Chapter 456: The Present for the Future
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At the post-match press conference, although the three players who represented the home team said that they had not given up their last hope, in the eyes of the outside world, this was nothing more than a boiled duck's mouth, and most people believed that Juventus' momentum of achieving seven consecutive titles was unstoppable.
Although the Old Lady will travel to the capital next weekend to take on Roma, even a defeat would still be at least a point ahead of Napoli, and even the wildest gambler will not bet on the latter against Verona, who have already been confirmed to be relegated in the final round. So when Sarri was asked by reporters, he also responded that the white dolphins need the help of a miracle to turn things around, but it is too difficult.
Li Mudi did not comment too much on the issue of league title ownership, he focused on praising the performance of several young players today, but still said in a low-key way that a game does not prove a problem, and these lads need to work harder in daily training to win more opportunities. In the end, he half-jokingly expressed his wish that Crotone would be able to take out Chievo once again, so that the former could declare their relegation successful in advance and move the make-up game to the final minute of the season two days later.
However, the Torino coach's wishes played a role in poisoning the milk, and the Flying Donkeys Army, which suffered a wave of 1 draw and 4 defeats since the beginning of April, allowed their ranking to slip all the way into the relegation zone, and finally broke out tonight in the presence of 20,000 supporters at home. They struggled 2-1 to win over relegation rivals Crotone, and although they are still third from bottom in the Serie A table, the gap on the previous teams has been narrowed to within two points and could be out of the quagmire at any time.
The other teams in danger of relegation, with the exception of SPAL, who lost 2-0 at home to vice-captain Benevento, left six teams in the final two league games to avoid being the last unlucky in the final two league games, starting with Sassuolo, in what has been the worst relegation battle in the last five years.
The battle between Lazio and Atala became 1-1, which also made AC Milan officially surpass the latter with a one-point advantage, taking the last train of the European seat, and Fiorentina is only two points and one point away from the two teams respectively, and the battle for seventh place in the league is also extremely fierce. Interestingly, the next two rounds will be a succession of direct conversations between them, with the Rossoneri first going away to face Poseidon and then facing the Purple Lilies at the San Siro in the final game, which has become a focus of attention after the relegation battle when the suspense of the title race is almost gone.
Li Mudi has no interest in who can come out on top in the battle for this last European ticket, because his heart is already full of helplessness about the devil's schedule for the next two weeks. With Crotone still mired in relegation, the 27th round of rematch had to be played two days later as scheduled, as planned. After the match against Napoli, the Torino team did not delay much and took a flight directly back to the club's residence overnight.
Although the strength of the opponent is relatively weak, under the pressure of relegation, no one can say what kind of energy the opponent can burst out on the spot. And in order to save strength for Friday's Coppa Italia final, Li Mudi is unlikely to send too many main players in this supplementary match, and in this case, it is even more necessary to make adequate pre-match preparations. Crotone's three points are a must in the plan, because only in this way can the top four places in the league be completely sealed, and there will be no chance for Roma and Inter Milan behind them.
So on Monday morning, the players who were confirmed to be selected for the league's 23-man squad first had a full three hours of tactical lessons in the conference room, and then in the afternoon and during the day the next day, they had corresponding practical drills to prepare them mentally and physically for the evening game.
And the result did not disappoint everyone who cared about the Red Bulls, with Belotti's hat-trick in the first half and Falke on the cake in the second half, Torino still hidden most of their main players won 4-1 at home to their opponents who were struggling for relegation.
After 36 rounds, Li Mudi led the team to an excellent record of 23 wins, 8 draws and 5 losses, although there is still a certain gap between Juventus and Napoli, but it has widened the gap with Inter Milan, which is temporarily fifth in the standings, to eight points, and locked the top four positions in Serie A this season in advance. And as long as they can get at least one point in their remaining two league games, they will be able to beat the opponent to finish third, regardless of the outcome of the Roma team.
The current record of 77 points is the second-highest number of points in a single season in the club's history at all levels of the league, second only to the 83 points in Serie B in 2011-12, which of course does not include the conversion of points earned during the previous two-point system according to the three-point system. During the period when the Torino gods ruled the entire Apennine Peninsula, they had a superb record of 25, 27 and even 29 wins in a single season, and the current dominance of the red bulls is still a little too far from the old-timers.
With the league goal of qualifying for next season's Champions League already in place, the focus has shifted towards the two finals, starting with the Coppa Italia derby on Friday night.
The two sides of the rivalry are naturally familiar with each other, and there has been a fierce competition between the east wind and the west wind and the west wind for a hundred years, and it is tied with Milan City and Rome City as the three major derbies in Italian football. However, although the media has been promoting this season's domestic cup final with the gimmick of "the closest Turin derby in decades" after the semi-finals, it is clear to everyone that Juventus, who are almost certain to win the league for the seventh time in a row, still have the advantage in terms of strength.
This advantage is not only about the difference in the ability of the players or managers, but also about the huge impact that a champion team will have on the opponent in the game. There may be a lot of people who disagree with the claim that the championship DNA is a speculation without any scientific basis, but at least teams that have experienced many major finals will not have stage fright, and those teams that rarely have the opportunity to stand on such a key stage will always struggle to play to their full strength, which is a common occurrence in all competitive sports.
Considering the number of finals the two teams have reached in the last ten years and their performances in hard matches, it is clear that not many neutral fans will be optimistic that Torino will be able to pull off an upset, so the bookmakers are very optimistic about the Old Lady's odds, and their judgment has always proved to be far more reliable than those so-called experts.
