Chapter 198: Another Fiasco
While even Belotti had dropped back to the midfield circle to take part in the siege, Maurizio Sarri was smart enough to avoid Torino's right flank and instead focus his attack on the latter's left. Because Farke needs to be ready to counterattack at all times, the defensive pressure on this side is concentrated on the full-back Barreca, although the midfielders Baseli and Akwa can come over from time to time to help, but under the deliberate involvement and cover of the home team's players, the Torino youngster can only accept the impact of Insigne and Callejon, two wingers with different styles.
In the thirteenth minute, Insigne's bottom cross was barely blocked by Barekka, and the home team immediately took a tactical corner, Callejon passed the ball to Gulang who came to meet and made a backward feint, and then suddenly a reverse run deceived the defense of Barreka, and directly got up and crossed after receiving Gulang's through stop. At this time, the defenders in the penalty area have been confused by the erratic running of four or five players of the home team, just leaking the space in the middle of the small penalty area, and through slow motion afterwards, it was recognized that Mertens was rushing from the other side, and rushed to mark his Barcelona before the ball came out with a welcome blast to hit the ball into the door of the visiting team from the middle, and Joe Hart was helpless in the face of such a close attack.
Just as Torino were about to tighten their grip on the ball and organise a wave of attacks, Bruno Perez made a mistake in his pass up front, and Hamsik's long over-the-top pass gave Mertens the chance to use his speed to hit the opposition goal. However, when it was not clear whether he could control the ball in the penalty area, Barreka, who had been defending against the Belgian, had a physical collision with the former, and was suspected of pushing the center of the home team behind him, and was sentenced to death by the referee without hesitation. The foul was somewhat controversial because the Torino left-back's movement was not obvious, and Mertens apparently had a sudden deceleration before going to the ground, but it was not enough to cancel the penalty. The Belgian winger stepped up to the penalty spot, deceived the England international and slotted the ball into his own bottom left. At 2-0, just three minutes after the first goal, the score was rewritten again.
This goal suddenly overwhelmed the away team players, unable to hold on, and the attack was counterattacked, how can people live? Li Mudi on the sidelines had to instruct the players on the field to slow down the pace of the game, not to fight with the opponent to attack and defend quickly, the state of the Napoli midfielders in this game is mostly amazing, and speeding up the conversion can only make the opponent find a feeling of being at home, maybe it doesn't take half time to turn the red bull into a dead cow. But he never imagined that the sharp blade that was inserted into the heart of his team would come so quickly.
In the 22nd minute, it was another offensive and defensive transition, even if the away team players wanted to slow down the pace of the game, but the opponent did not agree! Hamsik dribbled all the way to the top 10 metres of the penalty area under the cover of his team-mates, and he fired a powerful long-range shot with his right foot into the top right corner, where Joe Hart struggled to save the ball but couldn't get it far and the ball was back on the right side of the box. And at the moment when the Slovakia international shot at goal, because the left-back Bareka dragged at the back, so that the clever Mertens was not offside, and when the latter hit the second point at high speed, the Turin youngster who was closest to him also raised his hand to signal offside, while looking at the linesman on this side for affirmation, but unfortunately the result disappointed him.
After Mertens won the ball on the line of the small penalty area, the Torino goalkeeper who got up quickly calmly made a fake shot and real dunk, deceived the opponent and then sent a push with his left foot, but was stopped by a desperate sliding tackle from Rosettini, who rushed back in time to make up for the defense. However, as if it were fate, the ball returned to the Belgian once again, and this time his stab was finally undisturbed, and the miracle of scoring a hat-trick in two consecutive games was achieved.
Facing a strong opponent in excellent form away from home, and three goals down, the difficulty of this game is a little too great, and the players in Torino say that Yali Mountain is big. Li Mudi also faced such a difficult situation for the first time after crossing over and becoming the head coach, and for a while, he didn't know what to do or what he could do like a headless fly. At this point, assistant coach Sumfield approached and asked if he wanted to bring on the battered left-back Bareka, after all, the 21-year-old had just become a key rotation player in the team this season, and his experience was still blank, and it was difficult to withstand such a setback. However, there was only one player on the bench, Brazilian Avilar, who was suitable for this position, and his form has been poor, and it is difficult to say what the consequences will be after sending him on the field, so after thinking about it for about half a minute, the team boss still shook his head and rejected the suggestion. After all, it looks impossible to get back this game, and it can be considered a slight gain to be able to use this opportunity to develop young players.
