Zhan Jun: “This ball goes in!”
"In the 65th minute, Roma used a series of offside tactics in Napoli's attacking third zone. Finally, Cesco, who was unmarked, headed the ball into the goal after receiving a pass from Xiaoliang, equalizing the score!"
"1 to 1! Now the two sides are back to a tie!"
"This is Cesco's 15th goal in Serie A this season, currently ranking 6th in the scorer list!"
"Xiaoliang still leads the assist list with his 16th league assist. Behind him is Italian international Berardi of Sassuolo, who has contributed 13 assists."
"Zhang Zhi, what do you think of the cooperation just now?"
Zhang Lu: "This ball was played very patiently, which is a bit unlike Mourinho's team."
"In the past, when Roma reached the final third, they usually chose to cross the ball or shoot from long range, but just now they chose to pass the ball back continuously when the opponent defended the ball. It seemed that the attack was interrupted, but in fact it completely messed up Napoli's defense."
"Looking at the replay, Malaysia attracted the full-back's defense on the wing, then passed the ball straight, Pellegrini instantly got into the penalty area after being offside, and the two central defenders of the opponent rushed over immediately. But because he is right-footed, there was no space for shooting after the adjustment, so he chose to pass back."
"At this time, Napoli's two and three midfielders retreated to the penalty area, but the defensive focus was still on Pellegrini and Chen Xiaoliang. The two midfielders in particular were afraid of Xiaoliang's long-range shot and rushed towards him again."
"As a result, there was only one midfielder left to defend Cesco, and he wasn't even close to him."
"In the end, Xiaoliang picked it up, and Cesco made a run, very easily, with a header, and the goalkeeper was too late to attack."
"We usually see Roma transfer between the left and right flanks, and rarely see the deep pull like today. Until the end, the two central defenders of Naples still did not come to defend Cesco."
Zhan Jun: "No matter how fast a person runs, the ball cannot fly as fast as it does. Moreover, the defenders are passive and have to react based on the opponent's actions."
"We saw that Spalletti made adjustments immediately!"
"Replaced right winger Lozano with North Macedonia midfielder Elmas."
"Substitute German midfielder Diego Demme for Fabian Ruiz, who failed to defend Cesco and caused the goal."
Zhang Lu: "Why did they replace Lozano? He was the most threatening player in Napoli's frontcourt today. I don't understand this substitution."
Zhan Jun: "Spalletti may want to strengthen the defense. He feels that Roma's offensive defense is a bit distracted because Elmas is taller and more aggressive in defense than Lozano."
Zhang Lu: "Then what kind of attack should we use? Are you satisfied with one point?"
Napoli quickly responded to Zhang Lu's question with their performance on the field.
The purpose of replacing these players is very simple, which is to implement a special tactic - long shot.
1 point is a completely acceptable result for Napoli, because after this round, among their opponents in the last 5 rounds, except for the home game against 8th ranked Sassuolo, the highest ranked team among the remaining teams is Empoli, which is currently 13th, and there will be no strong teams.
Their main rival, Inter Milan, who beat Spezia 1-3 away this round, is currently 2 points ahead of them. If they draw, Napoli will only be 1 point behind. However, Inter Milan will have to face Roma, who is getting more and more powerful, in the next round.
The result of Juventus in this round has come out. They have tied with Bologna 1-1 at home and are 2 points ahead with one more game. Therefore, even if Napoli draws and gets 1 point, they are still only 1 point behind Juventus.
What's more, the Zebras will face Fiorentina, Lazio, and Sassuolo in the last five rounds, which are currently ranked 6th, 7th, and 8th. None of these three teams aiming to compete for a place in the Europa League will be easy to deal with.
At this time, the fight for the top four is just like relegation. Every point must be counted and the most points can be obtained as much as possible. Facing a strong team, using a defensive tactic to secure 1 point, and facing a weak team, going all out to get all 3 points is the most reasonable choice.
Therefore, when focusing on defensive forces, long-range shooting becomes the most economical and relatively least risky tactic.
In the 70th minute, Zielinski received the ball in the middle and did not choose to press forward. He was far away from Chen Xiaoliang at the top of the arc and chose to take a long shot directly. The ball went wide of the left post.
