Chapter 361: The Unexpected

The win not only helped Torino cement their current fourth place in the league, but also brought them closer to the top of the table, as Lazio, who had previously finished behind the Red Bulls, suffered a three-game winless streak, while leaders Napoli also ended their unbeaten start to the season.

The Duaf-Runner clash was Saturday's first match, followed by a head-to-head clash between the top two seeds of the Serie A title contenders, who had gathered the spotlight of the world this weekend, with Napoli hosting Juventus. A win for the home team would have stretched the gap between the two sides to seven points, and even though the league has only just started fifteen rounds, the quality of the White Dolphins will make it less likely that the defending champions will be able to complete a comeback if they don't collapse in the next game. Therefore, everyone hopes to be able to witness with their own eyes whether Serie A will give birth to a new king, or whether the old emperor still has the momentum to dominate the rivers and lakes.

Although the Champions League will face next week, which is directly related to the club's tens of millions of income this season, in this game, Sarri still took out all the chips he currently has in his hands, vowing to pull down the old woman who has won six consecutive league titles. The home side were very ferocious from the moment they kick-off, with Hamsik flanking in front of goal and missing a good chance to shoot from close range. And the Juventus players were not to be outdone, Douglas Costa immediately sent a through pass, Higuain successfully countered offside and shot at a small angle on the right side of the penalty area, which was blocked by Reina with his shoulder to keep the goal from conceding.

Just when Napoli were almost putting pressure up front with possession and inverted foot, they conceded first. In the twelfth minute, the home team made a mistake in the front pass, Dybala counter-attacked through the midfield and sent a diagonal pass, Higuain adjusted a step on the right side of the penalty area, and pushed the near corner before Reina blocked. 1-0, Juventus's classic counterattack reappeared, this goal was the fifth goal scored by the little smoker after leaving Napoli, and the old club's five encounters, the skill package of killing the old owner was properly at the full level.

The White Dolphins, who were behind the score, naturally did not give up, mobilized all their energy and began to attack the opponent's defense frantically, but in the face of the old woman's steady defense, they could not create too good chances, and could only enter the halftime break with a two-fold lead in shooting data.

After the rematch, it was still the home team that was struggling to find a way to crack the opponent's bus tactics, but they never got a clue, only Callejon's long-range shot flew out of the bottom line by grazing the goalpost, which made Buffon break out in a cold sweat. In the 67th minute, Dybala crossed diagonally to the back post, and Matuidi's sweeping shot in front of the goal was bravely defused by Reina, otherwise the suspense would be completely gone.

In the 75th minute, Insigne suddenly showed a painful expression on his face during the off-ball run, suspected of straining his muscles, and had to go off early, which also deprived Napoli of an important point of attack. Maurizio Sarri then tried everything he could to find a way to score, and even in the last minute of stoppage time, goalkeeper Reina rushed to the Juventus penalty area to fight for the head, but it was still unable to help the team salvage the defeat. What could be the focus of this season's Serie A title tie ended with the defending champions winning by a narrow goal away from home, and the gap between the two sides was back to one point after the game, and the title race was heating up again.

The biggest beneficiary of this result was undoubtedly Inter Milan, who were in high spirits on Sunday, beating Chievo 5-0 at home to move up to the top of the table while continuing their unbeaten run in the league. It was also the first time since late January 2016 that they had dominated the Serie A leaders with a non-first finish, and Spalletti was the subject of much praise after taking charge of the team in just over five months to bring Inter, who had little hope in the latter stages of last season, to the top.

But Si Shuai couldn't grab the headlines of the night and the next morning, because something even more surprising happened. Just before the start of the Inter game, Benevento, who had already set history and had the worst start to the season - Benevento, who had lost 14 consecutive games, finally achieved the first Serie A point in the team's history, and the gift was AC Milan, which had just changed coaches, and Gattuso, who ushered in the debut of the Rossoneri, was a tragic opener and was recorded in history.

Before the game, few would have predicted that the league vice-captains would be able to pick up points against AC Milan, even if they were sitting at the Vigorito Stadium on their doorstep, and even if the morale of the opposition didn't look too high. However, the huge difference in the ability and value of the players on both sides still makes most people think that this will be a matchup without suspense, and the only thing that can leave fans curious is that the home team will lose a few goals.

However, after the start of the game, Benevento's players were not afraid of the opponent's fame and strength, but played their own characteristics under the calm mentality, after resisting the opening attack of the Milan players, frequently used two crosses from the flanks to test the attention of Bonucci, although it did not have an effect for a while, but it was also a clear play. And because he has been in office for too short a time and has not been able to fully grasp the player's football philosophy, Gattuso also used some of the tactical play left by Montella in this game, which made the scene look a little chaotic. Fortunately, the visitors' strength was far superior to that of their opponents, and in the 37th minute, Bonaventura scored with a header into the net to take a one-goal lead.

After the rematch, AC Milan's offensive organization had problems again, there was no clear core on the field, which made the overall operation very uncoordinated, most of the time the players played their own games, at most it was a simple cooperation between two or three people, and it was difficult to really threaten the opponent's defense. Instead, in the 49th minute, the home side equalised the score with a follow-up shot from a corner kick by Puskas, who is on loan from Inter Milan, who broke through Donnarumma's goal.

Gattuso was unable to make any effective changes after conceding the goal, and the visitors remained the same, using the individual abilities of their players to try to crush their opponents. The difference in quality between the two sides is indeed obvious, and the audience can easily see that the home team's players have been putting up all their efforts to resist, but they still can't hold on to the scoreline and are breached again. In the 57th minute, Milan formed a siege on the periphery of the opponent's penalty area, Bonaventura's cross from the right helped Kalinic grab a header and score, and the score immediately became 1-2, and the shadow of fifteen consecutive defeats appeared in front of the home team again.

