Chapter 266: I am a rebellious young minister! The youth storm in Roma's front court!
Seeing the home team being reversed by Roma and falling behind, many Juventus fans organized a uniform booing in the stands when the home team's offense progressed slowly.
“Oh…”
Even Pogba in the stands seemed to be somewhat unfamiliar with this team that had once fueled his inner expansion.
During those years, he won four consecutive Serie A titles with Juventus, two Italian Cups, the European Golden Boy Award in 2013, and the Best Newcomer Award in the 2014 World Cup.
Then, in the summer of 2016, after Mourinho took over as Manchester United head coach, he returned to the youth training team that nurtured him.
With a price tag of 105 million euros, he is the world's highest bidder.
Coming back now, he felt that the team had a good start with one win and one draw in the first two league games. However, the weak offense and unstable defense in this game made him wonder: it has only been a few years since the team finished its nine consecutive Serie A titles, so why did it suddenly fail?
Roma? Even if Roma could have finished second, it would still not be good enough for Juventus.
Pogba was hugging the beauty while watching the game, and he couldn't help feeling a little unsatisfied.
On December 18, 2018, Manchester United officially announced Mourinho's dismissal, and Pogba posted a photo on his social media.
In the photo, he turned his back to look at the camera, his thick lips slightly upturned, and his eyes and eyebrows showed a look of victory and pride.
Because he was criticized for sticking to the ball and not defending actively, although he was once appointed captain, he was once again forced to sit on the bench by Mourinho.
But in the end, when the team performs poorly and the locker room cannot maintain balance, the head coach has to be the one to take all the responsibility.
When Pogba decided to return to Juventus in the summer, he was thinking about helping his old club deal with the powerful Roma. At the same time, he was also rubbing salt into Mourinho's wounds for his own Manchester United career.
He was making plans in his mind, and Chen Xiaoliang on the field was also preparing to start his own plan.
Today is a really "depressing" day for me. 1 minute and 20 seconds into the game, Vlahovic kicked away his rival's mission with a world-class free kick. Just now, Di Maria was replaced by Kostic, and the progress of the superstar mission also stopped at 0/5.
Yes, he didn't manage to steal the ball from Di Maria even once.
It’s not that he can’t do it, it’s that he really can’t do it.
Di Maria didn't give him any chance to get close.
As soon as you get close, pass the ball away, as soon as you get close, transfer the ball.
Those who know him know that he is afraid of physical contact and a recurrence of his old injury that would affect the World Cup. Those who don’t know would think that he is obsessed with guerrilla warfare.
In addition, Kostic, who had just joined Juventus in the summer, saw Di Maria's cautious style of play and was eager to use this opportunity to prove himself. After coming on the court, he kept mobilizing his teammates to cooperate with him to attack the left, and even made a name for himself.
In the 59th minute, Kostic, Locatelli and De Sciglio played a three-person wall combination. Under the pressure of Dybala, Kostic retreated and passed the ball to De Sciglio, then instantly ran back and moved forward again. De Sciglio moved forward and Dybala turned around to block the Juventus left-back.
De Sciglio immediately passed the ball to Locatelli who was also making a forward run. The latter attracted Pellegrini's defense and kicked the ball directly to Kostic.
Kostic held off Celik's defense on the left, sprinted forward to catch the ball, and then went straight into the penalty area.
Vlahovic, Moses Keane and McKennie were all on the ball, with the left, middle and right lines all in place.
Kostic became more and more excited as he attacked, just like what he did just now after Kva went down the line, he pushed the ball towards the penalty spot with his left foot near the baseline, preparing for his teammates to make an inverted triangle!
Vlahovic blocked Smalling tightly behind his right body, and when he saw Kostic passing the ball, he immediately took a step forward and rushed to the penalty spot!
At this moment, a man in red flashed by the left side of Vlahovic's body and kicked the ball hard towards the goal guarded by Patricio!
