Chapter 243: A Critical Battle
At 15 o'clock local time on March 18, 2017, the highlight of the 29th round of Serie A this season will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Turin, against Inter Milan and Torino, who are currently in the fifth and sixth positions of the standings. Two teams battling it out for a place in next season's Europa League will spend the next 90 minutes in a thrilling battle for fans around the world.
When the players sorted out their equipment and got up and walked to the players' tunnel, Li Mudi couldn't help but guess in his heart what the broadcaster's commentator was saying. However, he apparently only guessed a beginning, and the end of the end was definitely not a message that would make him feel good.
Italian national television commentator Sergio Chercy entered the usual introduction to the history of the two sides after the opening remarks, and the matchup between the two teams in the 10th round of the first half of the season was absolutely impressive, with the Red Bulls holding the Nerazzurri to a thrilling 2-2 draw on the road thanks to veteran Moretti's header in the 90th minute, and Frank de Boer was sacked by the club after the game. In the previous two seasons between the two sides, Torino unexpectedly prevailed with a record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and the surprising thing is that the number of games won was away from home.
But if you count forward, Inter have an overwhelming advantage, with the Red Bulls going 21 games winless against the Nerazzurri since February 1994. Including 2015, the Torino team has only 2 draws and 10 defeats at their home stadium, and even failed to score in 9 of them, making the opponent their own veritable number one bitter host, worse than against Juventus.
However, these have nothing to do with Li Mudi, his record against this opponent is only 1 game and 1 draw, if you count the home and away advantage, there is also a slight psychological advantage. So in today's crucial game, he confidently reverted to his usual 4-3-3 formation and wanted to fight his opponent in attack.
As the two managers hugged amicably on the sidelines, the starting line-ups of both teams were shown on TV and online platforms. The visitors continued their starting line-up for the big win over Atalanta in the previous round, with Slovenian international Handanovic in goalkeeper goalkeeper in goal, Torino traitor D'Ambrosio in the back line from right to left, Chilean Medel, Brazilian central defender Miranda and Argentina international Ansaldi. Left winger Perisic and forward Benega are fronted by captain and top scorer Mauro Icardi.
The home side were all in the line-up, with Joe Hart, Zampacosta, Rosettini, Ranocchia, Barreca, Baseli, Akwa, Benasi, Falke, Striker Jesse and Belotti, while Rajadzic, who had previously been at odds with Limudi, sat on the bench with the likes of Las Diarra.
After the opening, both sides quickly got into the game, and the first shot came around the 120th second, when Banega burst into the box and received Perisic's diagonal cross and went straight to the goal, which was blocked by Rosetini who fought bravely to block the shot. Gagliardini, who followed up, grabbed the second spot at the top of the arc and volleyed a left-footed volley, but the kick was high and wide, like a clearance.
Then Candreva suddenly sent a long pass in the positional battle, Icardi's stop shot from 14 meters in front of the goal was blocked by Rostini again, and Li Mudi saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly came to the sidelines to remind the home team players to pay attention to the protection of the penalty area. In the sixth minute, Akwa suddenly cut forward and split the ball, Falke cut inside from the right and fired a left-footed shot from about 25 meters from the goal, which was firmly held by Handanovic.
There was a slight climax in the ninth minute when Banega sent a wonderful through ball down the middle and Icardi ran into the box to dribble past Joe Hart and into the empty net. However, the linesman had already whistled for offside, the goal was invalidated, and the slow-motion footage of the broadcaster showed that at the moment of the pass, the Inter captain was half a meter away from the last player in the home team's back, and Li Mudi complained to the fourth official that he should have shown a yellow card to Icardi, who had completed the shooting action after the whistle, but unfortunately it was ignored.
