Chapter 455: Ending the Suspense
However, Dimarco's rapid growth did not make the Torino boss happy, as when he brought in the youngster from Inter last summer, they attached a buy-back clause to his contract. The Nerazzurri could buy him back for €12.5 million if the player himself agreed.
This figure, while more than quadrupling the cost of buying the player for Torino, is clearly not in line with the huge potential that Dimarco is currently showing. If the buyback is successful, it is equivalent to Inter spending 9.5 million euros and a season to entrust Li Muddy to train a left-wing main for them for many years to come, which is still very cost-effective.
The Red Bulls clearly don't want to be the loser, but their head coach doesn't have much confidence to convince the lad to turn down an offer to return to his parent team. Due to the existence of Barreca, it is naturally impossible for the Torino team to put their own youth training and even the future captain on the bench when the strength of the two players is not much different, even if Li Mudi has been pursuing a fairer rotation lineup, but in the face of Inter Milan's very likely main position commitment, the possibility of the Torino team being able to keep this young player is indeed not very large.
So although Li Muddy is very happy in his own tune. It can be said that he can create such a new star, but deep down in his heart, he is not very willing to see Dimarco grow into such a high-profile state, which can be said to be a very contradictory idea.
Back in the game, neither team made any personnel changes when they returned to the pitch, and Maurizio Sarri still maintained his trust in the starting line-up, but Napoli's enthusiasm for fighting for it was noticeable, and they came up with a high-intensity high pressing strategy in the early stages of the second half, hoping to find an opportunity to press a few of Torino's youngsters.
Limmudi's response was swift, with the massive retreat of the two midfielders, Tulalang and Musis, helping the two wing-backs and three centre-backs to break the opposition's tight ball, which quickly delayed the extent of the crisis.
However, just when the home team's front-court players were about to give up their too physically demanding high press after several scrambles, Torino's young centre-back Bonifazzi failed to withstand the last pressure and made a big mistake to give his opponents a golden opportunity to go straight to the Yellow Dragon.
In the 50th minute, Goldaniga crossed the ball to the middle of the penalty area under Callejon's tackle, and Bonifaczi, who received the ball near the penalty spot, made a super low-level stop mistake and touched the ball out of his control when no one interfered with it within three meters of his side. Mertens, who didn't have any special ideas, saw the pie falling from the sky, so naturally he didn't generously push it out, only to see him get stuck between the ball and the Torino central defender with an accelerated rush, and then flicked the ball forward and immediately came with a right-footed stab.
Because the incident was so sudden, and the opponent's goal was so close to the goal line, experienced veterans such as Casillas could not react in time, and the body's subconscious blocking action could not be effective at all, and could only watch the ball hit the inside of the post on the right side of the net.
1-0, Napoli, playing at home, took advantage of the unexpected mistakes of the young players in Turin to break the deadlock on the field and continue to chase the championship rival Juventus in the instant standings.
For this goal conceded, Li Mudi has nothing to say, Bonifaczi, who is not yet 22 years old, has been very stable before, but the calm ability value given by the FM system is really not high, and it is easy to make various mistakes when under pressure, and this time the opportunity was seized by the opponent's striker. There are not many training methods to improve mental attributes, especially the aspects related to the inherent character of the players themselves are difficult to change, although the team has focused on strengthening this aspect of the practice program in the daily life, but the results are still not optimistic.
However, there is no way to improve this shortcoming, and accumulating more experience is a good option, but after there are already a few better veterans in the team and trying to bring in better new signings in the transfer market, there is not much time left for Torino first team next season to develop young players. So in just a minute or two, the Torino coach on the sidelines had already decided to send Bonifaxi out on loan in the summer, otherwise the team's youth academy would likely be abandoned on the bench.
Just when Li Mudi's mind was already out of the content of the game, the Torino players had already restarted the ball in the center circle, and it was this opportunity to grasp the ball that the Red Bulls actually pulled the score into a draw, which stunned all the spectators.