Napoli, who are leading by a large score, are not ready to relax, and are still actively looking for opportunities in the midfield, looking like they want to take revenge on the deep vengeance of the old-timers who were washed in blood 11-0 88 years ago. This move provoked a strong sense of indignation among the Torino players, who immediately became more ferocious in the scramble, and although the number of fouls increased dramatically, it also deterred the home team players from doing extreme maneuvers easily.
In the 24th minute, Insigne sent in a cross from the left, Mertens cut in and fired straight before Kastan blocked it, but the ball went wide of the bottom line. Four minutes later, it was Insigne's breakthrough again, Callejon won the ball in the penalty area, first slammed Rosettini with his right foot, and then hit the goal with his left foot, but unfortunately it was blocked by Bareka who flew to block the gun's eye. In the 32nd minute, it was Insigne who launched an offensive, he did not find a good way to get the ball out of the right side of the penalty area, so he chose to force an inside cut and attack the goal directly, and the ball was lifted off the crossbar by Joe Hart, who was in a good position; Two minutes later, Callejon's high-speed dribble was left in place by Rostini and the referee showed the latter the first yellow card of the game. In the 38th minute, Hamshik took a step forward in the middle circle to send a delicate pick-up pass, Insigne did not choose to stop the ball to wait for his teammates to respond after inserting it on the left side of the penalty area, but directly volleyed a left-footed volley, but unfortunately failed to kick the ball on the spot, resulting in the ball only hitting the side netting.
By half-time, the visitors had just two shots on goal and failed to hit the target, while the home side were 6-of-11 and extremely efficient. Napoli had a big lead in pass success rate, tackle success rate and possession rate, and they also went to the next extreme, destroying all of Torino's crosses, making the latter's cross success rate an embarrassing zero. Maurizio Sarri really managed to firmly suppress the opponent with a super sharp attack, coupled with a solid backline, Li Mudi's tactical ideas were indeed targeted a little badly.
Back in the dressing room, the Torino coach first signaled everyone to relax, "Although the score of 0-3 is very ugly, this is not the end of the world, the team's recent results are indeed not very good, but the biggest problem is our own mentality and physical condition. Now that today's game has been played like this, it is better for everyone to let go of the burden of being slaughtered, go all out to attack in the second half of the game, even if it is a big defeat in the end, don't be afraid to go down, just make adjustments for the league in the future. ”
After Li Mudi's enlightenment, the psychological state of the Torino players has obviously improved a lot, and they can finally stand on the ball in the midfield after the rematch. They have started to keep a close eye on the heart of the home team, Hamsik, who is in his tenth season with the Napoli captain, who has made more than 400 appearances for the White Dolphins in all competitions, scored 98 goals and helped them win the Coppa Italia twice. In the pre-season Sky Sports broadcast "Read. In the "Bing Program", the host described the team as "an iron-clad midfield captain and an excellent striker in the flowing water", and after the departure of Ravic, Cavani and Higuain at a high price, the Slovakian international is still holding his ground. Last season, Hamsik was a full-time player in the league, scoring six goals and providing 11 direct assists, arguably the team's most indispensable engine. In addition to the first of the three goals in the first half of the game, the remaining two were also planned by him, so it was necessary to contain this powerful threat point, so under the entanglement of three midfielders, the home team's midfield organization had to be handed over to the Brazilian-born but Italian midfielder Jorginho.
Just when Napoli was still in the stage of adapting to the "new core", the Torino team found the opportunity to open the scoring with a resolute counter-attack. In the 57th minute, Bruno Perez made a successful tackle at the back and drove the ball all the way to the opposition half, passing the ball outside the penalty area to Benasi, who took the ball into the box and sent a brilliant cross to the left side with three defenders trapped, Belotti flanked at the back post and stabbed the ball into the home goal before Reina could make amends. At 3-1, the two-goal gap seemed to rekindle the visitors' hopes of an equaliser.
