On Wednesday night, Torino hosted a 16-8 knockout round of the domestic cup on their home turf against Sampdoria, who have been in a standout form this season. In this round of the matchup with the closest strength between the two sides, not many people cared about how the two sides would arrange tactics and lineups at the pre-match press conference, and the reporters instead seized Li Mudi to ask a lot about the various events that happened when he played against Lazio in the last round, and then wanted him to evaluate his feelings about the dismissal of his old rival Miha.

As a man with a vested interest, the Torino coach has always avoided handball in the box and Keita's red card in the spirit of making a fortune in silence. He has been responding with vague words that he will be subject to the referee's on-the-spot decision, and will not have any thoughts about those controversies, completely forgetting his hysterical state when his team was wronged before. Even though he was repeatedly questioned by many reporters for more than ten minutes, and did not say even a word out of place in the end, his ability to deal with these uncrowned kings has indeed increased dramatically.

Prior to this game, Inter and Fiorentina had already reached the quarter-finals first, and if the Red Bulls could progress, they would face Roma, who still have a good chance of winning at home. Considering the league standings of both sides last season, Li Mudi's side will lose the home advantage in a winner-or-lose format, and the situation is not optimistic. (The current choice of venues for the Coppa Italia is based on the league rankings of the two sides last season, and in the two-legged semi-finals, the top-ranked teams will play away and then home, occupying a certain advantage)

With the game time sandwiched between two league rounds, the two teams that are relatively more focused on results in Serie A did not send their full main lineups, Giamboro hid several cores such as Quagliarella, Zapata and Linetti, but there were still strong players such as Paraguay international Barreto and Argentine central defender Silvestre Rayre in the start.

On the other hand, on the home team's side, Li Mudi is more "unrestrained", he once again used a number of young players, 4-3-3 position, goalkeeper Mielinkovic Savic, four defenders Dickman, Goldaniga, Moretti and Dimarco, three midfielders Fabas, Baseli with the injured Moussis, two wingers for Falke and Boyer, and Pieto Pellegri in front. None of the starting eleven started against Lazio last weekend, and if it weren't for the fact that everyone was used to the rotation of the Torino manager, he would have been considered a pure substitute.

But even the seemingly young squad surprised everyone after the start of the game, and just a minute and a half after the referee blew the whistle, the home team used a seemingly lackluster defensive turn to knock on the city guarded by veteran goalkeeper Pugioni, who had just recovered from injury ten days earlier. Barceli sent a brilliant through ball just three steps past the halfway line, the ball slid past the feet of two visiting defenders in quick succession, and traveled to the right side of the penalty area where Pellegri was controlled, and the young man caught up with the opposing goalkeeper to block the angle, leaned on the Brazilian defender Duoduo who was chasing back, adjusted a step slightly and volleyed into the near corner to give the Red Bulls a lightning lead. It was also the first Coppa Italia goal of the youngster's career, and he has gained on all three fronts this season, with the name of talent resounding across the continent after the game.

The goal completely disrupted Sampdoria's pre-match plans, forcing them to invest more in attack for the rest of the game, which gave the home side the opportunity to implement their counter-attacking tactics. However, the players on the field of Torino were still too young, and they missed two good opportunities in succession to extend the score, allowing the opponent to gradually stabilize their emotions and start to gain a certain advantage from the fifteenth minute onwards. In the face of the old and spicy step by step of the away team, Li Mudi instructed the whole team to retreat some more to strengthen the defense first when the defense of his side was a little tight, and first to defend the advantage of one goal before making other plans.

In this way, the game has been showing a situation of the away team attacking the home team for more than ten minutes, until half an hour after the start of the game, Sampdoria saw that the attack could not be carried out for a long time and adjusted its tactics, no longer in a hurry to compress the home team's defense, and the situation on the field returned to a relatively stable, mutual offensive and defensive state. However, with little danger in front of goal, Torino conceded a goal, much to the frustration of all the players who had struggled to resist the onslaught of the opposition before.

