On Saturday 20 April, the 33rd round of league matches between the Torino duo and Inter Milan were scheduled for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final and the second leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final next week.

This is a must-win game for both sides, and the home team is not to mention the situation of the home team, Juventus with a 10-game winning streak against promoted and one of their former rivals, Parma, there is little suspense in winning, if they want to maintain their lead in the table, then Li Mudi's side must break their winless cycle against Napoli.

As for the White Dolphins, who are playing away from home, they are currently four points behind Roma, fourth in the league, due to a short period of slump in the middle of the league, and next season's Champions League place is in jeopardy. And once the right to participate in the club, which can bring huge financial benefits to the club, then no matter how high Ancelotti's liquidated damages are and how stingy Napoli President De Laurentiis is, it is estimated that this Serie A powerhouse will make a change of coach at the end of the season.

How could it not be that two close teams met in the closing stages of the league when they were each facing a huge stakes and were determined to win, so how could they not be the focus of football around the world this weekend?

From the preparation of both sides for this game, it can also be seen how strong their desire to win is.

Napoli arrived in Turin as early as Thursday afternoon and immediately borrowed Juventus' training ground for adaptation; And Li Mudi even issued an order on Tuesday to close the team's practice range, and refused to allow the media or fans to approach before the start of the weekend league game, leaving the outside world with speculation that they are holding back their big moves.

After that, the squads and starting line-ups of both teams were also submitted at the last minute of the stipulated time, which fully shows that the coaches of both sides are highly cautious about this encounter. However, at least judging from the first list, it seems that it did not surprise the outside world.

Li Mudi still lined up a 100% 3-5-2 formation, with the exception of Issa Diop, who replaced Ranocchia, who had just returned to training, and the rest of the positions were the main players in the eyes of the outside world.

Carlo Ancelotti, on the other hand, also used the same 4-2-3-1 position, but similar to the way the home team used Bruno Fernandes in Portugal, the captain of the visiting team, Hamsik, will not always stand still in the midfield position, but will still drop back appropriately according to the situation on the field, and guard his own midfield with the two central midfielders of Allan and Diawara.

The only slight surprise was that the trident did not all start today, with Mertens and Insigne in the same position, except that Italy international Virdi replaced Spanish veteran Callejon as the team's right winger.

The move was seen by the media before the game as he could be a back-up for Carlo Ancelotti, who was likely to send the former Real Madrid veteran on the pitch when both sides began to run out of fitness in the second half, using his motorbike-like flank impact to open things up.

Callejon had been in very good form before, not only with a brilliant performance in the league last week, but also scored a brace in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final ten days ago, helping Napoli draw away from Roma and thus occupy the initiative to advance to the final.

However, the Turin coach who has a plug-in can see at a glance that the reason for An Shuai's arrangement of troops has nothing to do with any back moves, secret weapons and the like, in fact, it is because Callejon has a slight injury. The explanation given by the FM system was that he had bruised his right toe in training in the previous days, and although it was not very serious, it would still have some impact on the player's movements, and Napoli did not put him in the starting line-up, purely to avoid further deterioration of the injury. Of course, when the situation is really unfavorable, it is not ruled out that he will be injured and substituted.

In addition, Carlo Ancelotti's decision to start Wildi should also have the effect of disrupting Torino's pre-match deployment, and although the two players are both good wingers, the difference in technical characteristics is not significant. The Italian is slightly inferior in terms of speed, finishing and ball protection, but he is still a little better at crossing, long-range and the big picture, and if he can make the opponent make a mistake in the defensive strategy, it will be very beneficial for Napoli's attack.

It's just that he never thought that Li Mudi had a plug-in in his hand, and he had already made targeted arrangements, asking Bareka to adopt more close-quarters defense strategies, not allowing Wildi to have a chance to get up easily, and forcing the opponent to choose a dribbling breakthrough that he was relatively not good at, resulting in a comprehensive dumb attack on the right side of the away team in the opening stage.

Naturally, the Torino team still used defensive counter-attacking tactics, and when the ball was at the opponent's feet, all three lines were recycled deeper, and the attacking organization of the Napoli players was disrupted by multi-level group sieges.

This defensive tactic has worked very well, and has been successful against strong opponents such as Juventus and Inter, but the only drawback is that it is extremely physically demanding. Even though two of the world's top fitness coaches have made Torino the best team in Serie A with the best average physical strength through advanced training methods, it is a shame that they have not been able to maintain this defensive strategy throughout the game.

However, when Weldy, who played for the Red Bulls in 2011/15 (and was almost always out on loan and made just 19 appearances for Torino), failed to make the most of his game, Limdy's side were able to devote most of their defensive energy to Insigne's left flank, which greatly reduced the physical exertion of the players and laid a good foundation for the final stage of the game to withstand the onslaught of opponents.

Ancelotti's reaction was not quick when he found his side unable to open up the situation in the attacking end, and it was not until the twentieth minute of the game that he instructed the two wingers to temporarily switch places, hoping to let Wildi, who had no backfoot, find his feel on the left.

Referring to the new Italian international's skill on both feet, Limaudi has to be praised here, as Loudi is the first player to take a free-kick with both feet in the same Serie A match since the 2004-05 season, which is a bit of a reversal.

