On August 31, when Li Mudi was busy because of Chelsea's offer of Zampacosta, at 20 o'clock in the evening of the capital time of the Celestial Dynasty and 14 o'clock in the afternoon of Italian time, the national football team sat in the Jiangcheng Sports Center and ushered in the battle of life and death in the 9th round of Group A of the top 12 of the World Cup Asian qualifiers. Before the start of this game, Lippi's team was sixth and last in the group with 6 points from 1 win, 3 draws and 4 losses, exactly 6 points behind Uzbekistan in third place.

Because the work was so busy that day, the Torino coach didn't have time to watch the live broadcast of the game at all, so he took the time to check the Internet on his mobile phone in the afternoon and found out that he finally won. In the 81st minute, Feng Xiaoting was knocked down by the opponent's defender in the opponent's penalty area, and the referee decisively awarded a penalty. Then Gao Lin took the penalty overnight and helped the national football team take the lead in the original evenly matched situation. In the end, they stubbornly held on to their hard-earned victory, holding themselves in a position where they were holding onto the edge of the cliff with one hand.

In the other two games that ended at the same time, Kimchi Nation, which was in dire need of three points to lock up the second place in the group, failed to seize the opportunity at home and was forced to 0-0 by the Iranians who won the right to qualify early; After Syria, which had 9 points in hand before the game, won Qatar 3-1 at home, it not only completely extinguished the latter's remaining hopes, but also tied the losing Uzbekistan, and was only 2 points away from the kimchi country, and it is not completely impossible to qualify directly.

After nine rounds of fighting, Iran, which has 21 points, naturally has nothing to say; Kimchi Nation, who have only 14 points, cannot lose to Uzbekistan with 12 points in the next round to guarantee qualification, and if they do not want to play in the play-offs, then they must win; On the contrary, Syria, which was not optimistic about the situation before, is now in the easiest situation, they have ranked third in the group because of the advantage of goal difference, as long as they win away from Iran, which has long been desireless, they can not look at anyone's face, even if it is a draw or even a loss, as long as Uzbekistan does not end better than him, he can keep the play-off place.

As for our Celestial Empire national football team, in the words of many domestic media, it is "there is still hope". Lippi needs to lead his side to a win over Qatar in the next round, while Syria will have to lose to Iran and Uzbekistan to the Kimchi Nation. In addition, the national football team also needs to get as many goal difference as possible in order to beat those two teams to finish third with 12 points. This condition is really harsh enough. But considering that when Gao Gui led the team to the top 12, he encountered a miracle, so this glimmer of hope can still support the Chinese people to be excited for a while.

After taking a cursory look at these reports, Li Mudi pondered for a moment, and after sending a message of "national football cheers" on Weibo, he drew his attention back to the transfer work. He knows that he has no influence on the development of domestic football, and it is useless to say too much, it is better to be an ordinary fan.

On 2 September, Chelsea held a press conference for the last-minute signings, with one of the protagonists, Zampa Costa, speaking to the media to express his gratitude to his former club Torino, with a focus on Moody Lee. "I would like to really thank the fans in Turin, my team-mates, the president of the club, the directors and everyone else who has left me with unforgettable memories," he said. In Turin I grew up as a real man, and I was thrilled to wear a Turin robe, and I will always be with my courage, determination and passion. Especially last season, Coach Lee came to the team and helped me a lot, he made me see the way forward and find a way to become a better player, without his guidance, I would not be the person I am today. ”

'It's a great honour to be here at Chelsea, it's my dream to join Chelsea and it's a great opportunity for me. I'm ready to embark on this new journey. Turin is far away from me, but it will always be in my heart, thank you to the red bull, and wish you good luck. ”

This is the name of the Torino coach in the eyes of the British media and the public again in the near future, before because of Joe Hart's performance, Zampa transaction and Flanagan loan and other events, Moody Lee three Chinese pinyin appeared in English football at this time is still relatively frequent, few foreigners have this "honor". Of course, the British media's curiosity about him is more because of his ability to develop young players, and many people think that Li Muddy is a new generation of Wenger, which is a gimmick in itself, so when they have nothing to do, reporters are also willing to comment on this topic and the like.

Just after the Europa League draw at the end of August 8, a reporter from a Celestial Empire media also found the head of the Arsenal manager and asked him "presumptuously" what he thought of the Torino manager. The professor responded with a tone of encouragement and appreciation: "It is a great thing that there are many great coaches in today's football who are in their 40s and even younger, and they bring dynamism and a more relevant philosophy to this circle of ageing mindsets. And Torino coach Moody Lee is one of the best performers. He showed a talent for developing young players and tactical preparation when he was in Real Madrid's reserve team, and I'm delighted for him to have shown even more since he took over the reins of Torino last summer. ”

"What I admire most is his very long-term vision and team building philosophy, you must know that when he first took over the team, the environment provided by the club was not very good, and there were a lot of demands from the top management in terms of results and financial benefits, which is a bit similar to when I came to England from Japan, everything was difficult. But this young man was not blinded by the immediate benefits, he still chose to strengthen the team's youth development, even if it seems to many to be a thankless job, but Coach Li has stuck to his beliefs and completed this task extremely well, which is nothing short of a miracle. In terms of results in the first year alone, he was much better than I was back then, and it's not just a matter of league standings, it's Torino that they've found their way to rise and that's all about the revolution that this young man brings. Changing life. ”

"If one day I'm going to leave the Emirates Stadium, I'm probably going to put forward a list of successors to the club's hierarchy and there will be Coach Lee on it, and he has the ability to build a dynasty for the team."

