Less than half an hour after Nadal's plane left Turin airport, the draw for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Russia was announced from FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and Italy was unlucky to draw Sweden, the strongest unseeded team.

Northern Ireland vs Switzerland, Croatia vs Greece, Denmark vs Ireland and Sweden vs Italy will be the first leg of the four matchups on 9-11 November local time, while the second leg will be played on 12-14 local time.

The Italians have clearly had some bad luck relative to the other three seeds, and although Sweden finished joint-top of the bottom eight teams with just 19 points at the group stage, they were extremely strong. The Vikings, who were placed in Group A, were also obviously unlucky, and were assigned to France and the Netherlands, which made most people not optimistic that they would be able to break through before the start of the game, especially after Ibrahimovic, the number one star of the previous decade, announced his retirement from the national team at the end of the European Championship in France.

But no one expected that under the leadership of manager Jane Andersson, who had just taken over the team last summer and was barely well-known before, this group of players, except for the central defender Lindelof who joined Manchester United in the summer and the midfielder Forsberg who played in Leipzig in the Bundesliga, the average value of the rest of the players was less than 3.5 million euros. Almost one round in advance, he locked in the qualification for the play-offs and caused a lot of upsets.

Many football figures, including Li Mudi, believe that this Swedish team is far from being as easy to deal with as it seems on the surface. Their squad is relatively young, but the members have a lot of experience in the game that is not appropriate for their age, and more than half of the team plays in the top five European leagues, although they are generally in the middle and lower teams, but they can also be called battle-hardened, and there will be no stage fright in major games. Moreover, the above two stars happen to play a central role in the front and back courts, so that there is no unity problem within the team, avoiding the drawbacks of England and the Netherlands, which are always unable to form a joint force in big-name teams, and it can be said that it is a strong player whose strength is much higher than fame.

Shortly after the draw was announced, Cavalella, the sports editor-in-chief of Corriere della Sera, posted on their online platform reminding the coaches and players of the Azzurri to pay close attention to this seemingly inconspicuous opponent, and if they can't show their full skills in the two-legged match, the result is likely to be disastrous.

But at this time, there are not many people who can be so calm, most Italians are still very confident in their national team to get the World Cup ticket, according to the Internet survey, more than 85% of fans think that it can be relatively easy to win the Nordics, and the number of people who choose to win at least two goals over two legs has reached 53%, this inexplicable optimism has spread on the Apennine Peninsula.

Many media are popularizing the historical head-to-head record of the two teams, and in the total of 23 meetings between the two sides, Italy has the upper hand with a record of 11 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses; The last time they lost to Sweden in the main draw was in the European qualifiers 30 years ago. Since Sweden won 1-0 in a warm-up match in 1998, the last five matchups have been unbeaten with 4 wins and 1 draw; The most recent meeting was in the group stage of last year's European Championships, where Edel's strike helped the team beat Sweden by one goal, not only did he advance early, but also sent the opponent home in the group stage...... These old calendars have been turned out to prove that they will definitely be able to defeat their opponents and win the promotion.

Team principal Oriali, who represented the team in the draw ceremony, also said in an interview with the media after returning home: "Fate has placed Sweden on us, the draw could have been better, but we accept it. We are Italy, we have a tradition of victories and championships, and we are optimistic even though our opponents are difficult to deal with. ”

However, their memories are obviously a little blurred, in the group stage of Euro 2004, Ibrahimovic's famous scorpion tail swing allowed Sweden to draw 1-1 with Italy, and then in the final round of the game, the two Nordic neighbors played "tacit ball", a 2-2 direct send home for the Italians. At that time, the team in blue was the team that won the World Cup two years later, and the strength was still stronger than the current national team, and it couldn't take advantage of the opponent 13 years ago, and now it can win easily?

Put aside the national team affairs for now, after all, whether it is overly optimistic or cautious, Li Mudi's priority now is to ensure that the team does not have major injuries again, and continues to move forward steadily in the league and European competitions, and there is really no mood to mix with other affairs. But the more he was afraid of something, the more he came, and midfielder Benassi was sent to the hospital for a detailed examination by the team doctor after a suspected thigh muscle strain before the end of training on Tuesday afternoon. The result was not ideal, and it took about four weeks of injury and the team's problems became bigger.

Just as the Torino boss was considering whether to urgently contact Migliasio to discuss the possibility of Gourcuff's arrival, the time came on Wednesday afternoon, and a somewhat sudden news sent quite a shock to Serie A. The Cagliari club issued an official announcement to sack coach Massimo Rastelli, who took over the team in the summer of 2015, and the successor was immediately announced, Uruguayan Diego López, who played for Cagliari from 1998 to 2010 and then served here as youth team manager, first team assistant coach and coach, announced his return to take over the reins of his old club.

This is the first Serie A club to change managers this season, and their results are not the worst, Cagliari are currently 14th in the table with 2 wins and 6 defeats and six points, with six teams behind them. This change of manager is likely to cause a chain reaction, and if they don't bottom out in the weekend's games, the clubs at the bottom of the table may be able to make a decision and find a new way out.

In the Champions League in the past two days, the performance of the Serie A powerhouses was also mediocre, Juventus almost capsized at home, and Sandro made Sporting Portugal, the original Sporting Lisbon, concentrate on the tactics of swinging the bus in the 12th minute. It wasn't until the 84th minute that the old woman relied on Mandzukic's header to make a difficult comeback and score the crucial three points; Roma, on the other hand, played an incomparable game in London, scoring three goals in a row from 2-0 down to almost complete today's comeback, but Hazard's second goal of the game ended this epic encounter 3-3; The worst performance was Napoli, the Serie A leaders failed to get off to a good start on the road, losing 1-2 to Manchester City, and the 1-2 White Dolphins suffered a big qualifying crisis.

