Chapter 291 It’s OK, I’ll Take Action (Part 2)
On the court, at 30 minutes and 22 seconds, Dybala stood behind the penalty spot.
The penalty spot is on the left side of the top of the penalty area, about 28 meters away from the goal. For players taking traditional arc free kicks, this position is slightly far, about 2 meters. 26 meters is the distance where power and arc can be best combined.
Since it was a free kick on the left side, the left-footed Dybala standing behind the ball was also an uncertain factor for Napoli. Usually left-footed players can more easily curl the ball into the goal when taking free kicks on the right side of the court.
Both central defenders Smalling and Gvardiol ran into Napoli's penalty area, and Cristante also went in, leaving only two full-backs and Enzo to defend behind.
Kva stood on the left side and Chen Xiaoliang stood outside the top of the penalty area. The two stood on the left and right of the penalty spot, distracting the defense's attention.
"Beep!" The referee Osato blew the whistle, indicating that a free throw could be taken!
Dybala took a run-up, Kvart and Chen Xiaoliang began to move to their respective sides, and Osimhen retreated all the way back to the penalty area line to participate in the defense. At this time, his eyes were fixed on Chen Xiaoliang, and Anguiza, the fastest and strongest of the three midfielders of Napoli, was beside him to assist in defense at any time.
Dybala made a shooting motion with his left foot, but in the end he touched the ball lightly and pushed the ball to Kwa in front of him on the left side. After the ball left, he immediately rushed into the penalty area diagonally.
Kva received the ball and Di Lorenzo was the first to rush over. Kva still used his most skilled left and right changes of direction, first rushing to the left, then taking advantage of the opponent's center of gravity to move, and suddenly breaking through to the right with his left foot.
This move is simple and practical. It is an exercise that football players will perform when they are learning to dribble from the stage of dribbling around the pole. The success rate in actual combat depends entirely on the player's ability to hold the ball in a small range and change direction.
Messi is a master of this move.
Facing Kva's change of direction, Di Lorenzo was shaken off as expected. Kva made a diagonal counter-attack into the penalty area. Facing the second rushing Lobotka, whose speed and flexibility were much inferior to Di Lorenzo, he once again shook off the opponent with a change of direction from right to left, and also trapped Di Lorenzo who was trying to chase back behind him.
Di Lorenzo had no choice but to slow down. In the penalty area, if he collided with Kwa and fell to the ground, he would definitely be awarded a penalty.
Kva's dribble towards the bottom line brought all the defenses in the penalty area to the front of the goal. Taking advantage of this brief gap and formation movement, he kicked the ball with his left foot and rubbed it towards the right side of the small penalty area.
In the middle, Chen Xiaoliang played one-on-two with Anguisa and Osimhen, pretending to jump for the header, and even Kim Min-jae and Zielinski who were nearby also blocked them, but the ball did not land there at all.
At the back post! Cesco found that the ball was passed a little too far, and even if he could reach it with his head, he couldn't exert any force, so he leaned on Rahmani, who was on the left side of his body and occupied the inside line. The 195cm tall man took two steps to the right and jumped up, and kicked the ball with his right foot sideways!
In the penalty area, a group of Napoli players gathered in the middle to block several high points in front of the goal to prevent them from competing for headers. Only Rahmani was watching Sesco, who ran to the right side of the penalty area and was relatively far away from the goal.
The powerful sideways shot went straight into the goal. Although the 25-year-old Meret is worth only 13 million euros, he also won the last European Cup as a substitute with Italy, so he is by no means a mediocre person.
When he saw the ball flying to the back point, he had already moved to the far post.
Facing the flying ball at this moment, he subconsciously stretched out his hands to the upper right to block the shot!
The ball bounced towards the small penalty area. In an instant, six or seven people on both the offensive and defensive sides rushed towards the ball involuntarily based on their first reaction!
Smalling, who was closest to the ball, kicked his foot and headed the ball!
Meret, who had just retracted his arm after making a save, relied on his body's natural reaction again, stretched out his right hand to the right side, and blocked the ball at a distance of half a meter from the ground!
Cristante rushed forward to shoot, but Meret, who was lying on the ground, actually used his body to block the ball again!
This time, the ball finally bounced to Di Lorenzo's feet. The Napoli captain was like a frightened bird under the pressure of Kova. He did not dare to be careless at all and directly cleared the ball out of the baseline.
Lou Yichen: "Oh my god! Three saves in a row!"
"Merret is like a god! The Napoli players came up to him to express their encouragement!"
