Because there was no training session in the morning, and because the team allowed family members to stay overnight last night, the players generally woke up late today.

Moreover, it seems that because of the heavy artillery fire, they all slept until after noon before getting up.

However, after getting up, the players consciously arranged for their wives or girlfriends to leave the estate hotel by bus, after all, they were about to start training and prepare for the second group game against Italy.

Pan Yi also met with the coaching staff early to discuss the corresponding strategy.

In dealing with Italy, in fact, there are two main problems.

The first is how to break through the Juventus defense composed of Chiellini, Bonucci, Barzagli, including Gianluigi Buffon.

Conte's current formation in Italy is mainly 3-5-2, which can be said to be the same method used by Pan Yi at Chelsea.

Therefore, the three central defenders in the back line are undoubtedly the key to the Italian team's defense and the transition from defense to attack.

Especially Bonucci, who stands in the middle, has always been an excellent representative of the ball and defender in world football, he is not good at deep and long passes, but also good at horizontal balls.

How to cut off his connection with the midfield is also a subject that the Swedish team needs to study.

The second is how to defend Italy's attacking line, with the focus on their most powerful scorer, Pelle.

Pelle, who currently plays for Southampton, is currently Antonio Conte's most relied on centre-forward and was the top scorer for the Italian national team during European Championship qualifying.

In the first group game against Belgium, Pelle also scored a goal to seal the win.

As a 194cm tall centre-forward, Pelle has a strong header ability, as well as the tactical execution and teamwork skills that are unique to the Italian striker.

He runs accurately, and if his teammates can pass the ball that allows him to face the goal in the first place, he can use his strong counter-attacking ability and good shooting skills.

At the same time, he can also form the team's first fulcrum in the front court with his strong physical fitness and good ball protection ability, and send lethal passes to his teammates who are inserted behind, and this bridgehead role is also vividly reflected in the first game.

It can be said that Pelle is a high-quality "Italian cannon", and if he can be dumbfounded, it will be tantamount to removing Italy's sharpest fangs.

Regarding these two points, in fact, even the Swedish media have been offering suggestions in the past two days.

For example, let the tall Glenqvist keep an eye on Pelle the whole time.

After all, although Lindelof is technically good, his heading ability is really average, and many people are worried that if he is suppressed by Pelle, the Swedish team's air defense will raise the alarm.

Another example is to rest Isak and let Ibrahimovic and Guidetti play as a double striker.

This is because Ibrahimovic is afraid that Ibrahimovic will easily get lost in the defense of Juventus' three old men, as he did when he was in Serie A.

And if you're playing as a two-striker, Ibrahimovic has an assistant next to him that could alleviate that problem.

Of course, Pan Yi didn't take the media's suggestions to heart.

Do they know a ball?

Ibrahimovic can certainly play as a single centre-forward!

He is one of the few very versatile strikers in today's football, and now that he is getting older, he is becoming more and more demonic, and he can bring his characteristics to the fullest.

His off-ball movement is very good, he is able to find space in the moment of his own player's pass, and to take advantage of the space in the shortest possible time to receive the ball.

Ibrahimovic also has a very good nose for his shots and a high shooting percentage, as evidenced by his two goals in the first game against Ireland.

And, if you want to play to Ibrahimovic's strength, the best thing to do is to create opportunities and space for him to shoot in front of him, so that he can get a more relaxed environment.

And to get that kind of environment, the players on both flanks have to help him share the defensive pressure.

Therefore, at present, Sweden's 4-3-3 center forward + single center forward system does not need to change.

It's just that in response to Italy's more European Latin style of play, Pan Yi is ready to make a little adjustment in the lineup and rotate one or two of the positions.

One of the more certain ones is to replace the older Shelström with Wayne Bloom, a defender who plays for CSKA Moscow.

This is mainly to enhance the hardness of the midfield, and at the same time turn the original inverted triangle position of the midfield into a positive triangle, that is, a combination of one forward + two back waists.

This is because the current Italian midfield is actually relatively soft, and once it encounters that kind of tough, or more pressing team, it is easy to encounter difficulties.

Although Wayne Bloom is very average in terms of technical attributes, he is aggressive, courageous, determined and teamwork, and is very suitable to disrupt Italy's midfield.

In addition, his header ability is also very good, which can also assist the defense to prevent the Italian bombardment.

During the training, the Swedish coaching staff carried out the corresponding tactical drills according to Pan Yi's intentions.

At the end of the training, Pan Yi also held a mobilization meeting.

He demanded that everyone must be in good spirits to meet the challenge of Italy.

"Italy are four-time World Cup winners and we have to deal with it seriously. As long as we don't lose to them, we have a chance of qualifying from this group! Let's do it! ”

And Pan Yi's mobilization also received a positive response from the players.

