Chapter 451: The Final, I'm Coming

After the home fans erupted in a roar of rage over the joy of the goal, they began to shout the name of the goalscorer in the voice of the DJ on the spot: Jesse Rodriguez Ruiz!

And Hesse, who was celebrating with his teammates frantically hugging each other, couldn't help but cry on the field after hearing what was perhaps the most beautiful sound on the football field, the former genius who had just passed the age of 25 but had experienced many vicissitudes.

Although he quickly calmed down because the game was still not over and he needed to put his heart and soul into ensuring the team's victory. However, as he walked back into his own half, Jesse couldn't help but think about the last time he was so popular with the fans. Was it the first leg of the fourth round of the Copa del Rey at the end of 2011, and he came off the bench to make his debut for Real Madrid? Or in the 10th round of La Liga in 2013-14, the Spanish national derby came on in the last minute of the game, receiving a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo and breaking the goal guarded by Valdés? In short, it was too far away, so far away that his own memories had become a little blurry.

However, Jesse enjoyed the honour again today at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, which gave him more motivation to continue training hard and give it his all. Unbeknownst to Li Mudi, the Spanish winger's investment in the FM system has risen a little, which can be regarded as an unexpected surprise.

Back in the race, the boiled duck was released at the last moment, and the whole Marseille team was naturally not willing to accept such a huge misfortune. Forgetting the negativity of the goal they conceded for a moment, they launched their furious attack immediately after the restart, hoping to turn things around within three minutes of stoppage time. It may seem like a difficult task for Rudy Garcia and his team to score just one more goal to knock out their opponents and advance to the final, but anything is possible on the football pitch, and it is not uncommon to score two goals in three minutes, let alone a successful attack.

In the 91st minute, Payet forced a curling cross from the right, and Zambo outflanked Kanneman in the middle of the battle for a header, and the former hit the back of the Torino centre-back's head with a hard forehead, and both fell to the ground in pain. The referee then stopped the game and signaled the team doctor to come in to check the situation, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the visiting team, but when it came to the possibility of a concussion, their protest was naturally ineffective.

In this way, the three minutes of stoppage time were exhausted before the game resumed. However, Karashov made up for the two minutes he had wasted, considering the importance of the game, and this decision naturally drew a strong boo from the home fans in the stadium. And it was precisely in the remaining 120 seconds that the match once again made a huge wave, pushing this controversial semi-final matchup to an alternative classic in football history.

At 94 minutes and 20 seconds, the Marseille team was still tirelessly besieging the home team's penalty area. With all the recovered Torino players forming a multi-layered wall of human flesh outside their own goal, the visitors' short-pass penetration tactics were almost ineffective, and they had to keep getting up and down the flanks and then allowing themselves to rush to the two centre-backs in the opposition box to deliver the fatal blow.

It was this desperate choice that almost changed the outcome of the game, as Towan, who switched to the left, unexpectedly crossed unreasonably under Silvestri's tight defense, and the ball passed past the home team's right wing-back at a very fast speed. Diego Llorente, who happened to be standing in the penalty area and was ready to make up for the defense, did not expect the opponent to pass the ball out in this situation, not only did not make an effective interception, but also did not react in time like a stake, allowing the ball to hit his left arm with an obvious change of line.

Seeing this situation, the Turin fans who had been cheering for the team before instantly became silent, and in the hearts of each of them, the worst possible result may have been expected. However, just two or three seconds later, the overwhelming noise filled the Olympic stadium again, because the Russian referee who had wrongly awarded the opponent a trumped-up corner kick and almost cut off the Red Bulls' way to the final, did not even say anything, and let Ranocchia drive the ball into the opponent's half with a big foot, leaving a Marseille player with an expression of disbelief as if he had seen an alien coming.

