Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

It was not until the two teams shook hands just before the game kicked off that Li Qi suddenly realized why Italy could only qualify as the third in the group...

Let's put aside the fact that the Italian U20 team didn't attach much importance to this World Youth Championship because of the league time and the poor historical performance of the non-adult team, and sent only two teams to compete; the Syrian player's face is obviously too thick and his body is obviously more than his peers should have. The years of grinding and vicissitudes of life...

Li Qi seemed to understand something... These details and intuitive feelings can't be seen through TV broadcasts...

Li Qi lost the ball again... Anyway, he thought he lost on purpose, because Syria plays a small, fast and agile style of football, which is more restrained against the current Italian U20 team's defense line, so it would be better to let them attack first.

In addition, the Syrians, who got one point against the Canadian U20 team in the last game, are also full of confidence in their own strength. Before the game, coach Radanovic hoped to create a miracle today...

However, after only 5 minutes of fierce attack, Li Qi quickly led the Italian central midfielder line to firmly control the midfield through skillful passing and coordination; Li Qi and his teammates slowed down the tempo and controlled the game. Syria could only make some sporadic counterattacks through long passes to the flanks, and the long passes to the center were cut off by the Italian central defender combination with obvious physical advantages...

Italy patiently organized the attack and looked for offensive opportunities, and created a threat in about 15 minutes. Li Qi controlled the ball and passed it to the side, and Montolivo passed the ball directly to the outside of the opponent's small penalty area at a 45-degree angle without stopping...

Pellet leaned on the opponent's defender and won the header, but the ball flew out of the baseline...

(This idiot should have headed the ball back and forth to Rossi who was ambushing in the penalty area! Li Qi couldn't help but shook his head...)

Less than 3 minutes later, Nocerino received a through ball from Li Qi after he attracted a double team. He took a step and shot from outside the penalty area. Although no one interfered, he used too much force and kicked the ball off target...

Less than 5 minutes later, Li Qi first played a non-stop 2-1 with Nocerino, and then played a non-stop 2-1 with Montolivo who cut into the middle, breaking through the middle defense and passing the ball diagonally to the other side of the penalty area before the opponent's defender made a tackle...

Pellet shot the ball before his own winger Bentivoglio... but he was offside...

(Seeing that he even snatched his own players’ chances, Li Qi couldn’t help but be stunned: This idiot, is he too excited today? I’ll have to talk to him about it when I find a dead ball later…)

Just as Italy wasted opportunities and failed to score, the young defense of the Italian U20 team paid the price for their negligence...

Around the 30th minute of the game, Syria intercepted Montolivo's straight pass into the penalty area and made a long pass to the winger in the frontcourt to counterattack...

First, right back Motta headed the ball, and then Koda accidentally stretched out his leg and tripped Syria's core player Alhai who had just entered the penalty area...

Italy was penalized for a foul in the penalty area. Although Italian goalkeeper Viviano saved the opponent's penalty, Syria's Al Hussein made a follow-up shot, 1-0.

(Li Qi was a little helpless: How did the ball come to him? And how did it become a penalty kick? This was Syria's second time entering the penalty area in the entire game, right?)

Hey...this is a football, it’s round!

While the Syrian players were celebrating on the sidelines, Li Qi stopped Pelle, Montolivo and Nocerino, who were obviously too excited, and gave them a warning. Yes, the opponent's defense was much looser than the previous game, but because of this, they had to be calmer and more patient and cooperate more...

"Especially that big idiot. Yes, I'm talking about you, you idiot. You must assist a teammate before you can shoot... Don't look so sad. If you don't listen, believe it or not, I won't pass the ball to you in the future." After Li Qi gave instructions in the midfield, he turned around and encouraged the back line who made the mistake: "It's okay, we will catch up soon, stay focused!"

Italy, which was one goal behind, started to fight back with all its might. After Li Qi's reminder, Italy's performance was further improved than at the beginning. Seeing this, the head coach Casiraghi, who had yelled a few times anxiously when the ball was lost, sat back on the bench with satisfaction... Well, leave it to Li Qi...

Sure enough, in the 5th minute, about 37 minutes after the goal was lost, Li Qi once again cooperated with Montolivo to make short passes to get rid of the block in the middle, and directly passed the ball diagonally to Pelle in the middle of the penalty area...

Pelle stopped the ball. It was so comfortable. Pelle raised his foot and wanted to shoot hard, but suddenly he remembered Li Qi's warning and immediately changed the shot to a pass - he used his toes to pass the ball to Rossi who was not far away...

Rossi took the ball and volleyed it with his left foot. The ball flew past the Syrian defenders who were knocked to the ground by Pelle's feint without any rotation, and went straight into the blind spot in the upper left corner of the goal...

Li Qi rushed over and hugged Pelle and Rossi's necks to celebrate with his teammates: "Great, Pelle, your fake shot and real pass were so realistic!"

Pellet smiled innocently: "Yeah, boss, I really wanted to shoot, how could I not be realistic... Hehe, don't you remember your warning? Let's shoot first..."

……

The Italian team, which had equalized the score, became more calm and performed better, completely suppressing the Syrian team's offensive and defensive drills in the first half; and in the last minute of the first half, Pelle received a corner kick from Li Qi and headed the ball in the small penalty area with a defender hanging on, scoring his first goal in this cup...

