Chapter 227: Loose Dog Food
Although the scandal between the two people has been spread all over the city, since neither side has expressed their views on the report at that time, there are still quite a few people who eat melons who think that it is just a hype, and the company also operates in this way. However, the turmoil at that time also laid a foundation for the announcement of this relationship, so that the outside world was quite mentally prepared for the sudden sprinkling of dog food by Lin and Li, and did not cause much controversy, after all, the matter of tearing X had been done a month ago.
Therefore, when this scandal was completely confirmed, and the parties took the initiative to break the news, "Lin Li Lian" was still recognized and blessed by most people. As for those brain-dead fans who are still opposed to the goddess's relationship, they can only live a scolding addiction on the Internet, after all, it is impossible to satisfy everyone with one thing, and it is good to be able to manage yourself.
However, although not too many people were surprised, this kind of big news that can greatly increase newspaper sales and Internet click-through rates naturally no media will want to miss it, so countless reporters from the Celestial Empire and Kimchi began to book air tickets and rushed to Turin City, wanting to get first-hand information about the daily lives of these two big stars. This annoyed the local media, as the Asian counterparts were seriously disrupting their living space, and the two most important strongholds, outside the Turin manager's apartment (the two moved back to the man's apartment together after the romance was announced, and poor Forsina was kicked out and moved into a hotel) and on the outskirts of the club's residence, the two most important strongholds were ambushed with a large number of yellow faces, so that club descendants such as Torino Sport could not get a chance to interview the manager before the weekend game. Isn't this going to smash the field?
Although the two of them were originally very suitable for facing the media's encirclement and interception, they were very reluctant to be asked about their emotional private affairs by outsiders, but if they took the initiative to show their affection, it would be different. So Lin Yuna, who couldn't go out normally in order to avoid those paparazzi who wanted to dig into privacy, began to keep swiping pictures on SNS, most of which were photos and small videos taken when she was playing alone a few days ago, and occasionally inserted one or two photos with new boyfriend-related items like a prank to tease fans. And Li Mudi, who had to go to work outside, would also take out his mobile phone to respond to his lover at a convenient time after being surrounded by reporters, and post some inexplicable testimonials or proverb pictures on the Internet, which made his followers embarrassed.
It's a pity that this way of showing affection didn't last long before it was stopped, and the agent of the entertainment company called to remind her not to provoke the nerves of her fans anymore, and her personal fan club had as many as 6,000 people quit within 24 hours, and if she continued to play like this, it would collapse completely. And Song Qian and Sunny also sent messages to the Turin coach one after another, telling him not to sprinkle dog food in the near future, everyone has already eaten enough, and if they eat again, they will all vomit, which is not a good thing for a relationship that spans two hostile countries, it is better to keep a low profile.
The two people who got the warning had to stop, and they agreed to stop updating SNS for the time being, and then show off when the limelight passed. In fact, this is not to say that Li Mudi and Lin Yuner are people who want to hype up their feelings, but after having a new relationship, they will inevitably have a fluttering sense of happiness, hoping to tell people all over the world that they are in love and get everyone's blessings. Since this dog food is not allowed to be spread on the Internet, let's change the method, and their desire to show affection is no longer stoppable.
At 12:30 p.m. local time on February 5, before referee Marco Di Bello blew the whistle for the start of the game, the broadcast camera spotted three Asian-faced spectators in the front chairman's stand at the Stadio Castellani, and the Celestial Empire audience in front of the TV easily recognized them as the parents of the Turin coach and his new girlfriend.
The Empoli boss has put forward a more defensively oriented 4-3-1-2 formation, with Poland's Skorupski in goal, who has been rumored to be a transfer to the Red Bulls, and a back four exactly the same as in the first leg between the two sides, with former Fiorentina star Pascual on the left, Frenchman Laurini on the right, and André Costa and Belluch in central defenders. The midfield has changed a lot, with two of the three main midfielders in the first half of the season changing, except for Croce, who is still holding his ground, and the other two starting places are occupied by Senegalese Diesel and Bosnian Krunic; Kaduri, who had just arrived from Napoli to report, was in the midfield position, with Puciarelli and Georgian international Mchedridze, who started in place of Gilardino, standing in front of him.
