Chapter two hundred and eighty fifth battle in Palermo
In the third round of Serie A, Piacenza will go to challenge Palermo away. This team achieved ninth place in the league last season and is a real mid-range team.
The players trained every year are the biggest pursuit of this small ball.
However, in this summer, everything was different. Perhaps Piacenza's strong dark horse attitude stimulated Palermo's club chairman. This season, Zamparini directly spent 15 million euros to sign several powerful players one after another.
Argentina's rising midfield star Pastori, Banfield's main defender Bertolo, and even the powerful goalkeeper Rubinho introduced from Genoa, all of which showed Zampari's ambitiousness.
You should know that unlike other teams where the income and expenditure are roughly consistent with the sales and purchases of people, Palermo's income from transferring players this season is only 3.98 million euros, and the other money is paid out from the chairman's pocket.
The Italian media, who have always been good at satirizing, once used Palermo's example to mock Milan, who was not single-minded this season and even made a fortune by selling people. Lao Bei could only bite the bullet and say that we can still win the championship without signings.
In short, if we look at this team from the perspective of last season, Piacenza would definitely suffer a big loss. Conte is extremely sure of this, so he is still quite cautious in sending troops to set up his troops.
In view of the opponent's strong midfield situation, Conte once again arranged a 442 formation. Except for Gansuo still firmly in the team's front midfield position, Naingran was moved forward from the back midfield position to behind him.
The task Conte gave to Naingran was very simple, that is, the midfielder Pastori, who was dead to the opponent.
According to the follow-up survey of Conte's coaching staff, he was no less than Ganso. Even because of his strong body, Pastore is more like a player who meets the requirements of modern football than Ganso. After all, the simple classical midfielder has gradually become unable to keep up with the times.
The other two midfielders are Ramirez and Nocerino. They are separated by Ganso and Naingran, forming the second line of defense in the team's midfield when defending, and inserting from the left and right wings when attacking.
In addition to Liu Feng, the second striker in this game, Conte gave Cassia the chance to start for the first time in the season as a reward for scoring goals in the last round of the league.
On the defense line, there was no change in the left and right full-backs. On the central defender team, Miranda suffered a minor injury in training. Although it was fine, Conte still used the team's regular combination of Scapelli and Astori last season for insurance.
So, on the morning of the game, the players who entered the team's roster once again took the team's bus to the away game.
When the Piacenza players entered the Barbera Stadium, when the Palermo fans who had been waiting for a long time gave them a warm welcome - deafening boo.
Faced with such routine operations, the players who were used to it did not react much, and even maintained a relaxed and comfortable smile. Everyone started to warm up as usual, and after the warm-up, they returned to the locker room with the coach.
At this moment, Conte's heart became even more thrilling because he found that his team members seemed to be performing too easily.
"I emphasize again that this is not a simple game, and if you can't keep a good attitude, we're likely to lose this game."
"You have said it more than once if you understand the boss!"
"Ha ha ha ha."
Scapelli responded loudly, and the players responded happily. Conte shook his head and said no more. Perhaps this state is more conducive to the team's victory over the opponent.
However, after the game began, the direction of the game did not develop in the direction Conte expected.
When the two teams stood on the court, Palermo's players were obviously more calm than the relaxed Piacenza team. They chose the kick-off right and were still very calm after the start of the game. They had lined up 433 lines and once firmly grasped the ball through the coordination between the players.
If Naingran hadn't been constantly interfering with Palermo's goal-shot core Pastorre, the ball had been successfully stuffed into Piacenza's defensive loopholes several times.
Due to the reduction of forward players, Liu Feng and Cassia's high-pressures did not seem so effective. In order to save energy, the two had to slow down after a tight press at the beginning and began to wait for their teammates to create opportunities for themselves.
In the first twenty minutes of the game, the ball-handling time between the two teams remained at 46 points, with Piacenza accounting for 40%, which was due to Conte's arrangement of heavy troops in the midfield.
After finding that the players' condition on the court was not as relaxed and comfortable as they performed off the court, Conte several times on the sidelines to remind the players to pay attention to defensive covers and constantly ordered the midfield to increase the ball control. However, these instructions had little effect when Palermo took every step of the game.
Twenty minutes later, with Palermo's sudden speed, the situation began to see a deflection.
Piacenza, who was forced to deal with the opponent's rhythm, was obviously a little uncomfortable after the opponent accelerated the attack and defense. Various loopholes appeared in both midfield cooperation and backcourt deployment. As time passed, these loopholes began to be amplified continuously.
Finally, when the game came to the 40th minute, Palermo, who was playing steadily, had his own chance.
That was a mistake by Nainglan when defending Pastorre. Pastori, who was 187cm tall, beat Pastori, who had just reached 1.8 meters in a header, hit the ball, and then knocked the opponent and rushed towards Piacenza in the middle.
After getting rid of Naingran's containment, Pastori felt that everything became so comfortable. He was in good condition and made a breakthrough again when he passed the half-time to face Nocerino's defense. He came to Piacenza's left midfield area with a simple change.
Before Ramirez could force the midfielder who had already attracted the Barbera Stadium, the opponent had already sent the ball out.
"Pastore's straight pass, the ball was sent directly to Piacenza's penalty area!"
As a commentator, Liu Jianhong became excited for the first time in this game, but it was not for the Piacenza team.
On the court, the next moment, Scapelli, who was obviously slowing down, was left behind by Palermo's striker Fabricio Micoli.
The forward, who had performed quite positively after the game, chose to shoot as soon as he got the ball. The ball went straight over and couldn't make a save, and Maurantano rolled into the goal.
Chapter completed!