In the 71st minute, Roma's short pass from the left frontcourt was intercepted, and Elmas tried another long shot. Fortunately, Fuzato was focused and held the ball steadily.
Napoli can play like this and Spalletti can sit back and relax, but Mourinho and Roma cannot.
1 point means failure for them.
In the 75th minute, Mourinho replaced Veretout with Volpato.
In the 77th minute, Napoli got the ball in the backcourt and prepared to counterattack. Osimhen, who had been silent for a long time, took the initiative to retreat to receive the ball.
He was very depressed in this game, not only because he lost all the 1V1 matches with Chen Xiaoliang, but also because he couldn't even get the ball in the threatening area since the second half.
Seeing that the two attackers Mertens and Politano were warming up on the sidelines, the head coach was likely to replace him, so Osimhen took the initiative to retreat, wanting to try his footwork again today.
However, he thought Chen Xiaoliang should have forgotten him, but Chen Xiaoliang himself was the first one who didn't think so.
As early as when celebrating after scoring the goal, Chen Xiaoliang had already used the physical recovery card for this game in order to be on guard against Napoli's counterattack at any time.
With the two wing-backs frequently pressing forward to assist on the wing, he has to play the role of three people by himself, covering the left, middle and right sides.
Stamina recovery card 2→1
During this period, Napoli was always looking for long-range shooting opportunities, like guerrillas, hammering here and there around the defenders and shooting from long distance. He really had no time to block them. Now seeing Osimhen actively asking for the ball, he immediately ran over, just like a hunter seeing the long-awaited prey appear.
Osimen received the pass from Zielinski on the right near the center line. Facing Chen Xiaoliang, he dribbled the ball very quickly and with small amplitude.
After shaking his legs twice and feinting a few times, Osimhen suddenly pushed the ball to the right, ready to dribble past the opponent!
All the fancy changes of direction, sudden stops and spiking are omitted, just use your own speed to take the ball!
Although Chen Xiaoliang was well prepared and kept a distance of more than 2 meters from Osimhen to allow him to start suddenly, the Nigerian international's explosive speed still surprised him.
In a flash, Osmeen had run to his side.
Chen Xiaoliang turned sideways and quickly chased back, but Osmeen had already opened up a distance of one body length between them.
As Chen Xiaoliang chased, he thought, my burst is 15, this guy must have 17!
Osimen, who was walking on the outside, dribbled the ball at a wide angle, not even giving Chen Xiaoliang a chance to confront him closely. Moreover, after running 5 meters, he seemed to be running faster and faster!
When the three central defenders saw that Chen Xiaoliang had been thrown away, they immediately retreated at full speed!
Chen Xiaoliang chased for another 5 meters, but found that he still could not catch up, so he immediately adjusted his route and ran slightly to the left!
No matter how Osimhen leads the ball, if he wants to shoot while advancing on the right side, he has to go inside.
The disadvantage of continuous sprinting is that the ball has already been kicked out and you can't change direction whenever you want.
Just like a triangle, Chen Xiaoliang directly walked along the longest side.
And with a style of play like Osimhen, you don't have to worry about him passing the ball.
Since he couldn't even catch up with Chen Xiaoliang, why would he need to worry about other Napoli teammates being able to catch up and rush into the penalty area to receive the shot?
After running another 10 meters and approaching the penalty area line, Chen Xiaoliang had already caught up to the same parallel line by taking the short distance inside.
Osimhen gradually cut inside and saw that the distance he had opened with great difficulty was gone, so he had to slow down and prepare to approach the penalty area and use another explosive dribble to get the shooting space and kick the ball.
He took a few steps and pushed his left foot to move towards the middle!
But this time, Chen Xiaoliang clearly felt that his starting speed had slowed down!
It turns out his weakness is physical strength!
Chen Xiaoliang moved closer and slightly aside, intentionally leaving the horizontal space in the middle for him.
Osimhen, who was already at the end of his strength, saw this gap and knew that this was his only choice. He stepped on the ball with his right foot and shot with his left foot. The ball flew directly to the corner flag area with a "bang".
After this shot, not only did he hold his head in silence, but even his teammates who were trying their best to rush up and join in the attack also shook their heads in silence.