The goal just now showed the Napoli players the benefits of pressing high and so they used that strategy again after the game resumed. However, while increasing the number of scrambles in the frontcourt, it also caused a trace of leakage in their own defensive line, which led to a tragedy.
Manuel Pellegri retreated to the back of the midfield line to pick up his team-mates, and after a wall link with Tulalang, he found that there were still two home players running towards the ball at his feet, so he had to quickly split the ball to the left wing. After Moussis deceived Callejon's center of gravity with a feint of non-stop ball direct pass, he unexpectedly chose to dribble himself to the front, and after moving ten meters forward and attracting Zielinsky to come over to block, he sent a wonderful through stopper.
Belch...... It may be an exaggeration to say that it is wonderful, but it still gives Fabas, who has just completed the switch with Pellegri, a chance to sprint parallel to the opposition defence. It's just that because his position is closer to the left wing, the line of cutting inside has always been killed by Napoli's right central defender and former Real Madrid veteran Albioca, and it is difficult to form the most threatening breakthrough.
However, with a slight advantage in speed, Febas was able to hold on to his position and was unable to make Big Brother find a tackle. In this way, the two men rushed into the home team's penalty area together in two or three seconds, and collided with another central defender, Romanian international Chiriches, who came to make up for the goal, at a position of 13 or 44 meters from the goal. The latter abandoned his plan to stay in the middle of the pitch because the outflanked Manuel Pellegri was already entangled by left-back Rui and no longer needed to be marked.
With interceptions on the right and in front, Febas didn't hesitate and hit a left-footed shot. In order to have a surprising effect, this volley did not go into detail, but added more power, so the original threat level was not very large. However, Chiriches' struggling right foot provided a brilliant assist as the ball deflected off the inside of his arch and into the near corner.
Reina, who had already made a center of gravity move, was caught off guard, and although he pulled back his body and raised his right hand in the hope of forming a block, he could not get what he wanted. The ball flew into the net from the top corner of the net, helping the Red Bulls on the road to erase the deficit two minutes after conceding.
The two goals in quick succession were both unexpected, and everyone present was not prepared, especially the White Dolphins fans, who were not able to react immediately when the visiting players gathered around to celebrate, resulting in the usual boos that should have sounded at this time not appearing.
It's just that after the restart, the sound of cheering for the home team on the scene was obviously a little weaker just now, and it was obvious that everyone was very dissatisfied with the equalizer by the Torino team with a seriously disorganized lineup, and Sarri couldn't accept this result. After Insigne's personal break was deflected wide from distance, he replaced goal-scorer Mertens with Polish centre-forward Milik in an attempt to strengthen crosses from both flanks in an attempt to put more pressure on several young visiting defenders.
And the striker, who lost his main position at the club due to a serious injury, also showed good competitive form after coming on the pitch, causing a lot of problems for the Torino team's defence.
In the 66th minute, Milik resisted the constant squeeze of Goldaniga behind him, made the ball to his teammates, Callejon dodged Bonifazzi's block at the edge of the penalty area, turned and attacked the goal directly, but unfortunately could not be pressed and hit the anti-aircraft gun. Three minutes later, the centre-forward showed his technical side as he played with Insigne to the wall, before Milik dribbled diagonally from the centre to the left of the edge of the penalty area, deceived a number of defenders with a feint of passing, and fired a left-footed blast straight away. Unfortunately, the goal with good speed and angle was finally rejected by the post, and a huge cry of regret immediately resounded throughout the São Paulo stadium.
However, two minutes later, their great captain showed the determination of the White Dolphins to get the three points in their hands. In the 67th minute, Maurizio Sarri replaced Zielinski with Hamsik, and the Czech star's second touch of the ball gave the home side the lead again.
The home team's midfielder made a steal, Callejon dribbled the ball to the right of the middle of the field to the front of the visitors' penalty area, and accurately knocked the ball to the top of the box arc with a number of defenders, Hamsik stopped the ball with his right foot and then directly sideways to blast a powerful burst, the ball drilled into the net from the top right corner of the goal like an arrow from the string, and Casillas did not react.