Five minutes after his goal, Li Mudi replaced Akwa, who was a little too strong to keep up, with Vives, a match-up adjustment, and he hoped that the team's first captain could continue to target the core of the opposition midfield to disrupt the home team's attacking organization. However, Napoli's strength proved to lie in the depth of the squad of players, and they soon formed the most basic tacit understanding with the newly appointed "midfield dispatcher" Jorginho, and the attacking finishing gradually regained its feeling.
In the 70th minute, Mertens dribbled the ball to the edge of the box and split it to the right, Callejon sent a nanny-style cross, and the central defender Kirikesh, who was inserted at the back post, easily pushed the ball into the empty net. At 4-1, Napoli once again pulled the gap back to three goals.
However, Kastan's tackle two minutes later disrupted the game again, as he was booked and brought off Jorginho, who had just found his core form, and Maurizio Sarri had to send Guinean defender Amadou Diaara off the bench, while Li Mudi also replaced the licensed Brazilian centre-back with veteran Moretti after the next dead kick to avoid being sent off. The home team then made another personnel change, with Brazilian defender Allan Marques Loureiro replacing Poland international Zielinski in the starting line-up, looking like he was going to be solid defensively.
However, the diminutive midfielder had just been on the pitch for a minute before he was hit in the header and his foul on the left side of the box gave Torino a well-placed set-piece. Benasi's long pass failed and was easily saved by Reina, who was in front of him, but the Spanish goalkeeper somehow triggered the butter hand skill and let the ball out of his control at the moment of falling to the ground. Just as he made a second reaction and stretched out his right hand to get it back into his arms, the away team's central defender Rosstini in front of him quickly stretched out his left foot and stabbed the ball from under the goalkeeper into the empty goal. Judging from the slow motion given in the broadcast screen, Reina only had contact with the ball with his right hand at that time, and could not form complete control, so the effective penalty of the goal was very correct.
The score difference between the two sides returned to two goals again, but there were only more than ten minutes left in the game, which was really bad for the backward Red Bulls. Just four minutes later, however, Napoli showed how naïve it is to want to leave the Sao Paulo Stadium with points. The home side attacked from the right side of the pitch, and Algerian right-back Elseid Hysaj, who had come up with the assist, passed the ball to Callejon on the line of the box, who kept the ball and knocked it to Mertens in the middle, and the two men immediately made a cross run. Just when everyone thought the Belgian would look for a cross, he fired a beautiful high lob that went past Joe Hart, who was unprepared, and into the back corner of the net. In addition to scoring a quadruple of bare games, Mertens himself also helped Callejon complete a hat-trick of assists. 5-2, the two sides seemed to start a goal battle in the second half, and one goal maintained the score difference at the end of the half.
And in the end, it was the Torino players who had completely relaxed to put an end to this super wonderful feast. In the 83rd minute, the away team took a set-piece in the front, the ball flew to the right side of the penalty area in the front of the big penalty area, and Falke, who was fast and killed, wanted to pass back to the middle with a barb before the ball went out of the bottom line, but Callejon implemented a slight push after getting up, and was caught by the referee in front of him, penalty! Belottti, the team's top scorer, felt that his physical strength was a bit too much and he was afraid of an accident when shooting, so he handed the penalty to the Spanish winger who created the opportunity, who accurately converted the penalty into the top left corner of the goal. The score difference between the two sides came to two goals again, and the commentaries of the broadcasters were amazed.
Unfortunately, with Maurizio Sarri replacing Insigne with Emanuele Giaccherini, Napoli no longer invested too much in the attack, but only used the individual ability of the three players in the front field to play a few counterattacks, and Mertens, who was not satisfied, missed twice in succession. In the face of the home team's tight defense, Torino did not have the physical strength to attack, and the final score of this game was fixed at 5-3.