The ball flew straight into the stands!
Patricio felt a little scared at that moment.
But he was somewhat impressed by Chen Xiaoliang, who acted as if nothing had happened and immediately raised his hand to direct the corner kick defense.
This kid, clearing the ball towards his own goal like this, it might just be an own goal, he is too brave...
On the sidelines, Forti also breathed a sigh of relief... and couldn't help but say, "Oh my god..."
Then he glanced at Mourinho who was sitting on his left. Seeing that the head coach was calm and composed, he couldn't help but admire him: it turns out that old people are the most experienced, and Jose was not troubled at all.
However, Mourinho was secretly glad at this moment. Fortunately, he hesitated for a moment and did not shout out the 800 swear words he had prepared. Four hundred of them were for Celik, three hundred and ninety-nine were for the two central defenders, and the remaining most gentle one was naturally for Chen Xiaoliang.
Fortunately, it was a beautiful clearance. Now that the camera has turned to my face, I will definitely think that this was the kick that I specially designed during the team training.
However, Juventus fans were very excited. No matter whether it was scored by their own players or an own goal by the opponent, they just wanted Juventus to score a goal quickly. Chen Xiaoliang's clearance just now undoubtedly made them miss the opportunity to almost raise their hands and cheer.
On the first tier of stands behind Roma’s goal, several sturdy fans shouted and waved at Chen Xiaoliang: “Aim at me next time! Come on, quick! Our striker is too soft, I like you, aim at me next time!”
After passing the ball, Kostic lost his balance and fell outside the baseline. He lay on the ground looking up at the sky, took a quick breath to mourn the assist he failed to make, then stood up and threw himself into the corner attack again.
However, with all Roma players except Cesco defending, Juventus' six-man attack had no advantage in height or scoring, and the ball was not passed well, as Malaysia on the other side cleared the ball towards the center circle.
As Bremer went up to compete for the header, Sandro, who stayed in the backcourt, and Sesco, who was being marked by him, fought each other in the center circle. Then Sesco managed to take the ball off with his chest even though the two were pulling and leaning on each other and neither of them could jump up.
At this time, Kvaratskhelia had already rushed up from the left side. Cesco pushed the ball to the left with the outside of his right foot. Kvaratsk rushed up like the wind to receive the ball and then crossed the half court to rush towards Juventus's hinterland.
In the middle and on the right, Dybala, Pellegrini and Chen Xiaoliang were all rushing forward.
On the Juventus side, Locatelli, Kostic and Zakaria were also running back desperately.
As they ran, several people realized something was wrong.
Although McKennie on the left started a little late, he relied on his sufficient physical strength and the fact that Kwa had the ball affected his speed a little, so he gradually got closer as he chased .
The same goes for the other players on the right side of the center. Pellegrini and Dybala are not known for their absolute speed, and Kostic and Zakaria had just come on the field, so there was not much speed left after chasing for 20 meters.
Only Chen Xiaoliang was 10 meters behind when he started, and at least 15 meters behind when he ran to the center circle. Not only did he leave several Juventus players far behind, but even his own teammates were left behind.
The speed is not scary, but what is scary is that it has been more than 60 minutes. Where does this guy get the energy to do such a long-distance full-speed sprint?
What's more, Kostic's performance of 7 goals and 15 assists in 43 games for Frankfurt last season can be said to have made great contributions to the team's victory in the Europa League and reaching the Champions League, although the team only ranked 11th in the Bundesliga.
His speed on the wing is what he is most proud of.
Seeing that the frontcourt players were not fast enough to return to defense, the three players left in the backcourt, Sandro, De Sciglio and Danilo, could only keep retreating and organize the last line of defense near the penalty area.
Seeing that he was about to be caught up by McKennie, Kwa leaned to the right, pushed hard with his right foot, and passed the ball diagonally to Cesco.
