After beating Leeds United, the morale of York City is getting stronger and stronger.

In the next few rounds of the league, although De Ligt was suspended and could not play, there are still a number of central defenders such as Westerman, Tomori, Saliba and so on, not to mention that Militão and Tomiyasu Kenhiro can also play central defenders, so they don't panic at all.

As a result, York City's fighting power has largely not deteriorated, as they won 2-0 away at Preston North End before returning home to beat Reading 3-1.

After beating Apollo Limassol 3-0 in the second round of the Europa League group stage, it was another 2-0 win over Barnsley in the 11th round of the Championship.

In 11 rounds, York City has an excellent record of 10 wins and 1 loss, and 30 points can also make their top position very solid.

Cardiff City, who are now in second place, have 7 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss with only 24 points, and are already 6 points behind York City.

Then there is Wolves in third place with 23 points, and Ipswich Town and Sheffield United in fourth and fifth place both have 21 points.

Leeds United, on the other hand, were suspended by a number of players following the defeat to York City, which left them demoralized.

In the last few rounds, they have lost 0:3 to Sheffield Wednesday, 1:3 to Cardiff City and 0:1 to Millwall, with only 20 points and a ranking outside the sixth or seventh place.

Such a comparison of results has made York City Club's popularity in the whole Yorkshire begin to surpass Leeds United!

The two flowers bloomed on and off the field, which also allowed Pan Yi to relax and deal with other things.

This "other thing" of course refers to the national team.

Now that the Dragon National Team has successfully qualified and is sure to participate in the 2018 World Cup, Pan Yi certainly does not plan to follow as a consultant.

He wants to lead a team by himself to win the World Cup!

After 11 rounds of playing in the Championship, it entered the international break, and the Italian team has the last two group games to play this week, so Pan Yi went to Italy by the way.

In addition to watching the ball, it is to formally discuss with the Italian Football Federation about joining the national team!

For Pan Yi's visit, the president of the Italian Football Association, Tavicchio, was of course overjoyed.

You must know that in the last 2014 World Cup, the Italian team was out of the group stage of the World Cup, and the then president of the Football Association Abate resigned, which shows that Italian football has high requirements for its own results.

And now, Italy is going to be driven to the play-offs, and it would be a disaster if they didn't appear in next year's World Cup!

And as the current president of the Football Association, I am afraid it will be difficult for him to stand alone.

Therefore, Pan Yi is his last straw!

So when Pan Yi proposed that he could take over the Italian team before the play-offs began, Tavicio immediately agreed!

Then there's the initialing of the agreement.

It's similar to the previous one with the Swedish national team, first on a short-term contract.

After all, if the Italian team is really eliminated in the qualifying stage, there is no need to stay any longer.

And if you qualify, then you will continue to coach until the end of the World Cup, and then you will discuss it.

Of course, such an agreement is still confidential for the time being, after all, the current national team is still with Ventuto, and there are still two games to play.

Although these two games are actually of little importance, for the sake of the national team's military spirit, it is better not to reveal it to the outside world.

It's just that the plan catches up and doesn't change.

In Pan Yi's match between Italy and Array Chitenstein, Italy's performance was once again unsatisfactory.

In the face of this team that is recognized as the belly of Europe, this team suffered a heavy 0-8 defeat to Spain, but the Italian team played a little uncomfortable, and it was not until the end of the first half that Belotti scored a header to take the lead.

In the second half, Italy's performance still did not improve, and Ventura did not make any substitutions or make any tactical adjustments, and finally relied on a personal breakthrough shot by Spinazzola to score, allowing Italy to win 2-0.

The ball was won, but the game was too ugly!

And also won by only two goals.

You know, Liechtenstein has always held the record of losing all of the group, scoring only 1 goal and conceding 36 goals so far!

On average, they concede more than 4 goals per game......

Not to mention that Spain can sweep their opponents with 8 goals in both legs, and even a weak team like North Macedonia can beat Liechtenstein 4-0.

And the player's performance collapsed, and the head coach Ventura did not have any sense of existence, sitting motionless in the coach's seat throughout the game, and even did not make any moves that could change the situation on the field.

