Chapter 344: The unexpected yet reasonable red card and Roma’s second championship!
Di Maria is too lazy to care about Pogba. He has basically won all the team awards he deserves in his career, especially after the successful completion of the America's Copa and the World Cup in the past two years. He has no regrets in his career.
On the one hand, he came to Juventus because he was attracted by the status of the Zebras as a Serie A giant and wanted to continue to shine in a new league and a new team, while also maintaining his form for the World Cup. On the other hand, the relatively slower pace of Serie A could help him delay his career and enjoy more football time.
But unlike Di Maria who is becoming more and more indifferent, this time Locatelli and Rabiot chased after Pogba and criticized him after losing the ball.
Assistant coach Landucci was so angry. Pogba had clearly defended seriously several times in the first half, and he was seen listening carefully to Allegri's speech during the half. Why did he start to act up again in the second half?
Landucci immediately asked Allegri whether he wanted to replace Pogba.
Allegri frowned and refused. He knew Landucci was right, but he had to take a gamble because he also knew Pogba's strengths and weaknesses.
During his previous career at Juventus, Pogba, who was recruited from Manchester United as a youth player, could fully display his talent on the offensive end, with long shots, dribbling, passing and even heading. He possessed all the talents and abilities required of a central midfielder.
However, at that time, Pirlo and Marchisio were by his side to protect him. Similarly, Matuidi, Kante and others filled in for him in the national team. But now, Rabiot and Locatelli are obviously not at the same level as before. What's more, the opponent they are facing, the red countryman who just scored a goal, is a terrifying creature they have never encountered in Italy.
It was 11 vs. 11 and they barely managed to tie the game, not to mention that one of them was walking around and defending with his eyes.
But Allegri could only gamble. He asked Landucci to remind Pogba loudly and give the Frenchman some time to see if the situation would improve.
Looking at the bench, there were Facioli and Mireti, who were too young to withstand the torture of Chen Xiaoliang, and Paredes, who was loaned from Paris Saint-Germain and had a big argument with him because of his lack of playing time.
It can be said that any head coach would send Pogba to the field without hesitation among these candidates.
"Beep", the referee blew the whistle, Vlahovic kicked the ball back with a serious face, Rabiot received the ball and began to organize the attack.
Gradually, as more than six minutes passed, Juventus organized two opportunities for long-range shots, but both were a bit short. However, this is not the point. The point is that Allegri frowned even more tightly, and now even he wanted to replace Pogba.
In the 47th minute, Kostic had no chance to break through on the left and chose to pass the ball back to Danilo, who passed the ball diagonally to Pogba in the midfield.
At this time, Rabiot reached out for the ball on the left flank, but Pogba took a few steps forward and when Chen Xiaoliang was about to approach, he chose to ignore Rabiot and passed the ball to De Sciglio who came in from the right.
De Sciglio passed Vlahovic, who was outside the penalty area, shot. However, the ball went wide due to the interference of Wijnaldum.
Then in the 51st minute, De Sciglio made a cross pass from the right to the middle, Pogba got the ball again and was immediately closely defended by Chen Xiaoliang.
Seeing that the ball was about to be lost, Locatelli retreated and repeatedly stretched out his hand to signal him to pass the ball back, but Pogba refused to pass the ball and kicked a high ball directly back to goalkeeper Szczesny.
Then, the ball was hit back to the frontcourt again. Di Maria, who had the ball, wanted to do a one-two with Pogba in the middle to get past Chen Xiaoliang. However, after the ball was passed to Pogba and Di Maria ran forward, Pogba casually passed the ball back to De Sciglio on the right rear, causing Di Maria to shake his hands to express his dissatisfaction.
However, just when some teammates could no longer bear it, in the 54th minute, Pogba moved to the center circle on the right side, received a cross pass from Kostic on the left, adjusted the ball to his right foot, and sent a flat, fast and accurate over-the-head pass directly forward over 35 meters.
