Chapter 290 It’s OK, I’ll Take Action (Part 1)
At 8 minutes and 31 seconds, the score was 1-1. After the referee warned Chen Xiaoliang and Osimhen who had a physical conflict, the game continued.
Lou Yichen: "In less than ten minutes, two powerful world-class goals completely whetted the appetite of the fans!"
"Also, Osimhen had just topped the league's scorer list with 10 goals, and Xiaoliang caught up immediately, and the two of them tied for the top spot again."
"It can be said that these two players have completely exploded this season."
Liu Yue: "What Lou said is correct, but compared to Osimhen, whose job is to score goals, Xiaoliang's number of goals this season is more unexpected. After all , he was far away from the opponent's goal most of the time in the game."
"Before the game, the Italian media also did some statistics. Among Xiaoliang's offensive methods this season, the number of shots from behind into the opponent's penalty area has increased significantly compared to last season."
Lou Yichen: "This should be closely related to Mourinho's tactical arrangements this season. After Enzo joined the team, Roma's defensive midfielder's ability to sweep and fill positions has been significantly improved. Coupled with the rotation of two generals, Matic and Cristante, the pressure on the midfield has been reduced a lot, and Xiaoliang has more opportunities to directly participate in the attack."
What the two commentators said is correct, but Mourinho never deliberately arranged it at all.
But the last time the team was dealing with the Zaniolo incident, he had a phone call with Sir Alex Ferguson. During the call, the legendary Manchester United coach called Chen Xiaoliang "a better employee than Roy Keane". After that, Mourinho simply handed over the tactical autonomy to Chen Xiaoliang.
After all, he was just a third-rate player when he was a player and had never played in the top league in Portugal. He had a huge flaw, which was that he didn't quite understand the mentality of the players when facing different situations on the court.
Just like a rally navigator, no matter how many times he sits in the passenger seat and directs the driver on road conditions, it does not mean that he can fully understand the changes in his partner's mentality.
Therefore, as long as the tactical framework is arranged, he will try not to directly adjust the tactical arrangements during the game unless he has to intervene.
There is also a Mourinho who is becoming increasingly quiet on the sidelines, and even sits confidently in the coaching seat for a long time.
But the media, fans, and even the players of the Roma team did not know this. They all believed that Chen Xiaoliang's reminders and instructions to his teammates on the field were carried out under the tactical instructions of Mourinho.
That's Mourinho, who calls himself "the special one".
At this time on the field, the two teams were confronting each other back and forth around their respective core players.
At this point, not only Chen Xiaoliang, but also Gvadiol, who had engaged in several consecutive one-on-one attacks and defenses with Osimhen, discovered that the guy in front of him might be the strongest striker he had ever faced.
The Nigerian striker in front of him has outstanding confrontation, amazing speed, and, most importantly, a height of 186 cm with excellent jumping ability. Except for his weak passing and supporting abilities, his personal abilities are very comprehensive.
Manchester United, which is only ranked 6th in the Premier League and is in poor form recently, once asked about Osimhen's price in the summer. As a result, Napoli owner De Laurentiis replied, "C Ronaldo plus another 100 million", which made Manchester United so angry that they directly closed the dialogue window.
Although he moved to the Bundesliga in his first year last season and met super striker Lewandowski in the 21st round of the league, he played as the left central defender in the three-central defender system in that game and faced more Muller and Gnabry who were active on Bayern's right. Tonight, Osimhen is his key target of defense.
In the 11th minute, Napoli made a mistake in the backcourt. The ball that Rahmani passed to Lobotka was weak and was intercepted by the alert Dybala. Then he took two steps sideways to create space for shooting, and faced the defense of Kim Min-jae who suddenly shot a left-footed arc ball to the left side of the goal!
Napoli goalkeeper Meret had no reaction to the sudden shot!
"Dang!" The ball hit the outside of the left post and bounced out of the baseline!
"Oh..." The whole audience let out a long sigh, and then there was a burst of applause.
Just one minute later, Chen Xiaoliang competed for the header in the middle, and Zielinski headed the high ball passed to him. Enzo controlled the ball, moved forward to attract Lobotka's defense, and then passed it to Dybala on the right who was in excellent form today. After receiving the ball, Dybala broke through and shook off the opponent's left-back Oliveira, then pulled the ball back with his right foot and passed it directly to the side of the penalty area with his left foot.
