Chapter 454: Accidents and Surprises

But just when all Serie A fans began to shift their attention to Sunday's game, late Saturday night came from England with a shocking news: Lord Ferguson was urgently hospitalized!

According to a news report broadcast by "Sky Sports" in a sports program, an ambulance suddenly appeared at the door of Ferguson's house at around 23 o'clock on the evening of the 5th, and the medical staff immediately carried the old man, who was suspected of being unable to move independently, into the car and quickly went to a nearby hospital.

The next day, the "Post", "The Telegraph" and many other British media also confirmed the news, and claimed that according to reliable internal sources, Darren Ferguson (the second son of the Lord), who is currently coaching the English One team Doncaster, suddenly missed the team's last game of the season for "personal matters", which confirmed that the Lord's condition is indeed very bad.

It's just that because the personnel around him have done a really good job of keeping secrets, coupled with the status of Lord Frue, the British media, which has always been known for being good at digging into personal privacy, has not been able to grasp the most detailed content of the incident, that is, the legendary coach who just appeared at Old Trafford in person last week in a completely normal posture to present Arsene Wenger with a commemorative trophy before Manchester United's home game against Arsenal, why did a serious illness cause him to be admitted to the hospital so urgently.

On Sunday afternoon, the official announcement of Manchester United finally revealed all the mysteries, it turned out that the old man had a sudden cerebral hemorrhage last night and had undergone surgery today. According to the doctor's feedback, the operation went very smoothly and the patient was out of danger, but still needed a certain amount of close observation to speed up the recovery. Therefore, Sir Alex Ferguson's family hopes that the public will give enough respect to personal privacy and not interfere too much with the lord's rest in the near future.

As soon as this official news was announced, it finally calmed down the heated discussion about this matter that had lasted for most of the day, and clubs and many players from various countries have left messages on personal social media such as official websites or Twitter, sending blessings to Lord Fu, and Li Mudi is no exception. Manchester United, along with Arsenal, the old man and the professor, all occupy a very important place in his football memories as a teenager, so the Torino boss was in a bad mood after hearing that Wenger was forced to leave voluntarily and that Ferguson suddenly fell ill. Fortunately, everything is not too bad, at least the idols have kept the green mountain, presumably the firewood is enough to burn for a while.

Due to the unexpected intrusion of this incident, not only has the attention of the leagues in various countries been weakened, but it also seems to have triggered a strange atmosphere, leading to the emergence of unpopular reports.

In the Premier League, if Manchester United, who have already secured second place in the league, lost to 14th-placed Brighton Albion at home is a little surprising, then it is incredible, Tottenham, who are fighting for the last Champions League spot, to lose to West Bromwich Albion, the league's vice-captain. In addition, Manchester City, who won the title early but are still seeking to set a new points record in a single season in the Premier League, were held to a draw at home by fifth-to-last Huddersfield Town, which made the bookmaker's 1-12 draw odds an excellent way for fans to make a fortune, but unfortunately few people expected this to be the result beforehand.

In La Liga, Atletico Madrid, who have just reached the final of the Europa League, also turned in the gutter on their home turf, losing by two goals to underdogs Alaves, which was also the first home game of 2018 for the Sheets. Valencia and Betis, who are fourth and fifth in the standings, also suffered defeats, and Real Madrid secured their Champions League places next season two rounds ahead of schedule.

As for the most high-profile Spanish derby, it became a farce because of an extremely bad referee. Although the game at Camp Nou was still relatively exciting, the fierce physical confrontation, serious foul action, mutual scolding between players on both sides, red cards, and beautiful goals can be said to have all these elements. But the 35-year-old referee Hernandez Hernandez (name and surname are the same) has successfully stolen the limelight from all the big-name superstars with various misjudgments and omissions.

Within 90 minutes, the new star referee, who was focused on cultivating by the Spanish Football Federation, first let go of Alba's choke on Modric, causing the game to smell more and more gunpowder, until it finally became out of control. Suarez was then elbowed to the chest by Ramos, which almost sparked a large-scale clash, and Messi's retaliatory kick to avenge his team-mates a minute later showed that the players on both sides could no longer maintain a calm mind to approach the midfield football game.