Vlahovic suddenly started from Mancini's side, accurately received the ball from Pogba one step inside the penalty area line, then adjusted one step and shot directly into the far corner with his left foot!
Gvardiol, who rushed over from the other side's center back position to fill the position, fell to the ground and slid to block the ball, but he still couldn't catch up.
Patricio, who was standing slightly closer to the goal post to block Vlahovic, immediately dived to the left, but the opponent's shot was too fast and his save was a beat late, and the ball flew directly into the net.
2 to 2!
After the goal, the scene on Juventus' side was like heaven and hell.
The fans were naturally cheering and celebrating in the stands, celebrating that their team had withstood the pressure and equalized the score.
Although all the players on the field ran to congratulate Vlahovic as soon as possible, Di Maria, Locatelli and Rabiot did not signal to Pogba like others, acknowledging the opportunity created by his wonderful pass.
Landucci on the sidelines was speechless, but Allegri breathed a sigh of relief and said to Landucci: "As long as he plays seriously, he will bring something different to the team."
Although Landucci is an assistant coach, at the age of 55, he is definitely a leader in this position in European football.
It’s just that some people may not be born with the temperament to lead a top club, such as Emery and Pellegrini, while some people are not born to be head coaches and are only suitable to be advisers, such as Queiroz, Meulensteen, Faria, and possibly Landucci.
He knew Allegri's intention, and the lazy Pogba unexpectedly scored a goal and made an assist, becoming the soul of the game.
But he was still worried: "I can only say that I suggest replacing him after a while, even if it is because he has just recovered from his injury."
Landucci didn't say the last sentence. He felt that leaving Pogba on the field was like watching a time bomb countdown but not thinking about defusing it.
Pogba on the field, while accepting congratulations from his teammates and enjoying the cheers from the fans, did not forget to turn around and show his sarcastic smile again to the three people who did not come to congratulate him.
Di Maria and the other three didn't want to look at him at all, but he had just made an assist and they couldn't do anything to him for the time being.
Juventus did not make any substitutions, but Mourinho couldn't help but take action first.
Mancini's weaknesses in turning and slow speed are well known to everyone. Today, when Juventus was not in an advantageous position, a connection between Pogba and Vlahovic plus a single-soldier explosion broke through this point. If left unchecked, Juventus would definitely seize this point and continue to attack.
This is just Vlahovic. If they meet Manchester City with a strong midfield and Haaland in front, it is hard to say how they will be beaten.
He replaced Villa with Smalling and once again put up a lame formation with an unbalanced left and right side. Smalling, who played as a right back, was actually more like a right central back, while Cristante, who played as a right defensive midfielder, moved more to the wing and participated in the defense of the wing.
The purpose of doing this is to allow Smalling to fill in more positions for Mancini.
But the disadvantages of doing so are also obvious. Cristante is not good at defending on the wing. Although he has good stealing ability, his speed is not much faster than Mancini.
This not only reduced the defensive pressure on , but also allowed Di Maria to increase the frequency of actively moving to the left.
In the next 10 minutes, after Di Maria made three consecutive well-placed crosses, Mourinho made another substitution, replacing Cristante with Celik and simply changing the formation to three central defenders.
In this way, Wijnaldum became a single defensive midfielder. The defect of neglecting the two flanks in the three-center-back system mentioned by Capello in the game analysis also happened to Roma.
But this is not a problem because they have Chen Xiaoliang.
In the 66th minute, Di Maria made a comeback. After receiving the pass from Kostic from the back, he chose to force a breakthrough to the outside facing Celik.
The Argentine was in very good form today. Even in Allegri's mind, this might be the best game Di Maria has played since joining the team.
The team's original plan was to replace him before the 70th minute, but Allegri asked Moses Keane, who had already warmed up for a while, to wait. He hoped to replace him when he saw Di Maria's condition declined due to exhaustion.
Di Maria, who was strong on the outside, was not able to completely get rid of Celik who had just come on the field. Although his speed ability was still good, his physical confrontation and short-frequency explosive power inevitably declined with his age.
