Chapter 370: Midweek Trivia
With this victory, Napoli got 42 points, overtook Inter Milan, who had lost before, and regained the top of the Serie A table after a two-week absence.
In the post-match press conference, Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri praised the performance of his players, and also expressed his praise for the home team, he believes that the Torino team does have the quality to challenge for the top three in the league.
Li Mudi focused on analyzing the problems of his side as a loser, and once again gave the name of today's opponent when the reporter asked who could win the Serie A championship this season. Belotti, who also attended the press conference, expressed his confidence in the future games, he believes that the team's run-in has gradually improved, and he has fully recovered from his previous injuries, hoping to help the Red Bulls to qualify for the Champions League next season.
It can be seen from the reports of various media after the game that everyone is not surprised by the result of this game, although the Torino team has a good record before, but the outside world has always determined that they are always a spoiler, not a title contender. These professionals generally believe that with the top three teams in such stable form, Limmoudi's side are most likely to get a ticket to the Europa League, and if they want to return to the Champions League after more than 40 years, they can only hope that next season there will be four places in Serie A. Li Mudi did not make any comments on this, but he obviously had other plans in his heart.
Saturday night's final game was when Roma hosted Cagliari, who had bounced back after a change of manager but had started to struggle again in recent rounds. However, in the face of the powerful Red Wolves today, they showed their tenacious side, and the whole stadium was almost able to retreat. Unfortunately, the home team's central defender Fazio scored a second-half stoppage time to give the home side a hard-earned three points.
Sunday's game started with a big upset, AC Milan visited the Marco Antonio Bentegorti Stadium, and suffered a 3-0 defeat to the promoted Verona team, which made the new coach Gattuso lose face, and many fans called for the head coach who had just taken over the team for three weeks to step down. Fortunately, the Rossoneri's hierarchy gave the team legend enough support in time to prevent the absurd change of managers from happening.
Juventus, who came next, continued to maintain their strength and consistency, beating Bologna by three goals away and taking 41 points to put the Old Lady behind Napoli and surpass Inter Milan to second place in the league.
In a rookie pecking between promoted horses, SPAL reversed Benevento 2-1 away, not only keeping himself out of the relegation circle, but also avenging the double defeat by the opponent in the second division last season. It is worth mentioning that all three goals in this game were scored by away players, and the own goal of local centre-back Cremonesi almost helped Benevento get the first three points in the team's history in the top flight, but fortunately, the veteran striker Flocari, who had previously played for Lazio, scored twice afterwards, which saved the home team's "winless body".
This weekend's finale was a clash between Atalanta and Lazio, and the result was a spectacular goalscoring affair for the fans. Although the overall number of shots on goal was not much, the success rate was frighteningly high, and in the end, the statistics of 10 of 26 shots made up for six goals. The 3-3 scoreline is also difficult to satisfy either side, with Atalanta looking to be further and further away from European qualification after only one draw, while the Blue Eagles are on the edge of sixth in the table and can play in the Europa League, and the gap between them and Sampdoria is still very small.
At the end of 17 rounds, Napoli, Juventus and Inter Milan are in the top three with one point each, while Torino has 36 points and is in the fourth to sixth places with Roma and Lazio with the same points but one game less. At the end of the standings, except for Benevento, who is still reduced to a "points ATM" for each team, there are six teams with a point gap of three points between each other, and there is still a lot of suspense in the other two relegation places.
However, Lim's focus this weekend was not limited to the Apennine Peninsula, as he also found time to watch this year's Club World Cup final broadcast. As the start time coincided with the match between Torino and Napoli, when he returned to his apartment after the post-match press conference, the match on the UAE side was also declared over, and thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's direct goal in the second half, Real Madrid finally defeated the Copa Libertadores champions Gremio of Brazil 1-0 to defend the title of the competition, which is also the first team in history to achieve such an achievement.
It was also their twelfth successive win in the continental cup final, after the best club of the last century beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League (twice); Defeated Sevilla (2 times), Feyenoord, Manchester United in the UEFA Super Cup; defeated Olympia in the Toyota Cup; and victories over San Lorenzo and Kashima Antlers in the Club World Cup. This record is believed to be difficult to be broken by any other team other than themselves.
It was the third time in the history of the Galaxy to win the Club World Cup, equalling Barca's previous record for winning the trophy and the first time they won five competitions in the year, with Zizou leading the team to La Liga, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup in addition to last season's Copa del Rey. Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score in two consecutive Club World Cup finals and continued his own record for total goals in the semi-finals with seven goals. At the same time, he and Kroos also won their fourth Club World Cup together, becoming the most decorated players in the history of the competition.
Judging from the course of the game, Real Madrid has always had a huge advantage, both in terms of pass success rate and the number of shots on goal are far ahead of the opponent, in addition to Ronaldo's goal, Modric and substitute Mbappe also hit Gremio's goal frame successively, and the gap of one goal is already considered a good luck for the Brazilian team. And Zizou also seems to have figured out some problems in recent times, bringing on a couple of young players shortly after the start of the second half, and it has been good. If he can continue this philosophy after returning to Europe, I believe that he will be able to improve the team's strength in La Liga and the future Champions League knockout rounds.
After a quick glance at the video highlights of the game, Li Mudi sent a congratulatory text message to his friend and posted a message on his Instagram congratulating Real Madrid on winning this year's club world championship. However, he did not make any other moves, after all, the Torino team had just lost a crucial league game, and it was not appropriate to irritate the nerves of his fans and media too much.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the other four Coppa Italia quarter-finals were also contested, with Napoli, Atalanta, Roma and Juventus all having their way through to the tournament with four stronger teams. The quarter-finals are now scheduled for Juventus against the Purple Lily, Milan derby, Napoli against Atalanta and Roma against Torino.
