Mister Legend

Chapter 499 The Fierce Competition

The difference of one point is really too small. Considering that the two sides will have a second derby in the penultimate round of direct confrontation, and Juventus still has the advantage of the home court, this makes the situation difficult. Development has become very unfavorable for the Torino team.

If they want to continue to retain the initiative to win the league championship, the Turin team must show a perfect performance, otherwise they will repeat the mistakes of Naples last season and become a stepping stone for their rivals in the same city to complete the eighth consecutive championship. The situation that the time is ahead but reversed has become the laughing stock of the outside world.

It's just easy to say, but really hard to do.After a simple analysis, it can be concluded that the Red Bulls can either bring the point difference back to four points or more before the No.5 six-round derby on May 12, or maintain the current advantage of the next point. Live, and not lose to Juventus in the away game, as long as they can do one of the two, the Serie A championship will be stable.

But no matter which of these two points, it can be said to be a great challenge, and the reason is the same: the Bianconeri is too powerful!
Since being tied by Lazio in the second round of No.20, the seven consecutive league champions have maintained a record of unbeaten victories in the next two full months, which is really terrifying.

Not to mention the Champions League quarter-finals double over Valencia, just looking at the seven-game winning streak in Serie A that allowed Juventus to narrow the gap with the rivals in the same city to only one step away, it is very remarkable.Although the number of consecutive victories does not seem particularly dazzling, the opponents among them have greatly improved the gold content of their performance at this stage.

In particular, the three strong dialogues of beating No.3 Inter Milan in the away game, lightly beating Rome at home, and beating AC Milan in the away game all show that they have regained their former dominance over the entire Apennine Peninsula after undergoing adjustments during the winter break. His aura made all opponents feel irresistible.

Comparing the results of the Turin team in the same period can even illustrate this situation.In the last seven rounds of the league, Li Moody led the team to achieve a record of 5 wins and 2 draws, with an average of nearly 2.43 points per round. After accounting for 38 rounds, it is more than 92 points. This score has been in the past ten years. Only failed to win the Serie A championship twice, which can be said to be very good.But even though the Red Bulls have already played in such a state, they were still forced to such a critical point by the opponent, which can prove how desperate Juventus' strength is.

It's just that Li Mudi was not intimidated by the media's "the most powerful Bianconeri in the past 15 years". When he was chasing after him, his mentality was able to relax.

Just like running a race, when you leave your opponent far behind, even if you can reach the first place in the end, you will not create an excellent result. Those world records have always been born in the fierce competition. (Of course, except for very few cases of extraordinary talent and strong dominance.) After Juventus narrowed the gap between the two sides to the minimum point difference, it aroused the strong fighting spirit of the Turin coach, and at the same time brought the previous All kinds of distracting thoughts are completely excluded from the mind.

What made him even more gratified and excited was that he also saw the determination in the eyes of the players to suppress the old woman and hold the league championship trophy in his hands.

It's just that when he answered reporters' questions at the press conference before the No.4 Serie A home game against Chievo on April 3, he said that he was still confident of becoming the final winner, but he was unanimously ridiculed by the outside world. The media on the website can't wait to issue reports, evaluating Li Moody's performance as "a dead duck with a hard mouth".

However, it cannot be said that the views of the media are too biased, because Juventus' strength is there. They played the night before yesterday because they will usher in the first round of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals against Liverpool in the middle of the week. At least half of the main players have been hidden. .But even so, they still won a 3-0 victory in the away game, playing Genoa, which is not bad this season, full of teeth and unable to fight back.

With this victory, the Bianconeri reached the top of the standings with an advantage of two points after finishing the race first, putting the pressure on their rivals in the same city.

According to the analysis of many so-called experts, under such heavy pressure from the overlord of Serie A, it is hard to say how long the Turin team will be able to persist, especially before the Derby, they will have an away game against Conte who has just been hired, and the results immediately rebounded AC Milan, and the two difficult games against Naples, which has never won at home, may break the string that has been stretched for too long at any time, and surrender.

