Under the leadership of the young referee Nicola Rizzoli, the players of the two teams slowly entered the Sao Paulo Stadium amid the cheers of more than 60,000 fans.
Thirty-six-year-old Nicola Rizzoli is a young referee highly praised by the entire Italian refereeing community. He was just promoted to international referee this summer and began to enforce the law in various European events, such as the Europa League and the European Cup.
Qualifiers.
But tonight, the bald referee Collina still trusted him very much to appoint him as the referee for the peak match between Naples and Inter Milan, which shows the cultivation of this young referee.
Gao Shen and the coaching staff also studied Rizzoli's law enforcement before the game. He has always been a bit loose and doesn't play many cards.
This also caused him a lot of controversy.
It is worth mentioning that he also officiated an important game in the last round, which was the Turin Derby.
As a result, Juventus drew 0-0 with Turin in that game.
A week later, he officiated the pinnacle match between Naples and Inter Milan, which made everyone believe that Rizzoli would become Italy's top international whistleblower in the future.
…
When Gao Shen stepped into the Sao Paulo Stadium, the praise and cheers he received were not even inferior to those of Maradona...
More than 60,000 fans in the audience cheered and shouted for him, and everyone shouted his name.
Gao Shen obviously enjoyed this treatment very much. He raised his right hand towards the fans with a smile, as if he was accepting the support of his subjects, and the cheers of the fans in the stands immediately reached a higher level.
"Gao Shen's status in the hearts of Naples fans is too high!" the TV commentator couldn't help but exclaim.
Although it was separated from the live broadcast, all the fans in front of the TV could still hear the overwhelming cheers through the live sound, like a roaring mountain and a tsunami, sweeping through the entire Sao Paulo Stadium.
Ever since Gao Shen appeared on the scene, live TV cameras have been focused on him.
Gao Shen was used to all this. He smiled and waved to the fans around him, then turned and walked towards the visiting team's coaching bench.
"Hello, Mancho!" Gao Shen smiled and stretched out his hand towards Mancini from a distance.
"Hello, Gao." Mancini was not very interested, but he still managed to smile. After shaking hands with Gao Shen, he hugged him politely.
In fact, the two of them had no friendship at all. After hugging each other, Gao Shen said to Mancini, "I wish you good luck." Mancini responded in the same way, and then they went back to prepare.
"Both these two coaches are the most successful coaches in Serie A this season."
"Mancini is 42 years old, but Gao Shen is only 27 years old. There is a full fifteen years difference between the two."
"Especially Gao Shen, no one can believe that at the age of 27, he has already led Napoli to win the Serie A championship. He is the youngest head coach in the history of the four major leagues."
"There is also Naples. This team is the youngest team in the four major leagues this season. They are only in their early twenties, very, very young. And under the leadership of an equally young head coach, they have played incredible football.
offensive football."
"Mancini represents the Italian tradition. He is a standard professional player. He coaches the traditional Italian giant Inter Milan and has a luxurious lineup filled with superstars."
"So, before the game, many media were talking about why this game attracted so much attention?"
"Because it brings together so many elements, anyone anywhere in the world can find some resonance in this game. As long as he likes football, it doesn't even require him to know about football or stars.
You can find your own spiritual resonance in it.”
"This is a unique showdown!"
…
When Gao Shen returned to the home team's coaching bench, preparations were already underway on the court to guess the side.
The young Hamsik put on the captain's armband of Naples and walked over to guess the side with Inter Milan's captain Zanetti. Naples won and chose the side, and Inter Milan got the right to serve.
This is also in line with Gao Shen’s pre-game arrangements.
Tonight, Napoli did not want too much possession of the ball.
Otherwise, Gao Shen would not have come up with such a lineup and play style.
"We must pay close attention to the data and dynamics of Inter Milan players, especially their physical fitness and injury response." Gao Shen told Lucas.
Ibrahimovic and others are just recovering from injuries. Gao Shen is very curious, have they recovered? Or are they barely playing?
Inter Milan is suffering from a wave of injuries right now, but there is a reason for it all.
First of all, the players are a bit older. They are fighting on multiple fronts this season and the players have heavy tasks. Did Mancini make appropriate adjustments? This led to the team immediately entering a period of frequent injuries in February and March.
In fact, anyone familiar with football knows that this is very normal.
It can only be said that Mancini was still too confident in his preparation and adjustments.
Perhaps, he really thought that Inter Milan could win the Serie A championship casually.
But who would have thought that after the winter break, Naples would perform extremely vigorously.
Even in the trough period, he was able to rely on sophisticated tactics and on-the-spot adjustments to hold on to Inter Milan.
It's better now. When Naples was in poor form before, they were unable to widen the gap. When Inter Milan's state declined, Naples immediately caught up and shortened the gap.
