Chapter 194: A Cruel Victory
Allegri was clearly a little angry when he was given two chances in a row, and he kept shouting at his players from the sidelines, signaling them to stay focused. Buffon is also exercising the dual rights of captain and goalkeeper, expressing strong dissatisfaction with the loss of the defender just now.
After that, the two sides still launched a high press on the opponent's back line to possess the ball, trying to make it difficult for the opponent to organize an effective attack. In the 61st minute, the Torino team took advantage of the fact that Juventus had invested too many troops in the midfield, which caused some emptiness in the back, and Falke sent a long-distance pick pass in the midfield circle, the ball went over the head of Rugani, as long as Rajadzic, who was inserted at high speed, could catch up with the ball. Unfortunately, the force of the pass was a bit too great, and the Serb couldn't catch the ball before it could get off the line, which also reflected that the Torino players are still a little far from the top stars in terms of these key abilities and details, and it would be difficult for them to take advantage of them if it weren't for the very good chances or the easier ones to handle.
In the 62nd minute, Rugani's long pass from the back found Higuain, who was pulled to the right flank, and the small smoking gun was clever enough to win a touchline ball only three or four meters away from the corner flag under the marking of Kastan. Lichtsteiner tossed the ball to Cuadrado and slotted into the box at high speed, and the Colombian winger waited a little to fend off Aceva before seeing his team-mate's movement before distributing the ball to the Swiss right-back. The latter dribbled the ball onto the penalty area line and met Kastan head-on, who immediately kicked a crotch-piercing ball and then hit the opponent hard, but the referee was fouled without anyone and signaled the game to continue. This made Lichtsteiner very unhappy, thinking that it should be a penalty, but his last kick was so big that even Roki, who had blown five penalties in the previous six league games, could not be so obviously biased in favor of the old woman.
The visitors then played a rarely seen multi-footed short pass in the middle, Khedira changed in front of the box and sent in a through ball that Higuain had a chance to face the goalkeeper directly from seven yards, but the linesman raised the flag in time to signal that the goal was offside. However, this attack seemed to be an accident, and Juventus did not do anything about short passes after that, and mostly relied on long passes from the midfield and 45-degree crosses from the two wings to feed the forward players. In addition, there was no decent team cooperation on the Torino side, so the ball still appeared more in the air, which provoked Sky Sports' Martin Taylor and Carragher to complain: Are we back in England before Arsene Wenger came to Arsenal?
In the 65th minute, Sturalo's possession at the back was almost cut off from behind him by the counter-attacking Falke, but the referee still blew a foul on the Spaniard in time, allowing the visitors to avoid being counter-attacked by the opponent when the attack and defense were converted. He then stopped the ball five meters away from his body in the attack, and gave Rossettini another kick in the scramble, if it wasn't for the referee's mercy, I believe a yellow card would have been fairer. Two minutes later, Allegri couldn't take any more of his poor performances and replaced Juventus' weakness with 23-year-old French midfielder Mario Lemina, who had been brought in from Marseille.
As soon as Lemina came on the pitch, Chiellini almost provided an own assist, and his pass at the back ran directly to the feet of Baseli, and the Torino team instantly formed a situation in which Belotti, Baseli and Falke faced the two central defenders of the opposing team. Unfortunately, the previously excellent Barcelona pass to the right after dribbling to the front of the goal was too light, and Chiellini made up for it, and a falling tackle kicked the ball into Falke's calf, which bounced off Buffon's control, and the home team unfortunately missed out on this unexpected gift from the sky.
In the 70th minute, Juve called for another substitution, and Dybala, who was fit and looked good, came on to replace Mandzukic, who played a key role at both ends of the pitch. The Argentine supernova's first kick was a brilliant outside instep through, but Lichtsteiner's cross was unthreatening and was broken off the line by the home defender.
When Dybala was about to kick off, Bruno Perez made a toe wrenching action in the penalty area, and the fierce scramble between the two sides made the players on the field in poor physical condition, and Li Mudi, who had been monitoring the physical strength of the players through the FM system, had to signal his assistant to call back Zampa Costa, who had warmed up, and replaced the Brazilian right-back who had fallen below 50% of his physical fitness after waiting for the dead ball. Allegri can change the team's tactical play through substitutions, and even strengthen the team's strength, but Li Mudi can only make adjustments to the position, after all, the players with the best ability and condition are already in the starting list, and small and medium-sized teams really can't compare with the giants in this regard.
Shortly after Zampacosta came on, the home side had another good chance when Farke dribbled forward on the right side of the line and when it looked like he was looking for a breakthrough, he suddenly sent a diagonal 30-metre diagonal cross that met the sole of Cuadrado's tackle and found it at the feet of Rajjdzic in the space on the left. The Serbian winger took possession of the ball and entered the penalty area in one step, and did not choose to force a strong attack in the face of Rugani's one-on-one defense, but pulled to the right side of his body and fired a straight curling ball into the far corner, which caught Buffon off guard. Unfortunately, the angle pursued was too tricky, slightly off the far post, and Red Bull wasted another great opportunity.
Rugani and Belotti then fell into the same mutual injury that had been repeated for more than 70 minutes, first in the home team's attack, the Juventus central defender grabbed the red babe with his hand, causing the latter to be unable to run to receive the ball, and Rocchi did not even blow for a foul, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the Torino players and fans. Later, in a scramble for a header, Rugani's nose hit the back of the Torino striker's head, and the former crouched on the grass after the dead ball because he felt very unwell, and it was only after timely diagnosis and treatment by the team doctor that he was relieved.
