Mister Legend

Chapter 259
After losing 2-3 to his old opponent Federer in the Australian Open final at the beginning of the year, Rafa's body seems to have found some of his peak state, and the injuries to his wrist and hip have not recurred again, and everything is improving. direction developed.

Afterwards, in March and April, two hard-court events that he was not good at, the Mexico Open and the Miami Masters, entered the finals one after another. Unfortunately, they lost to Americans Sam Querrey and Fei Tianwang respectively, and gained again. The two runner-up titles have experienced eleven and a half months of championship drought since winning the Barcelona Open at the end of April last year.

Fortunately, his favorite clay court season has finally started, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, ​​Madrid and Roland Garros, these four events seem to be tailor-made for him.Except for the event in Madrid, which was changed from hard court to clay court, the other three places are Rafa's blessed land. The honor of three nine-time champions has achieved the great reputation of "King of Clay Court".Natto's great cause of hitting the first single event "Ten Champions" in the history of human tennis started from the Monte Carlo Masters on April 4. (PS: In the Open era, only Fei Tianwang has set a record of eight aspirations in the Halle Tennis Open in Germany, and Nadal's nine times are the longest)

Judging from the draw announced a week before the game, Rafa's luck is only mediocre. Although he is the defending champion, he can only condescend to the fourth seed due to points. According to the normal progress of the promotion, he will compete with the One of his own sufferers, the Serbian Djokovic who is currently ranked second in the world, played against the potential final opponent is the winner of the top seed British Murray or the Swiss Wawrinka.

But I don't know that it was the god who showed his power. After entering the semi-finals, all the seeded players except him have been eliminated.After beating Belgian David Goffin 6-3, 6-1 last night, Natto is only one step away from winning his tenth Monte Carlo Masters title and first clay-court title.At 11:30 noon on Sunday, Monaco time, in the stadium of the Monte Carlo Country Club, Rafa will launch an impact to create history. Across the net is his Spanish colleague, No. 20 and fourth in the world. Burt Ramos.

When Nadal made this call, he hoped that his close friend Moody Li could appear on the scene in the final and be a witness for the glorious moment that may come.

The Turin coach is a tennis fan with some basic knowledge, so he naturally knows how amazing it is to win ten championships in one event, so after being invited by a good friend, he naturally hopes to attend in person.After calculating the time, he urgently used his mobile phone to book a flight ticket from Turin to Monte Carlo Heliport at night. Since there was no direct flight to Verona, he had to return to Turin by car overnight. In this way, you have to reserve a separate return car in advance.He didn't want to trouble Faulsina with another trip because of such a trivial matter.

The match against Chievo is still the first match of this round of Serie A. After the end, it will be at 07:30 pm. In addition to the post-match press conference that cannot be absent without reason, you should be able to set foot on the high speed before 45:[-]. If I arrived at the airport a little more hours, I could just catch the plane that took off at [-]:[-].You can arrive at your destination in about seven hours, and you can enjoy the style of one of the world's four major casinos there.

But before that, the match against Chievo must be won first, and Li Moody does not want to go to cheer his friend with regrets.

After successive losses to Bologna, Crotone, Juventus and Cagliari, the Flying Donkeys have suspended their previous upward momentum. Rolando Maran's team once had an away game against the Blue Eagles in the second half Lazio's highlight moment, but the rest of the time can no longer regain the state before the winter break.Although due to the poor performance of the team behind them, they can still maintain the No.14 position, but the morale of the team has become very low. I have done my best, so the outside world has always been optimistic that the Red Bulls can take all three points relatively easily.

Verona is one of the oldest, most beautiful and glorious cities in Italy. It means "very elegant city" in Latin. It is located at the southern foot of the Alps and borders the Adige River in the west. It is a world-famous historical and cultural city. In 2000, the city was also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Wine and marble are local iconic products, and various buildings with ancient Roman style are also unique. The story of Shakespeare's masterpiece "Romeo and Juliet", which is famous overseas, takes place in Verona, attracting a large number of tourists every year. Come to pay homage.The bronze statue under the balcony of Juliet's "former residence", whose right breast has been touched by tourists because it is said to bring good luck (inexplicably feels dirty).