Celik knew that it would be difficult for him to steal the ball directly from Di Maria's feet, so he simply defended the inside and harassed him constantly with physical confrontation. As long as he could drag the ball to the bottom line and the space for Di Maria to break through and display his speed became smaller, the success rate of defending him would naturally be greatly improved.
Of course Di Maria knew what Celik was planning. While he was breaking through, he was also sighing in his heart that he was indeed getting old. After playing for more than 60 minutes, he couldn't muster the strength to sprint. His body couldn't keep up with the speed of his brain. It was obvious that he felt that he had the will but not the strength.
If it were 5 years ago when I was 30 years old, how could a full-back of this level not be left behind in a game of speed?
But despite his declining physical function, his awareness and skills are still there.
An abrupt stop and a fake move to break through to the baseline again made Celik's center of gravity move involuntarily.
At this moment, Di Maria pushed the ball inside and then rushed forward and successfully cut inside. Although Celik reacted and caught up with him and stuck to him again, at least he opened up a way to the penalty area.
But just as he made a beautiful dribble and looked up to observe the situation in the penalty area, a figure flashed over, stepped on the ball that he had dribbled out, and then turned around in a very short time, blocking him with his back.
Di Maria had no time to brake, and he involuntarily raised his hands to protect himself. Then he felt as if he had crashed into a concrete wall at full speed. The harder he exerted his strength and the faster he went, the stronger the reaction force was, and the more miserably he fell backwards...
[Superstar Mission: Complete 5 steals when Di Maria is in possession of the ball]
[Mission Reward: Di Maria Skill Training Package]
[Task progress: 1/5]
Oops, Chen Xiaoliang almost forgot there was such a task.
While turning off the system that suddenly appeared, he made a big diagonal move of over 40 meters, transferring the ball from the right side near the baseline to the left side near the center line. Kva, who was in sync with his thoughts, had already rushed forward, and 3 seconds later, he steadily received the transfer ball from Chen Xiaoliang while running and continued to move forward.
Facing Kva, De Sciglio had to keep retreating, trying to push Kva towards the sidelines.
As he had just crossed the center line, De Sciglio blocked the wing again, so Kva cut inside to the middle.
Pogba disappeared again, so Locatelli had to press forward to help double-team him.
Kva made a cross pass to the middle, and Chen Xiaoliang rushed over from behind, but this time, there was a dark shadow with him, it was Juventus' No. 10 Pogba!
It turned out that Pogba did not come to the right to assist in defense, but put all his attention on Chen Xiaoliang.
De Sciglio, who was just angry because of the continuous retreat, felt a little more balanced. After all, compared with Kova, Chen Xiaoliang is the most threatening person in Roma.
And from the looks of Pogba, he defended very hard this time.
He is unlike most other people on the field. The last time he played against Chen Xiaoliang was in the Europa League. This extremely conceited Frenchman, who was so conceited that he hired a professional team to make a documentary about himself at such a young age, was unwilling to easily believe things that he had not experienced personally.
In his opinion, Chen Xiaoliang is the rescue machine at the defensive midfielder position of Glasgow Rangers.
The long shot I just scored was just a miracle of great strength.
When Chen Xiaoliang saw him catching up, he felt that after searching for a long time, he finally got what he wanted without any effort. He was just looking for him in the second half, and now he showed up.
After Chen Xiaoliang rushed forward with big strides and received the ball, he immediately slowed down. Even though there was no one in front of him, he still dribbled the ball forward to the left front.
At this time, Pogba, who had caught up with him, was just behind him on the left. Pogba, with his long black legs swinging constantly, had never expected that Chen Xiaoliang would run so serpentinely. He failed to brake and bumped into him.
Chen Xiaoliang, who had just been hit by Di Maria at high speed and was as indestructible as a concrete wall, fell forward instantly.
Referee Maria Caputi blew the whistle and everyone immediately turned their eyes to her. Everyone knew that Pogba had a yellow card and would be sent off if he received another one.
