Chapter 222: Living Up to Expectations
The goal was a great deal for Limudi, and at the moment Petagna kicked the goal, five Atalanta players appeared in the Torino penalty area, while there were only one more defenders than them, including Silvestri who did not make a difference due to his poor positioning. In other words, the five attacking players of the visiting team are all in a one-on-one situation, you must know that this is in the penalty area where the defender does not dare to easily kick down, the situation is completely controlled by the opponent, how can this make the Torino coach not rush to criticize others loudly for not being able to return to the defense in time?
And Joe Hart's performance today is not in a state of god-possession, although the ball was blocked by Silvestri and was a little late when the ball was found, but a goalkeeper broke through the opponent's near corner, which is somewhat responsible. However, Li Mudi can't force too much, as a foreigner who didn't know a word of Italian four or five months ago, England's current performance is already qualified, but unfortunately he still has to go through another run-in after five months.
Just three days ago, Valentino Cairo had officially informed the Torino boss that the club had not been able to agree on a post-transfer salary with Joe Hart's agent, so after the end of his loan spell on June 30, he would return to the Blues, and according to Sky Sports, West Ham will bring in the goalkeeper, who has completely lost Pep Guardiola's trust, this summer.
Shaking his head and putting aside the thoughts in his mind about next season's starting goalkeeper, Li Mudi returned his attention to the field, and with the dissatisfaction he had just expressed, the Torino players began to further intensify their scrambles, and in the 69th minute, Rossettini was shown a yellow card for making too big a move. However, the effect is still very obvious, originally after the equalizer morale, ready to take the opportunity to suppress the home team, Atalanta simply could not organize a decent offensive out, and today's referee Frelini's whistle is very soft, not very like to play cards, so the Torino team with a momentum on the field gradually took the initiative in their own hands.
In the 72nd minute, Belotti won a rare header in the box, but his form today was very average from the start, and this time the header from near the penalty spot went over the crossbar and did not cause any problems for the visiting goalkeeper. Two minutes later, Farke's long-range shot also missed the post, which prompted Li Mudi to immediately replace the Spanish winger with some physical problems with Rajjadzic, and then Jesse switched places with the new Serbian winger to continue to threaten on the flanks.
In order to retain the strength of the front court to see if there is a chance to take all three points, Gasperini has successively replaced the two starting lines with the small winger Da Alessandro from the Roma Academy and Serbian striker Pesic. Li Mudi also played all the cards in his hand, with two former Castilian team-mates, Febas and Vallejo coming on in place of Las Diarra and Rosettini.
Because most of the players on the field are no longer very precise in their technical movements, the Torino boss instructed his players to use the old routine of combining wide crosses with long-range shots, these tactics are their most proficient, and the requirements for detail are not high, and if they are lucky, the probability of scoring is definitely much higher than other attacking methods. The crowd immediately saw the home side's two flanks come alive again, with all three midfielders possessing a degree of organisation and long-range ability, helping Jesse on the right and Bareka on the left to get plenty of crosses.
Although Conte and Spinazzola have both retreated to the defence to play the role of full-back, they have not been able to stop the ball from flying into their penalty area, but fortunately, all three central defenders have returned to the middle of the pitch and have not been able to give the red babe who has the best header ability on the continent to get any chance.
However, without the support of the two wings, Atalanta's own attack can no longer form a team combination, and the forward midfielder Kurtic has returned to the middle of the midfield to help the team's defense, and there is really nothing to do with the Torino backline with only two new strikers. After Barreca's frequent assists, the trio of Ranocchia, Vallejo and Silvestri, together with the three central midfielders who came back to help, formed a very reliable defensive system, so that the visiting players only had two extremely reluctant chances, one was weak and easy to get by Joe Hart, and the other hit the anti-aircraft gun. Seeing this situation, the coach felt that the chance of scoring another goal to overtake the score should not be too big, so he decisively signaled that except for the two strikers, all the rest of the people would return to their own half to try to save a draw.
However, his wish was still not realized, or luck was still on the side of Li Mudi, and with a slight home advantage, the score changed in the 84th minute.
Barreca's Nth cross failed to find the top of Belotti's head and was cleared out of the box by Caldara, and in the fight for the second spot, Benassi and Kessie both fell to the ground together, and the referee stopped the game and awarded the home team a set-piece, which caused displeasure among the Atalanta players. The broadcaster's slow motion showed both players pulling and pulling on their hands as they grabbed the ball, and it was indeed unfair to blow for a foul on the Ivorian midfielder. And it turned out that it was this slightly controversial decision that tipped the scales of the game.
Baseli's free-kick headed straight for the back of the penalty area, and the 1.95m-tall former Inter captain scrambled to the spot in the crowd, when a lion swung his head and smashed the ball into the top left corner of Atalanta's goal. Berisha's flying save touched the ball, but it was too powerful to knock it out of the goal, and eventually rolled into the net with the ball. At 2-1, the Red Bulls regained their previous magic and scored a crucial goal in the closing stages of the game for the second consecutive game, almost killing their opponents.
Although he felt a lot of grievances about the goal conceded, Gasperini was still very unhappy with the negligence of the visiting players, he ran to the sideline and yelled at Sukarnovic, who had made a mistake in the position, and then waved his hand to instruct the team to press and try to equalize again in the remaining time.
