Handsome position is not easy

Chapter 167 Advance to the Finals
Lazio's starting lineup for the second round is more aggressive than the first round. This is due to the influence of home factors. Mourinho guessed that there was a discord between the generals. Mancini replaced Simeone and so on. Ren's move obviously caused dissatisfaction among the veterans in the team, but Lazio's coach still firmly believes that if he wants to make a successful comeback at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, he must let younger players play.

The mature experience of the veterans can help the team stabilize the situation, but it is difficult to recover the huge gap in the score. Mancini would rather offend several major factions in the Lazio team than silently swallow another defeat at home.During the intermission, neither Porto nor Lazio scored a goal. The Nerazzurri were not in a hurry, but Mancini was in a hurry, and he had to be in a hurry.

This time the Blue Eagles coach has learned from the experience and lessons of the last time. He did not directly use up the three substitutions, nor did he replace other veterans.Mancini removed Stankovic, who was not tempered by Maniche, and Cesar Rodriguez, who was not cooperating well with Pancaro on the left, and took Stefano Fiore and Lazetic.

The substitution of the two full-back positions immediately caught Mourinho's attention. He immediately asked Boas to send a message to tell Brito to pay attention to Lazio's formation adjustments. The Blue Eagles started a new round at the beginning of the second half. There were rounds of mad attacks, but Paulo Ferreira and Valente finally persisted. Mancini's gamble substitution did not achieve the expected effect.

Porto's defense didn't give "Bug" too many chances to touch the ball. Lazio, who couldn't counterattack, made Rome's Olympic Stadium boo after wave. Mancini was completely ruthless. The second half started less than 10 minutes , He replaced Liverani with Dino Baggio, and pushed the high point of the midfield to the front, ready to use the old method of crossing from the wing to try to break the deadlock.

Mourinho knew that the Blue and Whites had to make corresponding adjustments. He replaced Deco, who failed to make much contribution on the offensive end, and made veteran Paulinho Santos and Thiago form a double midfielder. Che and Alenichev were drawn to the two wings to play the role of winger. These two guys with plenty of physique can further limit the wings that Mancini has hoped for.

Lazio began to create set-pieces in Porto's half as much as possible. Several high points in the midfield and defense came to the front to prepare for the top. After seeing that the Blue Eagles no longer insisted on their inherent tactics, Mourinho let All Porto's players returned to their own half, Mancini's header bombing plan was stillborn again, and Postiga and Cesar had a dispute because of a foul, and the two who punched each other were both sent off.

When the game lasted for more than 80 minutes, the score was still 0:0. Everyone present knew that Lazio was impossible to come back, and even many home fans began to leave the field. Mourinho replaced the tired man with Jankaskas. Del Rei, let Marco Ferreira replace Alenichev.

Although the Setubals took all offensive players, their task was to strengthen the defensive thickness of Porto's backcourt. Jancoskas did not leave his penalty area at all in the next few minutes. When the defender withstood several of Lazio's tower players, he also successfully destroyed many good opportunities for the Blue Eagles to cross.

Five minutes before the end of the game, Mourinho realized that Porto had secured the qualification for the final. He got up and took Villas-Boas and Lima out of the stands, because they could not go directly from the audience. In the locker room, the Setubal made a big circle around the Stadio Olimpico, and by the time he reached the corridor outside the locker room door, the game was over.

There, Mourinho met the Lazio players who left the field first. Although they had just been eliminated by Porto, they still showed very good self-cultivation. The Lazio players greeted the Setubal people friendly and said: Today's Porto is playing more like a mature Italian team.

Not long after, the Porto players who thanked the expedition fans also came to the locker room one after another. To his great surprise, the soldiers of the Blue and White Legion were not particularly excited. They looked very happy, but they were not at all excited. Carnival plans, which are rare in Portuguese teams. Mourinho remembers that Barcelona players often have this state. This shows one thing. Porto's current ambition is not only to enter the final, They prefer to save the energy of wild celebration until they win the championship.

At this time, there is also news from Portugal that another semi-final is over. After the first leg at Celtic Park was 1:1, Glasgow Celtic and Boavista separated at Bessa Stadium. In order to win or lose, the Soviet Super League team defeated the chessboard army 1:0. Boavista's good luck did not bless them to enter the final. Porto's final opponent will be the Celtics.

As a Portuguese compatriot, Mourinho regrets that Boavista lost a good game at home, but as the coach of the team that is about to attack the UEFA Cup championship, the Setubal people hope that their opponents It is the Celtics. After all, compared to defeating a Portuguese team that was double-killed by Porto in the league, winning the Celtics, the overlord of the Soviet Super League, will obviously make the championship trophy more valuable.

Mourinho recalled the scene of the home game against Boavista this season. This was a derby in the Porto region. The chessboard army felt that Porto was clearly superior to them in terms of strength, so they adopted from the very beginning of the game. Adopted an extremely conservative all-hands defense tactic, numerous combat-level tackles and bad fouls filled the whole game, and the performance of both sides was very ugly.

Because each other is very familiar with each other's tactics, Boavista's coach asked the players to do their best to lock up Porto's offensive end. They didn't even have the idea of ​​​​attacking at all. Scoring the only goal before the end, I am afraid that Porto can really only watch Boavista take a point at his home court.

After returning to the hotel where he stayed in the city of Rome, Mourinho received many congratulatory phone calls. Among them, the voice of Chairman Da Costa sounded very excited. He told the Setubal people that because Porto entered the UEFA Cup final, he will also become the first chairman in the history of the club to experience the finals of four top European competitions. After all, not every team can reach the finals of the Champions League, European Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup , Not any chairman can have such a long term and good luck.

(End of this chapter)