Chapter 252 Lin Feng scores, Roma team fights for their life!
“Goal!!!”
"Incredible goal!"
"He broke through the defense alone, dribbled past the defense, and finally scored. Inter Milan's No. 8 player scored an incredible goal, which completely killed the suspense of the game!"
"Roma was kicked into hell by Lin Feng. This goal may make them realize their championship dream a little bit!"
Although Rome is in the cool and refreshing autumn season at this time, Roma's head coach Spalletti seemed to have fallen into an ice cellar.
He sat blankly in the coaching booth, his eyes having lost their luster.
The commentators were not exaggerating. Being three goals behind, we could really declare the game over.
Although there was still hope of equalizing in theory, it was extremely difficult to score three goals in just 45 minutes in the second half.
Even in the previous game where Inter Milan reversed the game, the opponent recovered some of the disadvantages in the first half, so the start of the second half was not so difficult.
Now, the time in the first half has run out, and there is no extra time for Roma to counterattack.
At this moment, Spalletti even had a doubt:
Inter Milan played so badly before, could it be that they were playing a trick on me, deliberately making me and the outside world make wrong judgments about their condition in order to paralyze us?
But Spalletti no longer has the energy to pursue the truth because it doesn't matter at all.
He did not continue to care about the last part of the first half of the game, but got up and left directly, returning to the locker room first to prepare for a brainstorming session to find strategies for the second half.
One minute later, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half.
The Roma players returned to the locker room dejectedly. Compared with their high morale at the beginning of the game, their morale was visibly low at this moment.
On the other hand, on Inter Milan's side, there was no longer any look of confusion or worry on the players' faces. Each of them looked full of confidence, and even their eyes became determined.
At this moment, they finally experienced the feeling of AC Milan wanting to open champagne at halftime!
With such a huge advantage, anyone would want to open champagne to celebrate.
During the fifteen-minute halftime break, Mancini did not make any major adjustments to the team's tactics. He just praised the players who performed well in the first half, and then further emphasized concentration and execution, asking the players not to take it lightly.
If they had such a big advantage and were finally reversed by Roma, then the boomerang from their previous reversal against Roma in the Super Cup would have hit them straight on the head.
Mancini didn't say much, but Spalletti next door kept talking.
He made great adjustments to the team's tactics, especially the offensive tactics, which took up a lot of space.
At the beginning of the second half, Roma directly replaced two players, using up all their three substitutions.
Everyone can see that Roma has chosen to fight to the death!
But what puzzled everyone was that Spalletti actually replaced Adriano.
His successor is Vucinic, who was loaned from Lecce this summer!
Compared with Inter Milan's former king, although Vucinic also has a certain degree of popularity in Serie A, the gap between the two in fame and strength is very large, so everyone feels incomprehensible about such a substitution.
"No, is Spalletti sick? Why did he replace Ade? How can Vucinic compare to Ade?"
"That's right. I think Spalletti probably felt that this game was hopeless, so he substituted Ade early to give him a rest!"
"Well, although we are indeed far behind and there is little hope of catching up, it would be too spineless to admit defeat so early!"
Fans are criticizing Spalletti for this substitution. Ade is in such good form this season and has scored 5 goals for Roma since joining the team. What's the point of replacing such a good striker, especially when the team needs him to attack the city?
"Maybe Ader is injured. Anyway, Spalletti must have his reasons for doing this!"
Although some people tried to find excuses to explain for Spalletti, this lame excuse obviously could not convince everyone.
Compared to the first substitution, Spalletti's choice to replace him with former Inter Milan player Pizarro did not attract as much attention.
But after the second half of the game started, everyone quickly discovered that Roma's formation had changed.
"Wu Qi Niqi was not supposed to play as a striker, so why did he appear on the wing?"
"Totti didn't get to the front either, Roma has no forward in the frontcourt!"
"Isn't this the frontless formation?"