"If you don't change him, it'll be too late!"

"With Ventura, we don't see any hope!"

"Italy is in danger!"

Under such a frenzy of public opinion, the president of the Italian Football Association, Tavicio, can't stand it.

Because some people have begun to wonder if the chairman of the Football Association has any PY deal with Ventura, that's it, and he is still protecting him!

So there are also media and fans who are letting Tavicio out of class!

Tavicio had no choice but to quickly find Pan Yi again, hoping that he could take over the Italian national team in advance, so that everyone could get through this difficult time safely.

And after Pan Yi thought about it for a while, he agreed to this request.

It's time to put on a show of real technology!

——

The process of changing the coach is also relatively low-key.

Ventura received a call from Tavicchio the day after the game, and then calmly accepted the fate of the class.

To be honest, this period of time has also been a torment for him, and the media and fans have lashed out at him so hard that his hair has become bald!

He had long expected that he would have to leave class sooner or later, but he just didn't know when it would be.

Now, I heard that it is the world's No. 1 coach Pan Yi who has taken over, and this wave of losses is not a loss!

Then, Pan Yi quickly got to work.

Since he has been paying attention to the Italian national team and has made a lot of preparations in advance, everything is in an orderly manner despite the fact that he was ordered to do so.

The first is the coaching staff.

On the premise of keeping the general framework unchanged, Pan Yi invited Milan legend Evani to serve as an assistant coach.

A Milan Academy player, Evani spent many years at AC Milan and played 296 games for the club, helping them win three Serie A titles and two Champions League titles.

In addition, Evani has played 15 games for the Italian national team, most notably at the 1994 World Cup.

In the final against Brazil, substitute Evani hit a penalty safely, but unfortunately teammate Baggio missed the penalty, and Italy regretted losing the championship.

After retiring as a player, Evani returned to Milan as a youth team coach and became Italy Under-18 head coach in 2010.

Pan Yi took a fancy to him, mainly because of his Milanese heritage and rich experience in dealing with young people.

In fact, in Pan Yi's previous life, when Mancini joined the Italian national team, he also hired Evani to serve as an assistant coach, and won the 2020 European Cup together.

The other assistant coach is Chelsea legend Vialli.

Vialli played with the Italian national team at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, the 1988 European Championship in West Germany and the 1990 World Cup in Italy, as well as Sampdoria, Juventus, Chelsea and other well-known clubs, achieving success at every stage.

After retiring as a player, Vialli managed Chelsea for more than two years and also has a decent experience in professional football.

He also won Euro 2020 with the Italian national team as an assistant coach in his previous life.

The main role of these two Italian assistant coaches is to help Pan Yi stabilize the locker room, so that Pan Yi can improve the technical and tactical level of the Italian national team without distraction.

After getting these two celebrities, Pan Yi also immediately asked the Italian Football Federation to announce a list of national teams drawn up by him for the final match of the group stage of the World Preliminary Championship with Abarnia on October 10.

The most striking of this list is, of course, the youngsters in Yorktown.

Scamacca, Tonali, Barrera, Bastoni, Dimarco...... All selected!

In addition to that, there are some young players who are in other teams.

For example, after the goalkeeper who now plays for Fiorentina, his father is the Italian international Chiesa Jr.!

Locatelli, who came out of Milan's academy and is not very good at Milan now;

and Sassuolo, a teenager born in 2000, Raspadori, and so on.

From this list, everyone can see that Pan Yi wants to further examine the players and prepare for the upcoming and more important World Cup qualifying play-offs.

As for Pan Yi, he thinks further.

Now the Italian team is aging badly and playing with a lack of energy, so it has to be injected with fresh blood.

Not only for the play-offs, but also for the World Cup, it will depend on the performance of young people.

Not to mention anything else, in Pan Yi's previous life, the Italian team led by Mancini was able to win the 2020 European Championship, in fact, because of a large-scale blood change.