However, the Turin coach was not in the mood to take a good tour here. After arriving at the reserved hotel at 1984:85 noon, everyone rushed to the restaurant to start eating.Then, after an hour's rest, everyone came to the Marco Antonio Bentegotti Stadium for stepping training, and then borrowed Verona Football Club (another team in the city, which was in the 10-[-] season. He won the Serie A championship and was relegated to Serie B last season) did about [-] minutes of preparations at the training ground, then returned to the hotel to make adjustments, and went directly to the competition venue before the game.

Li Mudi had already arrived in the stadium before them. He commented on the recent performance of the two sides at the pre-match press conference, and then said some compliments, then entered the visiting team's locker room to talk with the coaching staff Members discussed matters that need attention together.

Although he had no more desires, Coach Ma Lan still strictly adhered to his professional ethics and did not take the opportunity to train newcomers on a large scale. Instead, he still brought out all the team's recent main lineup. The 4-3-1-2 position is obviously to strengthen the defense of the midfield, but the striker composed of the veteran Pelissier and the young player Inglese who once broke through the Turin ball in the first half, plus from The attacking power of the Slovenian international midfielder Bielsa, who was loaned by AC Milan, and the Flying Donkeys should not be underestimated. The scoring rate of more than one goal per game is not so easy for the visiting team's defense in the absence of Ranocchia.

Turin made adjustments to the starting lineup again. Jesse was bumped into a thigh muscle by a teammate during Thursday's training. Although it was not serious, the team doctor suggested that it is better to be conservative.So Li Mudi resorted to a 4-2-3-1 stance, Belotti served as the single arrow, behind him stood the three attackers of Cerci, Rajajic and Farke, Baselli and the end stop. Akuva, who returned from the game, partnered in the middle of the midfield. The back four were Silvestri, Rossettini, Moretti and Barreca from right to left. Zampacosta got a rotation.

Since the strength gap between the two sides is not small, after one or two tentative attacks after the opening, the players of the visiting team took the initiative on the field, and the time of possession of the ball increased significantly.However, Chievo adapted to the situation and played a defensive counterattack tactic. Except for Pelissier who needs to save his energy, the rest of the players must make their own contributions in defense.Forward Inglese and Bielsa constituted the team's first line of defense, targeting the midfielder and two wingers of the Turin team.

As can be seen from the fact that the front midfielder was set up in this game, Li Moody still attaches great importance to the problem that the offensive operation was not smooth when he played against Crotone last weekend. For this reason, he did not hesitate to change his usual Positioning and even reducing the defensive intensity of the midfielder is to use Rajajic's better passing and control skills to sort out the attackers in the frontcourt, so that the team's offense can form a multi-point blooming situation, rather than as before. Once a routine is chosen, it can only be carried out to the end, seriously lacking flexibility.

However, the configuration of the home team's four backs and three central midfielders made them form an iron barrel formation from about 15 meters outside the penalty area. Even with the support of Baselli and Akuwa, it is difficult for Turin players to find in the middle. Make a fuss about your space.The two wingers can attack, but Malan's thinking today is very clear, he can pass in, but cutting inside is absolutely not allowed.So after the opening 15 minutes, the visiting team sent eight wide crosses, but to the despair of the European header king Belotti, the two Chievo central defenders around him are tall and strong men. The 38-year-old veteran Dario Dainelli is 1.9 meters tall, and the other starting central defender, the Argentine Nicolas Spoli, is even 1.9 meters tall. With these two tall towers by his side, he has no chance to earn to the first landing point.