However, the format of a one-game tiebreaker is always full of uncertainties, and perhaps the day of the game is just in time for some Torino players to be in high form and Juventus players to be in general slump, so in such extreme cases, the balance of victory will naturally tilt in favor of the red bulls.
Of course, unless Lady Luck actually treats Li Mudi as her own son, the above can only exist in theory, but this does not prevent the management and coaching staff of the Torino team from instilling in the players the idea that "we have the possibility to make history" in the players for the past two days.
The club's president arrived at the training ground on Wednesday afternoon and promised that if they could beat the Old Lady to the top of the Coppa Italia, the club would give 2.6 million euros to reward all the players in the first team for their outstanding performances. Don't look at this figure compared to the tens of millions of championship bonuses of other giants, but this is already the largest single prize money since Urbano Cairo took over the Red Bulls, and it can be regarded as plucking a few hairs on the Iron Rooster.
Under the stimulation of this "huge amount of money", the morale of the players has also risen significantly, almost all of them have reached the full point, and at the same time, some young people who were too nervous before the tournament have changed their emotions from the original overwhelm to the desire to win with the blessing of a large number of euros, and the chairman's wave of operations can be responded to by the team's head coach with a wave of 666.
It was only in the evening of the same day, after the end of training, that Li Mudi got a somewhat surprising news from Valentino Cairo, who was previously dealing with Glick's transfer work, that AC Milan's sporting director Mirabelli called the president of Torino this afternoon and expressed his desire to bring in Belotti for the nth time. It's just that unlike all the previous petty factions, the Rossoneri's determination to make a big change to their forward line has suddenly become very strong, and they are willing to bid at least 50 million euros plus two of the current superstars of Italian football: Locatelli and Cutrone, which is definitely an irresistible temptation for the Red Bulls.
As of last weekend, AC Milan have scored a total of 50 goals in 36 league games, not only left behind by the top teams in the table, but also three goals less than at the same time last season, which is definitely unacceptable to the club considering the high spending of more than 200 million last summer.
So even though the club is currently undergoing UEFA's financial fairness review, and there is no confirmation of whether the "Brother Lee" funding chain will be broken, the Rossoneri's management still showed the courage that only traditional giants have, and made timely moves to get the powerful centre-forward at this critical moment. In the past two or three decades, every time AC Milan has risen from the trough, almost all of them are inseparable from the introduction of a powerful and even the best striker in the world, Basten, Weah, Bierhoff, Shevchenko, Inzaghi, ...... Now, they are targeting Belotti, who has been a Milan fan since childhood.
Although due to a knee ligament injury, Red Babe missed many games in the early and middle stages of the league this season, and lost his unstoppable performance on the field a year ago, and seemed to have been robbed of the team's number one striker by his friend Immobile, but the Torino No.9 still showed everyone his strength in the second third of the league, especially in European competitions, and is still the top goalkeeper in Italian football today.
Including the just-concluded match against Crotone, Belotti has scored 18 league goals this season, with 11 European goals to be gained. The former puts him fifth in the Serie A scorer list, and the latter figure is the best in the entire European League, and considering that no other player from either side in the final has scored more than six goals, Red Babe has effectively won the title of the season's top scorer in the competition.
These performances have made the centre-forward's value increase compared to the same period last year, with the German media Transfermarkt giving an instant estimate of 54 million euros, which is the highest value among Italian players (excluding those with a second nationality Italian).
Considering the serious inflated situation in the international transfer market in the past two seasons, it should be said that the previous chairman of Torino has insisted that other teams must pay 100 million (later changed to 120 million) liquidated damages if they want to take away Belotti is not too outrageous, but many suitors do not know whether last season's top scorer in Serie A is just a flash in the pan and did not make a move without taking too many risks.
Only AC Milan has a discerning eye and has always been very optimistic about the ability of the red bebeibei, but due to financial embarrassment (although they spent more than 200 million on new signings in one summer, except for Bonucci and A. Silva, no one is worth more than 25 million), which has never been able to reach the psychological bottom line of the Torino president in many offers, so that in the end it is regrettable that he missed the opportunity to get this powerful center forward.
However, with last year's big gamble over a massive squad refresh all but failing, it is clear that the Rossoneri's management have made a decision that could affect the club's prospects for many years to come: to bring in Belotti. After the Red Bulls made it clear that it was impossible to accept the option of using A. Silva as a substitute for the exchange player, Mirabelli resolutely threw out the two young talents of Locatelli and Cutrone as bait, combined with their valuation in the "transfer market" and their future development potential, the total value will be similar even if it does not reach 120 million in a few years.
In the face of AC Milan's offer that can hardly be improved, Urbano Cairo is naturally very tempted, he knows very well how optimistic his own coach, who is known for judging the potential of young players, is optimistic about those two young players, and knows that they are very likely to grow into first-class stars in the country in the future, in the eyes of the President of Torino, it is countless euros!
And now the price of winning them is to pay the leading shooter in their own team, and exchange the present for the future, it is really hard to say whether this deal is worth it. It's just that the other party will add 5 or 60 million euros, which is nothing to scruple about, even if Locatelli and Cutrone fail to get their price as they wish, this cash alone cannot be regarded as a loss for the Red Bulls, so the heart of the club president has tended to agree to the Rossoneri's purchase, and the negotiation process will start as long as Li Muddy nods.