After Cassano had a conflict with Roma last season, Roma had no one available on the front line. Spalletti was forced to make tactical adjustments and played a strikerless formation for a while. The result was quite good. Roma won 11 consecutive victories in Serie A and finally fell to Inter Milan.
Because of the power of this tactic, Roma originally planned to continue using it in the new season.
But the appearance of Ade changed their minds.
After all, Ade joined the team for free and he is very strong. Wouldn't it be a fool to not use such a good striker?
But now, after being awakened by Inter Milan's three blows, Spalletti made up his mind and decided to give up even on Ade!
He re-activated the strikerless formation, hoping to fight to the death with Inter Milan and create a miracle.
But after the start of the second half, Inter Milan still took the initiative on the field.
Inter Milan's midfield is really too strong. Even if Roma strengthens its midfield, it is still difficult for them to gain an advantage.
In the 48th minute of the second half, Torres took the ball on the left rib and dribbled past two defenders beautifully, but his shot after cutting inside went wide of the goal frame.
In the 54th minute, Roma's Mexes tripped Crespo in the penalty area, but the referee and the linesman seemed not to see it. Even after Inter players appealed, they did not award a penalty.
Inter Milan's players were a little unhappy that their appeal was ineffective, but they did not spend too much time arguing about it.
After all, Inter Milan's advantage was so big that it didn't matter whether the penalty was given or not, and Crespo, who was fouled, didn't say a word.
At the beginning of the second half, Inter Milan's attack was still very fierce. Perhaps because of the adjustments in tactics and formation, Roma was a little uncomfortable at the beginning.
But after they withstood Inter Milan's offensive, Roma gradually began to organize powerful counterattacks.
Newcomer Vucinic and Montella frequently used their speed to move forward and attack Inter Milan's defense.
Although it did not cause much threat, it unknowingly made the positions of Inter Milan's defensive players more dispersed.
If it were just that, Roma's chance would not have arisen.
However, Totti, Perrotta, Pizarro and other midfielders kept running in the middle, which made Inter Milan's midfielders involuntarily form a forward pressure. In this way, the space in the ribs was exposed.
Seeing the opportunity, the Roma team immediately showed their fangs.
In the 62nd minute, Montella ran quickly with the ball on the wing, and Grosso stuck close to him, not leaving his side.
But Montella, who has short legs, has a faster pace and is the first to pass the ball into the penalty area.
Roma does not have a real striker, but Spalletti's strikerless formation emphasizes rotation. When attacking, whoever runs to what position will assume the corresponding role.
At this time, it was the left-back Vucinic who rushed into the penalty area.
He jumped hard and got the ball to the goal, but the Serbian player did not choose to head the ball himself, but passed it to his teammate who was covering the middle.
Roma captain Totti rushed over, received the ball, calmly adjusted his step, and after observing the goalkeeper's position, he made a curve ball and sent the ball into the net.
The score became 1:3, and Roma finally scored a goal!
Totti, who scored the goal, ignored the warm applause from the audience and his teammates who rushed up to celebrate with him. Instead, he ran straight to the goal, picked up the ball and turned around to run towards the center circle, while signaling to his teammates not to celebrate and to come back quickly to prepare for the kick-off.
The Roma team was still behind at this time, and he really didn't want to waste a second. He just wanted to equalize the score as soon as possible!
Although it was still a long way from equalizing the score, Totti's goal made the more than 70,000 fans at the scene extremely excited.
They seemed to have heard the team's clarion call for a counterattack. What Inter Milan could do, Roma could definitely do as well, and even do better!
In the Roma coaching booth, Spalletti was even more excited than the fans.
Although the strikerless formation worked well last season, it is nothing new after all and has certainly been studied by opponents long ago.
Therefore, when he took it out to use again, he was very nervous, fearing that Mancini would find a way to target the strikerless formation and shatter his last bit of hope.
But fortunately, the worst situation did not happen. Inter Milan seemed to have no good way to deal with their strikerless formation!
