Mister Legend

Chapter 334 A Complicated Situation

The home draw with Macedonia, which ranked only 103rd in the world in September, is the biggest humiliation the Italian national team has encountered since being eliminated in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and it will naturally cause a lot of controversy.And after failing to get all three points as expected, the 20 points currently held by the Azzurri cannot ensure that they can become the second place in the eight best-performing groups and thus obtain a place to participate in the play-offs. The results will not be known until all the games played tomorrow are over.The worst news is that the Italians have to win the away game against Albania three days later, so the pressure will undoubtedly increase a lot.

And when everyone was arguing about what caused the national team to encounter such an embarrassing situation, Italy's "Sky Sports" broke the news that these active international players had a training session together after the training on the afternoon of the 8th. unlisted meeting.It is reported that the meeting was organized by several veteran players in the team to discuss the reasons for the team's recent poor performance and the draw with Macedonia last night.Italian coach Ventura, team staff and officials from the Italian Football Federation were not involved in the meeting.It is reported that although they had been informed before, the players did not want them to join and asked them to leave.

It's not that this kind of rare thing has never happened before, but every time it happens, it will be followed by a drastic change, so many people from the outside world have begun to speculate whether the international footballers are uniting in their thinking, preparing to remonstrate and let that A head coach who relied on his seniority and had no special highlights in his coaching career dismissed get out of class.However, when some not-so-influential media were listing who was the most likely successor there, the national team did not reveal any news. Only before the departure for Albania, the team captain Buffon was surrounded by many people at the airport. When surrounded by reporters, he emphasized two sentences about the team's determination to win, but did not mention the rest.

Immediately, the largest Italian media such as Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica published the President of the Football Association's support for the head coach of the national team. The article stated that Tavecchio believed that changing the coach at this critical period is undoubtedly the worst. It was decided that everyone still has [-]% trust in the team and Ventura, and I believe they will definitely take advantage of this training opportunity to fine-tune the lineup and get tickets to Russia next year.

After the penultimate round of the qualifiers was over, since the final score of No.2 in Group H could only be 19 points at most, the Italian team already had 20 points in hand and had already qualified for the play-offs ahead of schedule. It doesn't matter if a game wins or loses.But everyone still hopes that the team can play the momentum that a world champion should have, and not be as muddle-headed and lack professional attitude as it was three days ago.Of course, more people are still looking forward to Ventura's ability to seize this last opportunity to change his tactical play and prepare for the upcoming play-offs.

No matter what the fans and professionals think, at least until the end of the last round of the group stage and the play-offs in November, the coaching staff of the Azzurri will not make adjustments. That's it.As for the fierce battle on the night of the 9th, although the result was barely acceptable to everyone, anyone who watched the whole process could not see how good the Italian team was. It seemed that the meeting the day before was wasted.Judging from the process of the game, this game is not as big as the advantage that Macchidon had when he played to tie the game. Although he won the ball, it was more luck to help, otherwise the final situation is really hard to say.

In this away game, Ventura still hasn't regained his sanity. He doesn't seem to understand what it means to focus on stability, and he formed a seemingly satisfactory 4-4-2 formation.However, the two full-backs were played by Candreva and Insigne. Except for a few players who were unable to play due to injuries, the starting lineup of this game was exactly the same as when they lost 0-3 to Spain in the away game. The crazy position of 4-2-4 is too different.When the team was about to face two life-and-death crucial battles soon, they did not rehearse the lineup well, and once again stubbornly played a desperate blow, which made everyone cry out that they could not understand.

After the kick-off, the home team, which had no desires and desires, took the lead in finding a feeling on the offensive end. The striker Sadiku and the 22-year-old winger Grizda who played for the Swiss Zurich team made successive attempts to force Buffon to make wonderful saves. Goal.Italy's first threatening offensive came late in the No.201 minute. They launched an attack from the backcourt with a long pass. The central defender Veseli, who played for Empoli, kicked empty when he cleared the siege. This time an offense that was otherwise of little note turned into an unexpected opportunity.Immobile quickly entered the left side of the small penalty area. Before the opponent's central defender came back to defend, he took a strong shot with his left foot, but because the angle was too small, the Atlanta goalkeeper Berisha, who had already blocked the near corner, used his body to shoot. The ball blocked the bottom line, and the Azzurri relieved some of the previous passive situation.

In the following games, the two sides reached a temporary equilibrium state, with each other attacking and defending, but there was a certain distance from scoring.It was not until the end of the half-time game that the visiting team made a sudden effort, which made Albania's goal tense.First, in the No. 40 minute, the Italian made a counterattack. Edel broke into the penalty area from the right and then forced a pass. The ball was suspected to hit Veseli's arm. The referee did not make any indication.Judging from the slow motion given by the broadcast agency, it is really hard to say whether the ball was an intentional handball, so it is understandable that a penalty kick was not awarded.

Two minutes later, the Azzurri took advantage of the large number of people in the frontcourt and finally played a multiplayer match. Finally, Insigne found a long-range shot at a position of about 2 meters outside the penalty area. Unfortunately, his attempt Failed to come up with the normal level, a little higher than the crossbar.And the last minute of regular time in the first half.Bonucci took out the long pass from the middle and back that he used to at the club, and the ball accurately crossed the entire defense line of Albania. The ball went slightly wide of the near-end post, and regrettably missed the goal.

So the 0-0 score was brought back to their respective locker rooms by both sides. Overall, the two teams were evenly divided. Although Ventura's tactical arrangements had occasional effects, they were not obvious.The lineup he arranged is to strengthen the offense, but except for the last few minutes, the overall operation of the team is still a mess, which has become a problem after Conte left and he took over the team. normal.However, when Verratti is often injured and Montelivo is old and not as brave as before, organizers like Benassi and Baselli of the Turin team still cannot get the call of the national team. Who should bear the responsibility It's still relatively easy to judge.

