Chapter 175: Strong Team Heritage
The absence of one man up front didn't affect Lazio's attacking momentum, with Djojevic's header dominance making every cross and set-piece a threat to the visitors, and he came off the bench in the second half, giving him a physical advantage that Torino had to use two defenders to flank him. And because Mobile's speed and ability to strike the last blow are also the top existence in Serie A, no team dares to underestimate him, and this high-level and fast frontcourt combination under Mihajlovic is indeed a headache for Li Mudi. After Jesse came on, the home team shifted the focus of the attack to the more dynamic Spaniard, with Belotti no longer touching the ball too much, and spending the little energy left on the points and finishing in front of goal, while Rajjdzic became the point of contact to contain the opposition defence. As the game drew to a close, the players' stamina was about to be depleted, and both sides simply made up their minds to make a last-ditch fight and fight against each other on the offensive end, but it was clear that the Red Bulls, who had not been able to adjust back to their best, fell into the disadvantage.
In the 79th minute, after receiving a cross from the side of Jesus, Belotti turned and shot near the top of the penalty area, but the ball went wide of the left post. A minute later, the Eagles responded, with youngster Murgia taking the ball to see the home team's players not being well marked, and fired a long-range shot from 28 yards out, but unfortunately it was high over the crossbar. In the 81st minute, Cataldi and Djojevic made a kick to the wall at the edge of the penalty area and then entered the penalty area, the former faced Joe Hart one-on-one and shot low, but the angle was a little blocked by the Torino goalkeeper with his legs, this opportunity was indeed very good, so anxious that Li Mudi kept yelling on the sidelines to reprimand the defenders for not concentrating enough.
But no matter how anxious he was, it was useless, Lazio suddenly adjusted the output to the MAX mode, which made the Torino team, who were still trying to find the field on the offensive end, even more unable to parry for a while, and the situation of the home team suddenly became particularly dangerous. The Torino coach hurriedly signaled to assistant coach Sumfield to bring back the warm-up Febas and he was ready to replace the Serbian winger and change the formation to 4-4-2 to strengthen the defensive depth of the midfield. It's a pity that the substitution procedure was not completed, and the situation on the field changed abruptly. In the 82nd minute, Lulic crossed from the left, and the youngster Murguia, who had been very active for just four minutes, suddenly cut in from the back row and hit a powerful header near the small penalty area, the ball hit Benasi's shoulder and bounced off the bottom line. Lulic then drove another corner down the left and Djojevic burst forward to draw the attention of almost all the Torino defenders, leaving Murgia without a single player to mark when he headed in the six-yard box. 2-1, Lazio reversed the score in the closing stages of the match. It is worth mentioning that this was the youngster's first competitive goal in the senior team. And in the face of this close shot, the England goalkeeper, who had played well before, had no choice but to complain about his team-mates' lack of effort after the goal was scored, and he could only watch the opponent celebrate wildly at his home stadium.
After conceding the goal, the entire Turin Olympic Stadium fell into silence for the first time since the opening kick-off, but moments later erupted in even more startling shouts and cheers, and although there were inevitably boos and curses in between, most of the fans still responded with support, which also made the home team players who were once a little unable to accept the reality quickly cheer up. Li Mudi on the sidelines did not have the previous irritability and dissatisfaction after the score was rewritten, and after signaling Fambas and Avilar to come off the bench to replace Akwa and Barreka, he signaled the players to start a desperate counterattack. Seeing this, Mihajlovic began to direct his team to retreat and try to maintain the lead until the end, but their solidarity in the final moments suffered a fatal blow.
In the 90th minute, Rajadzic received a central transfer from Barcelona and then broke through along the right wing, and the pass on the line of the penalty area hit the arm of Parolo, who came from the defense, and the referee decisively blew a penalty, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the Lazio players and managers. Being sentenced to death at the moment when the game has entered the countdown will naturally be difficult for the leading side to accept, and the referee Giacomelli also did not show another yellow card on the face of this point, otherwise it would really make the Blue Eagles lose and lose.
Torino's top scorer, Belotti, stood in front of 12 yards for the fourth time this season and deceived Marchetti, who lunged down to the left, and calmly slotted the ball into the middle of the net. 2-2, with the last two minutes and 47 seconds of injury time remaining, the two sides fought to a 2-2 draw.
The siege continued on the home side, who were still determined to win all three points, and with the exception of Baseli, Kastan and Joe Hart, the remaining eight players all overwhelmed the opposition's half in an attempt to score again. Unfortunately, the roaring Lazio players of the angry Miha were completely concentrated on returning to defend, and finally failed to let the Torino people get their wish, and after the final whistle blew, the home team's dream of returning to the top of the Serie A table after 35 years was temporarily ruthlessly shattered...... But while everyone lamented the big joke about fate and the crucial moment, the media and other non-Torino supporters came to the conclusion that the team had become a bit scary, and this was the fifth time this season that they had scored in the final moments of a game, even in injury time. In the first round against Milan, a goal in stoppage time and a penalty that was not scored; In this round of big wins over Bologna, two goals were scored after the 80th minute; In the fourth round, Empoli was beaten in the first minute of stoppage time; The fifth round is better, the goal that won Pescara was really scored in the 75th minute, these data all prove that the current red bull has extremely tenacious willpower, which is one of the most basic elements and heritage of whether the team can be promoted to a strong team or even a giant, it is really a big surprise to people who are familiar with what this team looked like before, this Celestial Dynasty has brought such a big impact to Turin in just a few months after entering the team, it is indeed some ability! Unconsciously, Li Mudi's status in the eyes of professionals has improved.