And because the opponent still has three central midfielders active near the penalty area line, the home team also controlled most of the second landing, making the Torino team almost completely lose the threat of crossing from the side. They want to rely on this method Breaking the door is really something unreliable.So Li Mudi waved his hand and let the two wingers switch positions. Falke with his left foot returned to the familiar right, while Cherki, who seldom played on the left, came to the position of the left winger.

Both of them are left-footed, and the stunt they are famous for is to cut inside and hit the goal from the right. However, Chelsea has suffered serious injuries after all, and his physical fitness is far from the peak state he was three or four years ago. It is difficult to use speed and technique to forcibly complete the inside cut at the forward position.The current situation on the field requires two wings to be able to attack the opponent's penalty area to help the side open the situation, so this difficult task can only be handed over to the Spaniard who is more suitable in all aspects.It would have been great if Hesse hadn't been injured. The Turin coach on the sidelines would inevitably miss his direct disciple at this time.

When the visiting team took the initiative to make adjustments, Chievo's defense was not as easy as before. However, they were able to control Turin's offensive in their own half and did not give the latter too many kicks. Opportunity.However, when the two sides were in a stalemate, an accident changed the entire situation, allowing the Turin team to passively adjust their offense.

No. In the 209th minute, Silvestri collided with the opponent's midfielder Ivan Radovanovic in a fight. His calf was kicked and he couldn't hold on. Zampacosta, who would have been rested, came on.But there was something wrong. After replacing Silvestri, who was not good at assisting, the Turin team's wing attack became more active. Zampa's cross finally tore apart Chievo's defense. a hole.Although they failed to score a goal before halftime, the frequent embarrassment of the home team players seems to indicate that the moment when the score is rewritten will not be too long.

Sure enough, just 7 minutes into the second half, a siege by the Red Bulls paid off.Falk suddenly dribbled the ball laterally in the middle after Zampacosta drew the attention of the opponent's defensive players, and sent the ball diagonally to the left side of the penalty area before the home team's midfielder came to block it. .After receiving the ball, Rajajic made a fake move that followed the trend. The two defensive players of Chievo hurriedly half-turned to mark Belotti who had already started to go forward, but the Serbian midfielder shot a cold arrow and shot directly.The ball was running extremely fast and clinging to the bottom surface. The goalkeeper Sorrentino of the home team was unable to make a save and crashed into the net from the near corner. 0 to 1, the Turin team finally scored on the No.11 shot.

After taking the lead, Li Moody's team played more and more smoothly. In the 6th minute, Farke's corner kick from the left side was guarded at the front point and Spoli pushed out of the penalty area. Zampacosta, who was ambushing outside, volleyed with his right foot directly half a meter outside the penalty area line. Draw a wonderful arc and rush into the inside of the side net in the far corner.Beautiful world waves!Zampa's epiphany gave the away team Turin a two-goal lead. Rolando Malan on the sidelines could only shake his head helplessly. This kind of fairy ball can catch up. It can only be said that Chievo today The luck is very bad.

After 0 to 2, Li Mudi indicated that the rhythm should be lowered, and there is no need to attack like before. After all, the game seems to be almost stable, so don't waste too much energy chasing goals.However, after 9 minutes, the veteran Pelissier took advantage of an omission in the visiting team's defense, broke into the penalty area after receiving a through ball from Inglese, and broke through Joe Hart's goal in the small penalty area. I had to scold these distracted guys, and then instructed the frontcourt players to speed up again.

No.705 minutes, the Torino team successfully counterattacked in the frontcourt. Farke dribbled the ball to the front of the penalty area under the running position of his teammates. And it was so sudden that Sorrentino didn't even react.The ball finally went into the bottom corner on the right, making the score 1 to 3, and Chievo's plan to tie was shattered.

In the end, the Red Bulls took down the weaker Flying Donkeys in the away game without any risk. When the players returned to the hotel to rest, their head coach had already boarded the car to Turin Airport. It's officially started.

(End of this chapter)