The other part of the people gave the Red Bulls a great compliment in a praiseful tone. They thought that even if Juventus could not stop Juventus' eight consecutive championships, Li Moody and his team were worthy of everyone's hats and salutes.Due to the excellent performance in the previous few months, this team has basically locked in the league runner-up position this season, which is also a very remarkable result.

In the La Repubblica published on Monday morning, there was such an article, stating that Li Moody has attached importance to youth training since he took over the Turin team, carried out many value-for-money transfers, made bold innovations in tactics, and many other aspects. With almost extreme praise, it seems that it has been determined that the Red Bulls cannot survive the impact of Juventus, and they have begun to enter the rhythm of the end-of-season summary ahead of schedule.However, from their words, people can feel that this is more like a phased commendation of Li Moody, whose original contract is about to expire but has not yet confirmed the renewal, which reveals some concerns about his future. judgment of whereabouts.

In fact, as early as the winter of last year, there were reports on the contract issue of the Turin coach in Italian football, but the club at that time continued to spread false news to the outside world that the two sides were stepping up negotiations on a new contract and that the contract renewal work was progressing smoothly. , making the upsurge of attention at that time quickly dissipate.

Only when time passed and the season entered the final sprint, the news that Li Mudi renewed his contract with the Turin team was not announced, and the journalists with keen sense of smell discovered the truth of the matter.What's more, the well-informed people did not know how to accurately connect the Red Bulls' upcoming new stadium plan with the team's coach's resignation after the contract expired, and wrote many reports that made the outside world suddenly realize. .

Being able to sign this young coach with an outstanding record for free is very tempting for many teams, so when the time came to the end of March and the beginning of April, when the preparation period for the next season was only one quarter away Now, people who pay attention to the sports sector can easily find that more and more English club names are beginning to be associated with Li Moody.As a result, rumors that he would leave Italy this summer and switch to the Premier League were widely spread, and then even reached the level of being able to make headlines on the front pages of important media.

As for why they are all English teams, the reasons are easy to guess. The coach of Turin has mentioned more than once before that in order to express respect for his mother team Real Madrid, he will not coach other La Liga teams. The league (only in terms of the European standings) has completely missed him.Because even if the Galaxy Battleship still failed to overcome the mountain of Barcelona in the league, Lafayette has not shown any intention of firing Lopetegui at the moment, and even if there is a coaching change, it seems that the young Li Moody has not yet entered. In the vision of the football tycoon.

As for the Bundesliga and Ligue [-], the two "oligarchic" leagues, only Bayern, Dortmund, Paris and Monaco are the only four teams that can tempt people in China. Three of them are almost certainly not going to change their head coach this summer. , only Paris Saint-Germain is the only variable.But as long as Tuchel, who has just taken over the team for a year, can lead the team to the Champions League semi-finals, tying the best record in team history in this competition, there is no reason for the club's top management not to give him more time to prove himself Strength, so the possibility of the No. [-] local tyrant in Ligue [-] changing coaches is not very high.

As for the Italian League, Li Moody, who has left the Turin team, will naturally not condescend to a team whose strength is too different from his old club. Among the few strong teams, except for Juventus, which has a certain chance of being replaced because of Allegri's contract renewal. In addition to the head coach, Inter Milan, Naples and Rome are also very stable coaches, which makes it almost impossible for him to stay in the Apennine Peninsula and continue to lead the team.

Then the remaining choices are obvious. Only those Premier League teams that are not short of money can attract Li Mudi to join by virtue of the two advantages of mastering transfer power and strong funds, and this prediction is indeed very in line with reality.

As of the first Sunday in April, Guinness has received initial contact intentions from as many as seven Premier League teams, including old strong teams whose performance did not meet the high-level goals at the beginning of the season, and some who are aiming to make an impact. Among the mid-range teams at the top of the standings, there are two so-called weak teams that are eager to gain a firm foothold in the Premier League.

