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With the change of Zoff's line-up, Italy's starting line-up for this game has naturally changed a lot compared to the opening game. For example, in the forward line, Philippe Inzaghi returned to the starting line-up after a bench game, partnering his good friend Vieri up front; The Roman prince Totti was reassigned to his familiar midfield position by Zoff, taking the burden off Albertini's shoulders to avoid repeating the same dilemma he did against Croatia in the last game.

With his impressive performance during the national team's training camp, Pirlo finally overtook Tomasi's biggest rival and became part of Italy's starting line-up, where he will form the Azzurri's midfield triangle alongside Albertini and Totti. However, in this way, among Italy's four starting midfielders, only Di Biagio is a full-time defensive midfielder, and although the other three cannot be said to have contributed to the defensive end, they will also give people a feeling of attacking and defending weakly.

Taking Albertini and Pirlo as examples, although in the starting list submitted by Zoff, both of them are in the same position as Di Biagio in the back midfield, but the role of these two is more to sort out the team's rhythm of the game, looking for opportunities to tear apart the opponent's defense, and on the defensive end, they rely more on their prediction to intercept the opponent's offensive line to defend, rather than a midfield sweeper like Di Biagio and Tomasi, like holding a dynamite bag to know how to fight head-on with the opposing attacking player.

It is precisely because of this style of play that Albertini and Pirlo are not defensive black holes, but they are also unlikely to be regarded as defensive giants. After all, even Redondo, who is even more defensively capable than them, has never won this title, and Albertini and Pirlo are naturally even more unlikely.

Therefore, when Zoff put these three people in the starting line-up together, his approach still caused many Italian fans to worry. After all, if the defensive hardness of the midfield is not enough, the impact on the team's overall defense is still great, and it is really hard to say whether such a change will be a blessing or a curse for Italy, which started with defense.

Suffice it to say that such a defensive midfield combination would be an attempt of courage for Zoff, who is heavily defensive and desperately needs a win to qualify for the team.

Now that Zoff has made changes to Italy's midfield configuration, the backline is not immune. The starting central defenders have changed from the three central defenders of Maldini, Nesta and Materazzi in the last game to the combination of Nesta and Cannavaro today; The team's captain Maldini returned to the left wing-back position, and while returning Zambrotta, who had a temporary cameo on the left, to the right side of the side where he was most familiar, he also squeezed Panucci, who had worked with him at AC Milan, to the bench and could only sit on the sidelines in frustration and watch the game.

It has to be said that after being taught a good lesson by the Croatians, Zoff's series of adjustments effectively solved most of the problems exposed by Italy in the opening game, such as the lack of control in the midfield with Albertini, and the lack of firepower of famous players such as Inzaghi and Montella after putting Totti up the front. However, in Zhuang Mingge's view, letting the 34-year-old Maldini replace Zambrotta at left wing-back is likely to be a failure. After all, the Milan captain is old, in much better shape and fitness than he was four years ago, and if he continues to play at full-back on the left, the former world number one will find it difficult to hold on for a full 90 minutes.

In Zhuang Mingge's previous life, the main reason why AC Milan, led by Carlo Ancelotti, was defeated by Deportivo La Coruna and Liverpool in the Champions Cup, was that a group of veterans led by Maldini lacked the physical fitness to last the whole game.

However, the Ecuadorian did not take advantage of this loophole in the Italian squad and rushed towards Maldini. Faced with the sudden change of formation and the enormous pressure put on them by the attacking duo of Vieri and Inzaghi, the Ecuadorian players were exhausted just by dealing with these two super strikers, let alone identifying the shortcomings in the Italian squad and exploiting them. After all, even if they find a weakness of the other party, they must have enough strength to execute tactics against this weakness, otherwise, everything will be just empty talk.

Some people may wonder why there is so much difference between the two teams in terms of strength, one can seize the opportunity to complete the reversal, while the other team can't even execute basic tactics?

In fact, the reason why Ecuador was able to beat Uruguay, Chile and other traditional South American powerhouses to reach the World Cup finals is not because they are better than these teams, but because of their huge home advantage - after all, anyone who suddenly runs to an altitude of 2,800 meters to play will not be able to cope with the huge weather difference between the plateau and the plateau, even if they are not weakened by altitude sickness. It is with the help of home advantage that Ecuador, which can only be regarded as the bottom of the second rate in South America, can defeat those opponents who are much stronger than it and qualify for the World Cup.

As a result, in the face of Ecuador, which was directly beaten back to the prototype after going down the plateau, the Italian players who have not completely recovered from the fatigue brought by a season's campaign have finally regained some of their form. With a steady stream of fire from Totti, Albertini and Andrea Pirlo, Vieri and Inzaghi up front had plenty of shots, with the former's superior physiques and the latter's agility making Ecuador's defenders miserable and forced to shrink their defence to fend off the threat.

With Vieri using his superior individual ability to penetrate Ecuador's goal twice, Italy finally beat Ecuador cleanly 2-0 in this second-round group stage, picking up three valuable points from this opponent, while also tying Croatia in the group standings with a narrow goal difference and sitting second in Group G with a narrow goal difference!

Zoff and his Italian internationals have finally used their practical actions to win a glimmer of life for themselves.