Chapter 219: Make Adjustments Again
In this game, Donadoni continued the starting lineup with a recent record of 2 wins and 1 loss, and the striker Destro and Czech international Krejic are still the main players, but Wildi, who wears the number 9 shirt, has been squeezed into the bench by 22-year-old Di Francisco. There was also a change in the midfield, with 21-year-old Hungarian newcomer Adám Nagy taking the place of Algerian international Saphir Taider, who is on loan from Inter, and his midfield three with Swiss international Djemajli and 21-year-old Chilean teenager Erick Pulgar have become more and more cohesive. In addition to goalkeeper Mirante and left-back Masina who have been firmly in place, the centre-back combination of veteran Mayetta and Greek Oikonomu and right wing-back Swede Kraft have all just gained the manager's trust in the first two rounds of the winter break.
However, it was such a team that seemed to be mediocre and full of turmoil that withstood Torino's multiple attacks and still did not give the visitors too many opportunities to get off the ground despite having a 2:3 ratio of possession. As can be seen from the technical statistics after half-time, the number of shots on goal on both sides was four and five respectively, and the number of shots on target was two, and the success rate of passes, crosses, and headers was not much different. However, the home team still took the lead in this seemingly evenly matched situation with an uncomplicated attack.
In the 43rd minute, Pulga sent a diagonal long pass to the left side of the penalty area from the right side, Zampacosta misjudged the landing point, and was headed by Krejic near the corner of the small penalty area, Rossettini appeared to mark the man and slipped the number again, Djemayli got the ball on the line of the small penalty area and had a chance to adjust it and then volleyed a left-footed volley into the near corner, and the ball passed through Joe Hart's crotch and went into the net. 1-0, Bologna's goal just before half-time drew a chorus of cheers from 20,000 home fans at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara.
In the dressing room, Li Mudi instructed the Torino players to attack the opponent's right flank more, Kraft is only 22 years old, although he was recently selected for the Swedish national team, but he is still a little inexperienced, and the aggression and bravery are relatively low, and he can continue to pressure him to make mistakes. However, this tactic did not work as well as it should in the next game, and the Bologna defence seemed to be in full swing today. No matter how the visitors attack, they will end up with an impenetrable wall, and it is difficult to even get a chance to get a kick.
In the 56th minute, Zampacosta was suspected of being injured in a counterpart, and Li Mudi, who did not dare to take risks, hurriedly replaced him with Silvestri. Coupled with the fact that only five minutes into the first half, Belotti suffered a concussion after colliding with Oikonomu while competing for a header and was rushed to a nearby hospital.
In the ensuing game, Donadoni's team gradually recovered a slight gap in possession, but they seemed to have been satisfied with the one-goal advantage and were not in a hurry to score again to seal the victory, so Torino could not play a counterattack, and had to keep entanglement with the opponent in the positional battle, as if they were stuck in a quagmire and could not get out. Fortunately, in this moment of crisis, a superhero stepped up, and in the 79th minute, Jesse seized on what may have been the only mistake of the game for the home team, intercepted the return pass of Ghanaian central midfielder Godfred Donsah, who had just come on as a substitute, and used speed and feints to shake the ball past central defender Mayeta and goalkeeper Mirante in succession, and hit the ball into the empty goal. 1-1, the Red Bulls came back at the end of the game after a lapse of multiple rounds to tie the score.
However, the home team was not willing to accept the three points in their hands, and immediately completed a wonderful combination, sending the ball into the Torino goal. In the 83rd minute, Bologna made a quick counterattack after a steal at the back, Donsa, who had made a fatal mistake before, sent a delicate through ball after attracting the attention of the visiting defenders, Djemayili entered the penalty area from the left side at high speed, and volleyed directly into the far corner without stopping the ball, Joe Hart's down-to-ground save failed to touch the ball, but the ball did not go directly into the net, but hit the right post and bounced back to the goal. Destro, who had just opened up space for his teammates, followed up and made a successful follow-up shot to put the score ahead again.
However, just as the home team players and fans were celebrating the goal, the referee blew the whistle and gestured that the goal was invalid, because the assistant referee had raised it to indicate that the home team's number 10 was in an offside position when Jemajli attacked the goal, so his follow-up shot could not be recognized. The Bologna members, who had been kicked from the sky, naturally could not accept this painful reality, but it was a moment of lightning, and the players were not sure whether the goal was offside or not, so after arguing for a while, they returned to the backfield to prepare to continue the game.
It's just that the slow-motion replay of the broadcaster shows that this is a miscalculation, the moment Jemayli makes contact with the ball, De Astro at the far end is not the closest person to the away team's bottom line, and Rosetini, who struggles to chase back in the middle, is in a completely parallel position to him, and the ball is indeed not offside in the strict sense. The home team's good goal was pit by the linesman, but it can't be changed anymore unless the Italian Football Federation agrees to the entry of electronic referees in Serie A.
Bologna, who had been hacked to score, were unable to organise a decent attack, but they could not find any chances from the Torino side, and in the end the two sides had to shake hands and get a point each. In terms of technical statistics throughout the game, the visitors had a slight advantage in possession of 57%, but they were still evenly matched in terms of shooting, with four of their respective nine shots on target, and a draw seemed reasonable, but when the home team knew about the miscalculation, they would definitely feel aggrieved. In this regard, Li Mudi can only say that anyone can be involved in this matter, so it should be regarded as saving character for the future.
Of course, he didn't dare to say this at the post-match press conference, otherwise he might have annoyed the local media and Bologna club officials, and he could only defend the referee who helped him a lot and expressed regret for the opponent's loss.
