Chapter 240: 46 kicks!
Due to the extremely high physical workload of the Italian Cup final and the embarrassing situation of only two days of rest, Mourinho still made some personnel adjustments in this game.
After all, if an injury occurs at this time due to excessive fatigue rather than confrontation, it will not only affect the championship of the league and the Europa Cup, but also disrupt the player's recovery plan during the off-season.
The three central defenders in this game are a combination of Smalling, Celik and Kumbulla, with Spinazzola and Binia playing as left and right wingbacks respectively.
Veretout and Volpato played as double defensive midfielders, Pellegrini and Abraham as double forwards.
Apart from Patricio, only Chen Xiaoliang, who played the full game in the last game, is still starting tonight. He still plays as a central midfielder and an all-around midfielder.
Venice set up a solid defense, which is different from Roma's system of three central defenders and wingbacks on both sides. They have a true five-defender system, with three central defenders and two full-backs, and wingers in front of the full-backs.
A pure iron bucket and long pass counterattack formation.
Despite being the bottom team and the total value of the starting lineup being a pitiful 39.3 million euros, they still did not punish Ampadu, a player who was selected for the Wales World Cup squad and played as a neutral center back for the national team.
Also in the squad is Cesco's Slovenia national team teammate, right midfielder Domen Konigoi.
However, the huge gap in strength still made the game one-sided.
Roma launched a fierce bombardment of Venice's gate from the first second of the game.
But after the first cross was headed out, Venice seized their best chance of the game, taking advantage of the weakness of Roma players who were eager to press forward after the start of the game and had not yet fully got into shape. Right forward Alamu made a cross into the penalty area from the right, and left forward Nigerian O'Kelly made an offside move, shook off Kumbulla, and headed the ball into the net!
Roma 0-1 Venice!
The Roma fans who were still immersed in the Italian Cup victory before the game immediately cooled down. Mourinho was so angry that he sat back on the bench and threw away the water bottle beside him.
They started slowly against AC Milan, who are ranked first in the league, and conceded three goals carelessly. Will they do the same against Venice, who are ranked last? !
This goal was like a basin of cold water, which immediately woke up the confused players on the Roma field and started the game's counterattack.
As a half-court siege formed and the number of shots increased, their 72% ball possession rate also created a new high in the league this season.
In the 18th minute, Pellegrini had an excellent free kick opportunity at the top of the penalty area. He made a beautiful right-footed curve ball, but unfortunately it hit the top of the goal frame and bounced out.
In the 23rd minute, Abraham received a wonderful pass from Veretout on the left and broke into the penalty area, but facing the opponent's goalkeeper Ma Empa who was attacking, he adjusted his left and right feet continuously, and finally pushed the ball hastily, which happened to hit the goalkeeper and missed the one-on-one opportunity.
In the 31st minute, Pellegrini suddenly fell while running for a set-piece attack, and a small conflict occurred between the two sides. After checking the VAR, the referee found that Venice's Moroccan winger Kiine deliberately kicked Pellegrini in the vital parts, and directly gave him a red card and sent him off!
Although the balance of the game had tilted, Pellegrini looked painful after getting up with difficulty.
Facing the live broadcast of more than a dozen cameras in the stadium, he wanted to rub his testicles but didn't dare to. The pain in his testicles made him feel pain every time he took a step. The free kick was given to Veretout to take.
Veretout 's subsequent shot was saved by Venice goalkeeper Maempa.
In the 40th minute, Abraham got another one-on-one opportunity. Chen Xiaoliang made a long pass near the center line. Abraham received the ball and broke into the penalty area from the left. After cutting inside, he wanted to shake off the opponent's defender and shoot, but he was seen through by the opponent and blocked his shot with his legs.
In the 41st minute, Binya's powerful long-range shot was blocked by Manpa with his lower body.
In the 43rd minute, Pellegrini's direct free kick was again saved by Maempa.
Roma launched 20 shots in the first half, hitting the target 8 times, but to no avail.
Mourinho and Forti also fully realized a problem. In the absence of a fulcrum to engage in defense in the penalty area, Abraham's individual combat ability would be severely restricted by the opponent's tight defense. Despite his height, weight and speed, his lack of confrontation ability and low enthusiasm for confrontation made it impossible for him to effectively receive the ball with his back, nor could he withstand the opponent's central defender to compete for headers in the penalty area.
