Chapter 430: We're Not Afraid
Two consecutive draws, from a lead of seven points to a lead of three points, when Inter Milan seemed to have established a huge advantage, the sudden two consecutive draws made Juventus breathe a sigh of relief and began to tenaciously narrow the disadvantage of falling behind to three points!
'We've got our form back and we're only going to get better and better in the next games.' Capello said in an interview: "We made a lot of mistakes before, now is the time to make up for this mistake, before we were in bad form, now it is slowly recovering, and Inter Milan, it should be from a peak to decline, and then, it is time for us to start catching up with Inter Milan!" ”
"Three points ahead? Isn't it still ahead? You know, we were behind before the winter break, but now overall, we still have a lot more points than Juventus, and that's our advantage. Besides, we're still unbeaten and would it be surprising to have a few draws once in a while? Parma didn't play well in the first half of the season, they started to play at their level in the second half of the season, Udinese are the top four teams, AC Milan are the giants who still have a chance to win the title, and I am very happy to play with such a team because we are still ahead and the draw allows us to maintain our advantage, which is good for the overall advantage. There are only twelve rounds left in the league now, and we have a three-point advantage over Juventus and a seven-point advantage over AC Milan, which is enough! Want to know what our strengths look like? I can tell you that we have four strengths......"
The reporters had to interrupt Dick's tirade, and then they said, "Don't forget, Mr. Dick, you're only three points ahead now!" ”
"It's a lot of three points, ...... in a difficult league like this"
"But you were seven points ahead before!"
"We were a point behind before the winter break."
"Would you be so happy if Juventus were to tie the points or even overtake them next?"
"What are you afraid of, isn't there still a face-to-face battle with Juventus!"
After Dick's interview spread, it was obvious that Dick showed full confidence, although sometimes it changed from seven points to threes, which seemed to be a game, but Dick's self-confidence was enough confidence.
However, the outside world thinks that Dick is consistently hard-mouthed, and this person never seems to know what it means to be unconfident - does he compare Serie A with La Liga and Bundesliga? You must know that Serie A has always been the most difficult game to play, and it is also the easiest league to lose points against weak teams!
It is not uncommon for Lazio to be overtaken by seven points in the 98-99 season, which was instantly overtaken under the advantage of seven points, and in Cooper's first season, Inter Milan was also overtaken by Juventus in the final round when it was still five points ahead in the end!
Juventus' tenacity is well known.
And Dick's last words made Juventus feel humiliated, and from Dick's tone, it seemed that he had been sure to get the three points in that face-to-face game......
Although Inter Milan's results this season are excellent, they are not very good at winning against strong teams, and AC Milan have drawn in both games, and they have also been forced to draw by Udinese, they can now have such an advantage, more because they have a top win rate for teams in the middle and lower reaches, almost every game has been won, and those who can't win can also maintain a draw, such a performance, to say that Juventus can guarantee a win away from home, it is too exaggerated......
"Inter Milan have brought in a great coach who seems to think Serie A is easy to play. In the first half of the season, I think the Serie A teams were a little too polite to Inter Milan to get so many points. But now, we should let Dick know that Serie A is not an easy league to play, and he is facing the toughest game in the world! ”
Moggie jumped out in an interview: "For example, in the next round, Lecce should let Inter Milan see what a real attack is. ”
Hearing this, the whole world laughed, everyone knows that Lecce's head coach Zeman is a famous anti-Juventus fighter, and his relationship with Moggie has always been very bad, and now Moggie even said this, which shows that Inter Milan's performance this season has indeed put too much pressure on Juventus......
"Coach Zeman is a very good coach, I have always admired Coach Zeman's persistence in attack, and I think the next round of the league will be a wonderful matchup." Dick replied with a smile.
Zeman said in an interview: "I'm a head coach and it's a coach's responsibility to lead the team to victory. Lecce will do their best in this game, but I have to say that Dick's achievements so far in Italy are what he deserves, and I don't know if the rest of the Serie A teams have been polite to Inter Milan, but Lecce has played to their full potential against them, but against Juventus, we didn't play very well. ”
Zeman's words are in line with his character, the Czech coach is also famous for not being used to Juventus, and Moggi and Juventus have spared no effort to suppress him, Zeman has almost never coached any giants, and can only coach in the middle and lower teams, and at the same time, there will always be some troubles in the process of coaching, such as the players who want to be introduced can't come, and they will suffer some losses in the game...... Zeman has never bowed his head, and every once in a while he makes remarks despising Moggie and Juventus, making Moggi hate this Czech to death.