In the 35th minute, the visitors won a corner kick on the left side, and the Argentine midfielder Alvarez drove the ball to the right of the penalty area without touching anyone in a great arc, and the right-back Sala who followed up without stopping the ball was a long-range shot. However, his shooting skills are obviously not very good, and he should not have judged the right place to eat the ball, and the ball seemed to be heading towards the left touchline with strong internal spin. But on the way, Musis subconsciously stretched out his foot to block and change the trajectory, and directly bumped into Barreto, who was ambushed at the back point. Faced with the gift, the Paraguayan international was glad to accept it, and he unloaded the ball with his left leg on the line of the six-yard penalty area with a volley immediately afterward. With such a close distance, Torino goalkeeper Savic naturally had no choice but to watch the game on the field be drawn to a draw.

When the opponent began to celebrate the goal, the home team players raised their hands to signal to the referee that it was an offside goal, but Li Mudi could clearly see through the replay of the FM system that the moment Sara touched the ball, Barreto was not offside. Although the Paraguayan was closer to goal than any non-goalkeeper Torino player when the ball hit Musthis's leg, he was not offside because he received a "pass" from the opposition. With the help of VAR, the referee team will naturally not make any mistakes in judgment, and it is a 100% certainty that the two sides are back on the same starting line.

After the same score, Sampdoria stepped up their attack again, and their intention to take advantage of the opportunity to complete the comeback was clear, while the home side once again solidified the back, waiting for the opportunity to attack the opposition goal with the counter-attack. However, neither side could create any more good chances to open the scoring before the break, so they had to return to their dressing rooms to recuperate and meet again a quarter of an hour later.

Li Mudi was not too satisfied with his side's performance in the first half, and many young players played a little too restrained and failed to show their quality in official matches. After a few words of encouragement, he made a slight adjustment to the tactics, requiring the players in the front court to play the technical characteristics and dare to use the breakthrough to tear apart the opponent's defense, and the two wingers and even the center Manuel Pellegri have the ability to force the opponent one-on-one.

Before the start of the second half, Gianpaolo, who saw that he had a chance to win, directly made personnel adjustments, and the main player of the team, Uruguay international Lucas Torreira, came off the bench to replace the local player Capezi, which made their midfield strength improve to a great extent. The visitors also took possession of the ball after the rematch, and frequently played multi-player cooperation in the midfield to try to break through the Red Bulls' defense.

Fortunately, the home team's attention in defense today is still relatively concentrated, and the previous goal was also due to bad luck, and in the rest of the time, the back line led by the old captain Moretti was still very solid, did not make major mistakes, and resolved the opponent's many attacks one by one. On the offensive side of the side, Falke and Boyer also began to implement more individual breakthroughs according to the deployment of the coach, although the success rate will reach 50%, but still contain the opponent's midfielders, so that the two fullbacks of the visiting team do not dare to insert assists too often, which greatly eases the defensive pressure on the backfield.

In the 58th minute, the style of play that the Torino team had been insisting on finally paid off, Falke broke through on the right and crossed diagonally into the box, and Pellegri, who had the ball with his back, was surrounded by two opposing players when he tried to turn and past the central defender Regini who was marking him, and the young man fell to the ground. Referee Abiso, who was standing not far away, immediately blew the whistle and gestured that it was a penalty, causing strong dissatisfaction among the Samp players. Because of Giacomelli's mistake earlier, even Abiso, who was sure that his decision was not wrong, contacted the VAR team on the sidelines through a headset, and a minute later, he was confirmed by his colleagues to once again firmly award the penalty and show a yellow card to Barreto, who had just played very covertly to the Torino striker.

Seeing the already settled visitors, the Red Bulls took the lead again.

Seeing that the situation not only did not develop in the direction he expected, but had a tendency to deteriorate, Gianpaolo couldn't sit still, although he didn't have any thoughts about today's game before the game, so he hid a number of main players, but after seeing the starting lineup of the Torino team, it is inevitable that he will be able to advance to the next round. So the Samp boss immediately sent on Colombian striker Zapata and Uruguayan midfielder Ramirez shortly after the restart, and with the exception of Quagliarella, their midfield configuration was already at the full main level.

