On the evening of October 27th, Naples San Paolo Stadium.
When Ranieri got Naples' lineup, he didn't feel too much surprise.
Goalkeeper: Handanovic.
Defense: Vargas, David Luiz, Bonucci and Lichtsteiner.
Midfield: Biglia and Rakitic at the back, Di Maria, Hamsik and Sanchez in front.
Center: Cavani.
It is not difficult to see from this lineup that Gao Shen has once again returned to the 4-2-3 formation that Naples is most familiar with and is best at. There are not many surprises in the lineup.
What Ranieri saw in this was Gao Shen's unconcealed intention, which was to support David Luiz and Bonucci in their promotion.
Cannavaro Jr.'s situation in Naples will be a bit embarrassing.
In fact, Italy has overwhelmingly questioned and criticized Gao Shen, but in the professional coaching circle, Gao Shen's evaluation has always been very high, even very high.
If nothing else, think about it, what tactics did Roma use when they lost 4-0 to Naples at home?
Four two three one!
Spalletti said no, but his body was extremely honest...
After losing to Gao Shen last season, he immediately followed up and adopted a 4-2-31 high-position pressing tactic. This is quite similar to Rome's wolf pack tactic, but overall it is more stable.
But unfortunately, after Roma let Qi Wu go, their defense was unstable and they did not perform to the level of this tactic.
Ranieri's lineup tonight is quite satisfactory, the Italian tradition of 442.
Goalkeeper: Buffon.
Defense: Molinaro, Chiellini, Lerottaglie and Grigra.
Midfielder: Palladino, Nocerino, Almiron and Salihamidzic.
Forwards: Del Piero and Trezeguet.
Nedvěd was suspended, head coach Ranieri had to sit in the stands, and Zanetti was recovering from his injury. These factors prevented Ranieri from taking too many risks, so he adopted the safest tactics.
Even during the game, he planned to adopt defensive counterattack tactics.
Napoli's overall strength and offensive firepower rank first in Serie A, and Ranieri is also wary of it.
"Everyone, as you know before, after the game starts, I will sit in the stands and conduct remote control. All instructions will be given by Christian. You must pay close attention, do you understand?"
Ranieri pointed to the French coach, Christian Damiano, standing next to him.
The 57-year-old French coach served as the head coach of the French National Youth Team for a long time from 1992 to 1999. He trained famous players such as Henry and Trezeguet, and then successively played in Nice, Fulham and Liverpool.
Worked as an assistant to Tigana, Houllier and other famous coaches.
Last season, Ranieri wanted to save Parma and form his own coaching team, so he thought of this well-known coach in the Premier League, so he hired him from Southampton, and the two have worked together until now.
Damiano is a very capable coach, and his annual salary is even higher than that of coaches in the middle and lower reaches of Serie A, which shows how much Ranieri values him.
Juventus players have known about this arrangement for a long time and of course they have no objections.
Ranieri adjusted several details based on Naples' lineup, which generally revolved around Juventus' strategy of focusing on defense.
After all, the head coach is absent, so stability must be the priority.
After talking to the players, Ranieri took Damiano aside and communicated the notes and signals that would be passed on later.
Mainly some things that need attention.
Speaking of which, the two have actually only been working together for less than a year, and they are far from having a tacit understanding. Especially for some of Ranieri's ideas, Damiano is still not very sure of the scale.
But Ranieri said that he would send him news at any time.
"Don't worry, you will do as I say when the time comes." Ranieri said with confidence.
When the Juventus players walked out of the locker room, they could see an Italian Football Association official wearing a black suit standing outside the door. He had obviously been waiting for a while.
After all the players had left, the official came forward, first showed his work ID to Ranieri, then took out the suspension notice and told Ranieri that he could not show up tonight.
Cell phones and communication devices will be confiscated inside the stadium.
Even if he is found to have contact with assistants in the stadium, it will be considered a violation.
Ranieri was very cooperative and immediately handed over his mobile phone and said that he would not contact his assistant.
Yes, he wouldn't contact Damiano personally, but he didn't say it couldn't be through someone else.
At that time, he yelled a few times, but someone accidentally heard him; he accidentally dropped something when he wrote something, and someone picked it up. Anyone who heard it and picked it up handed it over to Damiano, and it didn't matter about Ranieri.
.
Could it be that we still want to accuse him of littering?
Officials of the Italian Football Association had obviously expected that Ranieri would cooperate, and they had long been used to it.
In fact, these Serie A teams have already had their own methods to deal with various punishments from the Italian Football Association. How can they resist it?
