Chapter 461: Third place in Serie A
Whether it is from the importance of the incident or from the perspective of personal feelings, the defeat in the Italian Cup final can be said to be the biggest setback that Li Mudi encountered before and after the crossing. Of course, this also has something to do with the fact that his previous life experience was dull, so the impact of this blow was really big for him.
tried his best to take out all the abilities he had at the moment, but he was still knocked down head-on by his opponent and couldn't find any excuse for losing. Even if you are like the fans of Juventus and Bayern, you can use the referee's care and UEFA's dark box operation to accuse Real Madrid of not winning the game, and you can still vent the frustration in your heart. But at least in this Italian Cup final, the Torino team can't find any excuse to question the use of off-board moves by the city's sworn enemies, and even the most hostile to Juventus can't say that the opponent's championship has water, which can be regarded as a complete defeat of the Red Bull?
Please, how could it be! Even when they were relegated to the second division, Torino and its supporters would not bow down in front of the old woman, not to mention that the overall strength of the two teams is now so close.
Many fans don't think the gap between first and third in Serie A is not huge, but the content shown in this direct conversation is still very rich in the eyes of professionals.
In the case of the very unstable state of the Milan duo, the decline of the Roma duo due to financial reasons, and the imminent disintegration of Napoli's failure to win the title, many people were originally optimistic about the opportunity to succeed and become the next Torino team that can challenge the Juventus dynasty, but they were beaten with a big bag. The Italian media can't help but claim that next season may be the same as the Bianconeri's various consecutive titles, and the only variable is whether Allegri will stay and whether they have a chance to break through in the Champions League.
However, these people obviously underestimated Li Mudi's ambitions, and this Celestial Empire man, who has always kept a low profile, although he was depressed for a day after the final because his heart was not strong enough, quickly regained his strength.
After learning about her boyfriend's condition, Lin Yuna wanted to fly back to Europe immediately to accompany her, but her career in Asia was at a peak. After that, she also received an invitation to play the role of the female number one in a movie in Kimchi Country, as well as the heroine of a TV series, and her work schedule was arranged with almost no personal time. At this time, Li Mudi naturally would not allow himself to drag down his girlfriend's career progress, decisively stopped Lin Yuner's "skipping work", and quickly stabilized his mentality.
Although the domestic cup competition fell ahead of the trophy, he and his team have six days to go in the Europa League final, and a win over Atletico Madrid will still be a successful season, even if the opponent is not as easy to play against as Juventus.
The Torino boss spent almost the whole day in Sunday's training session to boost the morale of his players, and many of the young players were the first to experience something that was just one step away from glory, and naturally they were also deeply affected and needed timely attention. The veteran players are much better, and veterans like Cassie are used to seeing the gains and losses on the football field, so a complete defeat did not affect his mood too much. And Belotti and other Italian players have also improved their mentality to resist blows after losing their qualification for the World Cup last year, and they can hold on.
And there was a more important game waiting for them in six days, which also diverted everyone's current mood, so the atmosphere in the team quickly returned to normal.
The league postponed to Monday because of the Coppa Italia final has not received much special attention, firstly, because the third place in the league is almost secure, unless the team loses to two relegation teams in succession, SPAL and Genoa, and Roma can win Juventus and Sassuolo in a row, Torino will definitely improve their position this season compared to last year. The second is that although the next opponent is fighting for relegation, the two cores in the front and back court have to miss this game due to injury or accumulated yellow cards, and the probability of the red bulls missing the front hooves is really small to a certain extent.
Therefore, Li Mudi, who does not have too much pressure, can reduce tactical drills, and instead focus on adjusting the players' psychology and competitive state, and make sufficient preparations for the final showdown with Atletico Madrid on the night of the 16th.
But the lack of attention from Torino's supporters doesn't mean that there is a lack of excitement in this round of Serie A, in fact, the attraction of the last Champions League spot and the relegation battle has guaranteed excellent ratings for most of the games, not to mention the Napoli competitions that still haven't given up their last hope of winning the title.