This is also the reason why Chelsea was willing to sell him even though he had a household registration book, and at the same time spent 115 million euros to buy back the strong Lukaku.
In the fiercely competitive Premier League with tall defenders, a center forward like Abraham simply cannot gain a foothold.
However, Lukaku is not having a good time at Chelsea either. With two rounds left in the league, he has only scored 8 goals in 24 appearances, and 3 goals in 9 games in the FA Cup and League Cup combined, which makes the club and fans call him a fake.
Like Abraham, Chelsea wanted a center forward who could stand in the penalty area and help the team withstand defensive pressure, but Lukaku always likes to roam to the wing and use his unreliable crosses to assist his teammates...
Mourinho is naturally familiar with this. When he was coaching Manchester United, Lukaku was the player he introduced.
However, Mourinho also heard from Roma scouts that Inter Milan wants to bring Lukaku back next season and let him partner with Lautaro on the front line.
Thinking of this, the issue of recruiting central defenders for the team once again made Mourinho feel annoyed.
Even when playing against Venice, they inexplicably conceded the first goal. Next season, the three major giants will definitely focus on recruiting players, and Napoli will not be idle either. How can this defense line cope with the double challenges of the league and the Champions League?
During the half-time break, he did not make any special tactical arrangements, but only asked every player to play more decisively, especially Abraham. The more he wanted to score a goal, the more he hesitated and dragged his feet. The more he acted in this way, the less likely he was to score a goal.
He also replaced Volpato, who was active but had little experience in the opponent's iron defense, with veteran Matic.
They also replaced Binia with Zalewski, who has stronger offensive capabilities, to strengthen the attack on both flanks.
At the beginning of the second half, Roma significantly increased the number and tactics of passing from the wing.
In the 51st minute, Matic received a long-range shot from Pellegrini at the top of the penalty area. The shot with his left foot was very powerful and at a tricky angle. Venice goalkeeper Manpa had no time to react. The ball hit the bottom of the crossbar with bad luck, bounced back and hit the ground, bounced high, and was headed back to Manpa, who was still in shock, by central defender Ampadu.
This was Roma's second shot that hit the frame in this game. Even the Italian national team coach Roberto Mancini, the guest commentator of this game on Sky Sports Italy, who was following the race for the league title, said that perhaps Roma had used up all the remaining luck of the season in the last Italian Cup final.
Not long after Mancini finished speaking, in the 55th minute, Roma won a free kick on the left side of the penalty area.
Pellegrini took a direct free kick and the ball went straight to the upper left corner of the goal, but surprisingly, the ball hit the crossbar again.
Pellegrini covered his face with his hands, feeling speechless.
Seeing that he was unable to make any breakthrough, Mourinho replaced Veretout with Cesco.
In the 60th minute, Cesco tied down the defense of two central defenders in the middle. Abraham received a pass from Chen Xiaoliang on the penalty area line on the left side of the penalty area and shot directly with his right foot. The ball was saved by Ma Empa.
Roma wins a corner.
Pellegrini took a free throw, Smalling jumped up to head the ball in the middle, but the ball was blocked by Venice's Italian center back Cecaroni on the goal line.
The Roma fans in the stands shouted "Oh!" and "Ah..." with every attack of the team, while Mourinho on the sidelines could only put his hands on his hips, frowning and anxiously watching the developments on the field.
He didn't know what to do. He had done everything he could, but he couldn't play himself.
The deal for Georgian dribbler Kvaratskhelia has been finalized, but the player will not report to the team until the team regroups after the offseason in July. Recently, it has been known that Juventus' Argentine star Dybala is arguing about contract renewal with the team, and Roma's director Pinto has also contacted the latter's agent.
In addition, Torino captain Belotti is 29 years old and his contract with the club is also about to expire.
After helping Italy win the European Cup last summer, he also wanted to join a bigger team in the final stage of his career and win one or two club-level championships for himself.
Although Belotti created an amazing performance of scoring 26 goals in 35 league games in the 2016-17 season, his goal efficiency was not high in the following seasons, and he was not a pure standing center forward. However, his good physical fitness, heading ability and ball control ability allow him to hold the ball in the penalty area and create opportunities for his teammates while creating personal threats.