However, the female referee based her decision on the fact that the foul was not committed with malice. She simply verbally reminded Pogba to pay attention to his actions and then gave Roma a free kick.
Pogba, who escaped the disaster, became even more inflated.
The scene where Di Maria knocked himself over was still vivid in his mind. Now he turned around and knocked Chen Xiaoliang over.
"What did I say? What did I say? Isn't it because you guys are too weak? How strong can a little brat like him be?"
However, the referee's whistle just now did startle him. Although his thinking process is different from that of ordinary people, it does not mean that he is unreasonable. Of course he understands that two yellow cards turned into one red card.
After standing up, facing Roma who was about to take a free kick, he did not press Chen Xiaoliang immediately. He also wanted to give himself a break to avoid being noticed by the referee in a short period of time.
But at this time, Locatelli delivered a "god assist" and said to Pogba:
"Don't go after that Asian guy, he's setting you up on purpose. Go help De Sciglio defend the Eastern European guy on the right, and leave the Asian guy to me."
It would have been better if he hadn't said this, because saying it actually stimulated Pogba like a reverse provocation.
He immediately felt a storm in his heart: "What do you mean? If you can't defend, it means the opponent is strong, and if I can defend, it means the opponent is deliberately showing weakness? Also, it's fine if the coach says who I should defend, but who the hell do you think you are to talk to me?"
Although he cursed in his heart, he didn't utter a word. He stared at Locatelli with wide eyes and smiled again, then trotted towards Chen Xiaoliang.
Locatelli was about to stop him when Roma had already taken the free kick.
As teammates, everyone knows what kind of capable person their captain is, and Wijnaldum is no exception.
As a midfielder, he had many close fights with Chen Xiaoliang in group confrontations. No one believed that Pogba could push Chen Xiaoliang down in a one-on-one physical confrontation.
When he saw Locatelli and Pogba chattering just now, he knew that it was the Juventus players who were reminding Pogba. How could he give the Frenchman time to think? He immediately kicked the ball out, and his target was very clear, still passing it to Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang was also happy. After receiving the ball, he saw Pogba next to him.
He didn't know what Locatelli had said, but it seemed that it had no effect at all.
In this game, Chen Xiaoliang showed weakness twice in order to create an illusion for Pogba that he was still the same person he was back then. In this one-on-one match, although Chen Xiaoliang did not fully speed up and try to block Pogba by sticking to his left side with his body, he had already exerted all his physical strength.
The reason why he didn't speed up completely was because he was afraid that he would leave Pogba behind as soon as he rushed out.
Pogba really came up to him, and the two consecutive physical advantages made it natural for the defense to use physical confrontation again.
This is the case with most people. Once they take a shortcut, they will want to take it again next time .
However, this time when he got close to him, he clearly felt that he could not push Chen Xiaoliang at all. He was like a moving mountain, standing still.
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
I must have been careless and didn't use enough strength!
Pogba thought of this and tried again, but it was still useless.
Chen Xiaoliang increased his speed slightly and trapped him at the left rear of his body.
Pogba saw that Chen Xiaoliang was about to completely pass him, which would obviously turn all the pens he had just put in front of his teammates into fodder for slapping them in the face. How could Pogba, who was so conceited, tolerate this?
"Don't!" Before Lokalit's shout could get far, Pogba's right foot had already cleared out from behind Chen Xiaoliang's left.
With his poor tackling ability, even if he didn't take into account the difference in physical fitness, he couldn't tackle the ball away from Chen Xiaoliang's feet once in ten times.
The kick landed firmly on Chen Xiaoliang's left ankle.
“Beep!”
The moment the whistle blew, everyone with a normal mind in the stands and on the Juventus side knew that it was over, completely over.
The referee Maria Caputi was no longer merciful and firmly showed Pogba a second yellow card, then pointed to the sidelines, signaling him to leave the field as soon as possible!
Allegri closed his eyes, he knew he had lost the bet, he had fallen completely into his opponent's trap. He wanted to win by surprise, knew the situation seemed not right, but was reluctant to replace Pogba who could create a crisis on the offensive end, and ultimately ended up drinking poison to quench thirst.
