Chapter 231: A Powerful Red Wolf
The rest of the game was a testament to the extent to which a solid defence can affect the team's attacking line, and although the away side of Torino led by about 10 percentage points in terms of immediate possession, it was Roma who had no worries to create more chances up front, and if it weren't for Joe Hart's excellent performance and luck tendencies, the home team would have completely sealed the win after the first 20 minutes.
In the fifteenth minute, Brazilian left wing-back Emerson and Stroman completed the collision with the wall and burst into the left side of the penalty area, and the cross in front of the baseline was pushed out by Ranocchia, and Nainggolan volleyed directly at the top of the arc of the penalty area. Two minutes later, the home team once again used the scramble for the second drop to find a good opportunity to threaten the opponent's goal, Stroman received a team-mate's return in the middle of his own front field and sent a long high ball directly into the box, Bareka was not far away from Dzeko's interference, and Salah was taken by Salah, who rushed into the line of the big penalty area, and the Egyptian also opted for a volley without stopping. The shot was very sudden, and the angle was very tricky and went straight to the near corner of the goal, but Ranocchia subconsciously stretched out his long legs and rubbed the ball to make it change its direction slightly, and the England goalkeeper, who was very focused, fell to the ground with super reflexes and blocked it in front of the goal line, and then pressed the ball down under him.
The opponent's two chances to attack the goal were caused by the failure of the Torino players to form a defensive level, giving the home team the opportunity to get up directly after grabbing the second landing point at the edge of the penalty area.
After suffering the supreme "lion's roar", the visiting players finally had an epiphany, and the midfielders, including the two wingers, were more active in running, and they also achieved a multi-layered three-dimensional chain when defending, which barely suppressed the Roma positional attack.
However, the Red Wolves, who were obviously one level higher in strength and form, immediately used a counterattack to prove that Li Mudi's arrangement was not too useful, and in the 21st minute, after picking off Barreka's cross from the side, the home team's goalkeeper Szczesny drove the ball into the away team's half with a big kick, and Salah on the right took advantage of the gap left by the Torino left-back to insert the assist and go straight into the opponent's hinterland. He cut inside after breaking past the defending Akwa and curled a delicate curl with his left foot from 17 yards out that went past Joe Hart's fingers as he struggled to pounce sideways. Unfortunately, the goal of the month, which was selected as the best goal of the month, was a little wrong in the final link, the ball hit the post on the left side of the goal and bounced towards the touchline, and Roma were only three centimeters away from being able to extend the score again, and the sighs of the home fans and the head-hugging movements of the players in the stadium proved how sorry they were.
Li Mudi had to come to the sidelines again to give new instructions, telling the visiting players to pay attention not to focus on the offensive end, to always be on the lookout for the opponent's counterattack, and to leave enough manpower in the backfield. Since then, the game has entered a stalemate stage, and the performances of the two sides can be regarded as evenly matched, and the two playmaking midfielders have temporarily reached a balanced mode, and it is not until half-time that a wave of excitement is ushered in.
In the 40th minute, Zampacosta's cross was disrupted and his corner kick was pushed out of the box by Fazio, and Benasi, who was guarding the outside, followed up with a volley that went just wide of the right post. The attack was almost a replica of the previous two Roma who used the second drop to form a threat, and Spalletti couldn't sit still, also going to the sidelines to remind his players to be more defensive on the edge of the box.
In the 45th minute, Torino completed the last attack of the first half, Falke broke down the right and sent a diagonal pass in front of goal, Benassi burst into the box and fired a right-footed tackle with the interference of two defenders of the opposing side. A minute later, the referee blew the half-time whistle and the players and coaches of both sides returned to their dressing rooms to rest and regroup.
From a statistical point of view, the Torino team has a slight advantage in possession and pass success rate, while the success rate of headers and tackles is a bit ahead of the Roma side, but the difference between 3 of 10 and 2 of 5 in shots still shows that the home team is more skilled, if you count the number of threatening attacks, it is obvious that the score of 1-0 is not a fair and reasonable result, and the Romans have reason to complain that their luck is a little bad today, otherwise the game should have lost suspense early.
The vast majority of the visitors' players are in good form, and there is no problem with their fitness, but they were suppressed by the opposition in the game, and their previously proud attacking power has hardly created any decent chances in front of the home team's seemingly unremarkable defence, and five attempts on goal can be regarded as barely obtained, otherwise the statistics will be even more ugly. Unlike Jesse and Belotti, who were completely limited by their opponents, right winger Falke was only against the Brazilian teenager Emerson, who had not made more than 50 official appearances in his career. But the Spaniard is so obsessed with showing his abilities to his old club that he has gotten out of control. Li Mudi didn't want to have a problem of understanding between the two of them in this matter, and reminded the other party to calm down during the halftime, but unfortunately the final result disappointed him.
After kick-off in the second half, the two central midfielders of the home team had previously played a strong playmaking ability, and the Torino coach deliberately allowed his players to press these two men more intensively, so that they could no longer calmly link up with the team. The move had a very noticeable effect in the first phase, but the Red Bulls also paid the price for two yellow cards, with Akwa and Benassi receiving yellow card warnings in succession, which caused Li Mudi's displeasure. As of the 62nd minute, the number of fouls between the two sides was 9 to 5, but the home team, which played dirtier style, did not receive a single yellow card, which inevitably appeared to be a double standard in the referee's enforcement scale, and the fourth official did not threaten to write it into the report in the face of Sumfield's complaints, but just drove him back to the coach's box.