After all, this season a lot of the team's offensive tasks are placed on the 18-year-old Cesco. In the absence of rotation, once the Champions League starts next year, such a load and intensity will obviously be very detrimental to the long-term growth of a young player.
Similarly, in order to find a qualified partner and rotation for Chen Xiaoliang, the loan negotiations for Paris Saint-Germain's Dutch midfielder Wijnaldum also went smoothly.
Mourinho is very confident that he can sign these three powerful new players after Kvaratskhelia.
But distant water cannot quench immediate thirst, and we still have to rely on these players for the current game.
With his discerning eyes and demands, especially his experience of coaching top clubs and bringing in those stars, he was very dissatisfied with the performance of the players on the field tonight.
But Chen Xiaoliang is an exception.
In his eyes, this Red Country kid will give it his all once he steps on the field.
The same was true tonight. Chen Xiaoliang took on almost all the tasks of passing the ball in the midfield in the frontcourt, constantly using his almost unlimited running to create gaps, so that when the ball was obstructed at any point, he could use himself as a return pass point to reorganize the attack.
At the same time, in defense, whenever Venice tried to launch a counterattack with a long pass, he was always the first to run back to the backcourt to assist the defender in intercepting, or even directly intercept the pass and bring it back to the frontcourt to organize the attack.
But facing such an iron bucket formation, Chen Xiaoliang alone is not enough. Even if Messi or Ronaldo, who are a few years younger, come over, they still need the joint efforts of their teammates to win the game.
What's more, Roma had one more player on the field at this time.
In the 65th minute, Roma's unremitting attack finally paid off!
Chen Xiaoliang received the ball in the middle outside the penalty area, suddenly changed direction to the right to create an opening and made a move to shoot, then made a cross to the back post.
Spinazzola, who came in from the back, did not try to shoot from a small angle, but instead volleyed the ball back to the middle with his left foot. Not only did Sesco attract two central defenders in the middle, his diving header also attracted the attack of goalkeeper Ma Empa.
However, Cesco failed to head the ball. Abraham, who was wandering two meters to his right, either cleverly or in a panic, used his knee to head the ball into the almost unguarded goal!
Roma finally equalized the score 1-1!
After finally scoring a goal, Abraham was about to rush to the stands to celebrate with the fans, but was pulled back by Pellegrini.
Spinazzola, who provided the assist, rushed into the goal, grabbed the ball despite being blocked by Maempa, and ran quickly towards the center line.
Equalizing the score only means getting 1 point, which is just a tie with AC Milan with one more game played. If AC Milan wins this round against Atalanta at home in San Siro, the gap will be widened to 3 points, which means that the championship will only be a theoretical possibility.
Because Roma drew with AC Milan twice in the league this season and lost away.
According to the rules of the Serie A, even if the last 38 rounds of the league are over and the two teams have the same points, the first thing to look at is the win-loss record between the two teams, then see who has a higher goal difference when they face off, then compare the league goal difference, and finally compare the total number of league goals.
Although theoretically the first four items are still unclear and the fifth method of ranking will be decided by drawing lots, this only happens in theory. Based on the actual situation this season, as long as Roma and Milan have the same points in the end, Milan will definitely be ranked ahead based on the win-loss record in the first item alone.
Therefore, in the last two rounds, Roma must not only win all the games, but also make full use of the "advantage" of playing first, create psychological pressure on AC Milan, and then hope that they will make mistakes.
After Venice kicked off, Roma quickly seized the ball and continued to attack!
Roma's attacking method is also very simple. After Sesco comes on, he will make a cross from the wing and then compete for the header in the middle.
This made Roberto Mancini, the commentator in the Sky Sports live broadcast room, think of the time when he coached Manchester City in the Premier League. At that time, there was a team called Stoke City. The then head coach, Welshman Tony Pulis, led the team into the famous "Sky City".
Whenever there is a chance, just go into the penalty area.
If there is a chance in the open play, play a cross from the wing; if there is no chance, play a long pass from the backfield to the center forward in front;
Except for those that can be shot directly, all set pieces should be thrown into the penalty area as long as they are within reach, regardless of the distance;
Even for the throw-in near the sides of the penalty area in the frontcourt, they found an Irish prodigy named Rory John Delap, who could throw the ball directly into the penalty area from outside the penalty area quickly and flatly, and his accuracy was more accurate than a corner kick taken with his feet.