This time, the angry rants at the referee and the fourth official on the sidelines were replaced by the players and coaches of the visiting team, who gathered around Karashov's fourth official, who had already suffered from the fish, as if they were replaying the video of the actions of the Torino team more than ten minutes ago, trying to get a reasonable explanation from their mouths. But this is obviously not possible, otherwise Rolando's goal would have been cancelled long ago, and Marseille would not have saved the possibility of promotion until this moment.

Eventually, the game was resumed after Payet and Zambo were shown yellow cards by the referee to warn them of their violations, and Rami was sent off for accumulating two yellow cards. Before the ball could reach the home team's danger zone, the whistle sounded at the end of the game, and the riot police immediately began to protect or escort more than 1,000 Marseille fans who were engaged in a battle of words with Torino supporters, leaving the Stadio Olimpico to the celebratory Red Bull and his fans.

Inside the stadium, dozens of security personnel and staff of the club Marseille also rushed into the stadium and forcibly took away several away players who still looked like they were insulting to the referee, while the broadcaster's camera recorded two unusual scenes. First of all, there was not a single friendly and long exchange of shirts between the players of both sides, let alone an exchange of jerseys. Another camera that was always nailed to Li Mudi after the game recorded the exchange between him and Rudy Garcia, and the two did not separate from each other after shaking hands, but exchanged more than ten words back and forth, which became what the reporters wanted to explore in the post-match press conference.

While the Torino players were venting some joy in their hearts and then began to thank the fans at the suggestion of the team's manager, broadcast commentators from various countries were also analyzing the results of this match and this matchup.

The vast majority of professionals agree that Torino's promotion is reasonable, and the Red Bulls play better in the two rounds, although their advantage is not obvious, but Li Mudi's tactical deployment in every special link is clear and effective. The overall strength of the Marseille team is indeed at a disadvantage, in the two games, only goalkeeper John Bailey, Payet and Towan played steadily and well, and the other players did not have many bright spots, they still have a long way to go to restore the glory of the early 90s of the last century.

On the other hand, the Torino team, under the leadership of Li Mudi, has reached the top four ranks of the more competitive Serie A for the second year in a row, and has also reached the finals of the Italian Cup and the Europa League this season, which can already be called the level of the top second-rate teams in Europe. As long as you can get one of these trophies and maintain this form next season, you can basically sit on this rating and even hang the bottom of the first-class team. Of course, the gap with the top clubs is still quite obvious, but being able to sit on an equal footing with the likes of Sevilla and Valencia in two or three years is still a huge improvement.

As for the Red Bulls' opponent in the final on May 16, it was also born before the end of their game, Atletico Madrid, who had the advantage of being at home, beat Arsenal 1-0 with a valuable goal in first-half stoppage time without a manager, and successfully reached the final stage of the Europa League with an aggregate score of 2-1 after six years.

The Gunners, who lost the game, suffered a leak in the rain overnight, and the main central defender, Franceman Koscielny, sprained his knee in less than 15 minutes, and was later diagnosed with a torn tendon and immediately underwent surgery. The six-month recovery period also made the world-class central defender miss the World Cup, and the loss of the French national team at the heart of the defense must have been ugly.

When the whistle blew at the end of the game, Simeone, who was celebrating wildly in the top stands, and Wenger, who had a solemn face in the field, formed a stark contrast, making people sigh at the helplessness and cruelty in competitive sports.

After the defeat to Madrid, the professor has been in charge of Arsenal for 22 years, leading the team to play a total of 216 European matches, with a record of 110 wins, 48 draws and 58 losses, with a winning rate of more than 50%. Among them, the Gunners have entered the semi-finals of European competition four times, and the Champions League and Europa League are evenly divided, but they have missed the championship twice in the finals, which is very sad.

Speaking after the game, Arsene Wenger said: "I'm feeling like all the supporters of this team at the moment, very sad, disappointed and frustrated, and it's really sad to leave the game in this way. These words resonated with countless gun fans, and for a while there were many posts on the Internet to retain the professor, but I don't know how many of them were still brandishing signs to let Wenger go to class, and became a butcher's knife in the hands of the Arsenal club management.