At least judging from the expressions of the players, they all want to perform well in front of a strong team like Italy!

——

"Friends of the audience, friends of the audience, welcome to the Stade de Toulouse!"

When the TV screen switched to the crowded Toulouse stadium, the high-pitched voice of the on-site commentator suddenly sounded.

Everyone can feel the atmosphere of the stadium through the sound of the fans in the stadium through the microphone.

"It's June 17 at 20:45 p.m. French time, and with 15 minutes to go, the game is about to start."

"This match is a match between Italy and Sweden, who are currently the top two in Group E, who won the first round of matches, so this game is also seen as a crucial battle for qualification from Group E."

"The Toulouse Stadium is already full of spectators, and although it is not as big as the Stade de France, it has more than 40,000 spectators."

"For Italian and Swedish fans, of course they come here to cheer on their teams. And for many neutral fans, especially female fans, I am afraid that many of them want to see Pan Yi's demeanor at the scene. ”

'The managers and players of both sides are nervously preparing for this game in the dressing room at the moment, and we have already secured the starting line-up for both sides......

As he spoke, Italy's starting line-up was played on the TV screen, still a 3-5-2.

Goalkeeper: 1 - Gianluigi Buffon.

Defenders: 15-Barzagli, 19-Bonucci, 3-Chiellini.

Midfielders: 6-Candreva, 18-Parolo, 16-De Rossi, 23-Giaccherini, 8-Florenzi.

Forwards: 17-Eder, 9-Pelle.

"Compared to the first game, Conte only made one change to the starting line-up, which was to replace No. 4 Darmian with No. 8 Florenzi."

'Florenzi is faster and more agile in a comparison, so maybe Conte has some thoughts on Sweden's wide play today?'

"Let's take another look at Sweden's starting line-up......"

Sweden's starting line-up was then shown on the TV screen, 4-3-3 as in the first game.

Goalkeepers: 1-Isaksson;

Defenders: 5-Olsson, 14-Lindelof, 4-Granquist, 3-Johansson;

Midfielders: 6-Forsberg, 8-Ekdal, 16-Wayne Bloom;

Forwards: 19-Isak, 10-Ibrahimovic, 20-Guidetti.

Pan Yi also made a change to the starting lineup, that is, replacing Shelström with Wayne Bloom.

'We don't know what will happen to the players' positions at the moment, but it's clear that Sweden will have a bit of a change in the way they play in midfield today.

"And the trident in the front court is still the starting point of the last game, which shows that Pan Yi is very confident in this new attacking combination, and Ibrahimovic did play a high level of ...... in the last game."

While the on-site commentator was talking, the players of both teams were seen walking into the Toulouse stadium under the leadership of the referee.

Then, the 40,000 fans at the scene immediately burst into an overwhelming cheer to welcome the arrival of the team.

"Okay, the players from both teams are coming in one after another, and the game is about to start!"

——

How to fight Italy?

Pan Yi has his own set of ideas, which are not quite the same as others.

That is, he doesn't plan his team's tactics around how to limit Pelle, which is where he is very different from everyone's pre-match predictions.

It can even be said that Pan Yi was not prepared to arrange tactics around defending Pelle from the beginning!

At the pre-match preparation meeting, he had already set the tone for this game very clearly.

Italy are the quintessential European Latin team, with better foot skills than Sweden overall.

Therefore, the team must maintain a rigorous tactical system, maintain a strong pressing ability, and limit the Italian's play and performance.

As for Pelle, in fact, as an opponent in the Premier League, Pan Yi obviously knows much more about him than those media.

That is, Pelle's position in this national team is mostly a finisher.

The so-called terminator is actually the scorer.

This also means that Pelle is responsible for scoring goals for the team, and the team must give him as much support as possible to give him a chance to play to his strengths;

And if the team can't provide him with plenty of opportunities, then his performance will be less threatening.

Of course, Pelle is also a team player, and when he can't score on his own, he also retreats to the midfield to get the ball;

However, due to his limited speed, Pelle did not have a strong ability to break through.

In other words, he still needs his teammates to respond and cooperate in time, otherwise he can only look at the ball and sigh.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Pan Yi's positioning for this game was not to limit Pelle at all, but to limit Italy's midfield, firmly suppress the opponent, and then make Pelle useless in front.

One of the interesting things is that Conte also seems to be afraid of Sweden's tactics today.

And he also seemed to be aware of his team's problems, so the opening tactics dragged the defense very back, put on a posture to lure the Swedish team to attack, and then tried to play the Swedish team's counterattack.