Well, the professor should have praised Li Mudi for the sake of the face of the questioner who asked the question was a fellow coach of Turin, but many people still took it seriously. Let's ignore the fans and netizens on the Celestial Empire side after learning the news, how will they laugh at themselves, anyway, there has been a lot of movement on the British side. The "Daily Mirror", which has always been willing to engage in gimmicks such as evaluation and ranking, published a special feature at the beginning of September, taking stock of the young coaches in European football who want to "seize power" in European football in the past two years, Real Madrid coach Zidane, Atletico Madrid coach Simeone, Monaco coach Jardim and others are all in the list, among which Li Mudi is ranked second youngest after Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann, who was born in 87.

Nagelsmann led the "Huo Village" with an average age of less than 25 last season, beating Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen and other old powerhouses to win the fourth place in the Bundesliga, thus qualifying for the Champions League play-offs. Unfortunately, after losing 3-6 to the Reds Liverpool over two legs, they had to go to the Europa League. However, this also indirectly creates an opportunity for the two young coaches to face each other directly, and everyone is hoping that Hoffenheim and Torino can meet in the knockout rounds to see who is the best manager of the younger generation, but this is another story.

Li Mudi was not disturbed by the reports of the past two days, and continued to carry out his daily work and personal itinerary according to the plan he had made. On the afternoon of the 2nd, after finishing the team's training session that ended early, he did not return to the apartment, but asked Forsina to drive directly to the airport. He appeared in the stands at the Bernabeu at 8 p.m. sharp, and 45 minutes later, Spain's crucial group game against Italy was set to kick off. Sitting with the Torino boss was his good friend, Raul, the former king of the Bernabeu.

Judging by the pre-match starting line-up, Julen Lopetegui used the legendary no-striker tactic, with the front trident David Silva, Isco and Asensio all skilled short midfielders or wingers, and it looked like the matadors were looking to break through Italy's chain defence with their feet.

Ventura's line-up is a bit surprising, due to the injury of the core Chiellini in the backline, if Barzagli's substitution can be considered reasonable, then putting the in-form Zampacosta on the bench in the right-back position, but starting Darmian, who has been in an awkward position at Manchester United, is a bit of a "strange move". But that's not the most bizarre thing, as against Spain, who are perhaps the best in the world in possession, and playing away from home, Ventura did the same in midfield as he did against Array Chitenstein in the previous game. De Rossi and Verratti are not defensive midfielders, and with two attacking wingers on both sides, Insigne and Candreva, how can they suppress the opponent's powerful passing?

So before the start of the game, Li Mudi felt that Italy was likely to kneel today, even if the forward line of Belotti and Immobile was his favorite general, and the individual strength of the other players was also good, but the tactical loopholes could not be repaired, and if you want to get out of the way, you can only expect a special situation to happen.

After kick-off, the tide turned against the Azzurri. Similar to when he played at Real Madrid, Isco, who was nominally a right winger but who often played in the middle of the pitch and played a role as a link between the whole team, became the most active figure in the early stages of the pitch. He frequently retreated to the deeper position of midfield to receive the ball, completely activated the rest of his teammates, and repeatedly hit the ball into Italy's ribs through team cooperation. And because the two wing-backs of the visiting team are wingers and are not good at defending, they will cut forward sharply when attacking, changing the formation to 4-2-4, which is full of holes when dealing with the home team's rapid counterattack.

In the seventh minute, Isco combined with Silva's collision against the wall to win a good free-kick from five or six yards outside the penalty area, and captain Sergio Ramos fired just over the crossbar to allow Buffon to make a flying save. Five minutes later, it was still a similar combination, still in a similar position, and Spain's free kick was three or four meters forward from the previous one. The penalty was replaced by Isco, whose curling shot went around the wall and went straight into the near corner of the net, Buffon's save was still very stretched, but unfortunately the speed and angle of the shot were too good to turn the tide, and the matadors took the lead early.

Falling behind, Italy began to intensify their attack, and as the number of people up front was not outnumbered, they quickly took the initiative on the field, but repeated attempts did not yield much success. Neither Candreva's wide cross nor De Rossi's through ball from midfield could pose a threat to De Gea's goal. Only in the 21st minute, Belotti received a cross from the right by Darmian, and after beating Ramos, his close-range header hit the target, which was quickly blocked by the United goalkeeper, which caused some trouble.

However, when Isco used his ability to dribble the ball horizontally in the middle of a large number of defenders and on the edge of the box in the 39th minute, he suddenly got up and fired a low shot that burrowed into the corner of the goal in front of the hands of Buffon, who was struggling to save from the ground, and all Italian supporters felt a chill in their hearts, knowing that it would be difficult to achieve anything more in this game. The broadcaster's slow-motion replay clearly showed that the Real Madrid midfielder started the attack from behind the center circle, he first carried Berotti with a suspected foul pull and accurately picked the ball to Alba who was advancing at high speed along the left side, and then immediately started to run to the opponent's hinterland to open up the space of the Italian defense, and finally the adjustment before the attack shook off the interception of three Italian players, which can be said to have single-handedly broken down the opponent's defensive system.

In the ensuing game, the visiting players who were not willing to concede defeat still maintained a high intensity of scrambling and forward pressing, but only one attack at the beginning of the second half was still a little bit of a hit, but Insigne's push after receiving Immobile's inverted triangle back could not get past De Gea's ten fingers, and the Italians missed this good opportunity to close the score. After Ventura replaced the Torino pair of double guns, the team's attack was completely unable to form a decent combination, and the visitors who were eager to press were also hit hard in the 76th minute, Ramos passed a low ball from the right to the goal, and substitute Morata easily pushed it into the goal, and the score of 3-0 undoubtedly announced the end of this strong duel in advance.

Italy's crushing defeat showed the world that they are no longer a world-class team, and it's time to pause and think about what their future holds.