Chapter 55: The End of the Season

The strength between Rimini and Piacenza is half a pound, and the home-and-away advantage will be more useful, so it is still necessary to fight for a back-up advantage. However, Mantua is different, in the 41st round, Mantua, Brescia and Bologna all won the three teams, the difference in points between them has not changed, and in the last round Mantua will definitely fight to win and take their fate into their own hands.

The final round is destined to be a dead end, and many teams will have to die hard, but Rimini is relatively easy in comparison, after all, he is already ironclad enough to play the promotion play-offs. So the players are still relatively relaxed in training, and in the preparation for the final round, Akori considered that Mantua may be going to attack, and his first consideration was defense, with Zhang Yuan in the front, and the counterattack was a great threat. He once again used to bring up Porkia to play defensive midfield, so that Porkia and Cristiano formed a double midfield, that main energy was used to intercept the opponent's midfield, and on the two wings, Richiuti remained the same left wing, Moscaldelli was replaced by Barusso, Baruso's defensive ability is stronger than Moscaldeli, but the offensive is not as good as Moscaldeli, Akori means that Baruso can help defend the middle and help Vitielo Town defend the right wing. Mantua's main formation is 442, and they must be making a fuss on the wing, because they mainly play the tactics of two center forwards, and the two center forwards are tall and have outstanding header ability, which is their magic weapon to win.

After a few days of preparation, Rimini played at home to Mantua on June 10. The inside stadium is simply overcrowded, in fact, they don't need to be so crowded to watch, because Rimini has already won a place in the play-offs, but they still came, even outside the stadium is full of people, if Rimini upgrades and really considers building a new stadium, the current stadium is not up to standard.

Before the game, the two coaches had very different views on the game, with Mantua manager Di Carlo saying his side came to Rimini with the determination to win, meaning they had to win the game. Akori praised Mantua, pointing out that the opponent's attack is very characteristic and threatening, and Rimini will adopt a tactical strategy of defensive counterattack, which means that as long as you don't lose!

In fact, after the opening, Mantua did raise the banner of attack, while Rimini defended. Mantua's offensive style of play is quite a bit of a British style of play, they are a simple long pass rush, looking for two high school forwards, indeed also play two wings, but not much, on the contrary, they take the two sides to the middle of the play, that is, the center to grab the first point, the second point by the remaining striker or the middle of the player, the side to the middle of the player to grab, or pass or shoot, their style of play did cause trouble to Rimini, the protection of the second point is particularly important, and their style of play, Didn't disrupt their own defensive deployment, because this style of play doesn't require too many offensive players. Akori's counter-attacking tactics didn't work, and with such a high rate of errors in long passes, Rimini is now forced to possess the ball, and has always had the advantage in possession.

Since one plan fails, then it is natural and the second plan, Akori sent a message to the players on the field, changed the defensive counterattack to a possession tactic, controlled the ball at his feet, did not rush to attack, and reduced the chance of Mantua taking the ball to play a long pass and rushing, after all, the opponent's two center forwards are not decorations, and they can indeed bring great pressure to Rimini's defense, and a little carelessness may not be a threat but a goal.

The first half of the two teams was so deadlocked, although Rimini had the advantage in possession, but the ball control tactics were not their usual tactics, under the pressure of the opponent, there were still mistakes, but the opponent's long pass rush did not work every time, there were indeed a few opportunities, but the opponent did not grasp them, and Rimini also had a few chances, and the opponent's hard defense did not break the goal.

The final score of the first half was 0:0, and no one could help anyone.

However, as soon as the second half began, the storm suddenly changed, Mantua pressed the attack, especially the midfielders who were still standing in the first half are now fully pressed, why did they suddenly attack crazy, the reason is very simple, from the other two stadiums came the news, Brescia and Bologna both scored first, ahead of their respective opponents. This means that if Mantua don't press all the way and don't try to win, then they could end up in eighth place and not even play in the play-offs.

Di Carlo also knew that this style of play must have fulfilled Rimini's wishes, but now he has no choice, in view of Rimini's fast counterattack, he can only send defenders to focus on Zhang Yuan, and the defense against Jada will be much more relaxed.

Rimini is more recyclable in terms of strategy, with Riquiuti and Barusso on both flanks putting their main energy into defence, and leaving the front completely to Zhang Yuan and Jada to play freely.

In the first half, Zhang Yuan got a few chances, but he didn't handle it well, the shot missed the post, and once he hesitated a little after getting the ball and missed the best time to pass, the ball was cut off by the opponent, and a threatening attack ended without a problem.