"Let's look at the replay! After Cesco's sideways shot was blocked, it caused continuous attacks in front of the goal, causing chaos in Napoli's small penalty area, but Meret was assisted by God on the goal line! In the end, he even blocked a shot on the ground!"
Liu Yue: "Dybala's shot at the end was a sure goal."
Lou Yichen: "Mourinho, who had been sitting on the sidelines, kept shaking his head! It was as if a wall of sighs lay in front of Roma!"
Liu Yue: "His reaction and save on the goal line were really a bit like De Gea of Manchester United."
Barrage:
[It’s ridiculous. A goalkeeper like this is only worth 13 million euros? ]
[Serie A is not the Premier League, there is no household registration bonus]
[Goalkeepers are cheaper]
[De Gea Napoli split]
…
The ball went out of bounds, and both sides calmed down a little. Roma prepared to take a corner kick.
Kva stood behind the corner flagpole. Chen Xiaoliang made the "3" gesture to him several times until Kva nodded in confirmation. Then Chen Xiaoliang trotted into his own players who were lined up on the penalty area line.
What is this “3”?
The players of Napoli and the fans in the stands all started to murmur in their hearts.
However, the players on the field will not be distracted by this. For professional players, set-piece defense is a very important subject in daily training. Each person has a clear division of labor as to which area he is responsible for and which target he is guarding.
But Napoli coach Spalletti on the sidelines kept shouting at his players to pay attention to marking key targets.
He was feeling vaguely uneasy as he was continuously suppressed by Roma in front of the goal, with long shots, set pieces, and now corner kicks. In addition to positioning and refereeing, he hadn't been to Roma's half for more than five minutes.
If they are suppressed and beaten like this, something bad will happen sooner or later.
“Beep!”
Kva started to run up, and the Roma players on the penalty area line also began to press forward slowly!
Just in the penalty area where Kva was kicking the ball, Chen Xiaoliang suddenly accelerated towards the far point, then changed direction and ran towards the penalty spot!
Osimen, who was defending him, changed direction urgently, trying to catch up with Chen Xiaoliang, but Gvadiol, who was standing on the penalty spot, blocked Osimen's path after Chen Xiaoliang ran past him, hindering Osimen's defense.
"Chen! Chen!"
Osmeen shouted anxiously!
However, Anguisa and Lobotka, who had been keeping their eyes on Chen Xiaoliang in the penalty area, came over!
Kva took two steps to run up and kicked the corner kick steadily!
The ball flew out, the arc was very low and flat! Obviously it was a penalty kick!
Cesco rushed forward and jumped quickly!
Lobotka and Anguiza, who were still marking Chen Xiaoliang, saw that the ball was not coming towards them, so they rushed to the near post, trying to get between Cesco and the goal and block his shooting route!
Rahmani next to Cesco also jumped with all his might, trying to compete in jumping height.
Cesco headed the ball, but he pushed it back and the ball flew to the back point!
Meret, who was blocking the near corner, quickly moved towards the far post, but the ball passed in front of the goal and landed in front of a handsome guy!
Lou Yichen: “Shoot from the back!”
"Beautiful! Dybala! With no one guarding him, he received Cesco's header at the back post."
Liu Yue: "Xiaoliang's change of direction in the penalty area, coupled with Gvardiol's central screen, attracted three players to defend him. Behind Gvardiol was Kim Min-jae, who was specifically guarding him in corner kick defense."
"That means Xiaoliang alone disrupted the defensive arrangements of four players."
"Plus, with Smalling and Cristante eager to try in the small penalty area, Napoli's defensive attention was diverted by the group of players in the front and middle positions. No one expected that the small Dybala would get in behind, almost facing the empty goal, and lightly tap the ball with his left foot to equalize the score."
"In the 33rd minute , Roma scored another goal and the game was tied at 2-2! Now the scores of both sides are back to the same starting line again!"
In just over half an hour, four goals were scored. The fans who had expected before the game that the two teams with the most offensive firepower in Serie A this season would have a fierce competition tonight were now exclaiming in disbelief.
You have to know that this is Serie A, a league that is completely different from the Eredivisie, which was once the fifth largest league in Europe. It was a league that once paid great attention to and pursued the "1-0 doctrine".
Now, it is Spalletti, who is four years older than Mourinho, who is shaking his head.
Including this goal, for a full six minutes, let alone half the game, the ball did not leave our own defensive third zone!
It's only been one summer, and Roma, which fought AC Milan until the last round to win the championship last season, has become so strong?
Dybala, Kva, Guevadiol and Enzo, the joining of these four people has transformed this team?
