Chapter 174: The Enemy Meets
A new round of league fixtures is in full swing as the weekend begins, with home teams winning the first three Serie A matches. Sampdoria's 2-1 win over Genoa, who had previously surprised them, made the latter's points less exaggerated; Udinese, on the other hand, won 3-1 against Pescara, who have not yet tasted a victory, and it seems that the latter is almost hopeless of relegation. In one of the most eye-catching conversations of the weekend, AC Milan at the San Siro beat league leaders Juventus by a goal thanks to the 65th-minute world wave of teenager Locatelli, ending the embarrassing record of nine consecutive defeats against the Old Lady in official matches.
There was also a very controversial scene in this game: in the 36th minute, the visiting Bosnian forward Pjanic took a free kick from 32 meters from the goal on the left side, Bonucci quickly judged the landing point, directly stepped forward to volley but did not touch the ball, and was interfered by the actions of the Juventus central defender Donnarumma did not react at all, and the ball bounced off the ground and flew directly into the far corner of the goal. The referee on duty, Rizzoli, signaled that the goal was valid, and Pjanic and his teammates ran to celebrate. However, the AC Milan players blew up the temple, and they surrounded the assistant referee to argue that the Juventus player was offside just now, and the goal should be invalid. After dismissing the home team and after a lengthy discussion with the linesman on this side, Rizzoli ruled the goal nullified. This time it was the Juventus team's turn to protest, and the overly emotional Pjanic also received a yellow card, which really fell from heaven to hell. Judging from the slow camera provided by the broadcaster, at the moment when Pjanic touched the ball, it seemed that only Moroccan defender Mehdi Benatia leaned out and appeared in front of the Milan backline. A good goal from Juventus was wronged in this way, but for this result, Li Mudi said: Well done!
The Old Lady's defeat not only allowed the Rossoneri to rise on a strong three-game winning streak, accumulating points to 19 points, just two points behind the former, but also gave Torino, who had previously scored 18 points, a great chance to jump to the top of the table. In the instant standings, Juventus has 7 wins, 2 losses, 21 points, 17 goals scored, 6 goals conceded, and 11 goal difference; Red Bull, on the other hand, are 6-2, scoring 20 goals and conceding 9 goals and 11 goal difference, which means that once they can win Lazio in the evening game, they will become the new leaders of the league with a goal difference, which has never happened in 35 years! The whole Torino club, as well as their supporters around the world, were caught in an indescribable agitation when they learned of the situation, and with an hour before the start of the game, Li Mudi knew that there was a big problem!
Although it has been almost fourteen or fifteen hours since the result of the Milan Juventus game, most of the players have not been able to recover from the state of being too excited, and going to the game with too high emotions will cause them to be unable to control their movements, and all kinds of inexplicable mistakes and reckless actions will follow, even if Li Mudi has tried his best to help them adjust, but the effect is not great. Others, far from being excited, are in a state of extreme tension, feeling the desperate desire of the club and the fans for a place at the top of the table, and naturally putting the pressure of winning on their shoulders, which has been so great that it has affected the skill level of the players. The Turin coach said that his life was really miserable, obviously through hard work and luck to help the team to a small peak, but when trying to continue to climb, he encountered such a major event that shook the morale of the army, God's joke is indeed a bit big! It would have been nice if this had been received before the game against Palermo, Li Mudi couldn't help but think before the game started.
In fact, Mihajlovic who came to Turin City was also dissatisfied, because he was full of confrontation awareness of this opponent and the Celestial Empire coach, and the team also had a tendency to be thrown away by the other party in the rankings, so whether it was in personal grudges or the competition between clubs, the Blue Eagles coach was determined to take all three points to prepare for this game. However, it is disappointing that the current squad of the visiting team is seriously disorganized, and the team's four main players are Argentina international Lucas Rodrigo Biglia, Serbian central midfielder Sergej Milinkovic Savic, Dutch international Stefan de Vrij and Romanian international Stefan Daniel Radu. As well as young players such as Romelu Lukaku Jr. and Dutch striker Ricardo Kirchner are all absent due to injury, which makes Miha's lineup suddenly look stretched. However, he still put together the strongest lineup he could put together in this game that he couldn't afford to lose.