At that time, Chiesa Jr., Barella, Donnarumma and others became the backbone of the team, plus Jorginho, Verratti, Spinazzola and other Mesozoic generations were the main players of the team, so that Italy played at the level it should have.

As for the 2022 qualifiers......

It can only be said that it is fate.

Chiesa Jr. and Spinazzola were both seriously injured and could not return for a long time, and Jorginho missed penalties in successive games against Switzerland, which allowed the Italian team to slide into the abyss step by step......

But this is all an afterthought, and now Pan Yi is to let Italy, a traditional strong team, rejuvenate their style!

Of course, for the national team squad like Pan Yi this time, as an Italian media, there are still some doubts.

This is mainly because of these young players in York City.

As a traditional powerhouse in the world, how can the Italian team have so many players from the European second league?

Although the current Italian players are not as star-studded as they were back then, almost every player is proud of the team;

But even now, at least they are all players from the five major leagues, and the sudden arrival of so many Championship players does make the Italian media, which thinks highly of itself, a bit embarrassed.

However, they should be in the diaphragm, but they are not good at saying much.

After all, Pan Yi is what they are looking forward to the stars and the moon and finally getting it, so they can't spray him away again, right?

Besides, although these five youngsters are from the Championship, the name of this Championship team is York City, and it is Pan Yi's team!

This means that Pan Yi is very familiar with them, and he can also integrate into the team as quickly as possible.

Not to mention that York City's performance this season has been very consistent, like a quasi-Premier League team.

Wolves are only third in the Championship, and how many Portuguese internationals are there in it?

Let's take a look at Pan Yi's performance in the first game of Italy!

So, under such a entanglement, the Italian media ushered in the final battle between Italy and Albania.

——

In Group G, apart from Spain and Italy, the strongest team is Albania.

Although they don't have any stars in the team, after all, they are also teams that participated in the last European Championship, and they are still better than teams like North Macedonia and Liechtenstein on the whole.

In fact, they are also third in the group so far, but there is no way to threaten the top two.

Therefore, Pan Yi also decided to use this game to examine these young players.

Pan Yi knew how to play, and he quickly drew up a detailed team plan and progress with Evani, Vialli and others, and he would transform the Italian team according to his own ideas.

Immediately after meeting up with the team, he also took the time to talk to several rookies who had just been selected for the national team.

Many of these people were called up to the national team for the first time, and they didn't have any experience in the national senior team, and Pan Yi also relieved them of pressure.

He told them that although this is an official World Cup qualifier, it is actually irrelevant, and there is no need to be too nervous, and they can relax and play.

And in the game, Pan Yi also used a lineup composed of almost pure young people as expected.

The formation is 4-3-3, the goalkeeper is Donnarumma, the backline is Spinazzola, Bonucci, Bastoni, Desiglio, the midfield three will be Tonali, Barella, Verratti, and the forward three are Chiesa Jr., Scamacca, Raspadori.

In this starting lineup, the oldest is the 30-year-old captain Leonardo Bonucci, and the other players are all in their twenties, and even seventeen or eighteen years old, which can be described as full of vitality.

In addition, the 24-year-old right-back Desiglio also started under Pan Yi again after many years!

As for the goalkeeper position, Buffon, a 39-year-old "young player" who is already 39 years old this year, actually maintains a high level and can also be qualified for the main position.

But Pan Yi still prepared for the future, so he let the 18-year-old "veteran" Donnarumma start.

He is called a "veteran" because he is young, but he played for AC Milan in Serie A as early as 2015 and became the youngest starting goalkeeper in Serie A's 73-year history.

Shortly thereafter, he secured his place as the absolute first-choice goalkeeper at AC Milan and made his international debut last year as a substitute for Gianluigi Buffon.

It can be said that he is a representative of youth and old age.

Although he was scolded by Milan fans for "a lot of money" when he moved to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in the future, this did not prevent him from being a world-class goalkeeper in terms of technical level.

——

Once the game began, the young Italian team was slow to get into form.

In the 15th minute, Albanian midfielder Bashya opened the scoring for Albania with a long-range shot from 30 meters away, which penetrated the goal guarded by Donnarumma.