Moreover, is this style of play, which is used to suppress the opponent's attack, still something that Mourinho, who always parks the bus, would do?
impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
He watched his players prepare to kick the ball from the center circle, and kept shouting and making offensive gestures on the sidelines:
"Run! Everyone, run!"
On the other side, Forti rushed to the sidelines to celebrate and returned to his seat happily:
"Jose, it seems that we are still lucky. They actually made a low-level mistake of missing a man when defending the corner kick."
Mourinho sneered again. He didn't mean to disrespect his assistant coach on purpose. It was just that there was a gap of more than 20 years between them. Plus, with his personality, it was common for him to take advantage of his seniority.
"Think about it carefully. There's no rush. Think about it while you watch."
Forti sat down and, as Mourinho said, began to recall what had just happened.
A long shot, blocked, another long shot, a foul, and then the corner kick that resulted in the loss of the ball.
At this moment on the court, Lozano's breakthrough was blocked by Malaysia, the ball bounced back and hit his feet and went out of bounds, and Malaysia threw the ball out of bounds.
Chen Xiaoliang, who was about to go over to support, was next to Anguisa, and not far away were Osmeen and Lobotka, one in front and one behind. The two men were guarding their own nearest defense areas while keeping a close eye on Chen Xiaoliang.
"The origin of everything is because of Chen?"
Mourinho didn't answer directly: "Let's see."
Anguissa stuck close to Chen Xiaoliang, so Malaysia had to throw the ball to Kwa who came back from the frontcourt to receive the ball.
Di Lorenzo and Lozano quickly went up to double-team, and Kvartana had to move widely, trying to pass the ball to Dybala on the other side.
But the ball was a little short and was headed back by Oliveira.
Napoli went into the offensive.
In the next 10 minutes, both sides played more unrestrainedly. There was no dragging transfer or back-passing. They passed the ball or shot when there was an opportunity, no matter if it was a long shot or a shot from a small angle. In short, as long as there was space, they would give it a try.
But corresponding to this, the formation has become quite stable. The distance between the front and back fields of both teams is relatively long. Except for set pieces, the offensive tasks are all given to the midfield and front field, especially the front field players who use their own abilities and cooperate with each other to complete the task. The midfielder moves up to a limited extent, while the central defender never presses forward easily, always firmly occupies the defense zone, and does not give the opponent a chance to launch a counterattack easily.
In the 44th minute, when the first half had reached its physical limit, Roma got another corner kick opportunity thanks to Dybala's cross being blocked out of the baseline.
Dybala took the corner kick from the right side. By the time several tall players of Roma trotted into the Napoli penalty area, the fourth official had already put down the sign for 2 minutes of extra time.
Except for the 171cm Politano who wandered between the penalty area and the center circle, all Napoli players retreated to participate in the defense.
This time, they made some slight adjustments, with Lozano and Oliveira blocking each post.
The advantage of this defensive tactic is that the goal posts on both sides, which are not easily taken care of by the goalkeeper, have an extra layer of protection.
The disadvantage is that once the opponent takes a tactical free kick and passes the ball back to initiate a second attack, or if the corner kick is blocked at the first point in the penalty area and the opponent passes the ball to the second point, because there are two people behind, the opponent will not have any offside risk.
This time, Chen Xiaoliang didn't raise his fingers to show any numbers. There are only a few ways to take corner kicks, and all teams are similar. Moreover, Napoli, as a strong team in Serie A, has already used the tactic of Roma stretching the defense and passing the ball to the front point. They will not be stupid enough to make the same mistake a second time.
“Beep!”
With a whistle, Dybala kicked the ball directly to the middle!
Guevadiol, Cesco and Smalling advanced simultaneously from the left, middle and right of the small penalty area!
Smalling jumped first and then headed the ball, which was a feint.
Then Cesco jumped up, but this time he really missed the target because he was interfered by Rahmani. It was just a hair's breadth away!
Gvardiol, who was at the back post, had been waiting for a long time and wanted to head the ball as soon as he saw it, but the Korean central defender Kim Min-jae, who was full of fighting spirit, headed the ball forward and out of the penalty area!
The ball didn't fly far before Anguisa, who was outside them, kicked the ball away with a big kick, and the ball flew to the right side of Roma!
Politano rushed over immediately! Celik arrived first, bent his knees, raised his buttocks, and opened his arms, trying to stop the Italian striker with his body, but after Politano approached, he jumped high, and then there was a downward movement with his hands. Celik immediately lost his balance and fell to the ground.
“Hey! Hey!”
Seeing that the referee did not make any comment, the Roma coaching staff on the sidelines and tens of thousands of fans in the stands raised loud questions, but Osato still did not blow the whistle and waved his hands in front of him to indicate that there was no foul!