It stands to reason that this should have been an excellent opportunity for Torino to counterattack, after all, the opponent has pressed all the lines except for the three central defenders, but the physical fitness of Belotti and Jesse is no longer able to complete the extreme sprint, and the newly substituted Rajadzic has no advantage in speed, so he can only watch the door of the beautiful woman on the opposite side open, but he is powerless...... So Li Mudi also made adjustments to his own tactics - put the bus! The full retreat is even more thorough than that of Atalanta just now, and there is no one left in front of the midfield line, and it is estimated that the fans of the visiting team will scold "stinky and shameless" in their hearts after seeing it.
So in the next eight minutes, including injury time, the field almost formed a half-court siege situation, but the home team is not blindly defending, after getting the ball, it can still consume some time through proper possession, but Atalanta's counter-robbery action on the spot is very large, and the referee's penalty scale is larger, so it was still suppressed by the away team on the field. However, due to physical limitations, although five chances were formed in the final moments of the game, Joe Hart did not cause any problems under the strict defense of the Torino team, and both shots on target were easily denied by him.
In the end, in the fear of the fans and hundreds of millions of spectators, the Red Bull still managed to hold the score of 2-1 without danger, and in addition to the success of avenging the regretful defeat at the beginning of the season, it also gave a small gift to the Chinese all over the world during the Spring Festival.
In terms of post-match statistics, the two sides are evenly matched in various statistics, the main links are almost the same, and the number of shots on goal and shots on target is exactly the same, both of which are 6 out of 14; With possession 49.3% to 50.7%, Atalanta narrowly leads; In addition, the home team has a slight advantage in pass success rate and tackle success rate, and a draw seems to be the more reasonable outcome overall. However, with the support of the people of the motherland and the help of good luck in the Lunar New Year, the Red Bulls still had the last laugh in this strong matchup, and it is no wonder that their head coach is so happy.
When the coaches of the two sides shook hands after the game, Gasperini complained unhappily that the referee's decision was unfair, and Li Mudi, who took advantage of a little cheap, had to quip: "I have 1.4 billion people of the Celestial Dynasty behind me, and such a strong backing can always bring some good luck, haha!" ”
At the post-match press conference, the two managers began to praise each other again, before they were unanimously looked down on by the outside world, and the coach even let the media sentence after 1 win and 4 losses in the first five rounds, until the results of the two teams went all the way up in November to be recognized by everyone. In addition, Li Mudi has repeatedly supported each other in order to "pretend to be a god stick", so that these two people who have no intersection before have now become good friends, so although the away coach still inevitably complained euphemistically when answering questions, today's referee made a lot of mistakes that should not have been, but still praised Li Muddy's coaching ability a lot, saying that Torino and Atalanta are the favorites to compete for European qualification, and wished the opponent good luck all the way.
The Torino coach, as the host and the protagonist of the day, was still relatively modest, praising the opponent well, and then praising the tenacious performance of the home team's players today, and finally expressing deep gratitude to the fans from his home country. At the end of the press conference, the Turin Club sent three fresh stuffed dumplings that had just come out of the pot to the reporters on the scene, two or three for each person, which was regarded as the blessing of the Oriental New Year for them as Westerners.
Li Mudi did not leave directly, but found another conference room to accept a joint interview with a number of Celestial Empire media reporters, after all, it was just in time for the first day of the Lunar New Year, and before that, there was *** for the Turin club and the head coach to stand on the stage, so he began to thank the party, the leadership, and the people here, regardless of the nervousness that had been tense all night.
After this game, the two meetings between Torino and Atrada this season have ended, with both sides winning one game each, and the score is also 2-1, which is another equal. Coupled with the fact that the home team won 3-2 in the previous two-legged tie with AC Milan, Li Mudi's players have erased the disadvantages of the win-loss relationship between the two sides, and in the link where only goal difference and goals are compared, the Torino team currently has a large lead, which also lays a good foundation for the future standings in the standings.
On the evening of the same day, Italian time, there was another good news in the two league games that kicked off later, Lazio bombarded 28 shots on their home ground but failed to knock on Chievo's goal, but the opponent succeeded in the 90th minute, and the score was 0-1 in the gutter, so that the points were overtaken by the Torino team. And because Inter Milan beat the league vice-captain Pescara 3-0 at home, Mihajlovic's team suddenly fell from the previous fourth to sixth, and even the cup was double.
After the game, the Italian media surprisingly did not focus on the game, but used a lot of ink to introduce the oriental New Year decorations in the Turin Olympic Stadium, and gave a popular science lecture to the local people who did not know much about the Celestial Empire before, making a certain contribution to the cultural exchanges between the two countries.
A day later, the remaining seven games of the 22nd round of the league also came to a conclusion, and to everyone's surprise, except for the old lady who won 2-0 away from Sassuolo, the other traditional powerhouses did not win. Fiorentina and Napoli were both held to draw at home by teams inferior to them, while visiting Roma and AC Milan were both defeated, both of which were reversed by their opponents. As a direct result of this result, Juventus, who had just been a little nervous about the approaching pursuit of the team, extended their lead again, and they picked up 51 points with a game in hand, with Roma and Napoli in second and third place on 47 and 45 points respectively. In addition, Torino and Inter Milan both won 12, drew 5 and lost 5, squeezing into the European qualification circle, with the former in fourth place with a two-goal difference. However, their position is not secure, with the Rossoneri, who have slipped to ninth, currently have 36 points and a game in hand, and are likely to catch up soon.