Mister Legend

Chapter 497
This three-pointer from Inter Milan is really important for the Turin team, which is competing fiercely with Juventus.

Not long after the game ended, there was news from Genoa that the Bianconeri had beaten Sampdoria in an away game, but the two teams ranked first and second in the standings reached No.20 in the league. When the five rounds were about to reach two-thirds of the process, the point difference between them was still maintained at 5 points, which more or less gave the leaders some confidence, and made them not easily relax the breath they held before. Lose.

After losing to Fiorentina by a big score, Li Mudi led the team to complete a small three-game winning streak, defeating Samp, Empoli and Inter Milan successively. The situation is different, but the momentum and fighting spirit of the Turin team in every game still convinces everyone.Especially in this last game, when the situation fell into a huge passive situation, the players were able to unite as one and patiently deal with every attack and even every fight according to the head coach's deployment. It has been affirmed by the outside world.

So after the capital-country battle, some changes have taken place in the one-sided support of Italian football for Juventus to finally win the championship. A certain number of media and former celebrities have begun to focus their attention on the red bull in a real sense. And treat the two teams in Turin City at the same level.

It's just that the turning point of this world always comes so suddenly. After only seven days, when the Turin team, who had the belief of winning, went to Sassuolo, they had no choice but to reap a goalless draw. The wind direction of the outside world began to unify again Turned back to the argument that Juventus will be able to complete the reversal.

The team coached by Li Moody has always had a tradition of being good at scoring points against teams that are not as strong as his own. This is also the main reason why the Torino team was able to rank at the top of the Serie A standings in the previous two seasons.

Facing the excellent situation where the only star Bernardi in the opponent team is absent due to injury, almost everyone believes that the top team in the league will usher in an easy victory.In fact, even the Green and Black Legion, who sit at home, probably didn't expect that they could get a point.

Since Lu Beibei was injured in the first game of the new year and has not resumed training, Sassuolo's performance in 2019 can be said to be extremely bad. Except for one draw, the remaining four league games all ended in failure.This kind of performance also caused them, who were already in the middle and lower reaches of the standings, to fall all the way in their rankings. Before the match against Turin, they were only one point above the relegation zone.

Therefore, the team coach De Zerby, who is quite knowledgeable about current affairs, did not consider how to win a victory when facing the league leaders, but resolutely bet his treasure on defending the draw.

The Sassuolo coach, who used to use a 4-3-3 formation before, simply arranged a 4-5-1 bus formation, leaving only Babacar, a striker who was bought out from Fiorentina, to interfere (in the second half, he was introduced from Bologna. Di Francisco), the other nine non-goalkeepers are on the field to prevent the visiting team from scoring, and they hardly spend their energy on the offensive end. The number of times the ball entered the Turin penalty area in the whole game did not exceed ten. This time, this tortoise method should have been practiced to at least level ten.

However, considering that this team was poached of four main players last summer, and the top star was unable to play, it is understandable to use this extremely defensive (shameful) tactic.

It's just that the Red Bulls, who were originally very powerful in attack, fell short in this day's game. The four forwards in the team played successively, and with the full support of other teammates, they failed to score even a single goal in the away game. ball.After 10 minutes, the Turin team made an astonishing 33 shots, but only hit less than [-]% of the shots. The number of missed shots created a new high in Serie A this season.

Although there are occasional situations where individual players have bad feet and seem to have forgotten to put on their shooting boots, it is really rare to catch up with the collective mistakes of the whole team like this weekend, but it happened to be met by Li Mudi.Even though he tried all kinds of methods on the sidelines, and even used the extreme formation of 2-4-4 at the last moment, it failed to achieve any effect, so he had no choice but to accept this unplanned draw.

At the same time, Juventus, who finished the game, scored all three points at home without any surprise, narrowing the gap between the two teams to 3 points, which is almost within reach.At the same time, this is the first time after nine rounds that the gap between the top two players in the standings has returned to such a close level.

The Turin team, who returned to the club from Sassuolo, did not have time to reflect on the deficiencies in the previous game, and immediately started to adjust and resume training with all their heart, and set off for the French capital two days later. Come to the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

With a slight advantage of only a small victory by one goal as a guest at the Parc des Princes in Paris, and it just happened to be in a downturn in the league, the outside world is obviously not very optimistic about the Red Bulls' European tour.And Neymar's goal in the 6th minute of the game seems to confirm this view.

The visiting team, which conceded a goal at the beginning, did not seem to be fully prepared for this life-and-death battle. At least in terms of mentality, their players temporarily lost their previous stability.In the next ten minutes, under the attack of the big Paris one after another, the Turin team's defense line was like a small boat drifting in the sea. It seemed that it might be overturned by huge waves at any time and sink to the bottom of the sea. live.

Fortunately, Li Moody's adjustments had an effect before the worst situation appeared. The good psychological quality of this group of players also played a role at this critical moment. There is Glick, who once overthrew the Ligue [-] giants while playing for Monaco With the first-class central defender in charge, the Red Bulls finally regained their normal mentality in time, and regained the initiative that had been completely lost before.

Since he had long expected that the opponent would invest heavily in the offensive end, Li Moody did not hesitate to use the strategy of defensive counterattack in this game, and will join Lucas Moura and Immobile on loan from Tottenham. This is also the first time the Brazilian winger has met his old club since he switched to the Premier League thirteen months ago. It can be regarded as a counterattack.

The reason why the visiting team fell into an extremely passive situation at the beginning of the game was not only related to Neymar's goal, but also related to the team's inability to organize an effective counterattack.Due to the tight pressure on the back line, the midfielder had to retreat as much as possible to help his teammates defend. Even if he won the ball, it was difficult to complete the fast forward because of the distance between Immobile and the opponent's crazy high-position press. The task of passing, and then quickly lost the possession of the ball, was hit by the opponent's continuous attack, and fell into a vicious circle.