Lazio's starting line-up (4-3-3): The goalkeeper was Federico Marchetti from the Turin Academy, the 33-year-old goalkeeper, who was known as a goalkeeper when he was young, met Buffon, who was five years older than him but still at the top, which was really miserable; The four defenders, from right to left, are Serbia international Basta, Brazilian centre-back Wallace, Dutch new international Wesley Hoult and Spaniard Patricio Gavalon Gil, who joined the team from La Masia; The midfield trio are homegrown star Danilo Cataldi, who made his debut for the national team in June, Italian international Marco Parolo and Bosnia-Herzegovina international Senad Lulic; The front three are Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson, who just won the men's gold medal at the Rio Olympics, Immobile who has recently established himself in the national team, and Senegalese striker Keita Baldé Diao, who came from La Masia's academy and was regarded as a supernova at the time. Although this squad is not perfect, the strength should not be underestimated, especially in the midfield, the attacking power is definitely the top five in Serie A, which is a huge test for Torino's backline.
On the home team's side, Li Mudi was also unable to play the main team, because Brazilian fullback Bruno Perez sprained his ankle in the pre-match warm-up, and Jesse was also too emotionally excited to consume too much in the warm-up, resulting in a physical drop to 84%, and he could only wait for his opportunity on the bench.
Torino's starting line-up (4-3-3): goalkeeper Joe Hart, four from right to left as Zampacosta (previously translated as Zappacosta, but now it seems that Zampa is used a little more), Kastan, Rosettini and Bareka, three midfielders Barceli, Akwa and Benasi, and a front three: right winger Iago Farke, left winger Rajadzic and central striker Belotti.
At the start of the game, the Torino pair took advantage of the home advantage to start the attack, while Lazio used more active running to play with the opposition. In the fourth minute, Keita cut inside on the left side of the counter-attack, shook Zampacosta and fired straight away, but the ball only hit the left side-netting. The two sides then entered a tug-of-war with the hosts reversing the defensive counter-attacking posture of previous games and gaining more possession in midfield, but failing to create many good chances.
In the twelfth minute, Rajadzic swung his leg and shot from the top of the penalty area at the top of the penalty area, facing the blocking of the opposing defender, and the ball went over the crossbar, and this attacking choice also exposed the impatience of the Torino players.
In the twentieth minute, the Lazio back line made a big mistake, Lulic's random pass was intercepted by Acwa and sent directly to the right side of the side, Zampa Costa caught up with the ball three meters in front of the bottom line and crossed directly, Falke, who was only 1.74 meters tall, pressed the 184 cm Basta header near the small penalty area, the speed of the ball was not fast but the angle was very awkward, Marchetti's flying save was unsuccessful, and the ball flew into the lower left corner of the goal against the post. 1-0, the home team's goal was somewhat lucky.
After conceding the goal, Lazio tried to organize some counter-attacks, but the home team's central midfield was so tight that they couldn't have a chance for a while, but the patience of the Blue Eagles players was commendable, and after a number of long moves, they found some flaws in the Torino team. In the 26th minute, Felipe Anderson cut inside on the left and dodged Zampacosta and Akwa before passing diagonally to the back post, and Cataldi barely completed the tackle in the corner of the small penalty area, but unfortunately the ball still failed to hit the goal. In the 34th minute, Lazio broke the ball at the back and attacked with a direct pass, because Mobile went straight to Keita near the center circle, and the extremely fast latter threw Kastan in one step to form a single goal, but in the face of Joe Hart, who had excellent reflexes, the ball handling was very sluggish, and the last left-footed shot was barely pushed off the left post, and the visiting team missed this golden opportunity to equalize. Three minutes later, Immobile tried a low low shot from 25 yards out of goal, but the kick was too straight for the England international to reach with both hands. During this period, Lazio's offensive was a bit fierce, and Li Mudi had to stand on the sidelines and direct the players to invest more in the defensive end.