Before half-time, Bale stepped on Umtiti's lower leg from behind, and the referee didn't say anything, leaving all the Barcelona players angry. A minute later, Roberto made unnecessary physical contact with Marcelo after a pass, and Hernandez's inconspicuous elbow action was considered a big sin by Hernandez, who sent him off the pitch with a red card, and the home side had to suffer a disadvantage of having one man less before half-time. Considering Bale's previous stampede, the seriously inconsistent penalty scale before and after was naturally seen by everyone, and it also caused more than 90,000 fans at the scene to burst into deafening boos.

However, the disaster was far from over, perhaps balancing the first half of a number of controversial decisions against Barca, and the referee began to gradually shift his position away from the centre. In the 52nd minute of the second half, Messi received an assist from Suarez to give the home team a 2-1 lead, but before that, Suya's action to snatch the ball from Varane's feet was a foul that could not have been more obvious. After the game, the Uruguayan striker himself admitted that he did get the ball after kicking the opponent down first, and even he was very surprised that the referee did not award a foul.

After Marcelo burst into the penalty area and was tripped by Alba, it should have been Real Madrid's penalty kick Undoubtedly, Hernandez still did not say anything, so that all non-Barcelona supporters couldn't help but shake their heads and said that this guy either received black money, or it turned out to be a referee for other sports, otherwise it is difficult to explain what the basis for his penalty is.

In the end, the 2-2 result seemed to be a happy one, but in reality, almost no one other than the referee would have been happy with what was supposed to be a classic derby. In the end, there were only two relatively positive results, one is that it has strengthened the importance of the VAR system in and out of football, and the other is that Barcelona will almost certainly win the great honor of winning the title unbeaten all season, but the latter is something Real Madrid fans definitely don't want to see.

Zooming back to Italy, it was Sunday afternoon when the Milan duo were the first to take action. The Rossoneri beat Hellas Verona 4-1 at home to temporarily overtake Atalanta in the standings and occupy seventh place. However, what attracted Li Mudi's attention even more was the 20-year-old striker Lee Seung-woo of Kimchi Country, who scored a face-saving goal for the away team, and the young man who was known as the "Asian Messi" during the La Masia period finally showed his good potential in the professional arena in Europe, which made the Torino coach from the Celestial Empire envious.

Inter Milan also claimed a big win in the same time period, beating Udinese 4-0 away to keep the pressure on Roma, who were previously fourth-placed. And Icardi also scored a goal in the game, finally equaling Immobile in the scorer chart, and both now have 28 goals, but the latter has not played in this round of games, but the atmosphere of the competition for the top scorer has shown a trend of white-hot trend.

At 15 o'clock in the afternoon, at the São Paulo Stadium, Napoli's home match against Torino kicked off on time. When the visitors' starting line-up reappeared, few would believe they had come to the Campania capital with the intention of earning points. Compared with Marseille's European squad three days ago, except for Casillas, who is still stationed in front of goal, the remaining ten positions have been adjusted, and young players such as Bonifaczi, Dickman, Dimarco, and Pellegri have all appeared in the start.

It's just that Maurizio Sarri has been a bit of a big show today, and the next game is Napoli away to Sampdoria in seven days' time, and Hamsik has been put on the bench without the need to save the player's fitness, and the main centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly has been left out of the squad due to a minor injury, and it seems that they really think that this victory has been confirmed that there will be no surprises.

But when the referee blew the whistle for halftime, the score displayed on the stadium's oversized electronic display board did not change in the slightest from when the kick-off was just started, and the White Dolphins, who had 60% possession and a large advantage in shooting data with 9 to 2 to 2, although it seemed to have firmly grasped the initiative on the field, but it did not actually pose much threat to the goal guarded by Cassie, which was not too consistent with everyone's prediction before the game.

Despite the lack of the core of the midfield, Hamsik, the home team's front trident Mertens, Insigne and Callejon all started to ensure that their attacking firepower is still at the top level of Serie A, but the Torino team's average age is only 23 years old, under the leadership of veterans Casillas and Tulalang, they have shown amazing willpower.