After the last round of the league, there were no midweek games, so there was still energy for a war of words, and after a week's rest, Inter Milan, who had rested well, began to play again in the league.
Dick's previous war of words drew most of the firepower to keep the players out of the media's assault, and the Inter players had a great time this week.
In this round of the league, Materazzi finally returned from the ban, which gave Dick a lot more confidence in the backline, and in this game he sent the whole main line-up, Toney and Adriano in the attack, Pandev in charge of the final pass behind, Zanetti and Perrota Stankovic provided protection in midfield, and the back five came on at the same time......
At their home turf, Inter Milan attacked Lecce's backline with excellent attacks, and Lecce's players began to use attacks to relieve their pressure - under the leadership of Zeman, Lecce will use attacks against opponents no matter what the game, no matter where they are.
Inter Milan's strong attack after the opening period was passed through a series of passes, and a corner kick was created by Stankovic, Toney's jump in front of the post attracted the attention of most of the opponent, but the dim Córdoba showed his excellent bounce in the middle, grabbing the opposition defender and shaking his head to attack the goal, and the ball went into the corner of the goal!
Materazzi and Cordoba high-fived in celebration, while Cannavaro shook his head helplessly, Materazzi and Cordoba both scored in the league, but he hasn't scored a single goal yet......
However, this is also related to their responsibilities on the field, Cannavaro is now completely concentrating on defense and becoming a full-time defensive player, although Materazzi is a scavenger, but when he gets corners and free kicks, his height and ability to grab points are also a very important offensive means, Córdoba is playing right back, although he rarely attacks forward, but he can also help in the attack, although this back line of Inter Milan is a defense-oriented backline, But Cannavaro is the only player in this backline who is purely defensive!
In fact, Dick's tactics used in Inter Milan this season are largely borrowed from the tactics of Juventus next season, and the next season in history, Juventus is basically defense is defense, offense is offense, and in the case of solid defense, through the excellent play of the attackers in the front court to tear apart the opponent's defense, this approach has played a great role in this season.
Lecce was not discouraged after conceding the goal, for them conceding a goal is commonplace, and not scoring will be the end of the world - so they immediately launched a fierce counterattack and attack!
Zeman is indeed a very unique and high-level coach, he can be called the world's top level in terms of adjusting the attack, but he is still lacking in the overall aspect, although this season has gone Chevinton, but he quickly developed excellent attackers such as Bodinov and Vuscinic, and after the attack, they quickly scored goals in the back and forth!
Vucinić started to break through with the ball from the side, attracted attention and passed the ball to Bodinov in the middle, seeing that Cannavaro had already caught up, Bodinov did not force the attack, but passed the ball back, and the forward midfielder Pinardi hit a very ghostly long-range shot, the ball flew from Toldo's hand into the corner of the goal!
"Lecce equalised! Although the head coaches of the two teams seemed to be a little sympathetic to each other before the game began, neither side had any relaxation in the game! Now that the game has only been 20 minutes into the game and both sides have scored one goal each, will there be more goals in the next game? Let's wait and see! ”
This game did not disappoint the commentator, Inter Milan, who have played beautiful attacking football this season, and Lecce, who are crazy in attack, meet in the game and want to score fewer goals? It's really an unlikely thing......
Adriano, who had been in a bit of a fluctuating form since the start of the second half, regained his style in the first half of the season in this game, his forced breakthrough and combination made Lecce's backline a headache to defend, and before the end of the first half, he received a pass from Pandev and shot hard in the box to give Inter Milan the lead again!
Lecce equalised again at the start of the second half, this time by Vucinic who headed home from Cannavaro in front of goal to level the score at 2-2.
However, after Perrotta received a clever pass from Pandev and slashed into the penalty area to push the far corner to give Inter Milan the lead again, Lecce was a little unable to continue - after all, they had consumed too much energy and fitness in the previous confrontation, and compared to Inter Milan, their background was still a lot worse.
Dick began to deploy at this time, Martins and Cruz were substituted, and Martins made a contribution shortly after coming on the field, he burst into the box and was tripped to create a penalty, Adriano scored twice, Inter Milan defeated Lecce 4-2, a decline in the first two rounds of scoring only one goal per game, and once again recovering their previous goal-scoring style!