Depending on the timing, the first two races will be played in the middle of next week, while the last two will be held on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of January 2018. Torino have three league games and a cup game left before a short break in the second week of January next year, which is a huge burden for players who have already worked hard for half a year. In the two consecutive days of coaching staff meetings, Li Mudi emphasized that it is necessary to pay attention to the physical condition of each player to prevent injuries, and for this reason, the training intensity of the team has been adjusted to a lighter level.
However, there is good news for the team in this difficult situation, after playing this league game against Napoli, the Torino team has finally passed the hellish schedule in the first stage of the league, and the next opponents are relatively easy to deal with, and the points should have a more ideal growth trend. With the exception of the Coppa Italia match with Roma, the team was below the strength of their opponents until the second leg of the derby on 18 February, and the coaching staff saw it as a great opportunity to catch up with the leading group, and it was natural to fight for every three points.
On Saturday night, the Red Bulls travel to promoted Maspahr for the first time in 36 years in a competitive match, but the latter was still known as As-Ette-Laport. The last time they met was on 25 March 1981, when Torino won 4-0 at home to advance to the semi-finals of that year's Coppa Italia with a score of 4-1 over two legs. Unfortunately, the Red Bulls drew 2-2 with Roma in the two-legged final and were the losers in the penalty shoot-out, seeing the Red Wolves lift the trophy for the second year in a row. What's even more tragic is that they reached the final of this competition for the third time in a row the following year, but they lost to Inter Milan again, and gained an extremely miserable triple runner-up!
Although in terms of historical record, the Torino team has the upper hand with 17 wins, 9 draws and 6 losses, but it is all the old calendar, and it can be said that this meeting is the first meeting between the two new teams, and there is no record to use as a reference. As of last weekend, SPAL has 3 wins, 5 draws, 9 losses and 14 points, the best record among the three promoted teams, and they are still struggling on the edge of the relegation circle, but the object of the points is not to be underestimated. Draws away from Lazio and Atalanta, home draws against Fiorentina and a 3-2 defeat against Napoli show that they do have a good set of rules against strong opponents.
So before taking a short flight to Ferrara, a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of north-central Italy, on Friday, Li Mudi had been working on how to deal with the seemingly weak but somewhat dangerous opponent because of the strangeness of the situation, combining information provided by the FM system with footage from previous matches. However, before he could work out the final tactical arrangement, he was slightly interrupted by a phone call from Asia, and his girlfriend had something important to advise him on.
Although the TV series "Black Knight" has just finished broadcasting six episodes, the original 16-episode plot shooting has entered the middle and late period, but due to the excellent ratings, under the appeal of many viewers, the TV station hopes that the crew can temporarily add two to four more episodes. To this end, the writer and director have just held an internal meeting attended by the main creative staff to consider whether to accept the proposal. Because of the heroine who starred in this play, Lin Yuna finally had a good work after her debut "You Are My Destiny", and she would naturally agree happily. But it was such a coincidence that just before this incident happened, another itinerary that made her difficult to push off appeared in front of her, which made the whole person fall into a dilemma in an instant.
The former No. 1 female idol in Kimchi Country, who has retired from the entertainment industry for many years, . L's captain Lee Hyo-ri suddenly made a comeback this summer, and once again became the focus of the entire Kimchi Country entertainment circle with a reality show "Hyo-ri's Homestay" broadcast on the cable TV station JTBC. Because the response to the first season was particularly good, the filming plan for the second season officially started half a year later, and the former assistant MC (who appeared as a staff member in the show) famous singer Lee Ji-eun could not return due to work schedules, so the program team that hoped to go further in terms of ratings and even set a new record targeted Lim Yoon-a, who is currently popular in East Asia, and sent him an invitation.
The women born in the late 80s and early 90s of the last century in the Kimchi Country are in the entertainment industry, and there are really not many people who are not fans of Lee Hyori. Although the number one idol in my heart is naturally BoA, the predecessor of the same company (at least in front of the public, otherwise he will be attacked by black fans), but for the only senior who has reached the top of the domestic entertainment industry as an idol singer, Lin Yuna must be desperate to record the show with him. The broadcast time of "Xiaoli's Homestay 2" was set for February 4, 2018, so the filming work will start in mid-January at the latest, if "Black Knight" ends normally, then it is just right to enter the new film crew, but now there is a possibility of extension, which suddenly makes her not know how to choose.
For his girlfriend's entanglement, the Turin coach, who is an outsider, thinks that there is nothing to worry about, the plot of the TV series is a bit old-fashioned, and it can get good ratings because of the traffic brought by several leading actors, and if you increase the number of episodes, it will make the whole story develop in an uncontrollable direction, and it is best to accept it when it is good. As for going to Jeju Island to record a variety show non-stop, it is not the ideal result in Li Mudi's heart, and he also hopes that his girlfriend can complete her work in Asia as soon as possible and come to accompany him. However, since it is to fulfill the wish of starring with idols, it cannot be stopped, after all, if Fa Ge and Xing Ye invite the Turin coach to shoot a movie together, the latter will be difficult to refuse.
In this way, in fact, Lin Yun'er, who already had an idea in her heart, and only needed her boyfriend to be firm, quickly made a decision, and Li Mudi could also focus all his attention on preparing for the next opponent.