Chapter 165: Fighting the Purple Lily
About half an hour later, the passengers on this flight finally walked out of the exit in groups, at least half of them were yellow-skinned Celestial Empire people, which shows that our Great Celestial Empire is indeed rich, and so many people choose to travel to Italy that takes more than half a day to fly. Not long after, Li Mudi saw his nephew in the middle and rear of the crowd who was like a bamboo pole, just after his 13th birthday, his height surpassed that of his eldest sister, who was not short, almost 170 cm, but his weight was only about 53 kilograms, and he lifted his shirt with ribs, this body shape is really eye-catching. Li Mudi hurriedly waved his hand, and then asked Baozi to raise the stop sign with the eldest sister's name written in his hand, otherwise he would not be able to recognize his father and mother when he came in that dress.
I won't say much about the scene of the meeting, anyway, the family is very excited, the two ladies are in tears, and the Turin coach is also a little choked, only the little nephew who is in the "heartless" and everything is a joke is always very happy, holding the uncle who has not seen him for a long time and not letting go, and has always wanted to destroy his disguise. Because of this bastard boy's trouble, Li Mudi didn't dare to stay at the airport any longer, for fear of causing unnecessary trouble to his family by attracting reporters, so he hurriedly collected his emotions and led everyone back to the hotel not too far from the Turin club in a pre-rented car.
After having a simple lunch in the restaurant, and after entrusting the remaining five family members to Baozi except for the second brother-in-law who couldn't come together because he had to work overtime, Li Mudi hurried back to the training base with a disguise. The league with Fiorentina will be played at 18 o'clock tomorrow night, and the training on the day of the game is mainly to adjust the state, so the final practice of the tactical drill can only be arranged this afternoon, when the head coach must be present, and other things have to make way for him, fortunately, as long as the team has a three-day holiday after this game, Li Mudi has time to spend with his family.
Due to the next few rounds of league opponents in addition to Palermo, Lazio and Inter Milan, the two "sworn enemies", so the Torino coach very much wanted to take advantage of his home advantage to win the purple lily, for the next difficult schedule to lay a good foundation, so the training time of the day was once again far beyond the original plan, until 6 o'clock in the evening to declare the end. Fortunately, the projects are all analysis videos and tactical drills, which is not a big physical drain on the players. After the disbandment, Li Mudi quickly "dressed up" himself again, and then took a taxi straight to the hotel.
According to the meaning of the eldest sister and the second sister, they originally wanted to fly to Spain to visit their aunt and uncle, the parents of the Turin manager, and then to Italy. However, the old couple thought that they had finally come out for a trip, and the time was quite tight, and this time they were mainly playing in Italy, so they did not agree to let the five people toss blindly, but the two old men also flew over, and everyone gathered in Turin. After Li Mudi entered the room, he saw that everyone had already arrived, and he was being pulled by his little nephew to play the quintessence of the country. Naturally, there was endless chatting, intimacy, and then a real reception, an exotic meal full of Italian style that everyone praised. Of course, the consumption of euros is also a large number, for which the two sisters and eldest brother-in-law also complained that Li Mudi was too wasteful, for the family's kind complaints, the Turin coach just smiled and said nothing, in addition to the buns and bank staff in this world, there may really be few people who know that the deposits in his account have reached more than 17 million euros, a proper little millionaire!
The next morning, after eating breakfast served by the hotel, Li Mudi said goodbye to his family and rushed back to the training ground. The rest of the buns will be accompanied by a professional guide to visit the city's famous attractions, and in the evening, they will go to the Olympic Stadium to watch the Serie A match live and cheer on their sons, brothers, uncles and friends.
At the pre-match press conference, Li Mudi still didn't say much, and tried to brush off the relevant questions about the Torino team and himself, but praised Fiorentina and its coach Paulo Sousa, making the uninformed people think that the home team is in twelfth place and the away team is third in the current standings. And the Portuguese, who have been in the football circle for 30 years, naturally sang praises to Li Mudi, eager to praise him as the number one head coach in the world, in short, it is a strategy of wearing high hats to each other and running trains with mouths, but it is difficult to say how much sincerity is contained in it.
The start time of the game is at midnight on October 3, Celestial Empire time, which is not a very suitable time for fans to watch, but fortunately, it is in the middle of a long holiday, in addition to Turin, the "home team of the Celestial Empire", Fiorentina's appeal cannot be underestimated, so the number of viewers who watched the game through CCTV Sports Channel and Xiaoshi Network Platform still reached more than 80 million, only slightly less than the number in the last round against Roma, which once again shocked European media and various football associations.
In the final stage of the press conference, both teams announced their starting line-ups for the match. Paulo Sousa changed his previous position as a back four and released a 3-4-2-1 that emphasized defense and midfield control, with Croatian international striker Nikola Kalinic, Slovenian striker Josip Ilicic, Real Madrid's academy-trained Spanish midfielder Borja Valero, and local youth talent Federico Bernardeschi) and all the other key players were all on the field, and of course, Croatian left-back Milic also appeared at left wing-back.
On the home team's side, Li Mudi basically abandoned the three-back tactics designed before the season, and instead used a 4-3-3 formation for many consecutive rounds. The goalkeeper is still the improving England international Joe Hart, the back four from right to left are Bruno Perez, Kastan, Rosettini and Avilar, the three midfielders are Akwa, central midfielders Baseli and Benasi, and the front three: right winger Rajadzic, left winger Falke and center forward Belotti. With the exception of a handful of rotations in a few positions, Torino's main squad this season seems to have shown signs of certainty.