Coming back into the second half, Italy scored again in the 73rd and 85th minutes through Koda and Li Qi respectively.

Among them, Koda received Bentivoglio's cross and headed the ball into the small penalty area, beating the Syrian defender. This goal was Italy's second attack after the corner kick was cleared.

As Syria pressed forward, Li Qi counterattacked with Viviano's powerful hand-thrown ball, easily passed the ball to the back-footed central defender, and then lowered his shoulder to dribble the ball past the attacking goalkeeper, and scored into the empty goal...

Although in the 79th minute, the Italian defense line made another mistake. Koda's short pass to the midfield was not strong enough, and Alhayi, who was ambushing behind Nocerino, cleverly intercepted the ball and shot directly at the crossbar before he could make up for it. Another Syrian striker, Alhamwi, seized the opportunity in the penalty area and scored a goal...

Italy also tried to change to a 4-3-3 formation in the second half, simulating whether it would be more effective to use dense defense in the middle against Argentina, a team with a similar style of play; Rossilla played as a right winger, and Bentivoglio, who was originally a right winger, went deeper into the attacking zone; Montolivo retreated to form a double defensive midfielder with Nocerino, and Li Qi played as a front midfielder or a free man in the middle...

另有13号博切蒂和15号德塞纳在73分钟替换下克里希托和蒙托利沃迎来本届杯赛的首秀；而在比赛马上要进入伤停补时阶段的86分钟，19号阿夸弗雷斯卡也替换下佩莱，这个未来的意大利U21国家队进球记录保持者第一次站在了世青赛的舞台上……

The final result of the game was 4 to 2, and Italy won a resounding victory!

In this game, Li Qi scored 1 goal and 2 assists, and won the best player again...

After the match, Syria's coach Radanovic expressed regret: "We wanted to dedicate the victory to the Syrian people... We were also leading and narrowed the score when we were behind... But it is obvious that the Italian team's style of play is more stable and mature... Our team has tried its best today, we can't blame them more, and we still have hope. We will do our best in the last game against Colombia..."

The Italian coach Casiraghi, who won the match, could not hide his excitement: "The boys performed very well today. Although we made some mistakes during the game, we will summarize them when we go back... Korda will make up for his mistakes, and we will still trust him... In the last round, we will still go all out to attack the Canadian team and strive for the first place in the group!"

……

3个小时前，同组的加拿大U20代表队在同一个场地以0：2不敌哥伦比亚U20代表队。

South American powerhouse Colombia made a strong effort in the final stage of the last round and tenaciously tied Italy with a score of 2-2.

And just like the last game, today Colombian immigrants from the Netherlands and surrounding countries will give them enthusiastic support...

In the last match, Canada was tied 1-1 by Syria, a weaker team in the group. Spencer, who scored for the team, will also miss this game due to injury...

In fact, the game held at the William II Stadium in Tilburg was also quite dramatic. Canada relied on tenacious defense to keep the score at 80-0 in the first 0 minutes.

Colombia was similar to the first half of the last match against Italy. They had the advantage but couldn’t score. They were always too hasty in the final pass or the goal, and missed many good opportunities...

Anxious Colombian coach Lara replaced Garcia and Guarin in the 77th and 85th minutes respectively to strengthen the attack!

As a result, these two substitute players scored in the 81st and 88th minutes respectively, winning the game in two consecutive games!

The Colombian team, which won the game 2-0, has basically secured a place in the group stage.

……

After the game, Colombia's head coach Lara said excitedly: "It's great to be able to qualify from the group. We have completed the first step of our set goal. But if we want to reach the final, we still need to move forward step by step..."

Canada's head coach Mitchell highly praised the opponent's outstanding performance: "Colombia is one of the best teams in this group and one of the best teams in this tournament. Our guys persisted for 80 minutes, but were finally defeated by the opponent's excellent individual skills. If Canada wants to advance to the next round, it must beat Italy in the final round, and we will work hard for this..."

Like many teams, Syria and Canada will have to fight desperately in the last round for the theoretical chance of qualifying!

……

After this round, Italy will only have 2 days to rest before facing the last match of the group stage!

So the next day, although the Italian team only had a half-day recovery training session, they did not give the players a day off to hang out, but asked them to stay in the hotel or Tilburg University to recover...

Yes, Li Qi was staying in the university... doing homework and typing code to recover...

If you stay in the hotel, you will be seduced by those bad friends to play games!

It’s not that Li Qi lacks self-control, it’s just that the bandits are too cunning!

……

Before the last round of the group stage, Italy had basically secured a place in the knockout rounds. Despite the need to fight for first place, head coach Casiraghi decided to make a big rotation for the last group stage, and of course Li Qi was not among them; Want to rest? Help secure the victory first...

Starting 4-4-2 formation:

The goalkeeper this time was replaced by No. 1 Kursi;

The back line from left to right is No. 13 Bocchetti, No. 3 Coda, No. 4 Andreoli and No. 6 Mazzorati;

The central midfielders from left to right are No. 10 Li Qi, No. 7 Montolivo, No. 16 Lazzari and No. 20 Cigarini;

The forward line is No. 18 Cozzolino and No. 11 Rossi.

……