Chapter 747: Before the Champions Cup
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Although the defeat to Udinese at home made Fiorentina's players very frustrated, they were relieved that several of Fiorentina's opponents in the league title race also played very mediocre in this round: Parma lost a good game with a goal first, and was attacked by veteran Signori in the last minute, and won a draw in frustration; Vicenza, distracted by the Cup Winners' Cup and the team's internal conflicts, also failed to get a win in this round and was forced to draw by Bari, Italy's recognized "giant killer"; Lazio had nothing to do in the face of the Cagliari's iron bucket formation, and under Eriksen's slightly stiff tactical play, neither Salas nor Cruz could find the back of the net, and finally had to draw with the promoted team.
As for Inter Milan's cousin, it was even more disappointing, as they lost 1-2 at the final whistle in Perugia, not only did they not take advantage of Fiorentina's defeat to close the distance, but were overtaken by several rivals behind them and fell to fourth place in the standings!
In contrast, AC Milan and Juventus are much more normal, and they only need to focus on the former in the domestic competition to defeat the relegation Venezia 2-1 at home and continue to fight for next season's Champions League spot; The latter, under the leadership of young coach Carlo Ancelotti, beat the underdog Piacenza 2-0 away from home, and used a valuable three points to temporarily free Ancelotti from the dismissal crisis that had been dangling in front of his eyes.
However, Juventus' win did not attract much attention, after all, the gap between Juventus and the leading group at this time is a little too far away, and one three points will not solve many problems at all.
Furthermore, the reason why the Fiorentina players were not nervous about a defeat was largely due to the team's clear advantage in the standings at this time.
With the points advantage accumulated by the Purple Lily in the first half of the league, coupled with the help of champions such as Inter Milan and Lazio who have repeatedly dropped the chain on the league battlefield, Fiorentina, who lost at the Friuli Stadium, still topped the league standings with 15 wins, three draws and three losses and 48 points after 21 rounds of the league, which is a full eight points more than Lazio, which is in second place in the standings.
Sitting in third place surprisingly became Zaccheroni's Rossoneri, who were ruthlessly beaten by Fiorentina in the two-legged league tie, but AC Milan burst out with a strong fight after the initial run-in, and they are currently eyeing Lazio by just one point.
As for the likes of Inter Milan, Vicenza and Parma, although these teams still have a chance to compete for the title in theory, if the teams at the top of the table do not make mistakes, it will be quite impossible for them to reach the podium of the league championship at the end of the season, with a double-digit gap between the points difference and the leader.
It is precisely because of the above two reasons that although the Fiorentina players who lost the game are a little depressed, they can still meet the next game with a relatively relaxed mentality!
Moreover, Fiorentina's next opponent is just the right time for them to vent their frustration at the loss to Udinese!
“Goooooooal! It was Ronaldo who scored the goal! The alien started from the midfield and scored after beating three Roma defenders in succession, Di Biagio, Tomasi and Aldair! What a brilliant goal! ”
"Two to zero! Now the score is 2-0! Zambrotta's cross from the right was met by Vieri in the box against his marker Aldair and the ball was sent into Barthez's goal! Fiorentina extend their lead! ”
That's right, Fiorentina's opponent in the 22nd round of the league is none other famous attacking madman in Serie A, the Red Wolves Roma, coached by the Czech Zeman!
As Capello expected, Zeman and his Roma players in this game did a good job of helping him to complete the intended task, which is to let the Fiorentina players who have a fire in their hearts vent their anger and depression in this game!
After all, there's nothing like a simple, no-holds-to-head battle that lifts the spirits and makes the players completely forget their previous repressions.
Although Totti showed excellent competitive form on this night, and made Toldo's goal twice in the game with one pass and one shot, and once led the Red Wolves to tie the score at 2-2 when they were two goals behind!
However, Fiorentina still relied on better overall strength and more offensive firepower, as well as a stronger belief in winning, and when the score was tied, the two core organizations of Effenberg and Redondo scored one goal each in the 61st and 72nd minutes of the game, locking the score at 4-2, and finally took away a victory and three points from the Stadio Olimpic!
In the face of so many Fiorentina scoring points, Totti, who did his best in the game, could only look up to the sky and sigh, saying in his heart when he could have such a strong teammate by his side?
Hawkers, this is also something that can't be helped, who let Totti be the only one left in the Roma team to score after the departure of Fonseca and Balbo? Del Vecchio's form has been up and down, and Paulo Sergio's ability is not comparable to Fonseca's, making it difficult for Zeman's attacking ideas to be fully implemented, which is one of the reasons why the Czech's results in Rome are not as good as they were in Lazio.
After the victory over Roma, Fiorentina left the Eternal City non-stop to prepare for the Coppa Italia semi-finals in three days' time. This time, Fiorentina will face AC Milan, whom they have beaten not long ago.
In this win-win semi-final, Fiorentina, which has a home advantage, faced the Rossoneri who tried to struggle in the game, and the main Purple Lily cleanly solved AC Milan, which had hidden some core players, with a 3-0, and successfully advanced to the Italian Cup final!
However, affected by the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia in midweek, Fiorentina's players were not very excited in the 23rd round of Serie A match with Salernitana played at the weekend, coupled with the suspension of the two major organizational cores of Effenberg and Redondo, Nesta, Ronaldo and Pirlo were all absent due to some trivial minor injuries (Capello), and Fiorentina, which lacked important combat power in all three lines, finally shook hands with Salernitana, a fish belly team. Ended the trip with just one point.