After a diagonal pass, Cesco waited for the ball to come out and then accelerated forward to receive the ball, but Sandro has been playing in Serie A for 7 years and his experience is there.
Being at a disadvantage in terms of height and weight, he specifically targeted Cesco's lower body, lowering his center of gravity to press against Cesco's waist and hips, forcing him, who was tall and had long legs, to use double the strength with every step to maintain his body balance and effective control of the ball.
But this will naturally slow down the speed.
However, if it was Abraham who took the ball, he might have squeezed in and forced a shot from a small angle.
Cesco is not a mediocre person either. As a young man who is trusted by the head coach who has used center forwards such as Drogba, Benzema, Diego Milito and Ibrahimovic, perhaps his skills and physical fitness still have a lot of room for improvement, but in terms of consciousness, especially in his awareness of being a fulcrum, he is fully competent.
Cesco knew that if he was pushed down by Sandro like this, even if he rushed into the penalty area, the angle of his shot would become smaller and smaller, and if he forced the shot, it might be blocked by Sandro's foot, and a good quick counterattack would become a corner kick.
So he stretched out his left hand to the right behind his buttocks, immediately arched his buttocks to hold Sandro, then turned his body and held the ball with his back to the goal.
McKennie, who caught up with Kva, was originally focusing on Kva, but after Kva passed the ball, his attention shifted to Sandro and Cesco.
He didn't react immediately when Cesco waved his hand just now, but when he turned back to look at Kva's position, he found that the Georgian had disappeared from the wing!
Cesco pushed back, and seeing Cesco's gesture, Kva immediately understood it and slowed down, deliberately letting McKennie run in front of him, then instantly cut inside to the middle, received Cesco's return pass, and rushed to the top of the penalty area!
The gate in the middle of Juventus' penalty area was wide open. After McKennie reacted, he desperately chased after Kwa again.
Facing the penalty area, Kva was less than 3 meters away from Danilo and pushed the ball to the right again.
Chen Xiaoliang's feet seemed to make pits in the grass with every step he took, and he had already left the people chasing him far behind.
At this time, on one side, the ball was rolling over from the left, and on the other side, De Sciglio was running sideways in front of him and preparing to defend him closely. Chen Xiaoliang received the ball and kicked it forward and into the right side of the penalty area!
Stick to me? When you pick up the ball from the goal, stick to the goalpost!
I just didn't expect that I was too excited while running all the way here, and my ability to stop and control the ball was far from reaching the full "perfection", so this trip was a bit too much.
What he originally wanted was to dribble into the penalty area, catch up with the ball directly, and then shoot the ball at a 45-degree angle on the right, or pass it back to Kwa near the penalty spot to score.
However, this time, by the time he caught up with his ball, it was almost at the baseline.
In this place, let alone letting him shoot from a small angle, even if the then-powerful Van Basten was brought over, it would be useless.
However, because he was positioned too far back, he narrowed his angle. De Sciglio, who could not catch up with him, and Danilo in the middle happened to be stuck between him and Kva, so he lost the inverted triangle route.
Because Cesco just passed the ball with his back, he let Sandro go inside. In addition, he was on the left side of the penalty area, with goalkeeper Szczesny between him. It was impossible to pass the ball to him for him to score or to lob the ball for him to head.
Even Zhan Jun couldn't help but exclaimed: "Xiaoliang's shot was too big!"
In a flash, Chen Xiaoliang's men had already led the way out of the penalty area, and his right foot kicked the ball towards him.
Just as he turned around, he saw out of the corner of his eye a lone red figure running up from the penalty area!
And the right foot happened to touch the ball in 0.05 seconds!
He twisted his right ankle, hooked his foot on the bottom of the ball, and passed the ball back to the top of the penalty area!
Kva, Cesco, Szczesny, Danilo, De Sciglio, McKennie, including the players who had been chasing all the way, and everyone in the stands who had their eyes on the ball held their breath. They had never expected that Chen Xiaoliang would do such a thing before falling to the ground.