He wanted to replace Di Maria with Facioli, but the Argentine veteran rejected him. Allegri respected Di Maria's willingness to fight and replaced Rabiot with Facioli.
As a Frenchman, Rabiot was extremely confused when he saw the electronic substitution card. He knew that because of Pogba's stupid behavior, he had become a victim of tactical adjustments.
When he walked to the sidelines, he wanted to catch up with Pogba to vent his anger, but he was stopped by assistant coach Landucci and other players who were warming up.
With 11 players against 10, Juventus, who lost an important link in the midfield, saw their ball possession rate drop drastically. They could only rely on Di Maria to dribble the ball in the frontcourt and create opportunities for Vlahovic.
But the 35-year-old Argentine hero could not do it alone, and he felt that Chen Xiaoliang seemed to be targeting him today.
In the 70th minute, Di Maria received the ball in the middle and moved forward. Chen Xiaoliang rushed over and stuck to him, then gently pushed him outward with his body, and then stretched out his feet to intercept the ball. [2/5]
In the 73rd minute, Cesco's shot was blocked, Bremer kicked the ball forward, Chen Xiaoliang jumped up behind him, forced the ball out in front of Di Maria, and then rushed up from behind him and controlled the falling ball. [3/5]
In the 79th minute, Moses Keane on the sidelines was almost waiting for the flowers to wither, and Di Maria tried to break through on the left flank.
Unexpectedly, Chen Xiaoliang came again.
Di Maria tried to force a few steps forward to create distance and pass the ball to Vlahovic, but he just took two steps and was intercepted by Chen Xiaoliang. [4/5]
The Argentine veteran was also drunk. Even though he was 35 years old and his health had declined slightly, the 19-year-old boy in front of him couldn't be like a perpetual motion machine. He had been playing for almost 80 minutes and his speed was still so fast, right? !
Little did he know that Chen Xiaoliang had already used the Stamina Recovery Card (4→3).
He tried all kinds of methods. Before being substituted in the 83rd minute, he received the ball on the right, cut inside a few steps and attempted a direct shot from 33 meters away.
This time he saw clearly that Chen Xiaoliang was in the middle, 5 meters away from him, while Wijnaldum had not returned from the attack in his own half.
So he adjusted two steps, pulled the ball to an optimal distance, a distance that was convenient for shooting with maximum force after a run-up, then stepped right and left, and finally swung his left foot and kicked the ball with a powerful inside instep.
But as soon as the ball went out, Chen Xiaoliang's figure flashed past his eyes like lightning, and he used his right thigh to block the ball!
Because Di Maria shot with all his strength, the ball hit Chen Xiaoliang's leg and bounced very high, flying into the penalty area and was caught by Patricio who jumped up.
[Superstar Mission: Complete 5 steals when Di Maria is in possession of the ball]
[Task progress: 5/5]
【Mission Completed】
Chen Xiaoliang turned off the system immediately, then pulled up his right trouser leg and looked at the skin on the outside of his thigh which was obviously turning red.
For a moment, Di Maria thought that this kick might cause the Asian boy in front of him to be injured and leave the field, and the game might even be dragged into a penalty shootout.
However, the next scene almost made his jaw drop!
Chen Xiaoliang tentatively pressed the part that was hit by the ball. There was only a slight pain on the surface, which made him realize that the ball had no adverse effect on him at all.
He did not use his hands to pull his trouser legs down, but gently raised his right leg and stomped hard on the grass! He used inertia to push the hem of his trouser legs back!
The tension generated by the muscle force will instantly dissipate all the pain caused by the muscles being hit.
At that moment, Di Maria felt fatigue and exhaustion all coming up. He really realized that he was old. He turned around and waved to Allegri on the sidelines.
Allegri knew what he meant and asked Landucci to tell the fourth official to make a substitution at the next dead ball.
Neither Di Maria's heroic counterattack nor Moses Keane's running around after replacing him posed any threat to Roma's backcourt.