Now this situation is suitable for Zhang Yuan's play, in the 56th minute, Richiuti left long pass, the ball is very fast and big, Zhang Yuan easily accelerated to overtake the opponent's defender, successfully got the football, he did not rush to cross, but to the penalty area, to attract the attention of the opponent's remaining central defender, watch Jada's running, take advantage of the opponent's grab before the diagonal pass, to the small penalty area in front of the point, Jada bypassed the opponent's central defender before receiving the ball, but he did not directly receive the ball but knocked it with his heel, Zhang Yuan passed the ball laterally to the penalty area, The two people are equivalent to a two-over-one cooperation, successfully driving the movement of the two central defenders, Jada knocked his heel, Zhang Yuan did not stop the ball and pushed the far corner, this time Zhang Yuan did not waste the opportunity, played very accurately and heavily, the opponent's goalkeeper failed to stop the ball, the ball went in, and Rimini led 1:0.

Zhang Yuan did not go to the corner kick area after scoring the goal, but turned to find Jada and gave a tight hug, most of the credit for this ball should be credited to Jada, his heel knock is very clever, the strength is good, Zhang Yuan is very comfortable to follow and push.

The audience at the scene was also cheering, calling Zhang Yuan's name, and after hugging Jada, the two of them waved to the fans on the scene side by side around the bottom line, and their teammates also ran over to high-five them to celebrate.

With a goal in his hand, Akori was more relaxed, with a goal in hand, he made adjustments more easily, and he applauded and easily sat back in the dugout.

Rimini scored, Di Carlo was very depressed, but this result was also what he could predict, he already had a premonition that Rimini scored first in the tactics of arranging that kind of strong attack, and now Rimini really scored, although he was a little frustrated, but he also comforted himself or it was okay to retreat, maybe the attack was smooth, and it was Mantua who won in the end.

Mantua's two-centre-forward approach also had the advantage of creating chaos in front of goal, such as set-pieces, which were their chances to score, but from the front, Rimini didn't give them many opportunities from set-pieces up front, and they couldn't capitalise on the few chances they had.

After the goal, Rimini began to play possession tactics according to Akori's requirements, trying to control the ball at his feet, but just like in the first half, Mantua did not lose confidence, after all, to be honest, this is not a relegation battle but a war to keep the play-off places, and the sky is not falling if they lose, so they are not nervous, they are more active than in the first half, it is difficult for Rimini to really pass the ball, after all, there is still a big gap between their individual ability and the top passing and control team, In normal tactical drills, there is not much emphasis on ball control tactics.

The two sides failed to play their own tactics, but instead became a war for possession, and as a result, both sides failed to create any good chances for a long time. Until the 81st minute, the deadlock on the field was broken again, Barusso steals the opponent's ball in front of the field, passes to Zhang Yuan in the middle, Zhang Yuan does not stop the ball and picks up the pass, past the opponent's defender, Jada is successful in the anti-offside position, and scores a goal with a single knife, Rimini leads 2:0, after the goal leads, Rimini basically wins the game, and Acorri then replaced Zhang Yuan, Rikiutti, replaced Cassione and Moscalderli, the formation became 451, so that Jada alone in front, and in the midfield hoarded heavy troops, strengthened midfield ball control and pressing.

Even after Rimini scored two goals, Mantua did not give up, and had to admire their willpower and spirit, but these two things alone were useless, and they finally failed to break through Rimini's door, and shortly after the game, Brescia and Bologna, who started at the same time, ended one after another, and the two teams won together, and Mantua only finished in eighth place, and the season was over for them.

Rimini won and secured fourth place, Piacenza drew but still retained fifth place, and Rimini's first opponent in the play-offs was set, Piacenza.

The crowd was in a frenzy as if they had already upgraded, and in fact Rimini had to play at least four games if he wanted to be upgraded. There are also a lot of fans waiting for autographs outside the stadium today, and Zhang Yuan is naturally looking for autographs the most, joking that he is the hottest new star in Serie B recently.

This season's Serie B is over, with Juventus in first place and Napoli in second place, and they will be promoted directly. Genoa are just three points away from Napoli and they have to play the play-offs when they drop the chain at a crucial moment, and their opponents will be Brescia, who are not too weak and they will have to be careful.

The saddest thing is probably Mantua, they defeated Genoa in the penultimate round to help everyone successfully drag Genoa's pace, but they lost to Rimini in the final round, dropped two places in a row, and did not even qualify for the play-offs.