Chapter 378: It's finally time to rest
As soon as the goal was scored, Bologna completely extinguished the mind of attacking before half-time, and Donadoni, who seemed to have failed to find the problem of disunity of thought of his players in time, seemed to have just come to his senses, came to the sidelines and signaled the three lines to retreat collectively, so as not to give the home team a chance to pass a through ball. And the Red Bulls, who had a two-goal lead, did not give up, passing back and forth without hurry, and after the remaining time of the first half, including one minute of injury time, was exhausted, they waited for the referee's whistle and walked back to the locker room with a relaxed face.
Because he had been drinking the honey water brought from the canteen before, and his liver function was not bad, Li Mudi's hangover reaction had basically disappeared at this time. But in the face of such a good performance of the team, he didn't want to talk nonsense, sitting in his position while letting the physiotherapists busy massaging the players, while watching his assistant Samfield use his perennial expressionless face to remind everyone not to relax, and to continue to maintain 100% concentration in the second half and carry this victory firmly in his pocket.
However, just when the general atmosphere in the dressing room was relatively warm and joyful, the team doctor Fortunato suddenly summoned Li Mudi's name, and only after the latter passed over did he learn that Febas had some discomfort in the inner muscle of his right leg, and it was suspected that he had a slight strain in the tackle before. The Torino coach, who had not been fully in the game before, hurriedly called up the FM system in his head, and while asking the players how they felt, he checked the status of the players in the game interface and found that the name of the Spanish midfielder did indeed appear with a green cross. Anyone who has played the game knows that this means that the player is injured, but it is not serious, and it is theoretically possible to continue playing on the field, but if there is another accident, it is likely to evolve into a more serious injury.
Under normal circumstances, if there are enough substitutions, the correct way to deal with this situation should still be to replace the player in this state in time, after all, the injury marked by the green cross usually heals in two days at most, the lucky person will be fine after a few hours of rest, and the most unfortunate situation will not be delayed until a week later. However, because Dickman has already taken up a substitution operation (after the emergency treatment of the team doctor, it is not a major problem, only a slight ankle sprain, and the swelling will not affect the normal movement after the swelling is reduced), if Fabbas is replaced again, the Torino team will only have one substitution in the remaining 45 minutes, although the score is in the lead, but it still feels a little unsteady. So the coaching staff wanted to keep the lad on for a little longer, and then replace him with someone when the win was almost certain around the 65th minute.
However, this suggestion was rejected by Li Mudi, although his current position in the team is unshakable, and most people have different respect values for this big boss, but the only player who can be called his descendant is this young player who has followed him since Castile. Since the summer of two and a half seasons ago, Fabas, who was not too regarded at Real Madrid, has played under the current Torino coach and has maintained a close relationship with the manager.
In Madrid, Li Mudi appointed Febas as the team's central midfield and third captain, and when the former took over the Red Bulls' coach, he immediately finalized the transfer plan for the latter, and allowed the young midfielder, who was likely to leave Real Madrid to join the Spanish second division, established himself in Torino in the second group of Serie A after a year and a half. All this filled the young man's heart with gratitude to this mentor, so when he used the scouting tool on December 31, Li Mudi found that Fabas had reached 100 respect for himself, and he was the first active player to reach the full point.
And the midfielder who is not yet 22 years old, his ability to perform on and off the field is also very good, and his professional ethics of always being strict with himself make his skills improve very quickly, and the current double value of 135 and 160 is very good in this age group, and he hopes to enter the national team as a rotation player in the future. Therefore, both from a personal point of view and from the point of view of responsibility for the future of the player, it is important to do everything possible to avoid injuries to them. So the head coach of the team made a decision, and asked the veteran Gourcuff to go outside immediately to warm up, while Sumfield would go out afterwards to inform the former of the tactical arrangements for the second half.
Because the substitution was depleted prematurely, Li Mudi had to rearrange the way of playing after the game, and he instructed the players to continue to maintain possession of the ball in the second 45 minutes, while reducing physical contact with the opponent and paying attention to protecting themselves from injury, otherwise the rest of the holiday will be completely wasted.
The second substitution of the home team before the rematch was made, which surprised the 26,311 fans in attendance (the figures announced by the DJ at half-time, which were higher than average because it was the last game before the winter break) and the spectators watching the game in front of the TV and Internet broadcast facilities, until the official website of the Torino club released information on Febas's injury more than ten minutes later, and the following people were able to get an answer.
However, it was clear that attention was still on the game, and Bologna had no choice but to step up the attack, with Donadoni putting two cameo wing-backs, Verdi and Federico Di Francesco, back up front and returning to a 4-2-3-1 formation. However, when it comes to attacking power, although the away team has achieved 7 wins, 3 draws and 9 losses before, which is not bad, the 24 points they have obtained are not because they can score, but because the defense is better. In the first 19 rounds, the team that is 12th in the standings has scored only 22 goals in total, an average of less than 1.16 per game, and the most goals scored in a single game so far is 3, and it has only happened once, so it is indeed difficult to equalize the gap between two goals in half time.
With the home team in possession of a lot of possession, Donadoni can only ask his players to step up the scramble, after all, the ball is not at his feet, can he still expect the opposition to kick into his own goal? Therefore, shortly after the start of the second half, the visiting team committed a number of fouls, although they paid the price of two yellow cards, but also made the Torino team, which could not afford to withstand the loss of personnel, converge a lot, so that the gap between the two sides in possession time has narrowed to a certain extent. Seeing this situation, Li Mudi decisively came to the sidelines, signaled the home team players to recycle and counterattack, and used the opponent's eagerness to attack to lure the snake out of the hole, and then smashed the latter's yellow nest.