In this way, at the end of the first forty-five minutes, the score on the field was fixed at 1-0. The absence of key players at the defensive end made Lazio's defense look not so solid, and without several key midfielders such as Savic, they still lacked some threat in passing the ball in depth, and there were not many solutions for a while against a tight home team. On the Torino side, the excited reaction of some players caused the team to commit a lot of fouls, and Barreca and Baseli also received yellow cards. The pressure on the front-end players was so great that they completely lost the flexibility of the previous games, and there were few decent chances created in the first half, but the lead in the score was conducive to their return to form, and it was hoped that in the second half they could put more pressure on the Lazio defence.
At the start of the second half, neither side made too many adjustments, and the game continued to follow the trend of Lazio trying to attack, while Torino defended solidly and waited for an opportunity to counter-attack.
In the 51st minute, Keita suddenly picked up a pass behind the Torino defense in the middle, and Mobile's direct volley near the penalty spot was saved by Hart, shocking the home team fans into a cold sweat. Not to be outdone, Mihajlovic made his first change four minutes later, replacing right-back Basta with Serbian striker Filip Djordjevic, bringing Anderson back into midfield and changing the formation to a desperate 3-4-3.
Seeing signs of weakening in the opposition's defence, the Torino boss immediately signaled that his players could try to attack. In the 56th minute, Belotti was brought down by Parolo when he was dribbling the ball in front, and Rajadzic's direct free kick from about 35 meters from goal was punched by Marchetti.
Two minutes later, Parolo made another foul on Kastan during a tackle in front of the court, and referee Giacomelli pulled out a third yellow card of the game.
In the 62nd minute, Lulic crossed 45 degrees from the left, Djojevic headed near the penalty spot, and it was too much to be easily held by Joe Hart. Although the two teams seem to be attacking and defending each other at the moment, Li Mudi seems to smell a hint of danger, and Lazio's several shots on goal have not been successful, but the percentage of hits on target is extremely high. From the instant information provided by FM, it can be seen that the number of shots on goal for both sides is 10 and 9 respectively, but the number of shots on target is 2 to 5, and the Torino team has completely lost the high-quality attack efficiency in the previous rounds of the league, which may be a bad thing! But the players on the bench are either not in the right state, or their shooting ability is not as good as the people on the field, how to adjust?
Just when Li Mudi was worried about the team's offensive efficiency, the situation on the field changed. In the 69th minute, Anderson suddenly changed direction on the right side and sent in a cross that was sent in by Immobile with his back to the goal near the corner of the six-yard box on the other side, and the ball bounced off the ground and into the bottom right corner of the goal past Joe Hart's hands. 1-1, thanks to this goal, which can be voted the best goal of the week, Lazio equalized the score, and the England goal was once again reduced to the backdrop of the world's waves.
Facing the players who were a little overwhelmed by the wonderful goal on the field, the Torino coach first shouted cheers for them, encouraged the boys not to give up the belief in winning, and then replaced the unfit Falke with Jesse, hoping that the excitement of the Spanish winger could add some vitality to the team's front. In the 76th minute, he shot directly from a distance of about 27 meters from the goal, but unfortunately failed to fully eat the part and put the anti-aircraft gun. However, with the appearance of Jesse, the home team's performance on the offensive end did improve somewhat, and the defensive pressure on the Blue Eagles increased sharply.
In the 78th minute, Mihajlovic, who saw that the situation was a little critical, made two substitutions at the same time, replacing Keita with 20-year-old midfielder Alessandro Murgia, and sending 21-year-old Croatian defender Pulse to replace Felipe Anderson. Changing two strikers at once and adjusting the formation to 4-4-2 looked like it meant to keep the tie. It's a pity that everyone, including Li Mudi, misjudged, and the more exciting part of this game has just begun...... 2510