Osmeen swallowed, opened his mouth, and gasped heavily, his chest heaving.
After walking a few steps, he bent down, supported his hands on his knees, and shook his head reluctantly at the bench.
“Beep!”
The sidelines signaled Napoli to make a substitution, Juan Jesus replaced Osimhen.
Zhang Lu: "This continuous start and sprint is completely anaerobic. The longer it lasts, the more oxygen is consumed in the muscles."
"We've already played for 80 minutes. If we continue like this, we won't have enough energy to keep up."
Zhan Jun: "But this substitution is worth noting. With ten minutes left in the regular time, Spalletti replaced center forward Osimhen with Brazilian center back Juan Jesus and also deployed a three-center back defensive formation, which shows that he was determined to hold on to one point."
Zhang Lu: "Roma played well in this game. They were able to force the opponent to retreat and defend at home. This shows that Mourinho's training is still effective. It is not luck that they can rank second."
Zhan Jun: "Some fans asked why Napoli also has a Jesus. Manchester City's Jesus is a forward named Gabriel Jesus. And this Juan Jesus of Napoli was signed by Napoli as a free agent last summer before Mourinho came because his contract expired."
"Since Jesus' name is spelled the same as Jesus in English, I wonder if this 'Jesus' today can save the precarious Napoli defense!"
Osimhen walked off the field slowly, feeling unhappy. He took the sports drink handed to him by the fitness coach, took a few sips and threw it on the ground.
He kept cursing and muttering to himself.
When Spalletti saw his beloved player like this, instead of blaming him, he felt a little regretful.
Today I fell into Mourinho's trap.
The three slow central defenders seemed like bait, luring Osimhen to destroy them with speed.
However, without the advantage in the air and with his ground passing routes always blocked, Osimhen was completely unable to take advantage of his speed to counter offside and play behind him, and could only retreat again and again to try to receive the ball.
But he happened to meet Chen Xiaoliang who couldn't run away.
In the last ten minutes or so, he no longer thought about attacking. His goal today was to hold on to the 1 point!
After Juan Jesus came on the pitch, he quickly informed his teammates of Spalletti's tactical arrangements, speaking to those nearby and using gestures to inform those far away.
After seeing his gesture, the two wingers immediately retreated. For a moment, there was not a single Napoli player in blue clothes in Roma's half.
At the same time, Mourinho kept signaling his players to press forward on the sidelines, while Mancini had turned into a striker, squatting near the penalty area line of Naples, ready to move forward and attack at any time.
In the 82nd minute, Chen Xiaoliang passed the ball to the right, Zalewski cut inside and passed the ball to Pellegrini on the side. Pellegrini pretended to pass the ball, dribbled past Rui and went towards the bottom line.
But speed is not Pellegrini's advantage. Before he entered the penalty area, Koulibaly came up to him, and Rui, who was shaken off, also caught up with him.
Pellegrini stepped and pulled, passing the ball to Zaniolo on the flank.
Cesco and Mancini were standing in the penalty area, while Zaniolo came out and roamed around on the outside.
After receiving the ball, he immediately cut inwards towards the left side, with the opponent's midfielder Diego Demme following him.
But Zaniolo suddenly stopped and did a heel-kick to change direction that Ronaldo often does. Diego Demme had no reaction and Zaniolo immediately rushed to the right side of the baseline!
With this sudden move, Zaniolo saw an open area in front of him, with plenty of space for shooting! Even Spalletti couldn't help but stand up from his seat!
Koulibaly, who had just rushed out, and Juan Jesus in the middle immediately double-teamed, and goalkeeper Meret also rushed out!
Zaniolo adjusted the ball to his left foot while moving forward and lightly lifted it!
Meret opened his body and rushed forward!
The ball hit Meret and was blocked, and at the same time Zaniolo was knocked to the ground by Meret!
In an instant, all the Roma players near the penalty area raised their hands to the referee!
Even the Napoli fans in the stands exclaimed!
This ball looks like a penalty!
The referee also stopped the game! But he didn't make any gestures!
"Get up!" The angry Koulibaly grabbed Zaniolo's armpits with both hands and pulled him up!
"Get out of here!" Zaniolo turned around and pushed Koulibaly away!