This grenade throw-in was once carefully studied by Premier League teams.
Mancini said with a smile that all Roma needed tonight was a grenade thrower.
But soon, someone in the Roma team demonstrated what precision meant through action.
In the 75th minute, Zalewski's cross from the flank was headed out by Venice right-back Hapz. Zalewski was about to throw the ball out of bounds and Chen Xiaoliang ran over to support him.
After receiving the ball thrown by Zalewski, Chen Xiaoliang kicked the ball directly towards the opponent's retreating forward O'Kelly, but passed the ball directly to Zalewski who came in after throwing the ball from the outside sideline.
After passing the ball, Chen Xiaoliang took advantage of the momentary diversion of the surrounding defensive players and approached the penalty area diagonally.
After receiving the through ball, Zalewski immediately knocked it back and passed the ball to Chen Xiaoliang who was making a counter-attack.
Chen Xiaoliang received the ball on the right side of the penalty area line. Seeing that the distance was close enough, he kicked the ball with his right foot. This time he made a direct cross, looking for Cesco, with whom he had a great understanding!
The Slovenian retreated the moment the ball left his feet, and then immediately moved forward in the opposite direction.
This step back and forth not only made it impossible for him to be offside, but also confused the player who was defending him.
Cesco jumped lightly, contracted his waist and abdomen, and exerted force with his back. The ball hit his forehead accurately like a precision-guided cruise missile, but bounced rapidly towards the goal!
However, after being trained by Roma's attacking group all night, Venice goalkeeper Ma Empa's nerves seemed to be opened up. He had entered an extraordinary state of forgetting himself and the world, and concentrated his attention. With an ultra-fast reaction that would definitely be selected as one of the top ten saves of the season, he moved sideways to fish for the ball and blocked the lightning-fast header with his left hand.
However, two fists are no match for four legs. Zalewski, who rushed into the penalty area after Chen Xiaoliang made the cross, accidentally received the rebound ball and then kicked it into the goal.
Even though Manpa knew all the skills, he couldn't transform into a supernatural being with three heads and six arms. He could only lie on the ground and watch the ball being shot into the net.
Roma 2-1!
This is also the second league goal of Polish youngster Zalewski this season! But it is a goal worth a thousand gold!
He rushed to the stands excitedly, took off his shirt and threw it high into the air!
The fans in the stands rushed to the edge of the stands like receding waves, shouting at their heroes!
In the coaching booth, all the coaches, including Mourinho, were waving their arms in celebration.
After Venice kicked off from the center circle, the game completely entered Roma's "walking mode".
The Giallorossi, known for their bus defense and counterattacks, began to tightly control the ball in the midfield and backcourt, with their possession rate soaring to an unprecedented 82%.
Venice also realized that it would be difficult to make any further progress, so after looting for a while, it stopped struggling.
To be honest, as a team with extremely limited investment and relatively thin personnel, it has created no small miracle to be able to rank fifth in Serie B in the 2020-21 season and advance to Serie A this season through the promotion play-offs.
But relatively speaking, for a team that can only rank fifth in Serie B, it is indeed an impossible task to stay in Serie A.
Mourinho used up all his substitutions in the following time, replacing Ibanez, Wu Lei and Bove. Especially the latter two, who did not play much but were full of energy and fought hard, helped the team to pass the ball and press resolutely on the field and control the ball until the last moment.
Finally, after 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle in the 93rd minute and the game was over. Roma won the 37th round of the league with amazing statistics of 46 shots, 16 shots on target, 80% ball possession and 20 corner kicks. It temporarily ranks first in the standings with 84 points, 2 points ahead of A C Milan with one more game played!
The 46 shots also created the second-highest record in the top five leagues since 2009, second only to the 47 shots set by Atalanta against Empoli in 2019.
With this crazy data in this game, Roma ranks first in Serie A with an average of 19.5 shots per game.
After the game, Mourinho proudly stated at the press conference that the team's offensive system has become more and more mature.
When asked what he thought of Milan's game tomorrow night, he did not give a direct response, but only said: The standings will answer everything.