However, Gattuso's side failed to take advantage of the opportunity to suppress, and instead had a vague attitude on whether to continue attacking or recovering the defensive counter-attack, allowing the relieved Benevento players to gradually bring the situation back to parity. In the 74th minute, Romagnoli tackled Letizia's foul and was sent off with two yellows and one red, leaving the visitors to retreat for the rest of the game. From the 80th minute, there was an absurd scene of the league deputy squad leader pressing the top local giants to beat up wildly, which made people sigh that it was really a long time to see!

In the final minute of stoppage time, Cataldi took a free-kick from the left and drove into the visitors' box, where 26-year-old goalkeeper Brignoli, on loan from Juventus, flew high and smashed the ball into the side-netting to help Benevento equalise. The entire Stadio Vigorito erupted in shocking cheers, combined with the blank faces of the Milan coaches and players, making it the most impressive scene so far that the season began.

After the game resumed, the referee blew the full-time whistle before the referee blew the full-time whistle before the wizards, nicknamed the Wizards, finally showed their legendary sorcery and upset the mighty Rossoneri to earn their first top-flight point in the club's 88-year history.

Speaking to the media after the game, Gattuso said: "There is a huge disappointment in the dressing room, today we have to lick our wounds, but our physical and mental state must improve." 'His debut since returning to his former club was nothing short of a, and it was unclear if he would be able to adjust the team's form as soon as possible and provide a reason for the club's hierarchy and fans to stay.

In Sunday's finale, Lazio were held to a 1-1 draw away by Sampdoria, making it their third consecutive league game winless after losing the Rome derby in the previous round and drawing with Fiorentina in the previous round. As a result, the Blues' points have been gradually stretched by Torino and Roma in front of them, and even though they have a game in hand, the reality of being five points behind the Red Bulls has left the club's hierarchy skeptical of Mihajlovic's coaching ability. Immobile, in particular, who he sold to his rivals in the summer, now has 13 league goals and is second in the scorers' charts, while Keita, who remains behind, has fallen silent after a few games at the start of the season, and this pot is obviously the responsibility of the manager of the team who made the choice in the first place.

After the game, according to the reporter of "Roma Sport", Lazio President Claudio Lotito has given the team a death order to win the next league game, and the opponent happens to be the Red Bull, I don't know what the outcome of the big battle between the two teams will be a week later, and what fate will it bring to Miha.

Amid media coverage of the weekend's many eye-catching topics, Tuesday evening was fast approaching the final round of the Champions League group stage. Roma defeated Karabagh, the weakest team in the group, by one goal at home, and finally won the group with a surprise thanks to the draw between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, and successfully entered the round of 16; On the same night, Juventus beat Olympiacos of Greece 2-0 away and qualified for the knockout rounds in second place in Group D after Barcelona.

Wednesday's game was a disappointment for fans in Italy and Spain, who may have had to see the result of another game in the group to qualify for Napoli even if they win, either having exhausted their strength in the league four days earlier or losing to their biggest rivals, the Bianconeri. In short, the White Dolphins were not only unable to turn the tide and get three points, but were beaten by Feyenoord in stoppage time with one more player, defeating Rotterdam 1-2, thus seeing Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk join hands to qualify. Fortunately, Napoli can continue to go to the Europa League to fight for more European points with the third place in the group, and there is no disadvantage of a team being completely eliminated from Serie A.

Although Real Madrid beat Dortmund 3-2 at home, it can still only be ranked behind Tottenham, because many giants have performed well this year, most of them are the top qualified, and the second place in the group has brought a great adverse impact to Zizou's team in the draw of the eighth-knockout round, and the Galaxy Battleship wants to complete the Big Ear Cup three consecutive championships, and this first round of knockout is a big difficulty.

On Thursday night, the Europa League also ushered in the final game of the group stage, with Atalanta beating Lyon 1-0 at home to win the group and win the initiative in the next round of matchups. Lazio, who finished first in Group K ahead of schedule, naturally hid all their main players in this irrelevant game, and finally lost 2-3 away to Belgium's Varegem, whether it mattered, they will enter the round of 32 with Ligue 1 Nice.

And the Torino team, which also locked the top spot in the group early, is naturally the same strategy, Li Mudi left all the core such as Belotti and Immobile in Italy, if it weren't for the fact that the game required the team's head coach to be there, even he didn't want to go abroad to toss this trip. In the end, the Red Bulls, who had many rotations and even young players as their team, lost 0-1 to Rijeka in Croatia. However, the latter were also unable to qualify after the win, and they were eliminated after AEK Athens after a deuce due to their worse head-to-head record.

Despite the loss, Torino still set a record while reaching the knockout round, that is, Li Mudi sent all Italians in the starting eleven, which is definitely a rare sight in decades in today's European football where foreign aid is rampant. In the first round of the group stage of this season's Europa League, Portuguese Premier League team Guimaraes unexpectedly fielded an all-African European starting lineup against Red Bull Salzburg at home, setting another extreme record, which was the first time in European history.

This comparison fully shows the importance that the Torino team attaches to localization and even its own youth training and the current state of implementation, which has won praise from all the European media, and once again confirmed Li Mudi's ability to cultivate the team's own blood, which also made him initially enter the eyes of some former powers who have been stuck in the quagmire for a long time and hope to be reborn.