The technical statistics after the game also proved that the two sides were very close, with the home team dominating in shots, pass success and possession, while the visitors were leading in shots on target, header success and tackle success rate, and the result of the draw looked very reasonable, although both managers disagreed. At the press conference held fifteen minutes later, the reporter also tried to start with the relationship between the two people and the content of the game, trying to dig up the news with breaking points. Because Lazio was going to catch a flight back to Rome, so today's order is to be the guest first and then the host, Miha first gave an interview for about half an hour, Li Mudi was not interested in hearing the other party's "foul language" in person, so he comforted the players who were a little depressed in the locker room.
After this game, the Torino team failed to achieve the goal of counterattacking the sworn enemy in the same city, but tied AC Milan with 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses with 19 points, although the goal difference was a large lead, but because of the rules of Serie A, it had to fall from the second to the third place after the last round because of the win-loss relationship between the two sides. About six hours later, Roma beat Palermo 4-1 at home to Palermo, who had just lost to Torino in the previous round, and the Red Wolves also had 19 points, and the goal difference of 12 surpassed Torino at 11 and AC Milan at 6. With the current win-loss relationship between the three teams showing that the red and black beat the red bulls, the red bulls beat the red wolves, and the red and black and the red wolves have not yet played each other, they have to be aggrieved to temporarily rank fourth.
The lads in Turin were frustrated that they had missed out on a chance to reach the top, given that the Old Lady had so few mistakes, and that the last time they had scored at least once in a five-game winning streak was in their first championship season, although they had gone unbeaten in the season. The next four seasons have lost 5, 2, 3 and 5, and even by the worst of them, there are only three defeats left, and the start of this year is already their highest loss rate in the last six seasons, but they are still at the top of the table, which simply does not give any hope to the chasers behind them. Even if the old lady is distracted by the Champions League, with this year's super squad, it seems that even if you use substitutes to play, it will not lose to other teams other than Roma and Napoli, which is really a bug. It is precisely because of these reasons that it is so rare to beat them to the top of the list once, but unfortunately, the Torino team still regretfully passed by it.
In fact, Li Mudi was also difficult to accept this result at the beginning, especially when Murgia scored the goal of the counter-attack, and regretted in his heart that he did not completely change his tactics to defensive counterattacks when he was ahead. But then he silently reflected, when did he think that Torino was qualified to be one of the strongest teams in Serie A? Obviously, the goal set before the start of the season is to secure European qualification, and then see if there is a chance to try for a Champions League spot, with the current squad, it is impossible to challenge Juventus, even if Roma and Napoli are at least one notch stronger than the Red Bulls. It seems that the recent five-game winning streak has made the team, including themselves, have the illusion that they are really strong enough to wrestle with the old woman, or have to remind from time to time to recognize the reality and not overdo it! Only if a team can be able to win without arrogance or discouragement, and can deal with setbacks with a normal heart, a team can have a real strong team heritage, and the head coach is qualified to become a continental-level or even world-class coach.
So the Torino coach, who had already figured it out, began to chat with everyone in the dressing room, trying to relax the players who were out of balance, and they discussed together what kind of hairstyle is suitable for Belotti's long face? Why does Hesse's Italian sound more like French? And the last French teenager to join the team, Issa Diop, has to make multiple phone calls every day, is he in love with several girls at the same time? This series of profound questions made the atmosphere in the room gradually cheerful.
As JesΓ© recounted the boss's troubles in Madrid in his broken Italian, club staff knocked on the door of the home team's dressing room, signaling that it was time for Lee to rush to the media room. Five minutes later, under the light of a flash of lights, the Torino coach sat on the stage and ushered in the reporter's trouble.
"How do you feel about the team's missed chance to climb to the top of the standings?" As expected, this question has become the main concern of everyone. Li Mudi, who had already typed the draft, picked up the microphone on the table very casually and answered in two very simple sentences: "I don't have any feelings." There is an old saying in the Celestial Empire that 'the first to win is the paper, and the last to win is the money', so I am only interested in the league standings at the end of May next year. β
"But don't you think this opportunity is too rare for the Torino team who haven't been able to stand at the top of their ranks for 35 years? If you miss today, you don't know how many years the club and the fans will have to wait for that opportunity to come across again, so don't you worry about the mentality of the players or the disappointment of the fans? β
"We Red Bulls play official games and only care about wins and final results, not as much as other people care about this and that, and the same goes for the supporters who live and die with the club, so no one cares too much about who is at the top of the table after a round in the middle of the season. As for the mentality of the players and fans, is it a disappointing report that we have managed to score 2.11 points and 2.44 goals in each of our nine games? I don't think anyone other than the scheming and brain-developing people will think that we have disappointed them! "Li Mudi's taunting ability when he is unhappy is still at the master level.
"So how does Coach Lee feel about not being able to beat Mihajlovic at home against Lazio?"
'Still don't feel like it, the Lazio players played a great game and I congratulate them on taking a valuable point from us and I'm looking forward to the second leg of the showdown.' The Torino manager's answer was still so concise.
However, the reporter is naturally unwilling to get any "big news": "Mr. Mihajlovic believes in the interview just now that his team will not be able to score all three points because of the absence of several important main players, what does Coach Li think of this view?" β
"Everyone has the right to say what they think, so he said, I close my eyes and don't look, next one!" Domineering, there is wood!
The Torino coach's attitude of "non-violent non-cooperation" seemed to be becoming more and more evident in his press conference. 4610