With the help of their never-give-up tenacity and a little luck, they withstood two fierce successive attacks from their opponents. In particular, Dimarco, the left-wing-back/wing-back who was brought in from Inter Milan last summer, not only resisted the onslaught of two first-class wingers in one-on-one situations on many occasions, but also completed a critical rescue on the goal line, which made former Roma legend Tomasi, who was a guest commentator on Italian national television today, praise a lot.

Italian football has seen a lot of outstanding players on the right side in recent years, although it may be an exaggeration to say that it is a talent blowout, but Conte Jr., Florenzi, Darmian, Zampacosta, D'Ambrosio, Desiglio and other talented players are in the prime of 25 to 30 years old, enough to ensure that the depth of the bench in this position of the Azzurri can be called the world's top configuration. Even the former captain of AC Milan, Abate, has just celebrated his 30th birthday and has been completely excluded from the national team, which shows the strength of Italy's talent pool on the right side.

But on the other side of the pitch, the Apennines are also facing the dilemma that all countries in the world are currently facing, which is that there are few good left-sided players. Of the top teams in Serie A in the past two years, only Torino (Barreca) and Atalanta (Spinazzola) have been homegrown players as the main left wing-backs for most of the game, while others such as Juventus, Milan and Roma have been foreign players on the left side.

This has been a spectacle for the national team, as after Euro 2016 and Ventola took over the reins of the Azzurri, the great side that had produced so many great results could not find a solid starting left-wing player.

Whether it's a left wing-back in a back four or a left wing-back in a three-centre-back system, until interim manager Di Biagio's two warm-up games at the end of March, Italy have used seven different players to start in this position in nearly 20 games. From the veteran Giaccherini to the newly emerged Spinazzola in late 2016 and early 2017, Ventola did not find a solution to the offensive and defensive deficiencies on the left side, so Darmian, D'Ambrosio and even Florenzi's cameos on the left side have become the most common way for the Azzurri in the past two years, until Desiglio, who can take care of both sides, is finally fixed on the left side.

However, the wing-back, who switched from AC Milan to Juventus last summer, has not been able to earn more trust from Allegri this season, and has only made fewer than 20 appearances in all competitions for the club in a year, and his form is not fully guaranteed, not as good as last season's San Siro. In the long run, the Italian national team's stubborn left flank has not yet found a way to eradicate it, and Di Biagio or the new coach who will be released soon will naturally feel a headache.

However, while Barreca and Spinazzola continued to grow steadily, Dimarco, a young talent under 21 years old, showed what was once considered a flash in the pan after switching to the Red Bulls. Although he only served as a substitute for Bareka in the club, because the team manager preferred or was good at a large rotation policy of the game lineup, the young man still got a lot of playing opportunities this season, and he also seized the more than 1,900 minutes of playing time, absorbing a lot of game experience from a variety of opponents, so that his ability has been greatly improved.

Even without the aid of the FM system, the professionals in Italy can easily perceive in a short period of time that Dimarco's current ability is not very great compared to Barreca and Spinazzola, but the potential is superior. Perhaps the responsibility of the left side of the national team in the future will be handed over to the youngster who came from the Inter Academy, which is also uncertain.

And because Dimarco's outburst was not expected by everyone, it was obviously a big surprise for Italian football, and although Li Mudi's ability to coach young players is beyond doubt, it still makes many people feel very magical. Tomasi repeatedly praised the Torino coach for his ability in this regard during the broadcast of the game, and he even suggested that the Football Association should break the nationality restriction and recruit the Celestial Empire into the youth development program to help the Italian youth training work, which has been falling silent, to get it off the ground as soon as possible.

Although it was just a compliment, it also expressed the admiration of the Roman celebrity, which made Li Mudi, who learned about it afterwards, very happy. It is a great achievement that my work can be recognized by others, especially professionals, and the Torino coach at this time has experienced an indescribable sense of satisfaction, which is really cool!