However, because the parties concerned did not want these matters to interfere with the current plan to hit the Serie A championship, they were temporarily put on hold, but it is clear that the Turin coach is open to taking over a new team.

But even in such an unfavorable environment where a powerful enemy exerts tremendous pressure and rumors of the head coach's imminent departure are flying all over the sky, as the team's coach said before the game, the players of the Red Bulls still showed their strength. The determination to win the championship.With a semi-rotational lineup, he defeated Chievo by two goals at his home court, and kicked off Juventus, which had just been in the leading position for less than 24 hours and whose buttocks were not yet warm.

This week is one of the only two weekly double matches in the league this season, so all teams need to prepare more fully than before. At least the Turin team must consider the physical distribution of the players and the adjustment of the competitive state, because Their weekend opponents are even tougher.

On April 4th, in the No.7 round of the league, Li Moody led the team to visit the San Siro Stadium to challenge AC Milan, which has achieved 30 wins and 2 tie after the coaching change, and has rekindled their hopes of competing for a European seat.

Compared with the confrontation in which they beat each other by four goals at home six months ago, the Turin team has hardly changed, except that the advantage in the standings is not as good as that time, and in terms of lineup, Muses left the team and joined Lucas. Except for Mora, that is, the starting central defender Ranocchia was unable to play due to injury, and the rest were still the same.

But the Rossoneri is completely different. During the winter break, they exchanged Juve's young central defender Caldara through Bonucci's trade, and loaned the old Turin player and Brazilian right-winger Bruno Pepe from Roma. Reis, the strength of the defense line has not declined significantly.However, Higuain, who joined the team on loan with a mandatory buyout contract last summer, but missed the last match between the two teams due to injury, finally recovered his former Serie A top scorer status under the guidance of coach Conte. He scored five goals in the last three rounds of the league, pushing AC Milan's offensive strength to the league's first-class level.

Therefore, this strong dialogue has attracted the attention of the entire Italian football circle before the game. Everyone wants to know whether Conte, who has returned to his home league, will be the key factor that caused the fate of the Turin duo to be completely reversed. Considering his own Juventus attributes and the recent excellent state of the home team, the chance of this situation should not be small.

However, after nine 10 minutes of fierce fighting, the supporters of the Bianconeri were still disappointed.Although Higuain took advantage of an outflanking opportunity at the beginning of the second half to beat his old teammate Iker Casillas and tie the score at 1-1, but Immobile's small angle in the No.609 minute was low The shot still helped the Red Bulls take an extremely important three-pointer from San Siro, and it also made Juventus, who finished and won at the same time, continue to fail to complete the expected summit by one point.

Three days later, in the first round of the Coppa Italia semi-final, the Turin team, which also did not use all their main players, returned home and beat the visiting Inter Milan 1-0. Although it was similar to the Champions League quarter-finals, this The score will put a lot of pressure on the team's away game in the second round, but at least it is a solid step towards advancing to the final.

On the weekend, facing the pressure brought by the rivals in the same city to finish the game ahead of schedule and temporarily overtake the points, the Torino team defeated the "ally" Parma 3-0 in the away game, suppressing the rivalry's counterattack for the third consecutive week down.

However, after defeating the strong enemy Naples in this round, the old lady has achieved an amazing ten consecutive victories in Serie A, and they have no major difficulties in the last six rounds of the league, except for the remaining ones. Except for the Derby, the rest of the opponents are ranked outside the top ten in the standings, and it is very likely that the winning streak will continue.

And Li Moody's team will welcome the White Dolphins who just lost next weekend. This is an opponent that has never won since he landed in Italian football. The situation is obviously extremely unfavorable for the Red Bulls. Belonging may begin to take shape in this round.

(End of this chapter)