"Is Conte so cautious? Ready to wait for us to make a mistake? Arteta shook his head and smiled, "But we are Sweden, and they are the stronger Italy!" ”

He could see that Conte's tactics were still for stability from the beginning, and he didn't dare to take even the slightest risk.

But judging from the comparison of strength between the two sides, Italy is clearly the stronger side.

Fighting weak with the strong, it is a defensive counterattack posture directly up, which is obviously the fear of Pan Yi.

Everyone knows that Pan Yi has the ability to turn decay into magic, and coaches like Conte, who have suffered losses at Pan Yi's hands before, know this very well.

From that point of view, it's understandable that Conte was so cautious today.

"Then we'll try not to make a mistake!" Pan Yi also laughed, "Just use the steel defense line of Italy to practice our triangle attack!" ”

After speaking, I saw Pan Yi give instructions to the players on the field, signaling that they don't care about how the opponent arranges the formation, but still attack directly like they did against Ireland!

So, taking the opportunity of kick-off, the Swedish team launched a round of attack on Italy as soon as possible.

As soon as the ball was released, the Swedish team immediately started to push forward and soon passed the ball to the feet of Forsberg on the right.

The latter faced Candreva defending, first defending the ball and then taking it down the middle, but was caught between De Rossi and Parolo and had to knock the ball back to Ekdal in the midfield position.

The latter won the ball near the midfield and, as soon as he looked up, saw Ibrahimovic raising his hand in the middle and immediately kicked the ball out.

After the ball had crossed a high trajectory and landed in the middle of the goal, Ibrahimovic cut in quickly from behind, and at the same time, he used his body to keep Chiellini firmly behind, leaping high and shaking his head at the incoming lion.

The ball was hit by him, and he sent out a force, but it hit it well!

Italy's goalkeeper Buffon immediately occupied the position, directly grabbed the ball, and then fell to the ground.

"It was the first shot of the game from the striker Ibrahimovic of the Swedish team! A very powerful header on goal, but unfortunately the angle was too right and he couldn't score! The on-site commentator was also talking about the game.

Buffon got up from the ground, grabbed the ball in his hand, looked ahead, and saw his teammates scattering like a tide.

But instead of kicking the ball away, he kicked it quickly into Bonucci.

This is also the usual way of playing the ball in Italy, with Leonardo Bonucci playing the cards at the back.

After all, in the frontcourt, Italy does not have many masters who can compete for high points except for Pelle.

Another striker, Eder, is only 179cm tall, let alone in front of the tall Glenqvist, and even in front of Lindelof, he does not have the slightest advantage in the header.

In this case, to boldly send the ball to the front is definitely giving the Swedish team the right to give the ball!

So Conte just requires most of the ball to pass through the back and slowly transmit to the front.

In Italy now, there is no player who can play lethal long balls like Andrea Pirlo, and there is no star in the front field who can make a decisive difference like Vieri in the past, so everything is based on teamwork.

It's like Pelle is the best striker in Italy at the moment, but he's just a player in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League.

Another example is Eder, although he is from Inter Milan, he is actually a civilian player, and there are no too highlight moments in his entire career - or it can be said that being selected for this Italian national team is his most noteworthy resume.

And Parolo, Giaccherini and others in the midfield are not giants, and the biggest players of the entire Italian team are concentrated in the backline, and on the whole, it can be said that the star is bleak.

This is also the reason why after Italy's victory over Belgium in the first round, some people also called it an "upset".

However, Pan Yi has long been on guard against Italy's way of playing the ball, which is also the basis for him to dare to attack Italy today.

Wasn't that always the case when you played Juventus at the club?

So, as soon as the ball reached Bonucci's feet, the fast Isaac immediately pressed over.

Bonucci hadn't adjusted the angle of forward delivery at this time, so he could only pass the ball to the feet of Barzagli next to him, and Barzagli immediately kicked the ball forward to De Rossi's feet for the sake of safety.

As the team's central midfielder, De Rossi's position is relatively deep, and it is also a key node to get the ball at the back.

However, Wayne Bloom, who started the Swedish team today, rushed directly to De Rossi and pressed for it, forcing De Rossi to pass the ball to Candreva on the left as soon as possible.

Without the slightest pause, Wayne Bloom immediately changed direction towards Candreva as soon as he saw De Rossi's pass, who immediately passed the ball back to De Rossi.

At this time, Ekdal had also pressed to the front, and Forsberg kept a certain distance from the two teammates in front of him to create defensive depth.

Seeing that there was no chance, De Rossi had no choice but to pass the ball back and back to the backfield.

'Sweden were fierce in their opening pressing, especially against Italy's midfielders.

"Whether it's the strikers or the midfield three, the Swedish team showed a lot of hard work and fighting spirit today."