Players from both teams surrounded the referee. For a moment, spit was flying everywhere and everyone was talking loudly, trying to influence the referee's decision.
But the controversy did not last long. The referee waved his hands and made a gesture for Napoli to kick off!
"Hey! Hey!" Zaniolo was very unconvinced and shouted at the referee.
"You keep screaming, screaming, what are you screaming for? If you want to scream, go home and scream!" Koulibaly, who was behind him, was glad to have escaped the disaster, but he did not forget to add insult to injury.
Zaniolo was indeed furious. He turned around and bumped into Koulibaly. The two of them were chest to chest and head to head. The teammates around them immediately came over to separate them.
The referee gave each of them a yellow card without hesitation.
"Make a substitution quickly! Tammy comes on!" Seeing this, Mourinho immediately called on Abraham to come on the court.
Zhan Jun: "Zaniolo is not calm. What Roma lacks most now is time. Any accident at this time will benefit Naples."
Zhang Lu: "Right, this is a manifestation of inexperience. It was reasonable not to call the penalty just now. The goalkeeper first threw the ball after the goalkeeper picked the ball, and then brought it to the opponent. There was no obvious pulling or blocking action with his hands and limbs, so it was completely reasonable not to award a penalty for this ball. It was also normal for the referee not to watch the VAR. The video referee team must have told him that there was no need to watch this ball."
On the field, Zaniolo saw the number plate raised and he was being substituted. He kept complaining and walked slowly to the sidelines.
"Hurry, hurry! Hurry up, there's no time!" Chen Xiaoliang ran forward a few steps and clapped his hands vigorously at Zaniolo. The latter came out of his emotions, remembered that the team still had to score points, and jogged off the field.
Abraham raised his legs high and twisted his neck on the sidelines. After Zaniolo came up to him and high-fived him, he rushed into the Napoli penalty area.
Less than two minutes into the game, Abraham's long shot went over the crossbar. Napoli used their last substitution opportunity and replaced captain Insigne with Belgian veteran Mertens.
Insigne left the field as quickly as a woman at a designer bag counter.
He also slowly ran to the center circle, handed the captain's armband to Zielinski, and then turned back to the sidelines.
In the 86th minute, Chen Xiaoliang made a long diagonal pass from the left to the front point. Mancini headed the ball and it hit the post and bounced back. Central defender Ramani kicked the ball out of the penalty area. Mertens wanted to rush up the ball and try to take it to the front court. Ibanez, who stayed behind, did not wait for Chen Xiaoliang to come over, but jumped up and headed the ball back into the penalty area.
Sesco leaned on Jesus and tried his best to hold the latter and took the ball off with his chest. He turned around and tried to move inside, but Zielinski poked the ball away again.
Chen Xiaoliang returned to the center and continued to control the rolling ball, then passed it to the right and let Mkhitaryan pass the ball.
For a moment, both sides were caught in a cycle.
Cross the ball, break the ball, receive the ball, pass the ball to the side, cross the ball again, break the ball again, receive the ball again, pass the ball to the side again...
The ball kept falling into Napoli's penalty area at various arcs and heights. No matter how hard the Roma players tried, they were unable to score.
Mourinho wished that Chen Xiaoliang could transform into his 2.26-meter-tall compatriot, then rush into the penalty area and score the winning goal with a header.
Among Napoli's defenders, the most hardworking one is former Roma player Juan Jesus.
After helping Internacional win the Copa Libertadores and becoming famous, he moved to Europe as early as 2012, with Inter Milan as his first stop.
But after four seasons, he was neither up nor down, and was loaned to Roma, where it seemed like he had a second spring.
However, the good times did not last long. The arrival of Ibanez and Smalling and the growth of Mancini made this outsider dispensable.
He didn't know he was out of a job until the club informed him in the summer that he was not in the new coach's plans.
That new coach was Mourinho.
At this moment, he was like a warrior who was willing to sacrifice his life. As long as he did not commit a foul, he would use any part of his body, even the softest part, to block the ball from entering the goal.
Relying on his abundant physical strength in the evening, he not only competed head-on with Mancini and Abraham in several headers, pushing the two young men away in the air, but also made no distinction between friend and foe, and pushed away the dark and hard Koulibaly as well.