Although the besieged Roma encountered Juventus's full defense, they still found an opportunity in the 88th minute.
Kva cut in from the left and passed the ball to the middle. Chen Xiaoliang held Facioli with his back and pushed the ball back to Matic who came on as a substitute. The Serbian veteran made a long shot straight to the upper right side of the goal, but was blocked by Szczesny with both hands!
Danilo immediately raised his leg and turned to clear the ball, kicking it out of the penalty area. Gvardiol, who had already pressed into the offensive third zone, took the ball and directly sent it into the penalty area.
Gvadiol is still relatively "gentle". His two companions Smalling and Mancini have been standing in the Juventus penalty area for a while. At this time, the two full-backs Celik and Spinazzola formed the back line with Gvadiol. Vlahovic has been substituted, and Allegri has added Bonucci to form a four-center-back situation.
The three-man defense line was just focusing on Moses Keane.
The ball flew in. In this game, Cesco was in a 4:6 situation with Bremer in the aerial battle and was slightly disadvantaged. It was not that he could not jump over him, but that the Brazilian was much stronger than him. Even if both of them jumped at the same time, Bremer could squeeze him away from his original position in the air.
But this time, Cesco put all his strength into it, blocking the opponent with his back, and then jumped up with all his strength to push the ball back.
It's not that he didn't want to score the winning goal, but as a pragmatic man willing to sacrifice for the team, he knew that there were several teammates in the penalty area waiting for opportunities. This was the time when he, as the fulcrum, should play his best role!
The ball flew back to the right goal post, and Smalling jumped up and headed the ball towards the goal as if he was passing the ball in the air.
Szczesny also tried his best. He was willing to collide with Smalling and rush up to block the ball at close range.
His judgment was correct, and the ball was blocked again by him like a volleyball block!
The ball fell to the ground. After Smalling landed, he stretched out his foot and pushed it. Szczesny subconsciously blocked it with his legs, blocking Roma's shot for the third time!
The ball bounced up, and this time Bremer, who was facing the goal, tried to clear the ball backwards. He did not use his header as he had his back to the penalty area and it was difficult for him to exert force. At the critical moment, he kicked the ball out with a back hook!
Both sides tried their best whether attacking or defending!
Matic chested the ball 5 meters outside the penalty area and passed it again to the person the team trusted most - Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball to the left flank. Facing the blockade of Facioli and Locatelli, he first made a shooting motion to test whether the two would make a misjudgment. However, the two, perhaps because they were tired or too focused, were not fooled by the fake move at all.
However, just as Chen Xiaoliang's right foot landed, he deliberately kicked it in the air, then pushed his left foot toward the top of the arc on the right, and passed the ball horizontally to Dybala who cut in from the right!
Dybala received the ball on the right side of the arc and shot, a curved ball with full power went straight to the upper left side of the goal!
Szczesny, who had fallen twice in a row due to his flying dives, finally failed to reach his position in time this time, and watched helplessly as the city gate finally fell...
3 to 2!
This is the goal that completely decides the winner of the championship!
Dybala ran to the bench frantically and hugged Pellegrini, Perrone and others!
At this moment, the boos from the Juventus stands were as loud as the cheers from the Roma stands!
In the live broadcast room, Capello shook his head, while Totti had already stood up and shouted excitedly.
The Italian coach said 10 minutes ago that Juventus could not defend the game if they played like this. If they defended like this, Roma would be troubled and Roma would not have the chance to compete for the treble today.
In the 5 minutes of stoppage time, Roma was still attacking, but Juventus defended until the last minute to save face as a veteran giant and the team with the most Italian Cup titles, and ultimately did not concede another goal.
Referee Maria Caputi blew her last whistle of the game!
The 2022-23 Italian Cup season has ended. Roma defeated Juventus 3-2 and won the championship for the second consecutive year. This is also the team's 11th time to win the trophy!
Now, all Roma has left is one opponent, one final, and a chance to go down in history!