Torino, for their part, fielded most of their main players, with Joe Hart, Silvestri, Ranocchia, Kastan, Barreca, Baseli, Lars Diarra, Benasi, Falke, Jesus and Belotti starting in a 4-3-3 formation, with Lee Mudi only rotating centre-back Rossetti alone, apart from the injured players and players who played for the national team.
Although the home side are unbeaten in their last 10 match-up games against the Red Bulls on this venue, the quality and form of both sides this season cannot be traced back to the historical record. The current gap between the two teams of 21 points and 13 places shows that the time to break the spell is likely to be today, so Empoli coach Marttusilo does not dare to have the slightest fluke, and honestly arranges his players to strengthen the midfield scramble, and do not give the opponent a chance to get up easily.
Today's weather conditions are not very good, even at noon, but the temperature is only 10 degrees Celsius, and the pre-match weather forecast also reported that there is a high probability of rain during the game, which leads to the external environment is cold and damp, which is very unsatisfactory for the athletes. At the very least, the players on the away team's side were obviously a little stiff physically, and they were a little helpless for a while by the opponent's temporary high pressing, allowing the home team to take some initiative.
In the fifth minute, Empoli launched a quick attack after a successful counter-attack in the middle of the field, and the center forward Pucharelli passed the ball to Krunic, who was following the receiver, and also wore Belotti's gear. After the Bosnian midfielder won the ball, he took it forward to 10 meters outside the line of the penalty area, and directly shot with his right foot under the following and marking of two players of the visiting team, but unfortunately he could not find the bull's-eye and missed the far post. The Torino goalkeeper judged the ball's trajectory and made no save, while shouting at his team-mates at the back to concentrate and not let the opposition get off his feet easily.
Then it was the home team's attack, Diesel's precise transfer to Pascual's cross, which was cleared by Kastan in time. The ensuing corner kick also formed a shot, and Laurini, who is only 173 cm tall, headed the ball high, much to the dissatisfaction of Li Mudi on the sidelines, and loudly reminded the players to get into the game as soon as possible. As Joe Hart prepares to take the goal-kick, it was easy to see Marttusielo's pre-match tactical intentions, with three home players standing outside the visitors' penalty area ready to press, and the idea of a high tackle was already evident.
Torino's first threatening attack of the game came belatedly in the eighth and a half minutes, when Farke's diagonal cross was in perfect harmony with Belotti's movement, but the latter jumped off the ball and couldn't get on target, which was easily denied by Skorupski. However, while the crowd waited for the home side's next attack, the Polish goalkeeper lacked a big foot to kick the ball off the touchline, and the fourth official led Serbian centre-back Kosic to the sidelines. It turned out that Andre Costa had just strained his thigh muscle and had to go off early. It's worth noting that the player suffered an injury when the two teams met for the first time this season, and he was also substituted in the first half, isn't it a bit strange?
It was this unplanned substitution that made the game so variable, as in the 10th minute, the Torino midfielder combined up on the left after a successful steal, and Barceli was about to burst forward with the ball when he was bumped from behind by Kaduri, who came back to help the defence, and the visitors were awarded a set-piece from 45 yards out. Benassi hoisted a diagonal pass into the penalty area, and the home team formed a pile of ten people in front of the goal, all vying for the landing point of the ball. The ball bounced off the underside of the crossbar in the middle of the home goal and into the goal, while the referee reached out to signal that the ball had crossed the goal line. 0-1, the Red Bulls who played away quickly took the lead, and Belotti broke the goal drought in two league games and continued to dominate the scorer list.
After falling behind, Empoli wanted to organize a wave of offensive to equalize the score as soon as possible, but in the face of the away team that had gradually moved away, there was no good way for a while, and the active front-court pressing was no longer as rich as before, but was almost hit by Jesse A counterattack, and the two sides immediately fell into a stalemate.