As the highlight of Sunday's game, Maurizio Sarri led the White Dolphins to a top Italian team away from home, and the 2-0 score was not enough to give those who didn't watch the stream a sense of how strong their desire for the league title is. The result also announced Sampdoria's complete absence from next season's European competition, and Jamboul's side finally collapsed in the second half of the season due to squad deficiencies after their best performance in nearly a decade in the early part of the season, unfortunately missing the opportunity to add more income to the club.
Uruguay international Andreas Torreira, Colombian centre-forward Zapata and homegrown centre-back Ferrari have all become coveted targets for other teams, and considering that they have sold Skriniar, Muriel and Schick last year, Sampdoria, a team that has hoped for a resurgence may only be able to continue to accumulate strength and stumble on the fate of mid-table league.
None of the teams at the top of the table have been able to win this round, which is somewhat surprising. Inter Milan, who were sprinting for Champions League qualification, did not perform well in this round, and were forced to 1-1 at home by Sassuolo, failing to take advantage of the advantage of finishing the game first to overtake the Roma team. The latter, who were against Juventus in this round and had been postponed to Monday due to the Coppa Italia final, was supposed to be a great chance for the Nerazzurri to return to fourth place, but Spalletti's side dropped the chain at a crucial moment, much to the disappointment of all Nerazzurri.
AC Milan and Atalanta, the two opponents in the battle for seventh place in the league, met head-to-head in this round, and whoever wins will occupy a strong position in the European competition, and in the end, the Rossoneri stubbornly held on to a 1-1 draw and continued to beat Poseidon Son by one point (60 to 59). In the final round, as long as they can win the purple lily at home, AC Milan will return to European competition after two seasons.
Fiorentina's performance was similar to Inter Milan's, and it should have been a great opportunity for them to catch up on points, but after a shock home defeat to Cagliari, the Purple Lily, who were stuck at 57 points, were left with only a theoretical chance of finishing seventh in the league. That would require them to win away at AC Milan in a week's time, while Atalanta will have to lose away to Cagliari, and it is unclear if the late captain Astori's spirit will be in power to bless his team and team-mates with what they want.
Cagliari's surprise win helped them stay out of the relegation zone, and although they are still not completely out of danger, with the advantage of the two teams two points behind them, SPAL and Crotone, the only team from Sardinia only needs one more point to go ashore, and the prospect of relegation is still relatively clear.
Another team on the positive side is Chievo, who moved up two places from the bottom of the table with a 2-1 win at Bologna to move off the edge of the cliff with a point of victory over a hopeless Bologna side. Next weekend, the Flying Donkeys will welcome Benevento, the vice-president of the league, at home, who has no reason to give up all his strength to fight to the death, so Chievo's relegation market is still very optimistic about everyone.
In fact, Crotone, who drew with Lazio in this round, is the team that everyone thinks is the most likely to be relegated, and although they completed an incredible comeback last year and succeeded in the final round of relegation, the difficulties this year are too great. Because their last opponent was Napoli, who still had their championship hopes, and the venue was the Sao Paulo Stadium, no one thought that such an incident would happen between two teams with a world of difference.
And Spal's luck is much better, the remaining two opponents are Torino and Sampdoria, who have nothing to compete for, even if they lose, they can have a great chance of using the advantage of the record of the two sides to fight directly to suppress Crotone, it can be said that the suspense of relegation is not very big.
On Monday evening, Roma welcomed old rivals Juventus on their home turf, resulting in a very dull game. Although they were all in the game, the tactical choices of the managers of both sides, especially Allegri, were very conservative and did not seem to want to go all out to win. The result was a 0-0 draw, which resulted in both teams scoring a point each, and while disappointing the fans, both achieved their goals.
