Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

On June 6, there was a little rain in Tilburg in the morning, but it cleared up in the afternoon, making the temperature more suitable for football matches.

In the morning, the Italian U20 team conducted simple tactical and warm-up training, and in the afternoon they set off for the main venue of Group E, the Sparta Willem II Stadium, to prepare to face the Colombian team in this 5-capacity arena at 30: in the evening.

After changing into his game uniform and preparing to go out for warm-up, Li Qi also learned about the starting lineup of his opponent Colombia, which also had a 4-4-2 formation:

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Arenas (87, 187cm)

后卫线是3号萨帕塔（86年，187cm），6号穆拉雷斯（86年，186cm），14号阿吉拉尔（85年，185cm）与19号卡西埃拉（85年，173cm）；

中卫线是5号苏尼加（85年，172cm），8号托哈（85年，185cm），11号奥塔尔瓦罗（86年，177cm）与17号马鲁戈（85年，177cm）；

前锋线搭档是18号伦特里亚（85年，186cm）与10号罗达莱加（85年，180cm）；

There are a few names on the bench that I can remember: No. 15 Moreno (born in 85, 178cm), No. 9 Falcao (86, 177cm) and No. 13 Guarin (86, 183cm)... Oh, judging by his height, this Moreno should not be the long-legged Moreno who will play in China in the future. He just has the same name...

The head coach is a 45-year-old man named Lara...

Wow, entering the stadium, there is such a huge yellow ocean, many Colombian fans came to cheer for the Colombian U20 team! In comparison, the blue waves of Italy are just a few small flowers dotted around the audience seats... It seems that Italian fans are still more concerned about the adult team's game, Li Qi comforted himself...

As the captain, Li Qi was responsible for flipping the coin. He lost the ball, but chose the side with relatively fewer yellow-shirted fans as the goal in the first half.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle, the Colombian team, wearing yellow shirts, blue pants and red socks, launched a long pass attack on the Italian team, wearing white shirts and white pants away uniforms!

Italy's left center back Canini won the header and headed the ball to Li Qi who was not far in front of him. Li Qi stopped the ball lightly with his back to the goal and immediately prepared to move sideways to get rid of the Colombian No. 8 who was approaching from the left rear. He had just finished half of the action when he felt a strong force coming from behind...

Colombia's defensive midfielder No. 5 Zuniga was originally planning to sneak attack and double-team Italy's No. 10, but he didn't expect that after receiving the ball, he would almost immediately get rid of it horizontally without stopping the ball. If he was allowed to pass, he and No. 8 would be out of position in the middle. It was just right to give him a warning at the beginning of the game and knock him down first...

Beep! The black-clad referee decisively awarded the first set-piece of the game, in the Italian team's half, but did not issue a card. In the U20 match, the referee was relatively lenient on physical contact.

Li Qi quickly took a free kick and made a short pass to left winger Bentivorio. The opponent, Colombia's No. 11, came up to press. Bentivorio quickly passed the ball back to Li Qi. Li Qi didn't stop the ball and knocked it back to left back Criscito, avoiding the close interception of Colombia's No. 8.

As soon as the ball reached Criscito's feet, Colombia's No. 11 rushed over. Criscito watched Colombia's No. 8 go around to defend Li Qi, and No. 5 was ready to intercept at any time. The opponent's two forwards also double-teamed him to block the passing route. He could only kick a long pass to find Pelle in the frontcourt...

Pelle lost to Zapata in judging the ball, Colombia quickly regained the ball, and then started to speed up and attack the Italian defense...

The game had only been going on for 10 minutes when Li Qi clearly felt that the Colombian team was more excited than the Italian team and had entered the game earlier.

Under the bonus of the excited state, the Colombian team ran more actively, had a higher conversion rate, and applied technical movements more accurately, completely suppressing the Italian team in their own half...

After playing for 10 minutes, the Italian forwards only touched the ball a few times. This was mainly because Nocerino and I had some advantages in the midfield, and we were able to stabilize the formation near the midfield, so that we would not be too flattened by the Colombian formation.

