europe.
As for who is the first center in Serie A today, in addition to Ibrahimovic and Vlahović, Inmobile, Osmayn and Dzeko can all compete, as for Lautaro and Chiesa Jr., Di Barra, after all, they are not traditional centers. Dear fans, what do you think?
Note: The image is from the Internet.