Only 1 minute after the rematch, Albania once again created a threat. The midfielder Rosch, who played in Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, shot a cold arrow from outside the penalty area. good.Fortunately, Buffon is in excellent form today, and he has always maintained his concentration, struggling to block the ball with a side attack, trying to keep his own goal.However, this sneak attack seems to have aroused the fighting spirit of the Italian players, or they finally unified their thinking during the intermission, and then suppressed the opponent very strongly, and the chances of attacking the goal gradually increased.

However, their offensive methods are very simple, except that in 6 minutes, Immobile took advantage of the cooperation mistakes of many opponents' defensive players and got a shot from a small angle on the right side outside the small penalty area (also shot high ), the rest of the routine is only left with two in-cut shots from the side and a long-range shot from the center.In the first 25 minutes of the second half, Candreva twice, Insigne twice, Eder three times, plus Parolo once, the Italian players kicked a total of eight goals, but none of them caused too much damage. The threat of the goal, three shots within the range of the goal frame failed to kick out of the angle, all of which were resolved one by one by Berisha, who played steadily.

At this time, people basically saw the adverse impact of Pellet and Belotti's failure to play on the Azzurri.The team does not have a strong fulcrum in the opponent's penalty area, unable to squeeze or even destroy the opponent's defensive formation, and almost cannot compete for the ball from the two wings.When the ball did not pose any threat in the penalty area, he had no choice but to let both sides cut in, but there was no other change in this routine. After Albania focused on defense, the power was greatly reduced, but he had to continue to force it. It really made everyone who watched the game feel embarrassed for the head coach.

At this time, Li Moody thought to himself: Ventura is also an old fox who has been ups and downs in Italian football for 35 years. There will be some tricks to press the bottom of the box.But in fact, he is indeed a model of running all the way to the black. After seeing that the offensive on the side has not achieved the desired effect, he immediately strengthened it with substitutions.So Zampacosta, who is more capable of assisting, replaced the starting right back Damian. During the attack, three players hoarded on the right and took turns attacking the home team's defense. This tactic is really weird.

However, his luck was good. In the 703rd minute, the left back Spinazzola continued to sway outside the sideline of the penalty area to create kicking opportunities. His cross had a high arc but was not fast. It doesn't look like a threat, but I can't stand the other party giving a big gift!The veteran left-back Agri, who did not encounter any interference in the middle, made a low-level error in the roof, which gave Candreva, who was unmarked at the back point, an excellent opportunity to volley directly.Facing a powerful explosive shot from a distance of less than five meters, Berisha had no way to turn the tide this time, and the score finally changed.

However, because they didn't care too much about the outcome of the game, Albania still followed the normal policy to adopt a defensive counterattack in the next period of time, and also played two more exciting offenses, which slightly caused some troubles for the visiting team's defense.The Italian, on the other hand, was not satisfied with a small victory by one goal, and still wanted to expand his lead, but he was still unable to penetrate the opponent's solid defense line, because Mobile wasted a game in the second minute of stoppage time. Good one-handed goal against the goalkeeper.In the end, the result of this game was fixed at 0 to 1. Although the Italians won, it also let the world see their unreasonable staffing and lack of offensive routines. This will start a month later. Not good news for the play-offs.

当同时结束的该小组其它比赛结果都得出之后，G组的最终排名也正式出炉了，西班牙以9胜1平的骄人战绩、连续No.11次杀入到了世界杯的决赛圈内；意大利7胜2平1负积23分，以成绩第二好的小组No.2获得了参加附加赛的机会；之后的球队为13分的阿尔巴尼亚、12分以色列、11分马其顿和一分都没有的列支敦士登。这个排名与抽签仪式之后巨大多数人预计的基本一致，只不过谁都没能想到小组两强之前的差距会这么明显，大家原本还期待一场龙争虎斗呢。

而待第二天所有的小组赛事均完成之后，八支获得第二次机会的球队也就产生了，他们分别为：现世界排名第11的瑞士（排名后面将用括号内的数字显示）、意大利（15）、克罗地亚（18）、丹麦（19）、北爱尔兰（23）、瑞典（25）、爱尔兰（26）以及希腊（第47）。他们将会在10月17日下午于国际足联总部瑞士的苏黎世进行抽签，两两配对进行两回合主客场的对决，四位胜者将会获得直通明年俄罗斯世界杯的最后门票。

It should be noted that the top four teams with higher world rankings will be seeded and will not meet each other in the play-offs.However, in addition to the Greek team, which is caught in an economic crisis and unable to extricate itself, the strength of the other three non-seeded teams cannot be underestimated. No matter who is drawn in Italy, it needs to show all its skills, but this is precisely the case in Ventura. It became a big problem during the coaching period, and I don't know how to solve it.

Fortunately, the Italian football people at this time also knew that they must unite as one and not bring more negative effects to the national team, so those media did not criticize the team's performance after the game, but they were all voices of encouragement .And during this period of time, celebrities showed up one after another and began to cheer everyone up, and the famous argument began to spread on the Internet, that is, the harder it is to get the right to qualify, the better the results in the main competition.Many people even began to advocate that maybe in Russia next year, the Azzurri will bring a great surprise to the world, just like Germany in 2006.

However, in Li Moody's heart, he still feels that with Ventura around, it will be difficult for the Italian national team to have a high combat effectiveness. With such a low-level and extremely stubborn head coach leading the team, the most in the World Cup will be the group. Achievements, no matter how difficult it is to gain something.But he really didn't expect it, this is an overestimate...

(End of this chapter)