Chapter 236: The State of Divine Courage
Back in Rome, the whole team is back to normal.
After the first round of the match with Manchester United, Roma's schedule is still relatively good, the game with Palermo will be five days later, and the game with Juventus will be half a month later, that is to say, between now and the game with Juventus, there will be only one league game to play in half a month.
However, the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester United will be immediately after the match against Juventus, so the team will have to use this time to adjust to the difficult schedule in half a month.
In the first leg with Manchester United, the result of 2:2 was still good, but in fact, Roma was still very depressed, except for Zhang Tiehan, the other players were defending almost all the time, and the feeling of defending the whole game was not very good, which made everyone somewhat unmotivated, the result was good but the process was depressing.
Drinel hopes that the players can adjust their condition well, and at the same time, he must also consider ways to deal with Manchester United, otherwise when it comes to the Olympic Stadium, Roma should be passive or passive, and it is impossible to always count on Zhang Tiehan's performance alone to win.
The Italian media share the same opinion.
"Milan Sport" commented on the match between Roma and Manchester United, "Roma defended the whole game, and the only outstanding player was Zhang, who scored two goals alone, especially the second goal, and showed great individual ability. â
'Roma made it 2-2 and the score was pretty good for them, but they had to make a change or they would still lose to Manchester United at the Stadio Olipic.
"Compared with Manchester United, Roma has a lot of problems as a whole, such as the lack of attacking ability on the wings, and the problems with the connection between the front and back courts, which makes them passive in the third line."
'If they want to get one step closer to the Champions League, they have to make some changes. Drinel can't always play with his 4231 in the league, and against a team like Manchester United, their 4231 can't play at all, and can only be reduced to a defensive formation like an iron bucket......"
"Milan Sport" does not have a high opinion of Roma, but the problem they say is that there is zĂ i, playing against Manchester United. Drinel adopted 4231, but it did not achieve its tactical purpose at all.
He originally wanted to fight with Manchester United to attack, but the situation became more and more passive, and in the second half, he could only choose defense to defend the goal, the biggest reason was that the 4231 formation could not play its power at all.
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Regardless of what the media says, it is unlikely that Roma will be able to change anytime soon, especially before they play Palermo, for whom the Champions League is important. Leagues are just as important.
Palermo was promoted last season, but don't underestimate this team, they are the giants of Serie B, and they don't lie to Italian internationals, such as Toney, such as Italian Olympic team players Bazali, Zaccardo, etc., plus the combination of former Chievo star Collini and Barone, their strength is still quite strong.
In the last leg, Roma hosted Palermo. It was in the seventh round of the league, and Drinel had just become Roma manager. Roma only ended in a draw in that game, and the Roma fans were very unhappy at the time.
In reality, Roma were behind Palermo in the table until February, and now they are sixth in the table, behind Roma who drew with Livorno in the previous round.
It's a contest between fifth and sixth in the league.
That being said, 'Palermo vs Roma'. It's hard to get the attention of the Italian fans, especially when it's also going on with an Italian Spotlight - the Milan derby between Inter Milan and AC Milan has caught the attention of the whole of Italy, and even fewer fans are paying attention to the game, except for those who really support Roma and Palermo, no one else cares about the game at all.
And that's not all. There were also very few pre-match interviews, with reporters asking questions, mostly related to the Champions League knockout matches between Roma and Manchester United.
Roma have just drawn away to Manchester United, and the players are still a little bit confident when they come back to the league, they want to let go and play an attacking game, which is what everyone wants to see, because the game against Manchester United is very frustrating, and they want to find some confidence.
This self-confidence naturally has to find soft persimmons, and in their eyes, Palermo is a soft persimmon.
Palermo would be annoyed if they knew what Roma players were thinking, as they finished sixth in the league and were only five points less than Roma, which was not a soft persimmon at all, and they had a good season with Juventus, even drawing with Juventus and winning against Inter Milan.
But there is a reason why Roma players see it that way.
No matter what the results of Palermo are, they are a promoted horse after all, when it comes to the lineup, no matter how bad the Roma lineup is, it is much better than Palermo, and Roma has suppressed Palermo in terms of results, even if it is an away game, the Roma players are confident.
Cassano claimed before the game that he was going to score, "I had a hunch that I was going to score!" â
This is the first time Cassano said this before the game, and media reporters thought that he was infected by Zhang Tiehan, but in fact, Cassano's idea was very simple, because every time Zhang Tiehan arrogantly said something, it would basically come true, and he also hoped that luck could be fulfilled on him.
Cassano is also under pressure right now.