In the 57th minute, Bologna formed a siege when winger Simeone Verdi, who had just become an Italian international, broke through to the right of the center and broke into the Torino penalty area, and the youngster Dimarco stretched out his right foot to make a tackle. However, the visitors' no.9 reacted a little quicker, forced a line change before the two sides could make contact, and after slotting the ball past the home left-back's toe with his left foot, he made a gesture to jump past the latter's leg. However, his jump height was obvious, and his right foot hung right on Dimarco's thigh, and then rushed forward to the ground, causing him to trip, and the referee's whistle sounded.
It was a lively affair on the pitch, with the home team signaling to the referee that it was a fake fall, while the visitors said it was a penalty without a doubt. In the end, the referee pointed his finger at the penalty spot without any hesitation after driving away all the people who came around, even the huge boos of the Torino fans did not affect his judgment, and Li Mudi on the sidelines had to smile helplessly and then waved his hand to express his dissatisfaction, but he was powerless to change anything.
Forty seconds later, the stadium erupted in deafening cheers, as the home team's supporters witnessed the majesty of "San Cassie". The former patron saint of the Spanish national team and Real Madrid in front of goal, bravely saved the powerful shot of the opposing Chilean midfielder Erik Pulga, although the goal was not too high, and was the goalkeeper's favorite half-high ball. But Cassie accurately judged the direction, and used a wonderful flying side pounce to keep his goal intact, while not leaving the slightest chance for the opponent to make up the shot, which is indeed too beautiful, it can be described as "Lian Po is old, still able to eat, no no".
The missed penalty opportunity was a serious blow to the morale of Bologna's players, and the concentration problem was even worse, and the home team seized the opportunity to play a deadly counter-attack, completely killing the suspense of the game. Just five minutes after the penalty incident, the active defender Boyer successfully broke the ball in midfield, Falke dribbled at high speed on the right side to about 15 meters from the line of the away team's big penalty area and sent a precise through ball, and Immobile, who took advantage of the early start, shook off the Swedish central defender Holland, who was marking him, and controlled the ball outside the right sideline of the small penalty area.
The Torino shooter's shot was a little too angled, but his mind was unusually clear, and he used a feint to raise his right foot, which tricked Holland, who was struggling to chase back from his left behind, to make an emergency choice to fall to the ground and slide to block. Immobile then dunked the ball to his left side, just past the opponent's body and increased the angle of his shot. He launched a perfect inward spin arc with his left foot with a very fast link-up action, and the ball just bypassed the fingers of the old Bologna goalkeeper Mirante, who was flying to save, and grazed the inside of the far post and crashed into the net. 3-0, this three points of the Red Bull are definitely in hand!
The Torino players who have eaten this reassuring pill can completely relax the nervous emotions that have been in the next game, and the away team, which has no mind to pursue anything more, no longer thinks about scoring goals, and begins to use the remaining time to train young people. Several players who had not played much before began to replace the starters, announcing that Donadoni and his disciples had surrendered. Li Mudi will not insist on tearing his face with the other party, and replaced the outstanding midfield core Baseli with the teenager Balic in the 71st minute, which allowed the young man to find the feeling of actual combat, and also let the Barceli, who had two assists in this game, enjoy the applause of the home team fans, which can be regarded as a small strategy to persuade him to stay in the team.
However, the score of 3-0 could not be maintained until the end of the game, in the 85th minute, Boyer crossed from the left, and Immobile began to ride all the way to the top of the arc of the opponent's penalty area 20 meters away, and after coming to the penalty line, a sudden left-footed shot made Mirante unresponsive, and the ball flew into the lower right corner of the goal against the turf. The Torino No.10, who completed his hat-trick, took his tally of goals in Serie A this season to 19, surpassing Icardi with 18 goals and sitting at the top of the scorer list.
In the end, the Torino team beat Bologna by four goals at home, ending the game before the winter break with a wave of three consecutive wins, and the record of 14 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses in 20 rounds of league games is also the best performance in the club's history since the plane crash.
After the head coach briefly summarized the previous performance and praised everyone, Kevin Sumfield, the assistant coach who played the "blackface role" made many reminders as usual, and then Li Mudi shouted the word "disbandment", and the week-long holiday was officially announced. The team's next game was scheduled for Sunday afternoon on January 21, two weeks later, and a week of preparation was enough before that, so everyone could enjoy almost eight days of free time during this late winter break.
After greeting and greeting each other at the same time, Li Mudi went to the parking lot and returned to his apartment in Forsina's car. On the way, he also combined his mobile phone with the Internet and the FM system in his head to check the final movement of the transfer market and see if there were any exciting events.
The hottest news at the moment is naturally Coutinho's arrival at Barcelona, and there have been many follow-up reports on the Internet about this, but nothing new. Only the Catalan media newspaper "El Monde" revealed that the Brazilian will have a liquidated fee of 400 million euros in the new club, second only to the king of the plum ball (700 million) and tied with Dembele for second in the team, but not too many people care, because this figure is all false, and no team will pay such a sky-high price to buy someone who is not a top star.
On the contrary, the video of some Liverpool fans burning the Bird's shirt in order to express their dissatisfaction has attracted a lot of attention, but the Torino boss thinks that the Reds supporters don't have to do this, because it is a good deal to sell the Birdie for 160 million euros. If it weren't for the super premium situation caused by Neymar, the player's normal worth would never exceed 60 million, for a person who would rather boycott the game and train than leave, he can sell far more than his normal value, and then complain that it seems a little too dissatisfied, how Li Mudi hopes that he can catch up with such a beautiful thing, but unfortunately he doesn't have that good fate!