After Dybala came on the pitch, Juve's crosses no longer sought to bomb from high altitudes, but were all flat balls to the top of the penalty area to see if there were any opportunities for long-range shots. However, Torino's defence was really solid and did not leave much room for the opponent. Then both sides played a quick counterattack, Benasi's diagonal long pass still failed to grasp the fire, and was destroyed by Cuadrado who returned to defend in the moment before Falck was about to form a single knife; In turn, Chiellini, as a central defender, can send accurate long balls, helping Higuain get a chance to shoot from a distance in the middle, but unfortunately it is an anti-aircraft gun. The difference in ability between the players of the two sides has been exposed with the decline in fitness.
The lack of fitness also led to the fact that the two sides could no longer continue to press high, and the players of both teams were able to form a sustained attack within 40 meters of the opponent's goal, especially since the home team besieged Juventus for more than two minutes in a row from the 78th to 80th minutes, but still could not find a way to score. Less than 20 seconds apart, Limmudi and Allegri made another personnel change, with Jesse coming on for compatriot Falke and the visitors replacing Cuadrado with Pjanic.
Football has proven the saying "those who waste chances will be punished sooner or later" in countless games, and the black-and-white ball taught them a fatal lesson just after Torino missed a few good chances due to their own mistakes and lack of ability. In the 83rd minute, Juventus launched another attack from the back, Chiellini's long ball found Higuain accurately, the latter won the ball at the top of the penalty area and turned around with the young player Bareka who played well in the game, and then raised his leg to block the right-footed volley, the ball bounced in front of Joe Hart who made a flying gesture and flew into the net. 1-2, Juventus completed the comeback with about ten minutes left in the game, which almost killed the game.
The more than 3,000 Bianconeri fans in the stadium were completely boiling, they had been suppressed by their sworn enemies before, and now they finally had the opportunity to express their joy and excitement. And the camera gave a close-up of Li Mudi with a miserable face and seemingly endless confusion in his eyes after moving from the frantically celebrating Juventus players to the front of the home team's dugout, which also seemed to foreshadow the tragic fate of the Torino team to continue the derby win.
Then the camera selects a number of home fans in crimson jerseys in the stands, all of them have desperate expressions, some female fans have begun to cry, and a very cute little boy buries his head in the arms of his father next to him, as if staying there can erase the cruel fact that his favorite team is falling behind the sworn enemy. On the other side of the stands, Juventus fans were singing, dancing and hugging as if they were the happiest people in the world, shouting the Argentine striker's name and sending wishes for him to complete his hat-trick after seeing Higuain, who had celebrated with his teammates after scoring a goal.
Obviously, everyone in the room thought that Turin had no chance. Although the absences of Leonardo Bonucci and Barzagli due to injury have prevented Juventus from replicating the main backline of the Italian national team, the youngster Rugani has made visible progress in the competition with the top scorer in Serie A, and he has been more composed in the early stages of the game. Coupled with the fact that the physical exertion has reached the limit, the technical movements of the Torino attacking players have become close to some involuntary deformation, making it more difficult for them to grasp the feeling of strength when handling the ball, and they are even worse at the details that they are not very good at, and it is obviously too much to score goals in this state. Even if Li Mudi replaced the defender Akuwa with Febas, intending to fight to the death, there was still no good effect.
In the 89th minute, Juve again played a concise and practical combination, Chiellini's diagonal long pass from behind the halfway line found Dybala in the right winger position, who used excellent dribbling skills to drill under the bag of Bareka and Rajadzic, and sent the ball beautifully into the box, Higuain received the ball from the penalty spot and went straight to the goal, but unfortunately it was interfered with by Zampacosta's sliding tackle and fired high, almost completing a hat-trick.
After the fourth official held up the sign for four minutes of stoppage time, Torino were desperate for all their players to press through the half-court in an attempt to win the favor of Lady Luck so that they could kick the damn ball into the opposition's goal. However, the old lady's defence remained as focused as usual, and no matter whether the home team's players crossed from the flanks or penetrated through the middle, they could not form an attack, let alone score goals.
In the 92nd minute, Dybala received a ball from a colleague on the right side of the midfield, made a beautiful turn and accelerated to the bottom line, and then rushed out of the encirclement with magical feet under the combination of three players of the home team, and then passed the ball into the box. Higuain's close-range shot was saved by Joe Hart, but Dybala picked up the ball and struck down the middle, where the unmarked Pjanic struck straight and was blocked by Joe Hart, who was extremely quick second. But the ball was back at the feet of the Bosnian once again, and his second shot in a row was finally unstoppable. 1 to 3, the game completely lost its suspense.
A minute later, Rocchi blew the whistle for the end of the match, and the 194th Turin derby was recorded in history with the victory of the Old Lady. At this time, the home team players on the field, except for Jesse and Fabas, who had been on the field for a short time, the rest of the players, including Zampacosta, who came on as a substitute in the 71st minute, were already tired to the ground. The latter has covered 4.13 kilometers in just 23 minutes, which is equivalent to an average of three meters per second, and considering that there will be a lot of time to make almost zero movements such as passing and pressing, then at other times, Zampa Costa will run as hard as an athlete in a 3,000-meter race.
However, at this time, they were not only willing to lie motionless on the turf because of physical fatigue, but also because they couldn't stand the blow of being reversed by their mortal enemies in their hearts, because from the statistical point of view of the whole game, except for the big gap between the two sides in the shooting link, the others were evenly matched, and even in some places such as the possession rate was dominated by the Torino team, which was completely inconsistent with the score of two goals.
But football is like that, sometimes winning or losing has nothing to do with statistics, and if you can't do better than your opponent, then it will teach you a profound lesson with the brutal truth. But Li Mudi, who understands how big the real gap between the two sides is, has deep doubts in his heart, such Juventus and such Turin, how can I lead the team to overpower the opponent in two or three years? It seems that this difficulty is impossible to do without modifiers!