Inter then organised another wave of attacks, with Icardi smashing a quick shot into the touchline from the left, Candreva picking up the ball and cutting inside to hit Zampacosta, and Gagliardini's left-footed shot from 11 yards went high over the crossbar. Gagliardini then deflected Banega's corner kick wide of the left post, and during this period of time, Torino's defense made a lot of mistakes one after another, which made Li Mudi angry, constantly signaling the players on the sidelines to press out, not to let the opponent attack his own defense without scruples.
In the following period, the two teams went head-to-head, and the scene turned out to be very beautiful, the exact opposite of the previous round of matches at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
In the 14th and 15th minutes, the home team completed a long-range shot from Baseli and Akwa respectively, of which the former's shot was less than 10 centimeters away from the opponent's goalpost, and almost completed a world wave. Three minutes later, Torino rebel D'Ambrosio almost made the fans here use only a verbal "kill. Die. You" became a reality, Perisic's cross from the left was punched out of the box by Joe Hart, and it landed right at the feet of the Inter right-back, who fired a right-footed volley directly into the face of a huge empty goal, but the result was still the same as the previous Gagliardini time, which was much more deflected off the net. The choice of the home team's goalkeeper also gave its coach a big headache, I don't know why this guy likes to hit the ball so much, and a bad premonition was born in Li Mudi's mind.
In the 22nd minute, Perisic suddenly shot with his left foot seven or eight meters in front of the penalty area, which was more outrageous. A minute later, Jesse broke through and crossed low from the left, and Baseli's low shot from 25 yards in front of goal was also on target, and both teams were skewed out of the solar system today.
However, the away team scored with the first shot on target, and Li Mudi also had to sigh that it is not necessarily a woman who has a strong sixth sense, and has a goalkeeper who loves to short-circuit, so the football manager can sometimes get some kind of inspiration.
In the 27th minute, with eight players of the home team reingulating into their own penalty area to participate in the defense, Kondogbia, the famous midfielder demon in the former football manager game, successfully broke through the bag of three players after receiving a pass from D'Ambrosio near the baseline. Then, before Ranocchia rushed over to help the defense, he fired a powerful left-footed shot from a position of 13 meters from the center of the goal at an angle of 45 degrees. The angle wasn't tricky, and the power wasn't too great, but Joe Hart made a low-level mistake when he was fully aware of the ball, allowing the ball to be saved by his hands and then slowly rolled into the goal behind him, which was too frustrating for the Turinose.
The goal was the second goal scored by the French defender in 50 competitive games for Inter Milan, coincidentally against the hapless Red Bulls.
When the visiting players gathered around the field to celebrate, the Torino coach shook his head helplessly, this nerve knife goalkeeper is too good at creating surprises, when he is in good shape, he can block every attack of the opponent, and when he is funny, he dares to make any low-level mistakes. However, after the England international joined Torino, there were quite a lot of nervous mistakes, and the number of times he made a miracle save was only a handful, which is the most important reason why Li Mudi has not advocated keeping him, or a stable goalkeeper is more suitable for the current team.
Thankfully, the home side's players recovered from the blow in a timely manner, and they went on a frenzied attack in the minutes following the conceded goal, putting Inter's defenders under pressure on all three attempts, and eventually equalised. In the 32nd minute, Torino's corner kick opportunity, Ranocchia received Benasi's pass and nodded the ball back in front, and the unmarked Baseli on the line of the small penalty area in the middle easily headed the net, 1-1, and the two sides returned to a starting line.
Over the next 10 minutes, the tempo of the game slowed down, with both teams starting to cut back on their attacking adventures and becoming much more harmonious. After each had two shots off target, referee Luca Banty blew the whistle for the break and the players from both sides returned to their dressing rooms for a quarter of an hour to prepare for the second 45 minutes.
Li Mudi took the time to emphasize the precautions to be paid attention to in defense, including not using offside tactics too much, decisively using tactical fouls to stop if the ball is lost in front of the opponent and the opponent is counterattacked, trying to split the connection between the two wingers and Icardi, and paying attention to the fight for the second landing. Joe Hart's form today was a real concern for him, so he had to let the defenders bother to try to reduce or even avoid the attacking attackers who could threaten their goalkeepers.