After the game officially started, the home team still adopted a strategy of retreating slightly and focusing on defensive counter-attacks, allowing the opponent to control the ball at the back for the first ten minutes, but resolutely did not allow them to easily enter their own dangerous area. Fiorentina were in possession for more than 80 per cent of their time, but they couldn't find a good chance to find the back of the net, with two long-range shots in the third and seventh minutes blocked by the home team's defenders, neither of which allowed Joe Hart to make a save.
In fact, the defensive system of the Torino team has gradually taken shape after many games of running-in, although the header ability is still not reassuring, but if the whole team focuses on defense and has the help of midfielders, there is still a certain ability to resist blows. It's just that once the team moves into attack, the distance between the three lines is widened, and the backline is directly facing the opponent's attacking line, which is why it is difficult for them to keep a clean sheet against a slightly stronger team. By the end of the sixth round of the league, Torino had only kept a clean sheet against the two relegation favourites, Empoli and Pescara, and even the attacking Bologna had breached their goal, which was evident in their defensive ability.
Fiorentina's lone centre-forward Kalinic (the one who moved to AC Milan in 2017) is tall, well-balanced on his left and right feet, anticipatory and off-ball running, and has a double shooting and heading ability of 15, which can be said to be a rare excellent center forward. However, under the crowd tactics of Turin, he was unable to take advantage of the slightest, and was forced to pull to the side many times to seek space for activities, which naturally reduced his power. However, fortunately, the possession strength of several midfielders of the visiting team is very good, especially the Spaniard Valero, although the physical fitness is only a general condition, but the technical aspect, especially in the passing and receiving links, is definitely the best in Serie A, and the passing ability of 18 is worthy of the core identity of a first-class team. Under his well-organized management, although the purple lily could not find a good opportunity to threaten the opponent's goal, at least it did not allow the home team's counter-attacking tactics to have any effect.
Faced with a somewhat passive situation on the field, the more than 20,000 home fans in the stadium did not feel overly frustrated, and the negative actions of boos and other negative actions were naturally gone, because they had already seen what it was like to be suppressed more severely when they played Roma in the last round of the league. So now the entire Olympic Stadium is still resounding with all kinds of passionate battle songs, full of momentum, which proves from the side that Li Mudi has won the recognition of most fans, no matter how ugly the scene is, as long as the team can still win, then everything is not a problem. To be honest, the Red Bulls fans are much better served than the Melingers.
However, it is not Li Mudi's preference to be beaten passively, he still prefers to be pressed to the ground and rubbed repeatedly The person is the opponent, so in the thirteenth minute of the game, after seeing the visiting team's offensive gradually slowing down, the Torino coach really instructed the players to follow the "tricks" formulated before the game, and began to besiege the opponent's midfield playmaker Valero at the highest level. Because this move came so suddenly, the Spaniard, who had always been able to play at will, instantly felt extremely uncomfortable, and had to deal with the ball in all kinds of very difficult situations, and he still made a big mistake before he could figure out a solution.
In the fifteenth minute, Valero, who was in possession on the left side of the midfield circle, chose to dribble to this side under the marking of Benasi, but he was met by Torino Pérez, a right-back who ran at high speed, and had to pass the ball back to the left-back Milic behind him in a panic. The Croatian was unprepared to catch the ball and let the ball slip past him and into the feet of Falke, who had just switched sides to this side, and the Spanish winger led the ball directly into the opposition penalty area. With Belotti, the instant Serie A top scorer, always drawing the attention of the visiting defenders in the middle, the centre-back on this side, Carlos Salcedo, a new Mexico international on loan from Mexican side CD Guadalajara (Chivas), did not dare to make a tackle easily, so he had to retreat and wait for his teammates to return. However, he underestimated Falke's agility, which accelerated past the line of the penalty area, flicked the ball to the left before the Mexican centre-back was ready to make a move, and then took a left-footed shot that was not very powerful, but at a very tricky angle. After the ball passed under Salcedo's right-hand foot, which he had raised to block the strike, it slid past an unprepared Astori and headed straight for Fiorentina in the bottom right corner. Visiting goalkeeper Romanian international Ciprian-Anton Tatarusanu, despite his best efforts to get to his right, couldn't prevent the ball from making a beautiful little arc before going around his fingertips and into the corner. 1-0, the Torino team, which had been passive before, took the lead in the score with the second kick of the game, and the whole stadium was boiling.
Of course, it's not just because the team is ahead, there are other reasons for that. In a league game that ended just an hour ago, Atalanta finally confirmed the quality that Li Muddy had been touting for their quality, picking up their third win of the season against a mighty Napoli and helping them move up the rankings by a huge margin, but also stuck the White Dolphins on 14 points. With Falke's goal, the Torino team's instant league points have reached 15 points, becoming the second place in Serie A at this moment, which is also the first time in 22 years that the Red Bulls have sat in this position. This energy surprised Li Mudi's family, but fortunately, there were two Celestial Empire students around him as translators, and they figured out the reason. However, the conversation between them was inadvertently overheard by the fans around them, and when they learned that these Orientals were the family members of the Turin coach, the fans who had always been unfriendly to Li Mudi were very excited, and they rushed to shake hands or hug them to express their respect for the coach who brought the team a long-lost honor, which made a strong sense of pride arise in the hearts of several Celestial Empire people, and they all issued a sentence of praise in their hearts: Moody (uncle) is good!
In the live broadcast room at the rear of the Tianchao CCTV Sports Channel, Zhang Lu directed a series of praising comments, and with the spread of the live broadcast signal, it entered the ears of every Tianchao fan who paid attention to the game, presenting a small gift for this festival celebrated by the whole country, but it made people feel extremely excited.