In just one second, time seemed to freeze, and everyone watched the ball slowly rise and then slowly fall. Then a young man wearing the No. 24 jersey at the top of the penalty area volleyed the falling ball with his right foot!
Although Enzo had taken many long shots when he was in River Plate, his long-range shooting skills were far from perfect. But this ball was very strange. Although Chen Xiaoliang passed the ball back to him after losing his balance, it seemed that even he himself felt the speed and amplitude of his feet when receiving the ball was extremely smooth.
The ball hit the inside of the instep, drawing a slightly curved arc to the left in a short distance of 22 meters.
At this distance and speed, Szczesny could only subconsciously tilt his body and try to reach with his right hand, but it was completely useless.
The ball hit the bottom of the net directly, causing the entire net to float backwards!
After the ball was kicked, as it got closer and closer to the goal, Enzo's eyes and mouth grew bigger and bigger. At this moment, when he saw the ball go in, all his facial muscles were mobilized, his face flushed, and he rushed towards the Roma fan area in the southeast corner of the Allianz Stadium in Turin, roaring all the way!
Zhan Jun: "Enzo!!! This ball goes in!!!"
After celebrating for a few times, Enzo did not forget to turn around and stretched out his hands to point at Chen Xiaoliang who was running towards him happily!
Zhan Jun: "22-year-old Enzo scored his first goal after joining Roma! Assisted by Chen Xiaoliang!"
"I am a rebellious young official who does not believe in immortals or gods!"
"The four players involved in this goal are 21-year-old Kvaratskhelia, 19-year-old Cesco, 18-year-old Chen Xiaoliang, and the goal was scored by 22-year-old Enzo!"
"Roma is creating a storm of youth this season!"
While Zhan Jun was making his passionate predictions, Zhang Lu was laughing magically like “Hehehe” and “Hahaha” beside him.
He interrupted and joked, "Absolutely. It's at least a Category 16 typhoon! Hehehehehe..."
Zhan Jun continued: "In three games, they have scored 11 goals like a whirlwind! In the next game, they will return to their home ground to face another newly promoted team, Monza!"
"Monza had already finished this round of games earlier. They lost 1-2 to Udinese at home. They have lost three games in a row since the start of the season. They conceded 8 goals and scored 2 goals. The last one is hard to come by!"
"Given Rome's current state and momentum, the next battle is likely to be another massacre!"
At this time, the camera was focused on Juventus vice-president Nedved in the stands. He was walking forward and bending down to greet Italian head coach Roberto Mancini who came to watch the game. Fortunately, he was in the VIP area and the fans around him were relatively decent. If he was in the diehard area, even if he was a Juventus star, he would inevitably be scolded by the fans.
Zhan Jun, who is famous for interpreting live broadcasts and knows most of the celebrities, stars and guests in the stands, naturally recognized Nedved: "The camera was focused on Nedved. I don't know what he was thinking at the moment."
"But I believe that Liverpool coach Klopp, who will play in Rome in the first round of the Champions League group stage in early September, must also be watching this game."
"Seeing Roma's dynamic offensive line, I want to ask timidly, Klopp, are you afraid?"
Zhang Lu: "Hahaha, Liverpool's start to this season isn't too good, but the 9-0 win over Bournemouth in the last game really showed the team's strength. The match against Roma will definitely be interesting!"
"But you see, Mourinho was very calm at this time. After the players celebrated, he kept waving his hands to tell the players to get back to their positions quickly, calm down and get back to the game."
Mourinho on the sidelines was indeed very happy, but he knew that this was just the beginning. It was only the third round of the league. Although Juventus was basically doomed to defeat in this game, the absence of an injury meant that the team was not playing at full strength.
Once the young Roma faces a high-intensity double-front battle in the Champions League, it is still an unknown for him how the team will cope after Abraham, Cristante, Zalewski and other rotation players come on the field.