They were completely bloodthirsty, the ball was there, the people were there, and the city was destroyed, and the people were dead!
Spalletti was very satisfied. He kept Jesus for the last 10 minutes just to wait for such a performance.
When this type of player encounters their old club that has abandoned them, they often burst out with extraordinary energy and fighting spirit.
The time has reached the 89th minute, and the fourth official raised the card, indicating 6 minutes of extra time.
When Spallard and Mourinho saw this time, they frowned.
The former felt that the referee team was making a fuss out of nothing, and that there was no point taking a few minor setbacks seriously, and that the six minutes of extra time was obviously too long.
The latter naturally felt that 6 minutes was too short, but the Serie A referees... Mourinho no longer had any extra illusions about them.
Chen Xiaoliang asked Smalling to rush forward to compete for the header. At this time, Roma's formation had become an exaggerated 1-1-8.
There is only Ibanez in the backcourt and Chen Xiaoliang in the midfield.
In the 92nd minute, Zalewski made a cross from the right, but it was not high enough and was blocked by Elmas's long kick. Ibanez ran back more than 20 meters before catching up with the ball and passed it to Chen Xiaoliang in the center circle. Chen Xiaoliang kicked the ball directly into the penalty area.
Meret attacked and punched the ball out of the penalty area with both fists! When he landed, he hit Smalling and fell to the ground!
The referee didn't say anything! He signaled the game to continue!
Chen Xiaoliang rushed forward and lobbed the ball!
The ball flew towards the goal, passing over the densely packed players in the penalty area!
Mourinho and the coaches and players on the bench all raised their hands halfway, while the mouths of many Napoli fans slowly opened as their hearts hung in the air!
The ball slowly fell! Meret struggled to stand up, but it was too late to rush to the goal line!
A blue figure rushed over, jumped high, and shook his head!
The ball bounced out of the goal!
Ramani, who was scared and sweating, immediately kicked the ball out of the baseline!
The Roma players raised their hands again, indicating that the ball had crossed the goal line!
But the referee still shook his head and waved his hands, indicating that his wrist did not give any hint!
Zhan Jun: "It's such a pity for this goal! Nowadays, there are sensor chips in the balls used in matches, and there is also an observation system similar to Hawkeye in the stadium. As long as the ball crosses the goal line as a whole, the bracelet on the referee's wrist will issue a prompt, and this will generally not make mistakes."
Zhang Lu: "It's Juan Jesus again. He was so excited after coming on the pitch that he almost knocked away the three points Mourinho had scored."
Zhan Jun: "I wonder if Mourinho has any regrets at this moment. If he had known that he would miss the chance to win all three points in today's important championship match because of Jesus' header, he should have kept him!"
Corner kick, Pellegrini runs over.
At this time, the clock has passed 93 minutes.
Chen Xiaoliang also moved forward a little. Before that, he turned around and made a "stay there" gesture to Fuzato on the back line.
There is still time and opportunity, and it is not yet time for the goalkeeper to rush up.
He's even thought about the cards in his system.
But whether it is Messi, Kaka or Roberto Baggio, in this situation where all 11 opposing players are huddled in the penalty area for intensive defense, not to mention that some star cards only have partial attributes, even if the players themselves in their peak period are present, they cannot score goals.
He moved forward to the top of the penalty area in case of emergency.
It's not that he is really preparing for a long shot, but once he stands there, two players will inevitably come up and block his possible shot.
Pellegrini takes a corner kick!
At the most critical moments, people tend to choose the safest and most familiar solution.
That's what Pellegrini did. He kicked his corner kick to the familiar back post, where Mancini, who was familiar to him and also familiar with his corner kicks, was there.
However, they did not expect that although they were no longer teammates, Juan Jesus, who had been in Rome for 4 years, still remembered their corner kick cooperation.
The penalty kick didn't even reach Mancini's head before it was headed away by Juan Jesus!
On the bench, everyone except Mourinho held their heads.
Before the game, no one would have thought that the one who caused the most trouble to the team today would be their old teammate...
Zalewski, who was roaming outside preparing for a second attack, struggled to get into position and grabbed the ball before Demme. He turned around and raised his leg to sweep the ball into the penalty area.