More often than not, they turn a blind eye and don't pursue it as long as they don't go too far.
The two left the visiting team's locker room one after another, passed through the internal passage, and headed to the elevator.
After entering the elevator, Ranieri's heart sank when he saw officials pressing the elevator button for the second-floor stands.
"Why is it the second-floor grandstand?"
"Well, I just received news from Naples. Just now, two local Naples fan organizations fought in the stands to compete for seats. It almost caused chaos, but the seats assigned to us were damaged to varying degrees. I
I went to see it live and couldn’t help but sit down.”
"You have two options, either go to the executive stands, where your general manager and sports director are, or go to another mobile seat they have arranged, because the tickets on site have been sold out," a Football Association official said.
He said with a smile.
In fact, everyone knows that this is a little trick played by Naples.
We have known for a long time that Juventus must have a targeted strategy, so Napoli deliberately released smoke bombs before the game and temporarily changed the position before the game. The stadium is theirs anyway, so they have the final say on where to sit?
Ranieri's old face suddenly darkened.
Damn it, Naples is indeed a group of insidious and cunning guys!
Gao Shen is like this, and so is the management!
After finally reaching the second-floor stand, Ranieri almost cried.
Damn it, there were so many Naples fans all around, and the way everyone looked at him made Ranieri feel creepy. He couldn't help but think about what is the most popular thing about Naples?
Besides the fans, it’s the mafia!
The Tinker even wondered if someone in the group would suddenly pull out a pistol at him, just like in The Godfather...
Fortunately, from beginning to end, this group of people just glared at him fiercely, and no one really took action.
Sao Paulo Stadium is not a professional football stadium, but a comprehensive stadium.
So there are those kind of stadium arc areas at both ends of the field, which are far away from the goal.
Unfortunately, Ranieri was placed in the stands in this area, which is still far away from the coaching bench.
And in this position, among the densely packed Naples fans, even if he tears his throat, his shouting voice will definitely not reach the stadium.
Not to mention, he is surrounded by a group of "Mafia" fans who are like wolves and tigers and are eyeing him.
Damn it, the Sao Paulo Stadium is too dangerous!
The game started soon.
The scene suddenly became excited.
Ranieri was sitting in the area where the fans were the most enthusiastic. Not to mention shouting inside the stadium, even if he was talking to the Football Association officials next door, he had to get very close and shout very loudly to be heard.
He is really desperate!
Damn Naples officials, how could they arrange his position in a place like this?
How does this allow him to deliver the message?
Both sides had a very stable start. Naples took advantage of the advantage of home court to try to attack, but this was also expected by Ranieri.
Gao Shen has always been good at attacking in the beginning, which is normal.
After ten minutes of fighting, seeing that Juventus was defending well, Naples chose to slow down the pace and try to control it.
Juventus played steadily and not in a hurry. The game situation, rhythm and ball possession were all under the control of Naples, and the scene seemed a bit stalemate.
Napoli sped up several times, tried to attack, and created several threatening offensives, but they failed to score.
Ranieri was also watching with fear in the stands, but in the end there was no danger.
Juventus defended well today and the players executed well.
The two sides continued to compete back and forth, and the situation did not go beyond Ranieri's expectations, which gradually made the tinker feel relieved.
Before the end of the first half, Naples launched another wave of attacks and indeed created a wave of dangers, but still failed to break through Juventus' goal.
In the end, the two sides shook hands and settled for a draw at zero-0 in the first half.
Ranieri left the stands and headed to the visiting team's locker room under the watchful eyes of the "Mafia fans" around him.
Ranieri was basically satisfied with the team's performance in the first half, but he also reminded the players to pay attention to Naples' two wings.
Di Maria and Vargas, Sanchez and Lichtsteiner, this is the strongest combination of Naples' two wings this season. The performance is very good. In addition, Cavani is in the middle, and the overall offensive firepower is very fierce.
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But Ranieri told Juventus players that as long as they stay focused, they will be able to hold on to the situation.
And he was very sure that in the second half, Naples would attack from the beginning, so that the team would be well prepared.
Since he was far away from the coaching area, when he gave Damiano instructions, he let him make his own decisions. The goal of the game was to strive for a draw, and preferably to score a counterattack.
After the start of the second half, the situation still did not surprise Ranieri.
Naples started the game aggressively, while Juventus defended and counterattacked. Neither side made many changes.
But in the stands, Ranieri felt increasingly uneasy.
He always felt something was wrong.
This doesn't look like a high-level normal level at all.
It's as if everything is going as Ranieri and Juventus want, which makes no sense.
