Today's Inter fans may never know how well Ronaldo performed at the Nerazzurri, but it didn't last forever. Because at Inter Milan, Da Luo suffered a series of knee injuries, which greatly weakened his athletic ability and forced Him to adjust his way of playing.
However, in Inter's first season, Ronaldo's abilities were intact. Nicknamed "Phenomenon", he combined astonishing speed, strength and dribbling skills to shock too many Serie A defenders with his dazzling feats in the Apennines, and it's no wonder that during the 1998 World Cup, Desailly and Palma de Turam of Parma, the two French defenders who would collectively exclaim on the training ground how unusual Ronaldo's superiority was.
The season culminated in Ronaldo's prestige with his best 90 minutes at Inter, the 1998 UEFA Cup final against Lazio. On the oil pipeline, his solo highlight of the game, "The Day Ronaldo Won the Phenomenon Nickname," has now surpassed 22 million views.
Championship-free season? Aliens have high hopes
This year's Champions League final, Real Madrid and Liverpool will play at the Parc des Princes in Paris, and the UEFA Cup final 24 years ago is also here.
In the summer of 1997, Inter signed Ronaldo from Barca for a world record £19.5 million, and Moratti's club was highly anticipated.
But their journey has not been smooth.
In the Coppa Italia, Inter Milan were eliminated by the city's sworn enemies AC Milan 5-0, and in the final stages of Serie A, they lost 0-1 to Juventus and 1-1 to Piacenza.
If the UEFA Cup final is lost on May 6, manager Luigi Simone will face an embarrassing situation in a championship-free season.
Their prospects were not optimistic before the final, with teams losing ground in the domestic arena, while in the UEFA Cup final a year ago, Aaron Winter and Zamorano both lost to Schalke 04 in a penalty shootout.
Eriksen's Lazio, who have just been crowned The Coppa Italia, are morale-boosting, and the team also has talented stars such as Nesta, Nedved and Mancini.
This season, Lazio remained unbeaten against Inter Milan, especially in the second match with a 3-0 victory over the Nerazzurri thanks to goals from Diego Fuser, Alen Boksic and Pierluigi Casiraghi.
Inter need someone who can change the game to play against Lazio, and luckily they have Ronaldo.
The controversial National Derby
Inter Milan finished only 3rd in Serie A in 1996–97, and while Ronaldo's arrival did not win the Title One title, his debut season did prove his ability in the best leagues in the world.
The Brazilian scored 25 goals in the league and 34 in all competitions, including two key goals in the away match against Sparta Moscow in the second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final.
Big Luo can always stand up for Inter when they are in trouble, but he also has problems to solve.
In the Serie A match on April 26, Inter Milan and Juve's national derby, Da Luo was suspected of being blocked by Juve centre-back Iuliano after he could get the ball in the penalty area, but manager Çecarini did not whistle to blow the penalty, but just 15 seconds later, Zidane passed the ball to Piero, Piero was pushed from behind by Inter Milan defender West in the penalty area, and the referee immediately gave a penalty (although Piero did not score later), which completely ignited the anger of Inter Milan's generals, and they surrounded the referee. And coach Simoni was also expelled from the game for angrily denouncing the referee for "shame".
The controversial penalty for this match caused a sensation in Italian society as a whole, with both football pundits and political celebrities participating in the debate. But no matter how people argue, it was Juventus who won, this game affected the title situation in Serie A that year, and Da Luo also became a victim of Italy's "dark defense" at that time.
In 2014, Ronaldo expressed his opinion on the incident in an interview: "Juve stole two Serie A trophies from Inter, one of which was in the 1997-98 season. That year, I was fouled by Iuliano in the penalty area, and the referee chose to ignore it. I've long been aware that there are dirty behaviors going on. ”
Inter Milan, who lost the national derby that year, intend to regroup in the UEFA Cup final.
In Simone's 4312 formation, Da luo and Zamorano played as double strikers, while the Frenchman Djokov was ambushed behind the striker. This means that Ronaldo will spend most of the game one-on-one with Nesta, whose strength in Lazio has reached its peak.
In the previous league matches, Nesta has always made it difficult for Da Luo to make a difference, and his clever positioning and accurate prejudgment of steals have made it difficult for Da Luo to show his talents.
However, at the Parc des Princes, Ronaldo will not let Nesta succeed any longer.
Absolutely core
Just seconds after the start of the 1998 UEFA Cup final, Nesta was whistled by the referee for tearing Ronaldo's shirt. If in this game, the Italian defender thinks that this will limit Ronaldo, then he is completely wrong.
A few minutes later, a pass from the left came and Da Luo once again got into a fight with Nesta, and this time Da Luo was obviously the better side, he stabbed the ball past Nesta, and the Lazio defender fell to the ground, and this was just the beginning of the game.
Apparently, Lazio made a very targeted arrangement for Da Luo, and every time he got the ball, he would be surrounded by two or three opponents wearing sky blue jerseys.