Although Colombia gained some chances by constantly attacking the Italian defense through the speed and dribbling of No. 11 and No. 17 on the wing, the overly excited Colombian players did not seize the opportunities. The obviously too powerful crosses repeatedly flew directly out of the baseline, and one ball was even passed out of the sideline. The long shots from the center were repeatedly high cannons and did not threaten the goal guarded by Viviano.

"With such a high-intensity full-court press and high-intensity offense-defense transitions, let's see how long you can hold out..." Li Qi didn't care at all. He firmly defended the middle lane. Whenever he had a chance, he would try to slow down and control the rhythm, often shifting over a large area...

Ten minutes later, although Colombia's speed slowed down, Italy was still pressed in the half court...

Another 10 minutes passed, and most of the first half was over. Colombia's pressing was not as fierce as at the beginning, but Italy was still pressed in the half...

"Oh, I underestimated the Colombian team before the game. I was a little too confident in this game..." Li Qi was a little annoyed, but he still handled the ball calmly and calmly during the game. With his skillful stop and accurate kick, he was able to get the ball out of the Colombian encirclement every time and carefully controlled the offensive and defensive rhythm of the Italian side. At least there were no major problems in the first half hour...

But that’s how football games are. When the pressure is high enough, the one who creates the crisis may not be the teammate, but may be a teammate who looks harmless!

Under Colombia's continued full-court pressure, right-back Mazzorati's hasty handling of the ball almost broke through Viviano's goal!

Originally, Mazzolati received the ball and intended to move to the wing, but the right winger Cigarini had moved too far and there was no suitable route for the ball. He thought about giving it to Li Qi to deal with, but found that the opponent's No. 8 was entangled with Li Qi, and Li Qi had not yet pulled away...

Yes, you can pass the ball back to the goalkeeper!

But under the pressure of the opponent's forward preparing to press closely, Mazzorati's back pass was wrong and almost turned into an assist - the ball was passed between Viviano and the opponent's No. 10 forward!

Fortunately, the ball's mixed route was closer to Viviano, and Colombia's top striker Rodallega did not seem to expect that Italy, which had played cautiously for half the game, would suddenly feed him a big goal, so he started a little slow!

In this half-beat, Viviano used his 1-meter long legs to shovel the ball out of the sideline, defusing the danger created by his teammates...

Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief. The disadvantage of this midfield configuration is that Nocerino is more defensive and plays more defensively, while the two wingers still seem to lack tacit understanding. I don't know if they are nervous or excited, but they always want to sprint for overhead balls or dribble alone when they get the ball on the wing...

This is the case with non-adult team matches. The accuracy of passing, receiving and shooting is insufficient. The younger the age of the players, the worse the accuracy. Moreover, young players can easily get excited and shoot alone or hesitate when playing games...

Many times the outcome of a game depends on who makes fewer mistakes or who has better luck...

But an unexpected turning point came soon!

Just after Viviano cleared the ball, an excited naked fan rushed into the stadium while the ball was being kicked from the sideline!

Yes, there was nothing exciting. It was a fat middle-aged male fan... His slightly funny running posture and expression made the fans on the sidelines, the bench, and the players on the field all smile awkwardly...

The game was interrupted for about 3 minutes... But after the game resumed, the situation of the Italian team improved. I don't know whether it was because the Colombian team was distracted by this farce, or because the Italian team was relieved by this farce...

Regardless, Italy's first threatening attack came just one minute after the game resumed...

Li Qi first handled the ball on the left side of the center circle, then passed it back to the back line, and then transitioned to the right side. At the same time, Li Qi also switched positions with Nocerino, and ran to the right side of the center circle. Nocerino replaced the opposing left winger Marugo, and the number 8 who had been following Li Qi had not yet filled the gap. In this gap, a 14-on-5 situation was formed between Mazzolati + Cigarini + Li Qi VS Colombia's number 3 and midfielder number 2 Zuniga...

Li Qi received the diagonal pass from Mazzolati, and when he stopped the ball, he lifted it slightly. When Zúñiga approached, he instantly lifted the ball over the top to Pelle who was retreating in the middle to receive the ball. Pelle understood and retreated to receive the ball, and headed the ball to Li Qi who was bypassing Zúñiga...