"However, the Swedish team's back line has not taken the initiative to press forward for the time being, and it is obvious that Pan Yi is also guarding against Italy's counterattack, after all, this is Conte's Italian team's forte."

"So the Swedish defence doesn't want to take too many risks, and the midfielders always keep a certain distance from each other to avoid revealing too much space."

As the commentator was talking, he saw that after the ball returned to the Italian backfield, Bonucci saw that the midfielder could not pass the ball out, and passed directly to the front with a big foot, wanting to find Pelle's point.

However, Glenqvist had already firmly stuck in position, grabbed in front of Pelle and headed the ball back into the Italian half.

As soon as Forsberg got the ball, he quickly passed it to the left, and Olsson won the ball and quickly dribbled along the left, very fast.

Isaac in front of him chose to run to the baseline, opening a gap for Olsson.

Sure enough, as soon as Isak ran forward, Olsson chose to cut inside with the ball in the middle, attracting the attention of the chasing Florenzi and knocking it across to the edge of the box, and the back of Forsberg met the incoming ball with a powerful volley.

This is one of the stunts that Forsberg can be known for on the rivers and lakes!

The shot was so powerful that everyone at the scene could clearly hear the bang, and the ball was already in front of the Italian goal.

But the Italian goalkeeper Buffon was very focused, made a direct side pounce, and blocked the ball off the line with the tips of his fingers.

'Oh my God, Sweden's long-range shot almost went through the Italian goal and Gianluigi Buffon saved Antonio Conte's side.

The live TV camera switched to the slow-motion replay of the attack just now, and you can see that the Swedish team's rush and long-range shots are very resolute, without the slightest drag, which shows that this is a tactic that the team usually rehearses.

"In the first three minutes, Sweden had two very dangerous shots, one from Ibrahimovic and one from Forsberg. These two of Sweden's best stars have sounded the clarion call for the team's attack. ”

"It seems that Pan Yi's opening tactics are very proactive, wanting to break the Italian defense from the beginning and take the lead in fighting for the initiative in the game."

"If it weren't for Sweden's bad luck, or Gianluigi Buffon's age, Italy might have lost the goal."

After the corner, there was chaos in the Italian penalty area, Lindelof got the ball under the Chiellini defense, but couldn't get it on target due to interference, the ball went over the crossbar, and the goal kick!

"Giorgio Chiellini's Italian backline has been solid from the start of the game to the present, at least not giving Sweden a chance to take advantage of. The outcome of this game is not easy to predict. ”

The comments of the on-site commentators are fairly fair.

At least judging from the course of the game, Italy is indeed inferior to Sweden on the field, but they are still quite stable.

Fans who are familiar with Italian football know that this can be said to be the norm for the Italian national team.

Including the first game against Belgium, Belgium also had the advantage on the field, but it was useless.

Belgium played for half a day without scoring, while Italy scored twice and took away the three points.

So, against a team like Italy, the lead in possession, the lead in shots on goal or something, it's all virtual, only the goal is real.

After all, such a scene is also caused by Conte's opening strategy to be stable, and Pan Yi's opening tactics are very positive, which does not mean that the Swedish team is stronger than Italy.

If Conte is not so jealous of Pan Yi and chooses to release the attack, it is really hard to say who can control the scene.

Of course, the adjustments made by Pan Yi for the Italian midfield today are also very effective.

Ekdal and Wayne Bloom formed a duo of meat churners, and the Italian line of the ball at the back was a dead eye.

This resulted in Sweden easily getting the ball that Italy had kicked in one of their haste and then forming a siege in front of the Italian penalty area.

Such a continuous attack gave the Swedish team a lot of morale, while Italy looked a little aggrieved.

After all, although Italy wants to be based on defense, it will eventually counterattack!

Now that the midfield is difficult to pass, how can you fight back?

It's not like before, asking Pirlo to make a 40-meter long pass will solve the problem.

Therefore, Conte was also a little anxious, he also walked to the sidelines, and frequently gave instructions to the players, asking them to move as soon as possible after breaking the ball, and not stick to their feet.

The Swedish team's pressing is so fierce that it is easy to fall into the encirclement and be broken as soon as the ball sticks.

As for the direction in which to get the ball out as soon as possible, Conte gave two wings.

Candreva and Florenzi will drop back to the back to receive the ball from the centre-backs.

After getting the ball, you can use your speed to move forward, and when you have the chance, you can immediately hand over to the forward line, allowing Eder and Pelle to solve the Swedish defence!

Conte hopes that this adjustment can change the current situation of being too passive to a certain extent, so that Italy can play their own attacking characteristics in addition to defense.

Why start Florenzi?

That's what he intended!

(End of chapter)