Just when the retreating Cristante was about to find Osato to argue, a blue-black shadow had already stepped on the grass and rushed forward like a hungry bison!
It's Osimhen! The Napoli players on the sidelines couldn't help but shout to Politano near their sideline: "Go! Middle!"
Politano knew that a teammate in the middle had followed up, and he also knew that it must be the fastest beast on the way to the position.
He dribbled the ball along the left side, covering more than ten meters at a time, running forward with all his might.
Celik immediately stood up and tried to chase after him with all his strength.
Enzo in the middle also ran back at full speed and stretched out his hand to signal Malaysia to stop Osimhen.
But when Osimhen ran, he was like a bulldozer. Malaysia bumped into him at close range, but he staggered twice and lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"Mad! Fuck!"
Mourinho couldn't help but stand up and uttered a swear word.
This is the Drogba II that he has been looking for!
As a member of the Lille team that beat Pochettino's Paris Saint-Germain to win the French Ligue 1 championship, due to the difference in support from the two team owners, Napoli spent 75 million to buy Osimhen, while Roma could only spend 7 million to buy Celik.
Mourinho couldn't help but look back at Abraham on his own bench, feeling melancholy.
These two people, apart from their skin color, have nothing else in common!
He wished he could download an anti-fraud app on his phone so that he could just reject any calls from Chelsea next time.
On the field, Politano had already run to the left side of the penalty area. Since the team was advancing from the wing, Patricio had no way of giving up the middle and choosing to attack. He could only stay on the goal line and wait for his teammates to provide as much support as possible.
Enzo stood in the middle, constantly turning his head to look at Politano and then at Osimhen.
"What should I do? Who should I defend against? I'm the only one left!"
Enzo was a little at a loss. If he didn't block Politano, he could break into the penalty area and shoot directly at the goalkeeper. If he went up to block it, as long as Politano passed the ball to him, Osimhen would be alone!
In just a second or so, when he turned around again to confirm Osmeen's position, he saw a man running towards him like the wind, pointing at him, pointing at Politano!
Enzo understood and didn't care about anything else at this time. He turned and rushed to the right from the penalty spot.
This was the moment Politano was waiting for. He slowed down a little, made an adjustment, and swept the ball out with his left foot at a 45° angle on the left side of the penalty area!
It was a half-high ball, and he made a lob pass! Enzo jumped up with all his strength, but still couldn't reach it. The ball passed over his head with an inward arc and began to fall, spinning away from the goal towards the middle of the penalty area!
Osmeen rode over on horseback, his heart burning with anger!
The pass was so good that he couldn't suppress his excitement. After crossing the penalty area line, he slowed down, took two very compact steps, then stepped forward with his left foot as if to make the grass tremble, and then pulled his right foot back.
A magical goal! A pull-up shot! A volley to the death! A sense of pride! Entering the halftime break with a lead! Completely crushing Roma's morale!
At that moment, countless thoughts and subsequent celebration actions flashed through his mind, and all he needed to do was to hit the ball hard with his right foot!
But it was this pause that gave the Roma captain behind him, who was running at an even more abnormal speed, a chance to change his fate!
The one shooting has to stop and adjust his pace, but the one rescuing the ball doesn’t need to stop!
Before Osimhen swung his leg forward, Chen Xiaoliang dodged from his right side, and kicked the bottom of the ball in the air with his left foot before he could!
"Bang"!
There was a crisp sound, followed by deafening cheers from the audience!
The ball was kicked by Chen Xiaoliang like an anti-aircraft gun directly to the second-tier stands. A group of father-son fans caught the ball. The father handed the ball to his son, who raised it high in excitement and made a face at Osimhen!
"Mad! Fuck!"
This time it was Osmeyn's turn to be furious!
A perfect opportunity, a good angle, the right distance, all the conditions for scoring a goal were met. He just had to go up and shoot and the job would be done, but it was ruined like this!
This kind of sadness in my heart, no, it's simply cowardly, it really makes people so depressed!
The fact that the fat meat she had just gotten was snatched away was not enough to accurately describe the frustration she felt inside. To put it more vividly, it was like she had been preparing for a long time, excitedly preparing to perform a Tiger Shot with her teammates, only to find out that it was not a safe date!
Osimen slowed down, but deliberately bumped into Chen Xiaoliang who was celebrating a successful clearance with Enzo and Patricio.
Chen Xiaoliang turned his head, stretched out his hand, and pointed at him without saying a word.
Osmeen, who was already angry, suddenly got angry and walked towards Chen Xiaoliang!