In the face of such an opponent, the home team's defense gradually began to struggle a little, allowing the opponent to get three consecutive shots, but fortunately, the teenager Savage was in good form today, and with a little luck help, this was able to maintain the score of 2-1. Li Mudi also made timely adjustments to his line-up, first replacing Boyer with winger Parigini to maintain his individual attacking ability on the left wing, and then allowing Gourcuff, who has been in the team for nearly a month, to make his debut at his new club. The French midfielder replaced the centre-forward Manuel Pellegri and the home team's formation changed to 4-4-2, which can not only increase the number of midfielders, but also use Gourcuff's passing and receiving ability to grasp more of the ball, and rely on two wingers to attack in front.

After the adjustment, the Red Bulls' tactical posture of using defensive counterattacks has become more and more obvious, and the midfield duo composed of Gourcuff and Baseli, although it can only be regarded as conscientious on the defensive end, is extremely effective in connecting the team, especially the former's ball quotient is indeed high, and it is worthy of being favored by the entire football world that year has the opportunity to become Zizou's successor. His precise mid-to-long-range passes helped Falke and Parrigini to threaten on a number of occasions, and on one occasion gave the Torino youngster a golden opportunity to face the visiting goalkeeper directly, but the young man was still weak at the crucial moment and could not completely kill the suspense of the game.

Just when the home team was bemoaning the shot from the goalkeeper's arms, they launched a lethal counter-attack, starting with Pugioni's throw, and in less than ten seconds, the ball entered the Torino penalty area. Ramirez slid into the home side's dangerous zone after a wall link with Zapata, and a somewhat caught off guard Moretti scrambled to intercept it, but failed to touch the ball and tripped the Uruguayan to the ground. It was technically difficult to tell if the attacking player had a chance to dodge, but in the eyes of the referee, it was a foul on the defender, so the penalty was blown again.

Ramirez took the penalty himself, using a 'sudden pause' penalty that Figo and Ramos are good at, but he still couldn't fool the Torino goalkeeper, but Samp's shot from midfield was extremely tricky, and even the more than two-metre tall Mielinkovic Savic couldn't make a save. The ball almost kicked the inside of the right post and into the net, making it 2-2 and the two teams were tied again.

Li Mudi was very disappointed with the goal he conceded, and his own players had the old problem of distraction, and many players were out of position and were directly killed by the opponent in the penalty area, which also buried the hard-won lead. He came to the sidelines to remind everyone to get back to their previous mental state, not to let the opposing players get the opportunity to easily pass through within 30 meters in front of the goal, especially near the top of the arc of the penalty area, so that the away team can go to the side to cross, but the middle must not leave a gap.

After receiving the manager's advice, the home team's defense finally withstood a wave of strong attacks from the opponent, and after seeing that the existing tactics were difficult to work well, Gianpaolo no longer expected to settle the battle in regular time. While Torino's players are generally at an extreme disadvantage in terms of experience, their younger bodies also suggest that they will enjoy a certain physical advantage, and against Sampdoria players with an average age of over 31 years old, the home team will still be able to switch between attack and defense in the final stages of the game, which will leave the visitors on the counter-attack for the time being, leaving Zapata alone in front.

From the 84th minute, the Red Bulls basically formed a siege momentum, but they were never able to break through the opponent's goal again until the second minute of injury time. Gourcuff's cross to the left side of the visitors' box was met by Farke and Regini headed towards the spot, but the ball was intercepted by left-back Mouru from the flank. However, the homegrown player, who rarely started the game, failed to judge the right place and made a fatal mistake in his chest to stop the ball, allowing the ball to touch his right arm. This scene was clearly seen by all those who were locked on him, and Abiso immediately blew the whistle and blew the third penalty of the game!

Although the visiting players still wanted to come forward and argue that it was not a deliberate handball, such a statement obviously failed to impress the black-clad judge. Falke slotted the ball into the bottom left corner of the net, and even though Pugioni was on the right track, he was powerless to prevent the goal. Before the visitors could restart, the whistle sounded at the end of the game. 3-2, the Red Bulls beat Sampdoria on penalties at the last minute and advanced to the quarterfinals of Italy this season.