Chapter 240: Carry out utilitarian football to the end
From the 59th minute onwards, both sides had two shots on goal in the next four minutes. For the home side, neither Parolo's long-range shot from 30 yards out nor Immobile's barely header from two steps behind the penalty spot caused Joe Hart much trouble, and with those two shots off target, Lazio's 15 attempts on target were just two on target, a poor header but thankfully a goal by luck.
Torino, on the other hand, played two wide attacks, and Belotti's aerial duel still failed to form a threat and turned into an anti-aircraft gun; Benasi, however, grabbed the second spot after Zampacosta's cross was headed out and completed the visitors' first shot on target since the start of the game, his long-range power was good, but the angle did not open up, and Strakosha was held in his arms with ease.
After seeing that the Red Bulls' offense began to gradually find its form, Miha immediately instructed the home team players to start strengthening the defensive intensity near the midfield, resulting in frequent foul actions, and Anderson also received a yellow card for pulling someone behind his back with his hand. However, Li Moody could not be happy, because he believed that a yellow card alone would not make the visitors feel the least fairness compared to the number of fouls committed by the home team.
Take Belotti as an example, the hottest striker on the continent at the moment, who has been violated as many as six times by the 65th minute of the game, and this is still without counting the fact that the opponent has almost the same number of small movements and has not been whistled by the referee. However, none of the players of the home team received a yellow card on him, especially when the Torino center was about to get the opportunity to shoot with his feet, he was hit from behind by Dutch defender Esley Hoedt, resulting in the loss of gravity and failure to kick the ball, but the referee did not even blow a foul, which is simply Hongguoguo's favoritism!
However, Li Mudi maintained the most basic calm, because he knew that he had a criminal record before, and he had been fined for arguing with the fourth official on many occasions about the size of the penalty. If you get emotional again today, you don't know if the Italian Football Federation will show mercy and not give a ban, and Torino will face direct rival Inter Milan in the next round, and this is not a good time to vent your grievances.
So under his instructions, the away team's players gradually became more and more active, which also played a very obvious role in curbing Lazio's attack, and the game began to become stalemate again. However, the brutal confrontation everywhere also caused the quality of the game to deteriorate seriously, as if both sides were focused on how to bring down the opponent and no longer cared about the goal. Today's referee Mazzoleni did not dare to be careless, and hurriedly adjusted the penalty scale, and gave a yellow card to Milinkovic Savic of the home team and Akwa of the away team one after another, before he could bring the game back to its normal rhythm.
Then the Torino team suddenly broke out with a wave of attacking high. tide, allowing the audience to see a very interesting offensive battle. In the 68th minute, a corner kick from the left side of the visitors was flown over the crossbar by Ranocchia from near the penalty spot. However, the home team was not to be outdone, and a minute later, Milinkovic shot directly from near the top of the arc of the penalty area, and the angle chosen was poor and was directly picked up by Hart. Then came the Red Bulls' attack, and in the 71st minute, Benassi fired a direct long-range shot from 27 meters away from goal, which also failed to pose a threat and was steadily confiscated by Strakosha.
Just when the home fans were expecting their players to fight back immediately, Torino produced a brilliant counter-attack. In the 73rd minute, Anderson's one-on-one pass after retreating to receive the ball was unsuccessful, and was directly tackled by Las Diarra. The ball was bucketed to Benasi, who slashed the ball diagonally to Belotti on the right side of the pitch. In the face of Wallace's marking, Red Beibei did not wait for his teammates to plug in, but suddenly chose to dribble by himself. The Brazilian defender, who was caught off guard, had no choice but to bring down the Torino centre-forward after being overwhelmed by half a position, and in addition to receiving a yellow card, he also gave the opponent a well-positioned wide set-piece opportunity.
It took a full minute for the free-kick to be officially conceded because the players of the two teams were too big to move when they tangled with each other in the box, and Hut had even formed an indescribable hug with Ranocchia, which forced Mazzoleni to stop the game and run in front of both sides to solemnly warn them to pay attention to the impact - it was quite interesting that Li Muddy was too far away from them to hear what the referee was saying.
Bareka used his left foot to cross the ball in front of goal, and Belotti suddenly started at the back post to fight for the landing, but Wallace stealthily reached for it and pulled it to the ground. Just as he was lying on the ground and turning back to complain to the referee, a player in a crimson shirt in the middle jumped high and shook his head before everyone else to head the ball towards the home team's goal. Strakosha made a mistake in judging the landing point and ran to the back of the ball to hit the ball, which gave the Torino shooter a big empty chance, and finally the net in the middle made waves without suspense. The score on the field was also rewritten to a 1-1 draw, and it was the team's right-back Zampacosta who contributed to the Red Bulls, which greatly surprised everyone.
Just as the Torino players hugged each other to celebrate, Li Mudi, who only jumped excitedly at the moment of the goal, hurriedly signaled to assistant coach Samfield to recall Falke, who had already warmed up, and replaced Jesse, who was not in good shape, on the first dead ball after the restart. Belotti was then replaced four minutes later with Brazilian left-back Avilar, the second time this season that the red was substituted in a non-injured condition, although the last time he was in glory after scoring a hat-trick against Palermo, today he was empty-handed.