At this moment, the status of the football king Maradona in the hearts of the fans seemed to be overpowered by Hamsik, and in the shouts of celebration of the goal, the stadium resounded with the singing of him as the protagonist. All the frustration with the poor performance of the players and the fear of not being able to win were all put behind them, because they all believed that the invincible White Dolphins were back and the team's hopes of winning the championship were still alive, which were the reasons for the 50,000 home supporters in the stadium to celebrate.
For this conceded goal, Li Mudi was both helpless and a little angry, the opponent's world wave was naturally unstoppable, but when Callejon dribbled forward, the Torino defenders gave him too much room to move, and the two midfielders also had a very bad protection of the dangerous area at the front of the penalty area, which made the opponent find a chance to get up.
So the Torino coach, who didn't react much when he conceded the first goal, used a hair dryer at this time, criticized the players who had just made a mistake one by one, and immediately made personnel adjustments, replacing Falke and Musis with Immobile and Vukocevic. Although it was also a two-match substitution, the Torino team has been strengthened at both ends of the pitch, not to say that the two starters are not very good, but the newcomers have the advantage in terms of stamina and concentration.
The home side, who were hoping to extend their lead to two goals and secure the victory, continued to be committed in attack and dominated the pitch for the next 10 minutes or so, creating good scoring chances on a number of occasions.
In the 71st minute, it was Hamsik who suddenly pulled out his foot and shot angrily at a distance of about 267 meters from the goal, but this time the away team's defense still made an effective interference, in order to avoid blocking, the Napoli captain had to temporarily adjust the direction and arc of the goal, so that the ball deviated more distance from the right post.
Four minutes later, the home side used a team effort to tear apart the Red Bulls' defence, with Jorginho sending a through ball and Callejon cutting inside down the right and sweeping a low ball past Dimarco's interception. Milik, who was outflanked in the middle of the penalty area, took advantage of the hand-to-hand combat with Goldaniga and made the first move to complete the tackle. Unfortunately, the center of gravity of the body was seriously shifted and the ball was slightly out of the left post, but it was enough to make the Torino team break out in a cold sweat.
After that, the home team still played the field in a situation of attacking and defending the team, but in the face of the united Torino defence, the Napoli stars could no longer find a suitable opportunity to start the goal, but allowed the opponent to seize a normal free kick attack and once again equalize the score.
In the 83rd minute, Immobile was forced to the left sideline of the front line on the counter-attack, and there were no teammates in a certain area around him to pick him up, but the Torino No.10 was very clever to lure the opposing right-back Husayi to touch him from behind, giving the team the opportunity to continue the attack.
Before his tall central defender came up to scramble for the spot, Dimarco suddenly sent a quick free kick and caught the opponent off guard. Fabas received a return pass from his team-mate and immediately sent a 45-degree cross into the box on the left. Silvestri, who had been lying in ambush at some point, suddenly stepped forward, shook off two unfocused defenders, leaped high to the right of the penalty spot, and smashed a powerful header past Reina.
This is the Red Bulls' second hit on target in this game, and it is also their second goal, which is also no one's efficiency.
Napoli, whose morale has been severely hit, did not look like a title contender for the rest of the game, blindly passing the ball into the Torino penalty area, but never being able to compete for the first place, and the young players of the visiting team, who were under no pressure to win, returned to their composure and played more and more vigorously after the score returned to a draw.
When the whistle blew at the end of the match, what was supposed to be a matchup without suspense ended with a score of 2-2, which surprised most people.
With the help of their rivals, Juventus has stretched the gap with Napoli to four points with only two rounds of the league remaining, and there is almost no suspense about the ownership of the Serie A title this season. Seven consecutive titles, a result that all non-Juventus clubs should despair, and a sad result for all those who pay attention to the first division.
Li Muddy felt extremely boring, but also inspired a stronger fighting spirit, hoping that next season the Red Bulls can become the gravedigger who overturned the Bianconeri dynasty, and could end his final season with the Torino team.