In such a dense crowd, whoever you see is the one you scan. If he passes the ball to your teammates, they might just shoot it.
However, his luck was not so good. The ball hit Zielinski's feet. The latter subconsciously raised his leg to block the ball, and it rolled out of the penalty area.
It rolled to someone's feet.
"Stop him!!!"
Even Insigne, who had already left the field, couldn't help but shout on the sidelines when he saw that man taking the ball!
It’s Chen Xiaoliang!
He is the man who kicked Lazio with an unreasonable kick from 40 meters away and won the Puskas Award!
Although it has been more than half a year since his long-range shot, its views on YouTube are still increasing with tens of thousands of hits every day.
Chen Xiaoliang raised his leg, even though he didn't have a star card at all at that moment, and even though his 15-point long-range shot was considered excellent, it was still far from being able to "shoot as fast as a meteor and kill one person every ten steps."
But he still had to shoot, at this moment, that's what he had to do.
He used all his strength and aimed at the upper right corner of the goal as much as possible - it was farther away from goalkeeper Meret's position, and at this time and distance, the inside of the foot could control the trajectory of the ball better than the outside of the foot.
"Bang!" When his foot touched the ball, there was a loud bang and the ball flew out!
It was a distance of about 22 meters, without a very obvious arc. Although it was very fast, it was obviously not as good as the 40-meter kick that embodied the legendary abilities of Gerrard and Batistuta.
At that moment, Chen Xiaoliang felt that the world was quiet.
And everything around me became very slow.
All his attention was on the flying ball.
He saw the opponent's goalkeeper Meret make a save, but according to his reaction speed, he should be too late.
Or it is possible that the fingertips touched it, but most likely they could still rub their way into the door.
He predicted the trajectory of his own shot, and although it bypassed the dense crowd, it seemed that the height was not as high as he expected, going straight to the upper right corner, but instead hitting a half-high ball.
But none of this matters anymore, everything is going in the right direction.
But at this moment, a bald head stretched his head out from the back door post!
It's Juan Jesus!
When all the Napoli players were waiting for the fate to be decided, only the former Roma player did not give up!
Chen Xiaoliang felt that his breathing had stopped.
He saw Juan Jesus head the ball, and in an instant, the flight trajectory of the ball changed completely, and the ball flying towards the right side of the goal instantly bounced to the left.
Is this ball going to be blocked by this extremely excited guy again? !
I don't know how long it took, but it seemed like less than 0.2 seconds. The refracted ball hit the net inside the left goal frame, causing the entire net to shake like ripples.
Everyone was stunned.
The time in Chen Xiaoliang's world seemed to speed up all of a sudden and return to its normal frequency.
He saw Pellegrini, Abraham, Cesco, and all his teammates in the penalty area rushing towards him with exaggerated, ecstatic expressions and shouting.
He knew that the ball had gone in!
He and his teammates hugged each other excitedly, and the only sounds he could hear were shouts of “Ah!!!”, “Ah!!!”, and “Wow!!!”
He glanced towards the goal.
The center back in the blue No. 5 jersey was seen kneeling in front of his own goal with his hands covering his face, while his teammates, although frustrated, bent down and patted his back to comfort him.
After the celebration, the referee blew the final whistle shortly after the kick-off.
The entire Roma team celebrated the 1-2 reversal and the 3 points.
Chen Xiaoliang found Juan Jesus, shook hands with him, and took off his jersey to exchange with him.
There is always a winner and a loser in football. Even if there is a draw in the league, there will always be a score difference at the end of the season.
Beckenbauer once said: "It is not the strong who win, but the winners who become strong."
No matter what the process is, the person or team standing on the final podium will always be the "winner takes all" and receive all the praise and honor.
But did Juan Jesus lose?
Yes, he did lose the game because of the own goal.
But Chen Xiaoliang's respect and the applause for Diego Maradona in the stadium told everyone that the sportsmanship of competitive sports can also win everyone's respect.
“I hope you will have a wonderful experience in Naples.”
This is what Chen Xiaoliang said to Juan Jesus after he got his jersey.
The latter wiped the crystals from his eyes and said, "Thank you, I believe you will have a great career."