Such a bag would be very restrictive for any other striker, but Lazio didn't take into account that Ronaldo was unique. In the face of this situation, Da Luo can cleverly fool some defenders by shaking his shoulders or making the iconic bulltail dribbling.
In the case of multiple people on the other side, Ronaldo, wearing the No. 10 shirt, often retreats to grab the ball to attract the attention of defenders and create more depth space for his teammates, and then he breaks through with the ball or passes the ball to his teammates in a better position, so that the team can take the initiative.
Lazio's excessive attention to Ronaldo after the opening also made another striker, Zamorano, more free, and just five minutes into the opening, Diego Simeone's direct plug assisted the Chilean striker to break the deadlock.
Less than 10 minutes into the game, Lazio was already in complete chaos, Inter Milan launched wave after wave of attacks, directed by Big Ronaldo, his switch of forward and forward positions led the team's attack to make Lazio helpless.
A few minutes later, Da Luo also almost scored. Zanetti helped Da Luo forward on the left, and Da Luo's lightning-fast speed made his opponent unstoppable, and his shot made Lazio goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani surrender, but the ball hit the goal frame and popped up.
The "phenomenon" is at its peak.
Decisive victory in an instant
After half-time, Lazio trailed by just one goal, and the BlueHawks will certainly look for a strategy to limit Big Luo in the second half. Although Ronaldo was almost always giving his teammates a wedding dress in the first half, after the start of the second half, he decided to show his speed and strength as a top striker on the offensive end.
Ronaldo ran with the ball 20 yards from his goal, which was not the classic run of The Giorgio Wea against Verona, nor was it the uncoordinated running posture of Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump. Da Luo is running at a very fast speed at the same time, but also has the ability to control the ball beyond ordinary people.
Like playing a video game, he dodged tackles from left and right, never stopping or even slowing down as he advanced.
In just a few seconds, he turned the team to attack, and Nesta's foul moves with kicks and tugs barely stopped Da Luo.
Desperate, Lazio did everything in his power to stop Da Luo, but it all came at a cost.
Yugovic's ferocious elbow strike stopped Ronaldo's advance, and a few minutes later hisnother foul allowed Inter to take a free kick, Zanetti extended the team's lead further, and his world wave hung straight to the top right corner of the goal.
Lazio tried to drag the game into their rhythm, but there was no way they could do it because it was a game that belonged to Big Luo. Even Da Luo often returned to the vicinity of his own penalty area to defend, breaking through or passing the ball again and again to disrupt the rhythm of the game.
In such a game, the hot-form Big Luo needs a goal to make it a timeless classic to ensure he leaves a beautiful story among the fans. The goal came as promised in the 70th minute of the match.
Inter substitute Francesco Moriero delivered a wonderful pass and Ronaldo's running position shattered Lazio's offside trap and when he took the ball, he easily defeated Marceggiani.
Da Luo scored a fantastic goal, the pendulum fake movement left the opposing goalkeeper helpless, he could only look back at Da Luo dancing samba next to him, and then hit the ball in.
Forever a classic
Inter Milan, who led by 3 goals, almost secured the title, while Ronaldo also entered his own "party mode", which has always been the tradition of Brazilian players. Before Matthias Almeida desperately tries to shovel Ronaldo, Ronaldo uses a dazzling step to throw lazio captain Diego Fuser, who has come to defend, behind him and slips away unscathed.
Even after securing the victory, Ronaldo continued to torment Nesta in search of another goal. And this match is also considered one of the worst games of Nesta's career.
Even if Inter centre-back Taribo West was sent off for a red card in the 82nd minute of the match, Da Luo remained calm, and he and Zanetti fell back and forth to make the opponent helpless.
After the game, nesta and Da Luo's relationship did not break down. This match was one of the classic matches in the Inter European final and one of the best individual performance competitions of Da Luo's career.
Nesta: Ronaldo is the strongest striker I've ever faced
The match gave Inter a fresh look, with Da Luo saying after the game: "We played well and deserved to win. We didn't make a mistake from the first minute to the last moment and I was delighted to win the first trophy at Inter Milan. Winning in Paris is fantastic and afterwards I will be back here with Brazil and give my all to win the World Cup. ”
Nesta also expressed his opinion on the match later: "Ronaldo is the strongest striker I have ever faced in my career, he can't stop it. ”
However, although Da Luo had a good start at Inter Milan, he has not been able to help the team win the Serie A championship due to injuries and many other factors since then, which has also become one of the regrets of Da Luo's career.
The city of Paris means a lot to Ronaldo, who staged an alien-like super show in the Confederations Cup final here and experienced the worst night of his career in the World Cup final a few months later.
Since then, Da Luo finally won the Hercules Cup in 2002 and became the league champion at Real Madrid, making up for the previous haze. But it seems that after Ronaldo has been injured consecutively since then, we will never find such a dominant Ronaldo as this UEFA Cup final.
Compilation: Supine Braces/Qiu Yixi