The ball landed in a very good place and flew to the position between Kim Min-jae and Rahmani in the penalty area.
Cesco suddenly started from Kim Min-jae's side, rushed to the landing point and headed the ball!
Unfortunately, the ball was headed too straight and was firmly held in Meret's arms.
The continuous threatening attacks made the Roma fans at the scene reach a collective climax. They sang and danced in the stands, as if they could win the league championship in advance if they won this game.
After defending Roma's three weapons, Napoli began to plan a counterattack, while Roma continued to take the initiative on the field by using the morale advantage of the later goal and the home advantage.
The two sides were stuck in a stalemate.
When the two central defenders Anguissa and Zielinski were attacking, they were separated on the field, but they also cooperated with each other in off-ball running.
Once one of them runs to one side to cooperate with the attack, the other will move to the middle and be ready to receive the ball at any time.
Before this game, some media wanted to see whether these two midfielders could work together to restrict Chen Xiaoliang. Unexpectedly, as soon as the game started, it became a duel between Osimhen and Chen Xiaoliang.
In defense, Chen Xiaoliang did not get entangled with the two of them. He always stayed in a relatively deep position and kept turning his head to look around, mainly to determine the position of Osimhen in the back. Once the ball was passed to him from the midfield, Chen Xiaoliang could go over to assist in defense at any time.
Napoli said it was a trident formation, but in fact Politano and Lozano on the left and right sides were more serving Osimhen, and seeing that there was a natural barrier constantly blocking the middle to organize the pass, their offense was a little helpless for a while, and they could only try to find opportunities by crossing.
But what no one expected was that true geniuses are born for adversity and can achieve the possible out of the impossible.
In the 22nd minute, Politano cooperated with Zielinski on the left, and with Lobotka's forward wall cooperation, they used back and forth passes to get rid of Enzo's loan, and Politano received the pass on the left side of the penalty area.
But the five Roma players who retreated had already occupied their defensive positions, not to mention that there were only two offensive players, Politano and Osimhen, in the penalty area.
Politano seemed to think there was no hope, so he pushed his right foot to the left, suddenly walked to the bottom line, and then kicked the ball towards the goal with his left foot. It was not known whether he was hoping for a miracle or hoping that the Roma players would score an own goal.
However, he had no speed advantage, and was caught up by Smalling in his first step of changing direction. The English veteran stretched out his right foot and blocked his powerful swing. As a result, the ball flew high into the sky, and after two seconds, it seemed to fall straight down and fell outside the small penalty area.
Osimhen and Smalling were close together, with Cristante next to them, and Patricio also came out, ready to jump up and grab the ball.
Seeing that the goalkeeper had come out, and Osimen was the only one below the landing point, in order to avoid interfering with their goalkeeper, Smalling and Cristante were not ready to jump, and Enzo and Celik, who were watching all this nearby, did not come close. Chen Xiaoliang had already jogged forward, ready to receive Patricio's hand-thrown ball and organize an attack.
Seeing that the ball was still a little far from the normal jumping height, Osimhen jumped up on the spot and headed for the falling ball.
When Smalling saw him jump, he also jumped up subconsciously to interfere. Patricio also jumped up and raised his hands to grab the ball.
Not to mention Smalling who jumped late. He was just like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. He assumed that Patricio would definitely get the ball. He did not interfere with Osimhen at all. His jumping height was not enough and did not even reach his opponent's shoulder.
And a jaw-dropping scene happened. Osimhen's head was actually higher than Patricio's hands when he jumped!
The ball hit his head and flew towards the goal in a small parabola!
Patricio in the air felt like he had hit a piece of iron plate. Not only did he fail to catch the ball, he hit Osimhen and bounced back, falling backwards to the ground!
Gvadiol, who was standing by, saw the ball flying towards his own goal and rushed over to try to block the ball in front of the goal line with his foot, but he was a beat late and it was too late. He could only watch the score being rewritten again.
Lou Yichen: "It was a mistake by the defender and the goalkeeper! No one thought that Osimhen could head the ball while being double-teamed! Roma, oh Roma, Osimhen has become the nemesis of the Eternal City tonight! I wonder if Patricio will have a nightmare when he closes his eyes when he sleeps in bed tonight, with Osimhen's figure all over his dream!"