And God also ran out at this time to make trouble, from the fourteenth minute or so, there were raindrops began to fall, to the twentieth minute, has formed a lot of rain, the scene of the body temperature is estimated to have dropped to four or five degrees, the players' bodies suffered a huge test.
Li Mudi, who felt the chill, hurriedly tightened the scarf outside his coat, this outfit was configured for him by his girlfriend when he went shopping two days ago, but he still missed the down jacket he wore before, although the appearance was a little ugly, but it felt quite warm. Thinking of this, the Torino coach got up and went to the sidelines, pretended to shout two words, then turned around and looked at the stands some distance above the coach's box, his eyes were about 200 to 250 degrees of myopia, and it was difficult to see the condition of his parents and girlfriend, so he walked back to his seat. In less than a minute, his hair was drenched, and his coat was covered with water.
Affected by the external environment, the players on both sides failed to create any threatening attacks, and the only few shots on goal failed to make the goalkeeper nervous, and the two had to hurry up to warm themselves up when they were in possession of the ball, so as to prevent the lack of flexibility at critical moments.
Just when one game would have been held like this until the end of halftime, in the second minute of injury time, in a pass in the midfield that was not too disturbed too much, Kastan, who had lost his main position since Ranocchia joined and rarely got a start today, made a fatal mistake. His return pass was not mastered and the ball fell into a deep puddle of water in front of the penalty area, but the slow Pucharelli seized the opportunity to catch up highly, and when the England goal was abandoned, he flicked the ball past him and then accelerated into the box and kicked the ball into the empty net before Kastan, who was struggling to defend and flew to block the gun. At 1-1, Empoli took advantage of the opportunity to equalize the score. For this inexplicable goal, the coaches and substitutes of the visiting team who were ready to return to the dressing room were dumbfounded, not knowing how to express their frustration in their hearts.
The stadium was built in 1965, and the facilities are a bit old, but the drainage system is so bad that no one could have imagined beforehand. For this kind of mistake with a strong luck color, Li Mudi couldn't push the black pot to a single player, so he had to comfort everyone's emotions and rearrange the tactics for the second half. Since it is a rain battle, it is the right way to use a more concise and impactful style of play, discard the complex combinations, and create opportunities for goal-grabbing and long-range shots directly from the wings. As for the backcourt players' passing ball, it is also absolutely prohibited, try to find two teammates on the side after getting the ball, it is really not a big foot to the front, and you must not give points to the opponent in a similar mistake.
The home manager looked to have made a similar arrangement, and after the start of the second half, both teams had a rough tactical style, with the rain seriously disrupting the movement of the ball, making it extremely difficult to look at.
However, in the 53rd minute, the Torino team still created a killing chance in an attack, Belotti pulled to the left wing, used his speed to dribble past Laurini, and then used his toes to share the ball with Hesse in the middle while Diesel who was coming from the defense, and he collided with the opponent and fell to the ground. He showed his superb dribbling skills after receiving the ball, stumbling into the home team penalty area with alternating touches of his two feet, before being kicked to the back of his heel by Belluch and falling to the ground. After the referee decisively awarded the penalty, he ran to the outside of the box to make up for a yellow card for Diesel, whose dangerous actions caused Belotti to still clutch his thighs and wail on the ground, and the team doctor rushed into the field for emergency treatment. After seeing the gesture to signal the substitution, Li Mudi scolded MMP in his heart, and had to let the substitute striker Boyer prepare. Fortunately, Falke then converted the penalty to give the team another chance to exceed the scoreline, which was a little comfort to the Torino manager.
In the ensuing battle, the two sides made mistakes like a bunch of amateur players in the pouring rain, and in the end, neither had the superpower to change the outcome, and a game that was not interesting ended with Empoli reaping the first defeat in their last four home games.
After this game, the Torino team, who have won two consecutive games, continue to sit in fourth place in the standings, creating some pressure on the rivals behind them. The losing home team failed to widen the gap between them and Crotone, who are currently seven points behind them and will play two games in the next four days, away to second-to-last Palermo and at home to Juventus.