However, these games have not been able to overpower two transfer-related news, first the British "Sun" broke the news that Sweden's high Tayib has returned to the Carrington training base for training, and Manchester United's coaching staff hope to include him in the first-team squad as soon as possible. "The Great Bongson", who suffered a torn cruciate ligament in April against Anderlecht and had to be sidelined indefinitely, was the team's top scorer before the injury, scoring 28 goals and providing 10 assists in 48 games in all competitions. It was Ibrahimovic's eye-catching performance that allowed the Red Devils to win the Europa League all the way and successfully get the ticket to the Champions League this season.

Jose Mourinho's side are currently second in the Premier League table, but the multi-front battle has had an impact on the form of the players, following last weekend's goalless draw with Liverpool and a narrow 1-0 win over Benfica in the Champions League, so Ibrahimovic's timely return is really good news for Manchester United.

The reason why Li Muddy is paying attention to this news is that he learned from Valentino Cairo last week that the Torino chairman seems to want to sign the Swedish centre-forward, whose contract expires by then, next summer, to strengthen the team's bench and add some popularity to the club. After all, although Ibu is older, he is likely to live up to his courage back then, but his status in the rivers and lakes is still there, and his fans are all over the world, especially in the Celestial Empire. If the star can be brought in, it should be able to gain more attention and attract more sponsorship.

However, for this big-name star with a very different temperament, the Torino coach is not confident that he can handle it, and it will be hilarious if he signs another ancestor who needs to be served back at that time. So he is also keeping an eye on the movements of the centre-forward, for fear that the latter is unhappy in England and is ready to return to the Apennines. Fortunately, judging from the current situation, Ibrahimovic's life at Old Trafford is quite comfortable, and it is likely that he will renew his contract and live there for the rest of his life. Even if he chooses to leave, it is highly likely that he will return to Malmo in Sweden after a significant dip in form, leaving some traces on his parent club in the final season of his career, where he never played.

And another former world superstar who has appeared in various media is Kaka. After Orlando City was held to a 0-0 draw by Dallas at the end of September and completely missed out on the North American Football League playoffs, he officially announced that he would not play in the remaining two league games, which means that the former world No. 1 officially ended his football career in the United States. It has been previously reported that the Brazilian star is likely to announce his retirement, but the latest news is that, according to Brazilian media reports, the 2007 Ballon d'Or winner could return to play for AC Milan and then join the club's management.

The Torino boss formed a good friendship with Kaka during his time at Real Madrid between 2009 and 2013, as the latter was often injured at that time and would always train with the reserves and even the youth team to get a feel when he was recovering from injury or out of form. After the Brazilian left the team and returned to the Apennine Peninsula, the two sides also kept in touch from time to time, and the friendship was still very good. Li Mudi mentioned before that he hopes that the opponent can come to Torino to spend half a season, and while adjusting his state to see if he can continue his career, he can also guide Benassi and Baseli, who are still a little awkward in the forward midfield position, and can also help the lads in the academy improve. But this proposal was directly rejected by Kaka, he did not want to join a Serie A team other than the Rossoneri, this discipline, is much better than some people.

The Torino boss was the first to reach out to AC Milan when he heard the news that his friend was likely to return to AC Milan, but Kaka is uncertain what the future holds. His agent has tried to test the Rossoneri through the media, but so far, the Milan club has not responded, so whether it is to re-wear the Milan shirt or enter the management, it seems unlikely that he will return to the San Siro.

If the situation really develops in this direction, Kaka will basically announce his retirement directly, according to the first plan, he should not be engaged in the work of a coach in the future, but may try to join a large brokerage company, with his contacts accumulated over the years, to develop in this industry.

In this regard, Li Mudi also sent his most sincere wishes, and finally joked that he hoped that his friends would not forget to contact themselves after collecting excellent players in the future, and the two would dominate the world football world together.

Fast forward to Thursday evening, when the Red Bulls host the third round of the Europa League group stage against AEK Athens, Greece, who have been in good form since the start of the new season. The latter have won one and drawn one in the first two rounds of European competition, and are second in the group behind Torino, while they also dominate the top of the table in the domestic league by one point. A large part of the credit for that goes to former Sevilla boss Manolo Gimenez, who took over the reins this summer, and the Spaniard has combined advanced short-passing tactics with the Greeks' traditional defensive philosophy to build his team into shape in a very short period of time.

And this game, the Torino team won very hard, they got 62% of the possession time in the whole game, and bombarded 22 shots on goal, and finally only relied on the teenager Pellegri in the 74th minute of the second half to win the opponent 1-0, the process made many supporters sweat. Fortunately, he won in the end, otherwise Li Mudi, who made a large-scale rotation of the starting lineup again, is likely to usher in some more criticism.

After three rounds of the group stage, the Red Bulls won all three games and accumulated 9 points, and have entered the door of the round of 32 with one foot, followed by AEK Athens with 4 points, Rijeka with 3 points and Vienna Austria with 1 point. After a satisfactory result in European competition, Li Moody and his team will face Roma's big test in the league at the weekend, and the whole club and outside are immersed in a state of tension.