The advanced strategy was even better than he expected.
Arrogant soldiers will be defeated!
Gao Shen now truly understands the profound meaning of these four words.
And tonight, he will teach this proud soldier another lesson!
…………
…………
Rizzoli held the silver whistle in his mouth and looked at the watch on his wrist.
The players of both teams were facing a formidable opponent and formed their formations in their respective halves.
In the center circle, Suazo and Ibrahimovic stand opposite each other.
Just hearing a whistle, Suazo immediately kicked the ball to Ibrahimovic.
Almost at the same time, Naples players took action after hearing the news and rushed towards Inter Milan's formation.
Led by the front three of Di Maria, Cavani and Sanchez, Hamsik followed closely, followed by the double midfielders and the entire defense, all pressing forward.
As soon as Ibrahimovic kicked the ball back, Napoli's Cavani had already passed by him.
As soon as Cambiasso stopped the ball, he heard Stankovic in front shout to be careful, and then saw Cavani rushing over.
This tall Uruguayan center is also very fast.
Cambiasso immediately turned around and knocked the ball back to the defense.
Cavani immediately rushed past Cambiasso and drove towards the back line.
Qiwu stopped the ball, and as soon as he adjusted, Cavani came up.
The Romanian defender was forced to cross the ball to Materazzi, but before Cavani could get close, he changed direction and ran towards Materazzi. This made the Italian central defender somewhat confused, fearing that he would be entangled.
Immediately knock back to goalkeeper Cesar.
Cesar didn't dare to be careless. When facing a back pass, he directly passed it forward with a big kick.
Cavani, who sprinted half the pitch in one breath, waited until Cesar passed the ball long before he slowed down, stopped, turned around and ran back.
Looking at him like that, he seemed to be afraid that he was offside.
Cesar stood near the penalty spot, looking at the situation on the court, and suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart.
Because he saw that Naples' trident was facing Inter Milan's defense.
This is a very aggressive stance.
Combined with the pressing just now, it seems that there is no intention to give Inter Milan any chance to breathe.
…
Cesar's hunch was right.
After the start, Naples players ran with all their strength to press and press Inter Milan players.
The team they are best at presses from a high position, making it difficult for Inter Milan to effectively play the ball and can only pass the ball passively.
But every long pass would fall to Napoli's feet.
Both David Luiz and Bonucci firmly controlled the placement, especially David Luiz, who did not let the Swedish center grab the ball when he competed with Ibrahimovic twice.
Naples also has better control over the second point.
After David Luiz grabs the ball, even if the second position is not good, it will still be obtained by a Naples player.
As soon as he got the ball, he immediately launched a counterattack, switching from defense to offense very quickly and playing very directly.
This made the game enter a fast-paced attack and defense from the beginning, with the ball changing hands frequently.
But overall, Naples was on the offensive, while Inter Milan was fully on the defensive.
…
Mancini also saw Napoli's opening attack strategy, and he was not surprised at all.
This is what makes Naples special!
But after passing these three hurdles, Naples will take a break.
It can be said that this is a major test for Inter Milan in this game.
"Press forward a little, don't retreat too far!" Mancini reminded his defense.
He is very aware of the problem of his three midfielders and has already scored several goals in the front of the penalty area.
More importantly, simply retreating is not the answer after all. You need to push your opponent out and stay as far away from your penalty area as possible.
The rhythm is fast.
With just three minutes to go, Inter Milan quickly passed the ball to Maicon on the right.
In this 4312 formation, the Nerazzurri does not have regular wing players, so wing attacks can only rely on full backs.
Maicon is Inter Milan's most active offensive side.
After getting the ball, the Brazilian right back quickly moved forward. Just as he was about to cross the center line, he was blocked by Biglia on the wing.
The Brazilian tried to pass the ball to Ibrahimovic, who was retreating to receive the ball, and then quickly rushed forward to form a cooperation.
Unexpectedly, David Luiz suddenly stepped forward and poked the ball, preventing Ibrahimovic from getting the ball.
Biglia, who turned back to defend, received the ball first. Before Maicon could get close to him, he quickly passed it to Vargas.
Maicon abandoned Biglia and went straight to Vargas, trying to push Naples' defense back.
After Vargas stopped the ball, he passed it back to Bonucci who was trailing behind.
At this time, Suazo quickly chased Bonucci.
But after the Italian central defender stopped Vargas' pass, he glanced ahead and saw Suazo approaching, so he quickly made a long pass.
The ball drew an elegant arc from the edge of Naples' penalty area, leaped over layers of defenses, and landed at the back of Inter Milan's defense.
On the left side of Naples' frontcourt, a sky-blue figure is sprinting quickly.