The first substitution for both teams came in the 58th minute, when the Torino boss brought on Rajjdzic for Falke, who still couldn't get out of the horns, after he had opted for a personal assault in the face of a three-man trap, which completely made Li Mudi die. The situation where the two people passed by with black faces on the sidelines was also filmed by the broadcast camera, and I don't know if it will lead to any internal problems with river crabs in the future.
Back in the game, Roma began to simplify their attacking approach after the playmakers were largely frozen, and that's where Bruno Pérez came in. The Torino veteran is starting to transform into a veteran Cafu, who has been dutiful in defence and has used his skillful dribbling and crosses to cause problems for his former team-mates. In the 51st minute, Perez flicked past Bareka on the right and found Dzeko in the box, who chested the ball just over the crossbar from a tight angle. Four minutes later, the same routine was performed, only this time the Brazilian wingback's cross was closer to the visitors' goal, almost forming a lob shot, and the focused Joe Hart lifted the ball over the crossbar at the back post with a single fist, avoiding the Red Bulls' doom of being killed by the veterans.
Torino was not without the ability to fight back, first Acwa unexpectedly smashed into the right side of the penalty area and knocked the ball across the goal, but unfortunately the unmarked Barcelona cut in at high speed and fired a flying tackle that didn't touch anything, but it also shocked the Romans into a cold sweat. Belotti finally got a chance to get his feet on the edge of the penalty area, and after winning the ball, he turned and couldn't get out of the angle, and was blocked by Szczesny and caught in his arms. However, Roma's attack immediately rewarded the goal, and the rapid change of the situation on the field also made the spectators wonder.
In the 65th minute, the home goalkeeper's handball found Perez, and his pick and pass gave Salah a chance to break through in front, but Benassi was able to defend in a timely manner, blocking a cross with Bareka and still delivering a corner. Perez then fired a lob to the back post, and Fazio was pushed to the ground as the players of both sides fought for the landing point, but there was no indication from the referee. The ball was headed over by Belotti on the left side of the box, but there were still no visitors near the second drop, and Paredes was rushed up to complete a shocking volley close to 30 meters from the goal, the ball flew quickly towards the Torino goal on the turf, and slid past the feet of two visiting players in succession and drilled into the bottom right corner of the goal. Joe Hart's vision was blocked, and there was also a problem with his position, so there was nothing he could do in the face of this world wave, so he could only helplessly take the ball out of the net and drive it to the midfield.
It was the Argentine midfielder's first goal of the season in the league, and while helping himself to break the goal drought, it also made the suspense of the game almost disappear. Scoring two goals on the pitch with less than half an hour remaining is extremely difficult for any team, and the Red Bulls are clearly in big trouble today.
After shaking his head helplessly, Li Mudi summoned Baseli in front of him and gave him new tactical instructions. Let Jesse also go to the front to play a double striker with Belotti, Rajadzic to play in the front to become a bridge between the midfield and the forward, the team's attack should be more concise, and make more use of Red Bebe's top fight and Jesse's speed to find opportunities. Then the Torino team began to frequently appear in the midfield and back to find Belotti who was pulled outside the opponent's penalty area, and the latter did it back to the receiving teammate and then tried to organize the routine, which could create some possibilities for the king to use his speed to impact the home team's defense in the local area, so that the two wing-backs of the Roma team need to always pay attention to come back to make up for the defense, resulting in their attacking threat is much smaller.
In the 72nd minute, the home team took a corner kick from the right, and Fazio's header in the middle was too angle for Joe Hart, who tossed the ball directly to Benasi, who had already begun to accelerate forward on the right flank. But when the captain of the Torino field looked up to observe the running position of his teammates in front of him, and was about to pass a big foot to the opponent's hinterland, he collided with Stroman, who rushed from his side, and the referee blew a foul on the Dutch international but still did not mean to take out the card. Before the coach on the Torino side got up to express his dissatisfaction, he saw Baseli rush over and pull Benasi on his toes, and it seemed that the former was cramping. Carrying important tasks at both ends of the pitch led to the visitors' two playmakers exerting a lot of energy in today's game, considering that Benassi had received a yellow card before, and staying on the pitch was likely to become the opponent's main point of attack, so Li Muddy took the opportunity of the dead ball to replace him with Fabas.
Two minutes later, Spalletti also made a change, replacing Greek Manolas with Vermaelen, who is on loan from Barcelona. In the 79th minute, Li Mudi played the last card in his hand, Las Diarra replaced Akuwa, who had a yellow card, and the Frenchman also had a certain passing ability, which was more beneficial to the team's attack. Russ had his first touch of the ball on the pitch and set up a goal-scoring finish for his team-mates, as he cut off Stroman's pass and fed it to Rajadzic, who slotted straight to Jesse on the right, and the Spanish winger burst into the box and fired a left-footed shot from a good angle that was crushed under Szczesny.
As the Torino players hurriedly retreated to prepare for the home team's next wave of attacks, the entire Olympic Stadium was in a seepage, with almost all the fans standing up and clapping and chanting Totti's name in unison. It turned out that the wolf king had already warmed up and was ready to come off the bench next to the fourth official, I don't know what the Roma coach was thinking at this time after seeing the other party in this stadium is so beloved......
In the 82nd minute, Totti officially replaced Stroman and stepped onto the pitch for 20 years, but his luck was not so good, as the Torino team scored a goal 100 seconds later. Zampacosta sent a pinpoint long-range through ball from a step forward from the halfway line, but Jesse stepped forward for offside and fired a low right-footed shot into the far corner to make it 2-1 and the Red Bulls seemed to see hope of a point.