Li Muddy also got the news of Atletico's promotion before his team's game, but it wasn't until he was about to attend the press conference that he had time to send a reassuring text message to his professor and sent a photo found online on his Instagram. That was when the professor first appeared on the sidelines of a European match as Arsenal manager in September 1997, and 21 years later, his tall and heroic posture is still undiminished, but the color of his hair has changed from yellow to white, taking away many people's good or bitter memories.

However, before the feelings of the Torino coach were fully fermented, the reporters at the press conference used all kinds of tricky questions to pull him back to the cruel real world. In the face of the situation of the referee's decision, Li Mudi did not give as much criticism as after the first round, he always reminded himself to adhere to a potential rule in the sports world, that is, the winner should not be too mean, the due demeanor should still be retained, and he can't vent his strong dissatisfaction with the referee or opponent after winning like a special person, in the language of the Celestial Empire, it is too petty.

So no matter how much the reporters tried to lure and force the Turin coach to get some big revelations from his mouth, these attempts ultimately failed. After praising his disciples, Li Mudi just followed the routine to say that the semi-finals with the Marseille team were very difficult, the opponents were very strong, and their managers and players were difficult to deal with, which made the atmosphere in the entire media room more embarrassing.

Fortunately, when asked what the two managers said when they shook hands after the game, the Torino coach gave some "dry goods", he said: "The two men first blessed each other, and then had a brief exchange on whether UEFA should consider introducing the VAR system. Finally, I asked Mr. Garcia about Payet's worth, and I was replied with Zizou plus Pogba, and then there was no more. ”

Although they all guessed that the inquiry about Paye was most likely a joke, at least they got some news that would attract the attention of readers, and after Li Mudi expressed his hope for the final that would be held in two weeks, the reporters reluctantly let go of the Celestial Empire, who was now full of pride. And later in the question session with the Marseille manager, they also mentioned that exchange, Rudi Garcia smiled and said that the first half of the Torino coach answered true, but the latter was not reliable, and the key person the two talked about was actually Pellegri, but it was a pity that they could not reach an agreement that was satisfactory to both parties at the moment.

The truth is that both sides lied, there was no Payet or Pellegri, and Garcia simply asked Li Muddy about the status of the two veteran French players, Tulalang and Gourcuff. Since these two players have decided to leave the Red Bulls this summer, especially the latter, who is still at the end of their current year, and has stated that they want to return to their home league, it will naturally attract the attention of many teams. Marseille were also willing to sign the two reinforcements who had already proven themselves in Ligue 1 for free, but out of prudence, their manager took the opportunity to ask the Torino boss who was coaching the duo and received a satisfactory answer from both men.

In order to prevent other rivals from discovering their intentions, the Marseille coach specifically implored Li Mudi to keep this secret for him for the time being, which led to the two sides making fun of each other's players.

Rudi Garcia didn't complain too much about the referee's controversial decisions in today's game, after all, although they thought they had missed a penalty (at least the Italian media thought it was a ball hitter and should not have been judged a foul), but the corner kick that came out of nothing was also a big advantage for themselves, which was considered to offset each other. So there was a scene in the post-match press conference that the media did not expect, both teams seemed to forget about Karashov's poor performance, and the special losers of both sides showed a relatively calm attitude, much to the disappointment of those who wanted to watch the excitement.

However, just after Li Mudi returned to his home in the evening, his Celestial Empire's Weibo was updated with a new message, and a photo of the exterior of the Parc Olympique in Lyon was impressively written in five big words: "Final, I'm coming!" "It fully expresses the excitement of the Torino coach at the moment.

After just three years as a professional team manager, who can remain calm enough to claim the title of the second biggest European club title? At least Li Mudi can't do it. This night, he had a sweet dream, and among the shredded pieces of paper flying in the sky, he held a heavy silver trophy, and the happiness that filled his whole body was not too much!