Li Qi pushed the ball to Sigarini on the wing without stopping, and accelerated forward to get rid of No. 8 Toha who was chasing him. Sigarini paused for a moment with the ball, and then knocked the ball horizontally to Li Qi's forward running route...

Li Qi accelerated again and bypassed the central defender No. 6 Murales who was brought out of the midfield by Pelle. Only No. 3 Zapata was left between him and the goalkeeper. Zapata retreated while observing, waiting for other defenders to come over and double-team him while narrowing the distance between him and the goalkeeper, in case Li Qi accelerated again or dribbled the ball to get rid of him and get a single shot...

Li Qi made two fake moves in a row, but he didn't actually touch the ball. He was almost at the top of the penalty area. Zapata stopped retreating and was ready to block Li Qi's possible long shot at any time. At this time, Li Qi had to make a decision, whether to accelerate in a straight line, dunk and change direction, or directly shoot from a distance...

At this time, Li Qi ushered in his "explosion point moment" again! At the moment when he raised his foot to prepare for a long shot, Li Qi felt that time seemed to have stopped or flowed very slowly: Zapata's ferocious face about to pounce on him 3 meters away, No. 14 Aguilar who came over as the left back to defend, and the terrified face of No. 19 who was about to fill in the middle were all very clear... There was also No. 6 chasing back and Pelle who followed up, Cigarini behind him, and Toha who was about to put a tackle on the other side to interfere with Li Qi...

Li Qi found a huge gap and changed his shot into a pass!

"A nice fake shot and a real pass... Italy's chance... Oh! What a pity! Bentivoglio stopped the ball well, but unfortunately he shot the ball directly into the stands when facing the goalkeeper..." The TV commentator said with excitement and regret...

This overhead pass went diagonally past the Colombian right back No. 19 Casiera who was filling in the middle, and flew less than 2 centimeters in front of his forehead... Casiera stretched his neck as much as he could but couldn't reach it...

The ball came to the inside corner of the penalty area. Italian left winger Bentivorio, who had been lurking on the left, jumped up and stopped the ball in the air with his left foot...

At this time, Colombia's No. 1 goalkeeper Arenas had already left the goal to block Bentivorio's shooting angle. The opponent had already had a single shot, and the nearest defensive player had no time to fill in the position in a short time...

But as mentioned in the previous comments, I don’t know whether Bentivorio was too eager to use his strength in the face of the sudden opportunity or his feet slipped slightly at the last moment. Anyway, without the linesman raising the flag, Bentivorio shot the ball directly into the stands...

Li Qi felt a little bit regretful, but this is football, isn't it? It's pretty good to create a goal with 3 chances... Come on, turn around quickly, and Li Qi retreated to the midfield to arrange defense...

In the last 10 minutes of the first half, both sides played calmly. After the streaking incident, Colombia relaxed its pressure on Italy a little, and did not take the initiative as much as in the first half of the first half. At the same time, Italy's performance also improved slightly...

However, neither side had particularly good opportunities, and Li Qi did not find a second good chance. Although there were several explosive moments, they were all used to steal the ball and protect the ball; there was only one corner kick attack, but it was still headed into the stands by Canini...

Because of that streaking, 3 minutes of stoppage time was added to the first half, but there was no change. The two sides fought back and forth in the midfield for a while and then tested each other twice on the flanks, and then the half-time whistle was blown.

……

Walking all the way back to the locker room, Li Qi secretly blamed himself for being too relaxed and overconfident before the game; during the halftime break, in addition to explaining the tactical requirements and formation changes for the second half, the coaching staff also gave a brief overview of the Colombian team... It was very fierce!

Moreover, the U20 competition has made great progress compared to the U19 and U17 competitions. Relatively speaking, the young players' understanding of tactics and cooperation has been significantly improved, and their physical fitness has also been improved in all aspects.

It was no longer possible for Li Qi to win the initiative of the game in a simple way as before. For example, he could use simple continuous kicks + continuous wall hits to break through the defense and continuous precise long passes to create space opportunities. However, it was not easy in the first half of this game.

Li Qi secretly clenched his fists as he prepared for the second half of the game: "It seems that I have to be more nervous in the second half..."

"Otherwise, you might get killed..."