Liu Yue: "The Roma players were careless in this ball, but judging from the visual, Osimhen jumped really high... Patricio is not the kind of excited goalkeeper who jumps like a nervous knife. He is known for his stability in his career. He obviously jumped hard for this ball, but the height of his two-handed grab was not even higher than the height of Osimhen's head. I wonder if the Serie A League or the live broadcast will have technical verification to see how high this ball jumped."
Lou Yichen: "Hearing what Lao Liu said reminded me of the Serie A record for a bouncing goal, which was scored by Cristiano Ronaldo when he played against Sampdoria on behalf of Juventus in December 2019. He overpowered the opponent's defender, glided briefly in the air, and headed the ball into the goal."
"The height of that ball is 256 centimeters."
Chen Xiaoliang was very helpless. He had just run to a position below the center circle, but he didn't expect the score to become 1 to 2.
What he didn't expect was that after celebrating with his teammates, Osimhen ran past him and said to him: "Don't be in a daze, kick the ball off quickly." He also put his right index finger to his mouth and made a gesture for him to be quiet!
Before Chen Xiaoliang could fight back, Enzo, who heard this, was furious and wanted to rush up to argue. However, the referee Osatu had been paying close attention to their movements since the conflict between the two men and had already focused his attention on the three of them.
Chen Xiaoliang didn't hold Enzo back, but whispered in Spanish beside him, "He just scored a goal and is feeling very proud. Now is not a good time to anger him. We will find a way to get him booked later."
Enzo said "hmmmm!" and pointed at Osmeen.
Just as Cesco passed the ball to Chen Xiaoliang, the live broadcast screen replayed Osimhen's goal again, with an additional ruler from the grass to the highest point of the head.
The number displayed on the edge of the ruler is 258 cm!
Lou Yichen: "As Lao Liu said, this goal by Osimhen broke the record held by Ronaldo and set a new record for the highest bounce of a goal in Serie A! 2.58 meters! No wonder Patricio, who jumped a little late, couldn't even touch it!"
Liu Yue: "The goal in a football match is 7.32 meters long and 2.44 meters high, which means that Osimhen's nose could have hit the crossbar with that shot just now."
Lou Yichen: "I calculated that Osomine is 186cm tall. According to these two data, his vertical jump height just now was 0.72 meters."
"Friends who like basketball may often hear that a certain NBA player's dunk jump height is about 1 meter, but 0.72 meters is a very scary height for football players whose leg muscle training mainly focuses on lateral force. And in the last shot, Osimhen did not run up, he almost jumped from the spot."
Liu Yue: "His physical fitness is too terrible. It will be difficult for Napoli to keep him next summer. Now Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona all need good center forwards. Although Benzema and Lewandowski are still in good shape, they are both 35 years old and urgently need successors."
At this point, the two commentators paused for a moment before Lou Yichen continued, "By the way, Lao Liu, do you think Roma can keep Xiao Liang next summer?"
Liu Yue thought for a moment and said, "It's difficult. Judging from the current situation of Real Madrid and Liverpool competing for Bellingham, Xiaoliang's performance in all aspects is better than that of the English midfielder. Moreover, Xiaoliang is younger and has good offense and defense."
"As long as the price is right, I believe that even if Mourinho wants to stay, Roma owner Friedkin will not miss the opportunity to make money."
On the field, Napoli, who were leading again, began to strengthen their defense. They didn't want the same script to happen again and be equalized by Roma again.
Anguiza and Zielinski, one on the left and one on the right, almost formed a three-man defense with Lobotka, encircling Roma's transfer balls in the frontcourt and forcing the passing routes to be unable to approach the penalty area.
Faced with this situation, it is necessary to increase the manpower deployed in the frontcourt. Chen Xiaoliang transferred the ball between the two flanks while calling on the midfielder and full-backs to press forward.
And Osimhen was not standing in front stupidly. In Spalletti's football system, the forward also has to initiate pressing in the midfield.
As his teammates pressed forward, Chen Xiaoliang got closer and closer to the opponent's penalty area.
40 meters, 37 meters, 34 meters...
Every time he received the pass from either side, he moved closer.
If Osimhen's magical zero-degree ball at the beginning of the game made the Roma defenders fearful and dared not give him a small angle to shoot, then Chen Xiaoliang's subsequent long-range shot with the outside of his foot also cast a shadow in the hearts of Napoli's midfielders and backcourt players!
Seeing that Chen Xiaoliang was within shooting range, the three midfielders Lobotka, Anguissa and Zielinski gradually shortened their defensive distance, as if they were going to surround Chen Xiaoliang in the middle in a three-man encirclement.