He didn't play in the last game against Manchester United, he wasn't annoyed, because Drinel took the initiative to explain something to him and promised him that he would play in the next game, but in any case, Cassano was still under pressure, in the league, he didn't score as many goals as Montrado, the team couldn't compete with Zhang Tiehan, many times the team used a single striker, he didn't have a position at all, he wanted to have more opportunities to play so he could only retreat his position and play the second striker...... But this has to involve competition with Totti and De Rossi.
In short, Cassano is under a lot of pressure.
With pressure in this way, Cassano started the game, his position was the second striker, Zhang Tiehan played forward, Cassano was delayed, Delvicio and Montella played bilateral forwards, such a frontcourt lineup was very gorgeous.
Roma thought they would suppress their opponents, but at the beginning of the away game, Palermo also attacked aggressively, which made Roma a little flustered as a whole.
As a result, Palermo took the opportunity to score two goals in a row!
It was the perfect start for Palermo, and it wasn't until just around halfway that Zhang Tiehan's header gave Del Vecchio the chance, who slotted home into the left-hand corner for Roma to pull one back.
But after the shot, Delvicchio fell to the ground and screamed in pain.
After a slight examination, the team doctor carried him out of the field. Drinel hurriedly replaced him with D'Agostino. It was only at half-time that the team doctor came to the firm conclusion that Delvicchio had suffered a thigh injury and had to be taken to hospital for treatment, and the time required to recover was uncertain.
This somewhat cast a shadow over the team's game.
In the second half, Zhang Tiehan opened the game and helped the team equalize with a header.
But at the seventy-third minute. Palermo found a good chance on a counter-attack, and midfielder Barone received a pass from a teammate and shook off Ferrari's solo goalkeeper to score the ball again.
The two teams are still fighting against each other.
Palermo are not conservative at home at all, and they are in a posture of fighting Roma to score goals, and Roma have no choice when they are behind.
As a result, in the 81st minute of the game, Cassano finally made a contribution, he shook the opposing defender on the left side of the penalty area and curled the ball from a small angle. The soccer ball flies past the goalkeeper and into the goal.
Roma equalised again.
Both teams seemed unhappy with the draw and spent the rest of the day looking for opportunities to attack. In stoppage time, Zhang Tiehan found another opportunity and knocked on the door of Palermo with a long-range shot, and finally sealed the victory in the final minute of the game.
In the end, Rome won 4:3.
The result was good, but the whole Roma team was still not happy, mainly because Delvicchio was injured, and Delvicchio has not played many games this season due to injury. But he still has a lot to play and he has a good relationship with everyone in the team.
Now he's injured. It seems that it is impossible to recover in a short time, so everyone is not in good spirits.
After the game, many people went to the hospital together to wait for the results, and the doctor also confirmed the situation after some examination, and the calf muscles of Del Vecchio were strictly out of place, and a minor operation was needed to recover, and the recovery time would take at least two months.
Two months......
Drinel could only smile wryly when he heard the news. The mood of the others is not much better, Drinel is thinking about the team's problems, and some of the others have a good relationship with Del Vecchio, and the mood is naturally not good, and the relationship is generally infected by everyone's atmosphere. Close and depressed.
Zhang Tiehan couldn't be happy.
After the game, the media praised him again, because he scored two more goals, in Serie A, he has scored thirty goals, seven goals ahead of the second-place Gilardino, and now there is no suspense in the Serie A scorer list, and this is also Zhang Tiehan's two goals in three consecutive games, this state makes the Italian media unable to find suitable praise words to describe.
Perhaps in the last game against Manchester United, the English media commentator's 'possessed by God' would be more appropriate.
But this is also difficult to make Zhang Tiehan happy, he is used to scoring goals, and he hopes to get consecutive victories, win championships and get honors, not just goals.
The whole team has been winning games in recent times, and it has been a lot of personal play that has put a lot of pressure on his shoulders.
He felt a little tired.
It's like this every time, it's like this every game, although it's good to be in the limelight, but it's always in the limelight, and the whole team wins or loses on him alone, and it's not good to have this feeling for a long time.
He understood Totti's feelings.
Totti was just disappointed in the team, but more time and the pressure was on his shoulders alone, he would make a big deal out of the media, often saying that he wanted to leave Roma, but he never left.
He's just talking.
The media is not clear, they continue to report on Totti and the ** of various teams, but Zhang Tiehan now knows Totti very well, he knows who in the team may leave, but Totti will never be, unless Roma goes bankrupt, or Roma changes the chairman and takes the initiative to sell Totti, Totti himself will not leave.
This is Totti, who was born a Roman. (To be continued......)