It's just that whenever he sees the player's performance that can switch between the two wings at will and does not have much impact, the Torino coach can't bear the depression in his heart, and scolds the former football director of the Torino club, Page, and the former coach Ventura. Even though they may not have the outstanding strength they have now, but with such an excellent attribute (no backfoot), the two of them allowed AC Milan to take it away for only 450,000 euros, which is simply blind!

If Verdi can stay in the Torino team, with his excellent crossing skills and versatile skills, Belotti and Immobile's point-grabbing power will be at least two percent higher than now, and it is needless to say how this will affect the team's attacking power, which is already in the top three in Serie A.

It's a pity, what a pity!

Not to mention how angry Li Mudi was when he saw the bad consequences of his predecessor's mistakes, let us turn the camera back to the field. After this adjustment, the visitors still had some improvement in attack, but it was not enough to pose any threat to Casillas.

Torino right wing-back Silvestri also continued the approach of his teammate on the left, not giving Wildi too many opportunities to cross, but the former's speed advantage was not obvious, and he could not form a complete seal under the opponent's feints. Fortunately, due to the lack of height of the visiting centre-forward Mertens, crosses and passes were mainly ground work, and there were no chances under the focus of the Torino defenders.

Insigne, on the other hand, lost his biggest advantage on the left side of the flank, and was far less dangerous than on the left flank. The simultaneous setbacks on both flanks have seriously affected Napoli's attacking efficiency, and they have not been able to create a planned advantage in the statistics of shots on goal, which have a lot of possession.

On the contrary, the home team, taking advantage of the opponent's impatience to press forward, found two or three opportunities to counterattack, but in the end failed to create a good opportunity to score.

However, before the half-time break, the Torino team still changed the score to 1-0, and Belotti successfully took a corner kick in the 41st minute, received a pass from Glick from the back post, and completed the header to score with the help of the force, which can be regarded as taking advantage of the White Dolphins' disadvantage in defending high balls.

The appearance of this goal has put a lot of pressure on Napoli, as they must find their form as soon as possible in attack, and considering the defensive ability of the opponent, it seems that they can only adopt the strategy of increasing the number of troops in the front, but in this way, it will weaken their own side in defense, and it can be said that there are pros and cons.

Faced with the unfavourable situation of saying goodbye to the Champions League place once and for all if they lose, An Shuai and his team can no longer think too much, and can only hope that the core of the team such as Hamsik and Insigne can play to the strength of their first-class stars and lead everyone out of the Osdio in Turin.

Just ten minutes into the rematch, the visitors made a change, with Polish centre-forward Milik coming on for Wildi, Mertens dropping back a bit to switch between shadow striker and right winger, and Insigne returning to the more preferred left.

The change allowed Napoli to find a bridgehead in positional battles, with Milik's body and back to the ball to help other teammates gain more space to run, while also slightly strengthening the team's ability to compete for the ball in the air, enriching the attacking routine.

In addition, Hamsik and Alan were also clearly more advanced than in the first half, with the addition of these two men, the visitors' control on the edge of the Torino penalty area has been greatly improved, and in ten minutes there were three long-range shots and a good chance to pass the ball straight into the vicinity of the penalty spot, but unfortunately all of them were cleared by the home team's defenders, but at least the momentum of the siege has gradually formed, and the goal guarded by Casillas has finally begun to feel a certain threat.

But when the game reached the 72nd minute, the full-backs on both sides also assisted, and Napoli, who were only left with a single midfielder Diawara and two central defenders at the back, tasted the bitter fruit of investing too much in attack. Alain's pass was tackled by Vukocevic and Barceli immediately led his team-mates on a classic multi-player counter-attack. After a one-two with Bruno Fernandes to get past Hamsik's interception, the ball quickly crossed the halfway line and raced down the middle towards the edge of the opposition box.

At this point, the home team had as many as five players in high speed, and in addition to the two strikers and the two midfielders mentioned above, Bareka on the left also did not fall behind in the pace competition with the returning Husay, becoming a potential contact point on the wing.

In the face of this kind of multi-point flowering rapid counter-attacking tactics, Napoli did not fail to take precautions in advance, but they were just in a hurry to find opportunities to score in the front, and forgot for a while that the defense was somewhat empty. Moreover, the Torino team has improved the speed of the forward line after the loan of Lucas Moura, so the quality of this counterattack has increased compared to the previous one.

Even if Diawara and Hamsik, who had returned in time to defend in time, stifled Baseli's attempt to continue his long drive to the top of the box from 10 metres out, they were unable to stop the latter's pass. Fernandes, who met him on the right, received the ball and immediately sent a precise through ball to give Moura a great chance to make a single shot, while Albiol, who had been in charge of marking him at a young age, was known for his slow turn at a young age, and now at the age of 33, he is as slow as a stake in front of the speed player, and he has long been left behind.

In the face of Brazilian goalkeeper Rafael Barbosa, Moura used a deft feint to shake the opponent's center of gravity, and then pulled the ball at his feet to dodge the opponent's defensive area and easily push the ball into the empty goal.

2-0, the red bull's victory should be stable.

In the time that followed, Napoli, who had nothing to lose, launched an almost frantic counterattack, and finally scored a long-range world wave by substitute Polish midfielder Zielinski, but still failed to gain even a single point from the away.

At the end of 90 minutes, the home side Torino won a hard-fought 2-1 victory and did not disappoint their supporters.

Two hours later, an unimaginable piece of good news made half of Turin City completely boil, and Li Mudi even lost sleep all night. Because, Juventus actually lost!