However, even with the help of the referee, Torino still fell out of the top five in the standings thanks to rivals such as Atalanta, Inter Milan and Fiorentina all three points. The situation is like this: the old lady who suffered a fourth defeat in the last round still dominates the top of the table with 48 points, but the second-placed Roma team is only one point away from him, but fortunately, Juventus still have one game to go, and the situation is not too urgent.
With the latest wave of 6 wins and 1 loss, Napoli finally occupied the top three that the outside world predicted they should be in before the start of the season, and the current form of the White Dolphins does have some signs of invincibility, not only killing Milan two heroes one after another, but also showing super attacking power, surpassing Torino to become the team with the most goals in the entire league; Next, Lazio has 40 points, Atalanta, Torino and Inter Milan have 38 points, Fiorentina and AC Milan with a game less are both 36 points, and two Europa League tickets will be produced among these six teams, and the fierce competition can be imagined.
While the media and the Internet were debating who could finally emerge from this bloody fight, a bombshell news appeared on the official website of the Red Bulls: "Giuseppe Vives, the veteran captain of the team for five and a half seasons, has reached a termination agreement with the Torino team, and Vercelli, who joined Serie B at the first time, will represent the latter nicknamed Bianche casacche in the next year and a half." Later, the club's president, the head coach of the team and the players' representatives Moretti and Barreca paid tribute and blessed videos, expressing everyone's love and reluctance to the veteran.
However, this still caused a lot of controversy in the outside world, a team actually let go of its captain in the middle of the season, this is definitely not an ordinary small incident, is there any inside story of fighting or persecution? Torino fans have a hard time accepting the fact that although Wives's role in the team has not been a mainstay in the team over the years, he has helped the Red Bulls achieve their goal of promotion, and he also contributed a lot when they qualified for Europe in the 2013-14 season, and there are still many people who recognize their historical status.
Fortunately, in the afternoon of the same day, Vives published a farewell letter on the official website of Turin, which listed the reasons why he chose to leave the team at this time, and spoke highly of the countless support and help he has received from the club and fans over the years. He was able to get the same salary after switching to the second division team, also because his old club did not charge any transfer fees, giving the player the last respect (of course, he couldn't sell it for a few bucks). His last words, "My heart will always be with the club of Turin, Forza Toro!" It touched the hearts of all the fans, and made everyone calmly accept the reality that the captain of the team had left.
And at noon on Tuesday, Torino once again announced that they had bought 18-year-old centre-back Alessandro Bastoni from Atalanta for 5 million euros, while midfielder Alessandro Ahmetaj, who had just turned 17, also joined from Cesena for 1.6 million euros, and the two players will be reported and joined by the team's youth team immediately. Coupled with the recent acquisition of Ricardo Marchiza and Luca Pellegrini from Roma in the Bruno Pérez deal, as well as Dickman and Beye from Novara, and the free signing of Renaud Piscopo, Li Mudi has won seven young players in a row this winter, except for the last two, the rest are considered to be the hopeful stars of Italy, and the idea of building a team of the Celestial Empire seems to be exposed.
However, his operation still attracted a lot of media doubts, "Sky Sports" believes that although the Red Bulls' current results in the league far exceed the previous expectations, but to achieve the goal of reaching the European competition is still very reluctant, they are the weakest of the six teams, should use these funds to bring in some immediate power, not to do any future planning. It's not that the team's youth training is not important, but now it should be the first place to qualify for Europe, after all, that represents tens of millions of euros in income, and the youth training can be done at any time.
But these media haven't thought about it carefully, even if they take out 20 million, what kind of good players can they buy? It's better to take advantage of the fact that there are no major changes in the transfer market to get some little demons to cultivate well, and save the time when the bamboo basket is empty. The president of the club and other senior management are also supportive of the head coach's idea, as mentioned before, the idea of businessmen is still more focused on practical interests, since there are no good options this winter, it is better to turn money into the future of the team, as long as one or two of these lads can cash in on their potential, the deal is a sure deal.
So on Wednesday evening, Torino's official website released another signing, they bought a pair of brother talents from the old Bundesliga powerhouse Werder Bremen for 10 million euros, midfielder Maximilian Eggestein, born in 1996, and striker Johannes Eggestein, born in 1998. The deal has once again caused a lot of buzz in Italian football, with even the German side involved.
The brothers are currently members of the German Under-20 and Under-19 national teams respectively, but they are still the core of the team, but in the eyes of the media and professionals, the two have completely different statuses. Although the brother's 1.8 million euros is much higher than his brother's 360,000 in the instant value given by "Transfer Market", the German is more optimistic about Johannes, who is 183 cm tall and plays as a center forward. And from the perspective of the potential given by the FM system, it seems to verify this, in the case of a full year and a half age difference, the current ability of the two people is basically the same, the elder brother's potential value is 145, and the younger brother is as high as 175, which is completely a two-level player.
And judging from the current performance on the field, it is also the younger brother who is better. He won the Silver Boot at the Under-17 World Cup in Chile two years ago and has already scored 24 goals in Germany's youth national team at all levels, hailing him as Germany's number one centre-forward of the future. At this time last year, the media reported that many European giants, including Manchester United and Liverpool, were very interested in him, so frightened that Bremen hurriedly signed a new contract with an annual salary of up to 500,000 yuan, while his brother Maximilian's salary was only 52,000 euros.
The elder brother plays as a midfielder, and has begun to represent Bremen II in the German league this season, but he has not played too impressively in the position of the midfielder, with only 2 goals in 13 starts, and zero assists, which is indeed not the level that a qualified frontcourt playmaker should have, causing his evaluation to fall all the way to the outside world, and some people say that he is likely to live in the shadow of his younger brother for the rest of his life.