After seeing Bashiya's goal, Pan Yi couldn't help but shake his head, "Our midfield doesn't press the opponent enough, it's very poor!" ”

Evani also nodded: "The skills of these young people are good, but without oppression, they can't form effective combat effectiveness at all. ”

Pan Yi immediately walked to the sidelines and once again emphasized his pre-match arrangement, reminding this group of Italian players who want to play tricks with their skills by shouting that it is best to clean up their mood and execute their tactics well.

After the pressure tactics improved somewhat, the Italian team's technical superiority was immediately apparent.

In the 30th minute, Chiesa Jr. took the ball on the left side and cut inside and sent a delicate through ball, Scamacca successfully countered offside, and faced the opponent's goalkeeper Belissa to equalize the score for the Italian team.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again, and Pan Yi also made a direct substitution, allowing Di Marco to replace Spinazzola.

This is also for Di Marco, who has no record of national team appearances, to adapt to the national team game and prepare for the future.

The second half was also a relatively uneventful one, but Di Marco still played to his precise passing.

In the 78th minute, it was Di Marco's diagonal cross that found Scamacca in the middle, who headed it down and then cut in Barella to shoot hard and penetrate the Albanian goal again.

In the end, the score remained until the end of the game, with neither side able to keep on the scoresheet.

Italy finished the group stage with a 2-1 victory over Albania.

As a result, the dust has settled on the Group G match.

Spain topped the group with an unbeaten record of 9 wins and 1 draw with 28 points, and also earned a direct ticket to the 2018 World Cup.

Italy, on the other hand, has 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 23 points, ranking second and having to prepare for the second stage of the play-offs.

Soon, the matches of the other groups were also over.

The first place in Group A is France, and the second is Sweden. Sweden also secured a place in the play-offs!

Although the Dutch team defeated Sweden in the final round of matches and tied Sweden in points, the goal difference was too disadvantaged, and in the end it could only finish third in the group and be eliminated.

Group B is topped by Portugal, who also qualify directly for the World Cup, while second-placed Switzerland have to go to the play-offs.

Group C is first with Germany, followed by Northern Ireland.

The Czech Republic and Norway both failed to qualify from this group, but given Northern Ireland's good form in recent times, it is not a particularly surprising position.

The first place in Group D is Serbia, and the second is Ireland.

One of the group's most regrettable features are Wales led by St Bale, who were beaten in World Cup qualifying after a strong performance at the last European Championship and missed out on their first trip to the World Cup in their history.

The first place in Group E is Poland, and the second is Denmark. Robert Lewandowski's Poland have always been solid in qualifiers and have always made it to the tournament.

The first place in Group F is England and the second is Slovakia. Scotland are also level on points with Slovakia in the same group, but are also third on goal difference.

However, Slovakia is not happy either, as according to the rules, the nine group winners qualify for the finals, while the eight best group runners-up will participate in the play-offs.

Then in the nine groups, Slovakia had the worst finish of all the group runners-up with just 18 points, so they were also eliminated.

Group G is of course Spain first, Italy second.

The first place in Group H is Belgium and the second is Greece.

The first place in Group I is Iceland and the second is Croatia.

The average strength of this group is actually the strongest, in addition to these two teams there are Ukraine, Turkey, Finland, and Kosovo.

However, "Viking Warcry" still beat many strong teams and won the first place in the group in one fell swoop.

They will also be on the stage of the World Cup for the first time in history!

In this way, the eight teams participating in the European qualifiers of this World Cup play-off have also been determined.

It is the second place in the other eight groups except Slovakia!

A week later, on 17 October, the draw for the play-off matches took place at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

According to the latest FIFA World Rankings, the eight teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams for the draw.

They will fight each other to determine the last 4 World Cup spots in Europe, and the first leg of the play-offs will be played on November 9~11, and the second leg will be played on November 12~14.

The end result is:

Northern Ireland vs Switzerland;

Croatia vs Greece;

Denmark vs Ireland;

Italy VS Sweden !!

In other words, Pan Yi will lead Italy to face the old master! (End of chapter)