Osimen behind him also retreated and kept harassing Chen Xiaoliang after he had the ball.
To be honest, the feeling of being double-teamed was too uncomfortable. No matter how Chen Xiaoliang tried to get rid of the ball, there was always someone following him. The more he showed an eagerness to get rid of the ball, the tighter the opponent would tangle with him.
As they defended, seeing Roma constantly passing the ball between the two flanks and still not finding any opportunities, the Napoli players thought that their defensive tactics were working and the more they defended, the more oppressive they became.
After Kva broke through Di Lorenzo on the left, he found that there was no route in the penalty area. He broke too close to the baseline and was forced by Kim Min-jae to have no space to cut inside, so he passed the ball back to Malaysia who was making a run on the left side of the penalty area.
Dutch players have always had attacking blood flowing in their bones. Even the central defenders are quite good at attacking. They just swing their left leg and shoot towards the goal without any hesitation!
Rahmani, who was blocking in front, blocked the ball with his body and the ball bounced back out of the penalty area!
Just when the opposing players' eyes were all towards their own penalty area, Chen Xiaoliang rushed forward, first gently headed the ball over Di Lorenzo who was also trying to grab the ball, and then after landing, he volleyed the ball directly towards the goal with his left foot!
Although the angle was not tricky, the speed of the half-high volley was very fast. Meret did not dare to catch the ball and saved it from going out of bounds with both hands.
Compared to the fans in the stands who were sighing and holding their heads, Chen Xiaoliang himself was quite calm.
If every shot goes in, Ronaldo will call me daddy when he sees me.
Kva took a corner kick from the left side. Facing Napoli's full retreat, Chen Xiaoliang made a gesture, indicating that he should pass the ball to him.
Kva did as he was told, and the Napoli players who had retreated into a group in the penalty area spread out, and Anguisa and Osimhen surrounded them again.
Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball towards the middle from the left side of the frontcourt outside the penalty area. The two black players defending him immediately started to chase him, and Osimhen even wanted to pull Chen Xiaoliang.
Chance!
Chen Xiaoliang deliberately approached Osimen, then forced a shot with his right foot 5 meters away from the penalty area line. After the ball went out, he hit Osimen and fell to the ground.
For this ball, he used the inner instep to hit the bottom of the ball, and when he lifted his foot up, his right leg suddenly lifted up again. The ball was like a high loop ball in table tennis, suddenly taking off and then suddenly falling down!
Although he had attributes as a basis, these shooting techniques were acquired through repeated practice after he watched countless videos of free kick masters and long-range shooting experts and consulted veteran players.
Meret didn't expect that the ball shot by the anti-aircraft gun at the plane would fall rapidly towards the goal halfway through its flight.
He quickly jumped up and tried to block the ball with his fingertips, but this time he managed to tip the ball over the crossbar.
"Oh!"
The fans in the stands became even more excited.
Lou Yichen: "Two consecutive long shots, both of which fell short in the end. Whichever one of them went in would have been a contender for the top ten goals of the season."
Liu Yue: "The fans in the stadium were excited. Although the ball didn't go in, the exciting long-range shots resulted in two consecutive corner kicks. For a period of time, Napoli was completely suppressed by Roma in the half."
"But this offensive method is completely dependent on Chen Xiaoliang. Once the other two midfielders or two wingers of Naples join in the double-teaming of Chen Xiaoliang, let alone a good chance to shoot, it may become difficult to connect the ball."
"If you want to score a goal, you have to rely on the strength of the whole team to play well together."
Chen Xiaoliang, who was lying on the field, looked at the referee Osato, only to see him call Osimhen over, but he only gave him a verbal warning and did not play any cards.
"Damn it, this guy doesn't play cards when he should, and gives cards when he shouldn't."
Chen Xiaoliang thought to himself, stood up, and began to arrange the free kick tactics outside the penalty area with Dybala.
Seeing the situation on the field in the past few minutes, Forti was a little anxious: "Jose, should we call Chen over and let him calm down? Going alone and rushing to score with long shots will only make him more and more the opponent's key defensive target."
Mourinho smiled slightly: "Oh, is this your first day meeting this guy? Just sit back and watch. This guy is much calmer than you think."
"Whether he can disrupt Napoli's defense depends on how far he can execute his plan."
