Chapter 595: Crazy April (5)
PS1: The book friend group has been created, and friends who want to join can search for "The Era of Fei Leng Cui" or the group number three, seven, zero, five, four, nine, nine, one, nine, and verify that the answer is NTR Knight, well, that's it.
PS2: I would like to thank my book friends "Fenghua Night" and "Love East's Little Bear" for their tips, and by the way, I would like to ask for a recommendation ticket.
Capello was relieved to see Inzaghi's ball fly into the AC Milan goal, and he was glad that his team were able to equalise on aggregate before the end of the first half, after all, it was quite risky to attack at any cost like before, and it was always a big blow to the morale of the players.
The most important thing is that if Fiorentina, which has not been able to attack for a long time, is careless and the opponent uses a counterattack to break through its own goal, then Fiorentina will be completely in a passive situation.
Therefore, Capello is now extremely grateful to Inzaghi, who opened the scoring for the team, and his goal not only stabilized the morale of the army, but also forced AC Milan to a dead end!
In the first leg of the match between the two teams, AC Milan, who were playing at home, only won 2-1 against Fiorentina. Therefore, as long as the Fiorentina players can keep the score 1-0 until full-time, then in the event of a draw on aggregate, the Rossoneri will be eliminated by Fiorentina due to a lack of away goals.
Such an outcome would be disastrous for AC Milan and Ranieri, who are hell-bent on qualifying for next season's European competition through the Coppa Italia.
Therefore, after the resumption of the game, the AC Milan players finally stepped out of the turtle shell they had built themselves and took the initiative to attack. Led by Boban and Albertini, the Milan players were constantly on the ground in midfield, looking for a lethal gap.
Fiorentina, on the other hand, after receiving the support of Carlos and Zambrotta, took advantage of the advantage of more midfielders than the opponent to launch a ferocious press against AC Milan. The players will be eager to take advantage of the minutes remaining in the game to fight again, as Fiorentina will need to score one more goal to increase their hopes of progressing to the Coppa Italia final.
However, Fiorentina's overly aggressive midfield effort meant that the back line had to start pressing to ensure that the three lines did not become disjointed, leaving plenty of space for the two Milan strikers, Kluivert and Weah.
In the first minute of first-half stoppage time, Boban sent a pinpoint through ball between Zambrotta and Costa, which broke through the central defence of Davies and Redondo and rolled to Weah's feet.
Had it not been for Nesta's timely drop back and a mid-game steal of Weah's pass to Kluivert, AC Milan would have had a one-on-one chance in the final moments of the first half...... With Kluivert's quality, there is a good chance that a solo goal like this will be converted into a solid goal by him.
After being frightened into a cold sweat by this sudden counterattack, the Fiorentina players relented in their scrambling and began to pay more attention to protecting their own backline, after all, the situation on the field is now that they have the advantage, and they can slowly grind down the Rossoneri with their best defensive counterattack.
In this way, Fiorentina, who had regained their rhythm, smoothly brought the score of 1-0 into the halftime break.
During the break, neither Capello nor Ranieri made any changes to the line-up, the former because he believed in the intelligence and self-regulation of this group of players, as long as they can stay awake enough during the game, there will be basically no major mistakes; And the latter did not change, more because there was no one available in the hands of the tinkerer - does anyone think that the old and frail Savčevich at this time will be more reliable than Boban, who is in his prime? Or is Andreas Anderson more capable of making a big splash than Weah and Kluivert?
So, after the start of the second half, there was an interesting scene on the field: the Fiorentina players began to consciously shrink the formation and play a defensive counterattack; And AC Milan, who didn't want to lose the last fig leaf, launched the initiative to attack - all this, almost completely opposite to the situation in the first half!
With Carlos and Zambrotta both moving to full-back to defence, Fiorentina changed to a five-three-two. This change not only made the home team's defense more solid, but with Costa and Redondo's two midfielders, Fiorentina did not give up control of the midfield by shrinking the defensive line; At the same time, the two-striker configuration of Barty and Inzaghi was enough to contain Milan's backline, so that they did not dare to rush into the attack with their teammates.
As a result, the two teams entered a long stalemate, during which time both players created a couple of good chances on goal, but neither was able to convert them into goals.
Seeing that the time for the end of the game was getting closer and closer, and the score on the field was still 1-0, Ranieri finally couldn't sit still and began to deploy troops to prepare for his life.
However, the resources of the tinkerer are far less abundant than when he was coaching in Florence, so even if he wants to work hard, it will be in vain if he does not have enough capital in his hands.
In the end, when the referee blew the final whistle, the score was fixed at 1-0, and in the case of a draw on aggregate between the two teams, Fiorentina successfully reached the final of the Italian Cup by virtue of the slight advantage of more away goals!
At the moment, the Stadio Frankie was thunderous with joy, and although a Coppa Italia was nothing for the Fiorentina players and fans, the lure of the treble and the victory of the match made them very happy.
AC Milan, on the other hand, was filled with sadness, and the Rossoneri's exit from the Coppa Italia announced that the Rossoneri would miss European competition for the second year in a row, a cruel fact that Maldini simply could not face calmly.
After beating AC Milan to qualify for the Coppa Italia final, Fiorentina ushered in the 29th round of Serie A on April 11, and the Purple Lilies will face Guidolin's Vicenza at home this time.
As Fiorentina's schedule has been very busy lately, with a rhythm of two matches a week from late March onwards, this back-to-back campaign has inevitably led to a decline in the form and fitness of the players. On the advice of a group of experts at the physiotherapy centre, Capello finally chose to strategically abandon the league game and retain his strength for the second leg against Barcelona in the middle of next week.
Therefore, although Fiorentina's opponent in this game is Vicenza, which is far inferior to Barcelona and Parma, the purple lily, who played with a full bench lineup, was defeated after 90 minutes of battle with the opponent, losing the game 1-2.
Incidentally, it was Fiorentina's Andrea Pirlo, who scored the winner for Vicenza on loan last summer, and the talented rising star scored a brilliant direct free-kick in second-half stoppage time to make Fiorentina suffer their third league defeat of the season!