The Bianconeri are two points ahead of Napoli at the end of the game and host relegation-definite Verona in the final round, with the honour of a seventh consecutive league title almost in their pockets. The Red Wolves will not be unhappy with the draw, and with a two-point lead over Inter, they only need to win away at Sassuolo, who were relegated early, six days later, to secure the last Champions League ticket, and no key players are injured or suspended, which is the best news for the club as a whole.
And this draw also led to the Torino team to lock up the third place in Serie A this season one round earlier without playing, which can be regarded as a big encouragement. With the goal of adjusting their form for the Europa League final, the Red Bulls faced SPAL at home on Monday night, who looked like they were still trying to fight, and with some rotation players and a lineup that only played half a game in the front court, they still controlled the situation on the court.
With the core of Matchley and Fabas out of the duo, Torino had 71 per cent possession in the first half and had a huge advantage in both passing and shooting.
Although the visiting team's homegrown midfielder Alberto Grassi, who is on loan from Napoli, hit the leg of Dickman in the 22nd minute of the first half, and the line changed the line, so that Savic Jr., who started in place of Casey, could not save and was knocked on the first goal. However, Immobile equalised six minutes later through a team effort when he received an inverted triangle pass from Febas after breaking through to the left flank, and with a calm push from his striker Manuel Pellegri, he comfortably scored his 29th league goal of the season with a calm push, leading the scorers by one goal.
The score of 1-1 was maintained until half-time, and the home team players who did not have any pressure to win began to practice some offensive routines that they rarely had the opportunity to use in actual battles after the opponent sacrificed the bus tactics, but the effect was not very satisfactory.
However, this did not prevent Li Mudi from replacing Immobile and Baseli with Belotti and Benassi before the rematch, and for the final in three days, the 45-minute low-intensity game can be a very good warm-up, and the Torino coach naturally will not let the core he rely on because he is too nervous or relaxed and has problems with his form.
And then it turned out that in the face of an all-round opponent, the point-grabbing center is better than the speed type. In the 64th minute, Red Bebe pressed two defenders in a scramble for a header and headed Dimarco's wide cross into the away goal. Unfortunately, his luck was a little less on this occasion as the ball hit the crossbar and landed near the goal line, only to be narrowly cleared by Torino Academy goalkeeper Alfredgomis. Slow-motion replays from both the baseline referee and the broadcaster proved that it was indeed not a goal, with less than a quarter of the football crossing the goal line.
But just four minutes later, Belotti seized the opportunity to make it 2-1. Benassi sent a through ball in front of the penalty area, and after Febas successfully countered offside, he almost replicated the first-half goal, and his inverted triangle in front of the baseline helped the red babe to catch up with the horse, and completed a left-footed shot from eight yards out at the near post. The ball slipped under the Spal goalkeeper's crotch and hit the net behind him, and the visitors' plans to pick up points were dealt a serious blow.
But that's not all, in the 87th minute, the Torino team actually completed an almost identical attack, fixing the score at 3-1. The assist was set up by Belotti, who found his way to the ball on the left side of the box by shaking and curling a powerful low cross that collided with Silvestri's right instep shot in front of a defender.
The ball was too fast and too close for Gomis to react at all, and the ball raced past him into the visitors' goal to declare the game decided.
In the end, last season's Serie B champion SPAL, who was still in danger of relegation, was beaten by the Red Bulls with the same set of three goals in a row on the road, missing the chance to earn points. With the final round of the league remaining, although the situation is still more in their favor, no one can be sure whether the goddess of fate will make a joke at the last minute, and the suspense of relegation still exists.
And Li Muddy is ready for his first European final journey after several goals have been achieved relatively smoothly. The core players are in excellent physical condition, with only Dickman, who was replaced by Silvestri, suffering a minor leg injury, but it will not have much impact on the game three days later.
After confirming their highest league ranking in the club's 27-year history, the Red Bulls have turned their full attention to Lyon, France, where the first continental trophy in the club's history awaits them.