After the rematch, Inter took the lead in the offensive. In the 47th minute, Candreva failed to master the footwork of the bottom cross from the right side, and was confiscated by Hart's light ape arm, but this action also made the Torino coach a little frightened, for fear that he would have a butter hand again. The Torino goalkeeper then drove into the front of the pitch with a big kick, and Belotti's in-cut shot from the left was blocked by a defender.
Then it was Torino who pressed frequently, and in the 50th minute, Baseli's free-kick shot was blocked by the opposition wall. Three minutes later, Belotti broke down the left and crossed and Akwa fired a long-range shot from the edge of the box. After that, Jesus went down and Berotti's low left-footed shot from 22 yards deflected off Medel, which Handanovic reacted quickly to deflect off with his legs, and Farke's follow-up volley was blocked off the crossbar by the visiting defender. The home team missed a great chance.
In the 56th minute, Chilean international Medel, who is only 1.71 meters tall and was originally more suitable for playing as a midfielder and a central midfielder, lost his center of gravity in the air when he was competing with Belotti for a header, fell to the ground hard, and lay there holding his waist in pain for a while. After the team doctor came to check the situation urgently, he signaled that the Inter coach could not hold on any longer and had to be replaced and sent to the hospital for a more in-depth examination. In desperation, Pioli could only urgently summon the Colombian central defender Murillo, who had not done much preparation, to get up and play immediately, and Li Mudi on the side was also full of depression, originally he planned to make more use of Medel's header weakness to make a fuss, but he was made up by the other party, it is really not as good as heaven!
But the Torino coach at the time never imagined that his second goal would come so suddenly, which caught everyone off guard. In the 59th minute, Bareka threw the ball into the sideline on the left side, and immediately received a return pass from Barceli and cut into the penalty area, and shot towards the goal from a small angle, but unfortunately no one could touch the ball and let it go out of the bottom line on the other side. However, a minute later, a not small miracle was born in front of everyone's eyes, Akwa counterattacked in the middle to the right side, Falke burst into the penalty area and shrewdly chose to knock back in the face of two blocks, the Ghana midfielder shot directly with his right foot from 15 meters in front of the goal, and the ball hung straight to the far corner of the net like a cannonball, so that Handanovic did not react at all.
At 2-1, the home side relied on a goal from a defensive midfielder to put the score in the lead, and this was the first time Akwa was involved in Serie A this season (a goal or an assist), and it was also his fifth goal in seven years of professional football.
However, it didn't take Torino long to rejoice as Inter Milan completed a lightning equaliser in less time than the home team spent in the first half.
Immediately after conceding the goal, Pioli replaced Banega with Eder, who had already been reduced to a prodigal striker, and the Italy international was an immediate threat from the pitch when he broke down the left and combined with Ansaldi to kick the wall and then crossed low into the middle, where Icardi's effort from eight yards out was tipped over the crossbar by a quick Hart. After Akwa broke the ball in front, then burst into the right side of the penalty area and fired a low shot, the ball deflected wide of the far post, and the Torino midfielder, who had just scored, gained a lot of confidence, but his footwork was indeed far from qualifying, no wonder it took so long to score a goal.
In the 62nd minute, just three minutes after the home side had taken the lead, Inter Milan seized a golden chance. Ansaldi on the left used the change of pace to get a beautiful cross past Zampacosta, but Joe Hart missed the ball and was met by Candreva at the back post, who chested the ball and fired a half-volley into the far corner from seven yards out to secure a third starting line. It was his 43rd Serie A goal in the last five seasons, the most of any Serie A midfielder in the same period.
Faced with his goalkeeper's second fatal mistake in this game, Li Mudi was powerless to complain, so he could only hold his forehead and ask in his heart: This guy is an undercover agent sent from the opposite side! Isn't that playing with me?