There are about 30 minutes left in the game and they still have hope!
Even if Roma's efficiency was a little higher, perhaps they could have created a miracle reversal today!
In Inter Milan's coaching booth, Mancini has already begun to frown.
This kind of thing from the Roma team is nothing new, but it is really not that easy to deal with.
He keenly discovered that the opponent's tactics were very efficient in utilizing space.
They made full use of the width of the field, stretching the formation and positions of Inter Milan players as much as possible, thus creating opportunities for their penetration.
Moreover, Inter Milan's proud midfield also failed when dealing with this tactic.
The main reason was that Roma's players started a large-scale rotation, and the positions of the wingers and central midfielders on the field kept changing, which made it easy for the defending side to be distracted, failing to keep up with the players or losing their position as they kept changing.
So, should we make adjustments?
If you need to adjust it, how should you do it?
Mancini held his chin and thought seriously.
At this time, the game on the field is still continuing.
After Roma scored the goal, their morale soared further, they attacked more aggressively and created many opportunities.
But as they intensified their attack, Inter's formation retreated a bit. Relatively speaking, the space at the back was not that big, so Roma did not find a great chance to score.
But Roma soon found a way to deal with it. Their two defensive midfielders began to move forward frequently, sharing the pressure on Totti in the flank area, forcing Inter Milan's midfielders to run around.
In the 69th minute of the game, Roma once again found a great opportunity through pulling and penetration. Totti received the ball in the left rib area and rushed into the penalty area. Then his threatening shot was saved by Cesar.
This ball made Inter Milan's defenders break out in cold sweats. When Totti shot, none of them could step forward in time to interfere. If Saint Cesar hadn't descended from heaven again, they might have lost the ball again.
Mancini was also shocked and quickly made a substitution, replacing a forward with a defensive player.
In Mancini's view, what Inter Milan needs now is not scoring goals, but to stabilize their defense.
However, this method will certainly increase the difficulty of the opponent's attack, but it is also showing weakness to the opponent, which will further boost the opponent's momentum.
As it turned out, this adjustment did not achieve the expected results.
In the 74th minute, Perrotta's powerful long shot hit the post.
Two minutes later, Totti again shot from outside the penalty area, this time it went over the crossbar.
In the past few minutes, Inter Milan's defense was under great pressure.
As for the risks, because Crespo was substituted and the midfield players all retreated, they found it difficult to get support from their teammates and were unable to launch an attack.
As a result, Inter Milan fell into a very passive situation without realizing it.
We can't go on like this, if we defend it too long we will lose!
Alarm bells rang in Lin Feng's heart, and he felt that he should do something!
In the 81st minute, Roma once again threatened Inter's goal with a long shot, but fortunately the ball went wide of the goal frame.
Seeing that the team was somewhat overwhelmed by the opponent's suppression during this period, Cesar intended to delay a little time when he kicked the ball, so that his teammates could catch their breath and slow down the opponent's offensive.
But when he looked up, he saw Lin Feng waving for the ball on the sidelines.
After hesitating for a moment, Cesar chose to kick the ball to Lin Feng.
Players on both sides of the field were shocked to see Lin Feng retreat to such a deep position to receive the ball.
The Roma team doesn't care who you are. Seeing that there is little time left in the game, they naturally choose to turn on the mad dog mode and rush up to snatch the ball from the person with the ball.
As long as they can steal the ball in the frontcourt, they can launch a counterattack on the spot.
The fierce attack just now has already put Inter Milan under great pressure. If they continue to exert more effort, the opponent's taut string might break!
Roma’s idea was good, but it was not so easy to steal the ball from Lin Feng’s feet.
Facing the opponent's pressing, Lin Feng remained calm. He passed the ball to his teammates on the back line, teased the players who were pressing, and constantly observed the situation on the field, looking for the most suitable point to pass the ball.
Finally, after moving all the way from the left to the right, he saw the opportunity!
(End of this chapter)