Avilar stepped on as a left wing-back, Farke became the team's top knife, and the Torino coach completely adjusted the line-up to a situation where he could only play quick counter-attacks, which also caused Rocchi to blow up again. However, if he can keep the draw until the end, Li Mudi doesn't care about being criticized for being too conservative or utilitarian, and can steal a point when the opponent has a big advantage, which is what a good manager should do. Hurting each other and losing the game in a match similar to 3-6 is something that only a brain-dead person would do.
In the 77th minute, Biglia took a corner kick from the right, and Parolo's header from about 8 meters from the goal was about 10 centimeters above the crossbar, and Li Mudi shouted at the players on the sidelines to concentrate. Mihajlovic then played his last remaining card, replacing captain Biglia with Keita, who had suffered a minor injury, and the home side were in a frantic 4-2-4 position, and it looked like they were desperate to win the game.
In the 81st minute, Lazio won another corner kick on the right side, the ball was driven into the box and then pushed out by Ranocchia, Lulic grabbed the second point and distributed the ball to the right side of the penalty area. Immobile swept the ball to goal, but Hut's golden chance in the face of an empty goal was narrowly missed and he only kicked it into the air and the ball crossed the line. There was a loud sigh from the home fans, the Red Bulls also escaped, and the Torino coach once again ran to the sidelines to remind his players not to ignore the scramble for the second spot. These are the defensive principles that have been repeatedly emphasized before the game, but the away team's defense, which had performed well before, began to have problems with concentration again, and Li Mudi Khan was so anxious that he came down.
Fortunately, his reminder still played a role, and the team's defensive intensity has improved a lot, and in the face of the Torino defense that is not easy to make mistakes, Lazio's attackers couldn't find a good way for a while, but were counterattacked by the opponent. Thankfully, Parolo saved Farke's personal raid with a timely tackle, but he also received the home side's fifth yellow card of the game.
However, just when the Blues' team attack could not show its strength, Keita almost used a single ability to overtake the score again. In the 87th minute, Lazio launched an attack at the back, and Anderson dribbled the ball on the left flank, attracting the attention of two defenders, and then passed the ball forward to the Senegal international, who turned nimbly and then suddenly shot from 25 yards out in front of the penalty area. The ball made a wonderful arc after grazing slightly against Ranocchia's calf, which was trying to block, and went around Joe Hart's flying fingertips, only to hit the left post and bounce off the line. What could have been a beautiful shot turned into a corner kick for the visitors, much to Lazio's heartbreak.
After this goalpost shock, Li Mudi has completely given up the idea of counterattacking to see if it is possible to steal three points, and instructed the Torino players to retreat to their own half and hold the score 1-1 until the last moment. To the boos of the fans, the visitors placed the buses in front of their goal, giving the home team no chance. After Immobile, Anderson and Keita each gambled on their luck with a long-range shot, referee Mazzoleni's final whistle finally came belatedly in the 94th minute.
Mihajlovic and his players were clearly unacceptable to this result. At the post-match press conference, Italian international Parolo, who shot six shots but didn't hit the target, hinted that the Torino team played like a "" today, while Milinkovic Savic, who was almost completely frozen in the offensive end, lamented that the Lazio players forgot to bring their car keys today, or was he satirizing the away team for setting up a bus in front of his home. However, they all ignored the fact that the home side had only four of their 24 attempts on goal in the game, and the shooting stats showed that the Blues were not without chances, and a large part of the reason for not being able to score another goal was that their own finishing shot was too poor.
Of course, Li Mudi's very targeted tactical arrangement is also one of the important factors that led to the home team's big failure in attack. Immobile, who played twice for Torino, praised the Red Bulls' defence, and the Italian national team striker, who finished sixth in the scorers' list, believes that the Torino coach showed the world today his superb analysis and anticipation skills, which made the Lazio players feel very uncomfortable on the field, and if it wasn't for a little luck, maybe his goal would not have existed.
Of course, the protagonists will inevitably be the two managers who have been fighting since the start of the season, and Miha has been blunt about saying that today's opponents, while tough defensively, are otherwise terrible, and not at all like a team that could play in next season's Europa League. He thinks that if Li Moodi's skill set is only these things, then it is better not to go outside and embarrass Italian football, his style of football is completely anachronistic and ugly. The Eagles boss later expressed his regret for not winning the game, and that it was completely unacceptable to only get a point when he had the advantage, and also criticized the performance of several players by name.
Although the team's current results are not bad, the former legendary Yugoslav central defender has not been able to handle the interpersonal relationship of the team well, and often expresses negative feelings about the players in public, which also makes many players have a vague attitude towards it. No, in the final stage of the press conference, Miha also used the news that Ranieri was sacked by Leicester City a few days ago to criticize the players' "misconduct", he said: "The British media reported that there are some players behind the scenes and forced Ranieri to step down, which is really incredible!" They should be forced to be without a manager so we can see what happens to them. The lack of gratitude to the manager is a bad problem in Italian football, but unfortunately now England is starting to have this bad problem as well, they don't have any gratitude and respect for the manager at all. ”
However, when the last reporter to ask mentioned that after the two teams have played each other for the season, Lazio can beat each other on the same points with more away goals, Miha also said that he disdains to beat the Celestial man in this way, and he firmly believes that in the final league standings, the Red Bulls will still fall under the claws of the Blue Eagles, as is the case now.
In short, in just over 20 minutes of interviews, the Lazio coach has provided so much material for many media outlets to write about, and from this point of view, he is really one of the most popular interview subjects in the eyes of the media.