Gao Zheng expressed the team's confidence in winning the game in an interview, and Napoli was naturally not to be outdone.

Team captain Hamsik responded to Gao's statement in an interview: "I agree with Gao's statement, there is no easy game in the world to win. So we're going to give it our all in this game as well. When the Coppa Italia reaches this point, no one will give up easily. ”

"Hamsik is right, when the game is played at this point, it will be difficult for Sampdoria to paralyze their opponents with their previous low profile. Come to think of it, both Roma and Juventus have shown some contempt for this team when facing Sampdoria...... They can have the strongest lineup, but they often end up with a rotating lineup. Nowhere is this more evident than at Juventus, where Gianluigi Buffon didn't even come away. Conte will have to take the most responsibility for the quality of this game. However, after the successive elimination of Roma and Juventus, I don't think anyone will think that Sampdoria just wants to give up the Coppa Italia with dignity, right? In the evening's Italian Channel 5 program, the guests were talking about the next showdown.

The host asked: "So you don't expect Sampdoria to reach the Coppa Italia final?" ”

The guest shook his head: "It's not that I'm not optimistic about them reaching the final, after all, football is round, and everything can be there." It's just that with Napoli going all out and still dominating the schedule, it will be difficult for Sampdoria to reach the Coppa Italia final......

He didn't say anything to death, but what he meant, everyone knew very well.

The reason why I don't talk about death is that I can't leave too obvious handles. If Sampdoria really eliminated Napoli in the end, wouldn't they be slapped in the face?

Since Gao Zheng slapped those experts in the face with his performance on the scorer list last season, many people will be relatively cautious about Gao Zheng's issue.

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On the second day of the semi-final between Udinese and Fiorentina, Sampdoria welcomed Napoli at home.

It's a contest between third and seventh in the league.

One of the reasons why many people are more optimistic about Napoli is also in the league standings, which fully reflects the gap between the two teams.

At the end of the 22nd round, Napoli is third with 44 points, but they are far from the top two in the league, Juventus and Roma, and there should be little chance to catch up with the two teams this season. If they can hold on to their current third place in the league at the end of the season, it will be good, at least in the Champions League next season.

In terms of honours this season, in fact, what they can still compete for is the Coppa Italia.

So in this game, Napoli definitely doesn't have the problem of not paying enough attention.

They will definitely send out the strongest squad they can field.

That's not good news for Sampdoria.

In fact, Napoli fielded their main squad in the league for this game.

At the top of the pack is centre-forward Gonzalo Higuain, who has scored ten league goals this season.

On the left and right flanks are Insigne and Callejon, with captain Hamsik in the middle of the midfield and Inle and Jorginho in the back.

There were four defenders, left wing-back Antoni Revier, right-back Maggio, centre-backs Albiol and Federico Fernandez.

The goalkeeper is Reina, who switched from Liverpool.

This squad is Napoli's main squad in the league.

Napoli's ability to finish third in the league has a lot to do with their performance.

But in terms of individual ability, Napoli is a notch ahead of Sampdoria.

After all, the players on Sampdoria's side, except for Gao Zheng, are either young people, or players who have not been famous for many years.

Unlike Napoli, almost all of them are well-known figures in European football, and they all have a wealth of game experience in the big clubs.

For example, the leading goalscorer Higuain also played the main team before Real Madrid, and Callejon was once Real Madrid's hopeful star.

If you only analyze the strength on paper, I believe that no one thinks that Napoli will lose.

But football is interesting, and the outcome of the game cannot be simply compared on paper.

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Sampdoria only started with an attack at the start, threatening some Napoli goals, and then quickly shrunk their defence and played what they do best.

Napoli, on the other hand, insisted on their style of attacking style of play on the wing, with Callejon and Insigne constantly attacking the Sampdoria defence.

It's just that these two wings have to slow down when they get to the 30-metre area of Sampdoria.

It used to be said that Callejon felt like he was speeding around the pitch on a motorcycle when he played at Real Madrid, but in the face of Sampdoria's dense defense, Callejon's motorcycle under his crotch had to be replaced by a bicycle......

In fact, in addition to this tactic, which is a tactic that Sampdoria is good at, it is also specially arranged by Di Francesco in order to target Benitez.

It was to not leave space for Napoli to attack on the flanks from behind the defensive line, so that their technical and speed advantages on the flanks could not be brought into play.

In terms of offense, because it is necessary to maintain a defensive formation and try not to give Napoli a chance, it is necessary to rely more on the individual ability of the attacking players in attack.

However, Di Francesco is not too worried about this, because he believes they have the best individual strikers in the world.

Aside from not being good at headers and duels, there are basically no drawbacks.

The fact that they are not good at heading is not a problem when the team plays counter-attacking defensively and lacks midfield and wide support.

If you are not good at confrontation, it is even worse, because Gao Zheng's free kick is excellent! It's impossible for an opponent to stop Gao Zheng without fouling in a game, right? As long as you break the rules, it's Gao Zheng's performance time.

So from this point of view, Gao Zheng is comprehensive and has no fatal weaknesses.

Ten minutes into the game, Napoli's attack was not yet threatening, and Sampdoria's dense defence did make a difference.

In the thirteenth minute, after Sampdoria, who was defending at the back, cut off the ball from Napoli, he did not advance through the midfield, but directly kicked the football to the midfield.

Gao Zheng received the ball just past the middle circle, and it was not offside, he turned around and walked forward with the ball!

"Sampdoria's counterattack!"

The Marassi Stadium resounded with shouts cheering for Gao Zheng.

Napoli's players quickly returned to defending, with centre-backs Albiol and Fernandes slowly retreating while waiting for their team-mates to return.

The Napoli players in the midfield are quickly returning to defense, as for the front, they don't run much, after all, they are the farthest, and when they run back, it is estimated that the daylily is cold, so it is better to stay in the front, on the one hand, you can suppress the players in the Sampdoria midfield and backfield, and do not let them press on the power, on the other hand, you can also put into the counterattack immediately after the teammates successfully defend.

As I said before, Gao Zheng is not a speed player, but he is definitely not the kind of slow high school forward.

He dribbles at a good pace, so even though he doesn't have a fast speed, he doesn't feel slow with the ball.

He soon dribbled close to Napoli's centre-back Albiol.

The Spanish centre-back, who moved to Napoli from Real Madrid this summer, is tall but not fast enough and not flexible enough to turn.

When Gao Zheng dribbled the ball to his eyes, he turned his head and glanced to his right, and on his right there was indeed Berardi who was inserting at high speed, trying to pick him up.

Albiol noticed Gao Zheng's movement of turning his head, so his eyes involuntarily glanced over there.

This was a very covert action, but it was keenly caught by Gao Zheng.

He immediately deceived himself!

Albiol's attention was originally on Berardi, but he suddenly caught a glimpse of Gao Zheng approaching him head-on, and hurriedly reflexively stretched out his legs to block Gao Zheng.

Gao Zheng gently flicked the football to the left front with his right foot, and the football rubbed past Albiol's toes, and at the same time, Gao Zheng took another step and wiped it in front of Albiol.

Because the range of movements is very small, it does not affect Gao Zheng's center of gravity and balance, so that he can quickly connect his movements without too much adjustment and delay time.

Shaking off Albiol, he dribbled the ball towards the Napoli penalty area!