However, after calming down their impatience, the Turin players showed a pass control ability that is not inferior to that of the big-name players in the home team, and gradually gained a firm foothold through the skillful conduction skills they have mastered.

The recovery of the defensive line has also enabled the team to regain its normal rhythm on the offensive end. Before the end of the first half, the Turin team steals the ball in the backcourt and immediately launched a fast break. Paris' defensive formation was torn apart and exposed many loopholes in an instant.Fortunately, Brazil international Thiago Silva showed his world-class central defender's ability at this critical moment, using a desperate flying to block the hole of the gun to block Immobile's volley from the penalty area line, Otherwise, the score is likely to change.

With the threat of the offensive end, the Red Bulls in the away game finally brought this round of duel back to the balance of power.From the point of view of the total score, the two sides are now 1 to 1, with no away goals; and in this round of the game, although Paris Saint-Germain got more than [-]% of the possession, the Turin team was able to take advantage of the only Several counterattacks threatened the home team's goal, so that they did not dare to press forward as they did in the opening stage.

In this way, this typical confrontation between the two extreme tactics of pass control and quick reaction continued in a different kind of balance. For a while, neither side could take the lead in breaking this state until the end of the regular game. 15 minutes.

Affected by various factors such as away games, long-term defensive status, and counterattack tactics that require players to run at full speed and return to defense immediately after the offensive, the lineup rotation in the domestic league three days ago was not successful (because of the long-term could not attack, so in the second half the main forwards who should have been sitting on the bench were sent on the field), although the Turin team has been trying their best to maintain the rhythm of confrontation with their tenacious willpower, but the physical strength The disadvantage was finally revealed at the end of the game.

The rest are okay to say, but the two starting forwards and midfielder Bruno Fernandez, who frequently switches between offensive and defensive ends, can no longer exert their full capabilities during this period of time.Especially in terms of physical fitness, the Portugal international, who was already at the average level, developed thigh cramps after a run and stopped the ball, making it difficult to play a threatening role on the court.

Li Mudi had no choice but to continuously adjust the personnel, replacing the three people who could no longer run.It's just that the rest of the strikers on the bench are not good at speed and can't continue to use the original tactical routines, so the Torino team may as well change their formation to 3-5-1-1 to strengthen their own ball-handling ability. Take the game to a penalty shootout.

Although the overall strength of the team has reached the first-class level in Europe, there is still no room for more tactical changes when facing a strong opponent in three lines such as Paris without top superstars , so that once the scene falls into a passive state, it is very difficult to complete countermeasures through adjustments.

In this way, after the Turin team struggled to overcome the opponent's strong impact in the final period, the two sides had to play another 10 minutes to determine the final qualifier of this knockout round.

After entering overtime, the two teams each had an extra substitution, and Li Moody had to play the last card in his hand at the No. 908 minute, because Baselli also had too much energy. Big and cramped.

According to the original plan, the team should have replaced Pellegri, who had a better penalty kick ability, to prepare for the final 12-yard decisive battle.But at this time, they can only send midfielder Askacivar to strengthen their defensive strength, otherwise it will be difficult to resist the tireless offensive of the Paris players.

As a result, the Red Bull's plan failed, and German winger Draxler's goal in the 112th minute brought the tug-of-war to an end.The Ligue 2 giants Paris Saint-Germain made a comeback at their home court and made it to the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League with a total score of 1-[-].

As for the Turin team, which returned to the Champions League after a lapse of 41 years, it is a pity to bid farewell to this stage, but their outstanding performance of almost grabbing the promotion right from Paris has won the respect of their opponents and the general praise of the outside world , It can be regarded as a glorious defeat.

It's just that after all the eight matchups have been concluded in turn, the Italian media can no longer say self-deceiving words of comfort, because except for Juventus, which easily advanced to the next round, the other three Serie A teams The team fell in the first knockout round, which is really not ideal news.

The Roma team, which broke into the semi-finals last season as a big dark horse, continued the team's tenacious tradition of not fearing any strong opponents in the two rounds of confrontation, but in terms of its calm and sophisticated style, there are few opponents in the world In front of Bayern Munich, they also failed to complete the feat of the next gram. After being led by the opponent to play two consecutive games that did not belong to their own rhythm, they were eliminated with a total score of 2 to 4.In front of the overlord of the Bundesliga, the Red Wolves obviously still have some gaps in both offense and defense. This result did not exceed most people's expectations.

Compared with the Romans who still made a little resistance, Naples' performance was too disappointing.After experiencing the unfortunate experience of losing the league championship for two consecutive years, the morale of this team has obviously been hit a lot. Even if the local coach Ancelotti was replaced to coach, the results have also declined significantly. , not only dropped out of the top four in the league, but also performed poorly in the European war.

After the two matches against Barcelona, ​​the White Dolphins were slaughtered by a big score of 1 to 6. This was the result of the La Liga giants slowing down their attack after seeing that the outcome had lost suspense at home in the second round. It's too disappointing for Italian fans. I don't know if Naples chairman De Laurentiis will regret not keeping Sarri.

As for the biggest focus of this round of knockout rounds-whether the three-peat winner Real Madrid will end their defending journey, their first opponent, the Premier League champion Manchester City, obviously did not meet the expectations of other teams.The total score was 3 to 4, and Lopetegui's coaching ability was not weak either. He lost his compatriot Pep Guardiola in a face-to-face PK, continuing the suspense of who can stop the Galacticos to the quarterfinals.

(End of this chapter)