Gao Shen stood in front of the visiting team's coaching bench with a frown on his face, watching the game silently.
The scoreboard showed the score at this moment, still zero to zero.
Napoli failed to defeat Udinese away from home.
Time has skipped seventy minutes.
Gao Shen made two substitutions in one breath.
Once, Pastore was used to replace Callejon, and Rakitic was used to replace Hamsik.
In the midweek match against Real Madrid, Callejon performed well after coming off the bench, but his starting performance in this round was not ideal, probably due to his traveling back and forth in midweek.
Hamsik performed well, but the effect was not very good.
Udinese adopted a 3-5-2 formation tonight.
It can be said to be 3-5-2. In fact, the two full-backs actively retreated to the back line, which is more like 5-3-2.
This style of play performed very well in Mazzarri's Sampdoria team last season, so it is used by many people. Udinese head coach Marino also wants to try this style of play.
Therefore, this game is very difficult.
Playing at home, Udinese played fast-paced offense and defense against Naples from the very beginning. It was clear that they were going for attrition.
Naples was naturally not to be outdone, and the two sides started fighting.
Judging from the scene, Naples has a slight advantage, but not a huge one, and Udinese is not without its ability to counterattack.
So far, the number of shots taken between the two sides is ten to fourteen, and Naples also has a slight advantage.
Gao Shen replaced Pastore and Rakitic at this time, and the intention was actually very obvious, which was to strengthen the midfielder's passing and back-breaking abilities, as well as Pastore's ability to advance with the ball.
He wanted to use this to break down Udinese's midfield rush and solid defense.
…
Rakitic's first touch after coming on the field was a defensive tackle, directly knocking down Udinese midfielder Inler.
Inler is a Swiss international who played for Zurich in the Swiss Super League. He is a bitter rival with Basel where Rakitic plays, but the two are very familiar with each other. After being knocked down by Rakitic, Inler still held on to Croatia.
The midfielder's hand rises.
But the referee still gave Rakitic a yellow card.
This made Gao Shen shake his head.
Once on the field, you get a card in less than a minute.
"This Inler is very cunning and smart. What he did just now was actually a deliberate plot against Rakitic." Zidane is extremely experienced and saw through Inler's tricks at once.
But what if you see through it?
I've already received the yellow card and there's nothing I can do to change it.
…
Advanced substitutions are still effective.
After Pastore came on the field, he was very threatening with the ball several times, causing Udinese's defense to be a little confused.
Especially in the 77th minute, after two people were replaced, Naples regained the advantage. After receiving a pass from Vidal on the left rib, Pastore started with the ball and inserted diagonally into the left side of the penalty area.
, inserted directly into the bottom line.
During the high-speed advancement, Pastore spotted the opportunity and hit the left side of the penalty area near the penalty spot, passing it to Pellet.
The Italian center took a shot with his back, stopped the ball, and flicked it laterally.
I saw Rakitic, who had just come on as a substitute and received a yellow card, suddenly stepped in quickly, got ahead of everyone, and fired a fierce shot, and the ball went into the net.
Scored Udinese's goal!
Goalkeeper Berardi was stunned when faced with such an angry shot.
Subsequently, Udinese made consecutive substitutions, and Naples began to play steadily.
In the end, neither side could score another goal.
Napoli narrowly defeated Udinese 1-0 away with Rakitic's goal.
…
In this round, the strong Serie A teams basically won the game.
Roma defeated Reggina 3-0, and Juventus defeated Cagliari 1-0 away from home.
Inter Milan defeated Turin 3-1 away from home, while AC Milan defeated Lazio 4-1 at home.
After three rounds of games, Serie A began to show its level.
Inter Milan continues to occupy the top spot, with Napoli ranked second, and both teams scored nine points.
After that is Juventus's seven points, followed by teams such as Lazio and Palermo.
Although AC Milan won very well in this round, they only got three points and barely escaped the relegation zone.
…………
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Three days later, in the middle of the week, Serie A ushered in the fourth round.
Roma, which had won a great victory in the third round, unexpectedly capsized in the ditch this time, losing 1-3 to Genoa, causing a huge upset on the first match day of the fourth round.
Diego Milito scored twice for Genoa, helping the home team defeat Giallorossi 3-1.
This battle made Diego Milito famous.
After the Argentine center emerged in La Liga, he still performed well in Serie A.
…
In the home game against Lecce, Inter Milan, despite having an overwhelming advantage, could not withstand Lecce's tight defense.
In Italy, any team that is determined to defend is often very difficult to play.
This is why many strong teams do not perform well at home but perform better away from home.
Because when all teams come to their home court, they will adopt strict defensive tactics.
This time Lecce is no exception.
But Mourinho finally defeated Lecce with a goal in the 79th minute thanks to Cruz's goal.
Cruz's goal helped Inter Milan continue to occupy the top spot.
…
Juventus' luck was not so good.
After Amauri scored a goal for the Bianconeri, Catania came back in the second half.
In the end, the Bianconeri shook hands with Catania one to one at home.
AC Milan narrowly defeated Reggina 2-1 in the away game with goals from Borriello and Pato.
Napoli returned home to welcome Palermo.
This is also a difficult matchup.
In the fourteenth minute, Hamsik opened the scoring for Naples.
After that, the two sides were in a stalemate into the second half, and Cavani scored a goal in the 75th minute.
But in the 81st minute, David Luiz committed a foul while defending and was shown a yellow card by the referee and awarded a penalty kick.
Mikoli succeeded in one fell swoop.
In the end, Naples defeated Palermo 2-1 at home.
…………
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The fifth round of Serie A started with Juventus drawing 0-0 with Sampdoria away from home.
The Bianconeri had nothing to do against Mazzarri's team in the away game, and the two sides finally shook hands and made a draw.
Roma defeated Atalanta 2-0 at home with goals from Panucci and Vucinic.
Napoli faces newly promoted Bologna away from home.
Under the leadership of head coach Arrigoni, this team was promoted to Serie A as the second place in Serie B. However, it only achieved one win and three losses in the first four rounds of this season, ranking 18th in the standings.
It's very bad and the relegation situation is also precarious.
Facing Naples at home, Arrigoni deployed a 4321 Christmas tree formation imitating Ancelotti's, using three midfielders to face the match, making it clear that the team must defend to the death.
But who would have thought that in just nine minutes of the game, Naples defender Cannavaro fouled while defending Amoruso and was given a yellow card and a penalty kick.
Divayo scored the first goal for Bologna.
Gao Shen was very dissatisfied with this penalty and thought it should not be a penalty kick.
More importantly, is it a bit outrageous to be awarded penalty kicks in two consecutive rounds?
But just three minutes later, Vidal equalized the score for Naples.
Three minutes later, Pastore received an assist from Maggio on the right, giving Naples another victory and successfully overtaking the score.
Before the end of the first half, it was Pastore again, receiving an assist from Pellet, and scored Naples' third goal.
After changing sides in the second half, Nainggolan scored a goal with an assist from Vidal.
In the end, Naples relied on the outstanding performance of the rotation lineup to reverse Bologna 4-1 away from home.
…
The focus of the fifth round is at the San Siro Stadium in Milan.
AC Milan vs. Inter Milan at home.
This Milan derby has attracted strong attention from the entire Italian and even European football circles.
Mourinho has strong troops and horses, and even on the "away road", he still showed a strong offensive momentum.
Everyone can see that AC Milan is very weak now.
Facts have also proved that the Rossoneri is indeed inferior to Inter Milan in terms of strength.
But no one expected that AC Milan would be the first to score.
In the 26th minute, after receiving Pirlo's long pass from the backcourt, Kaka passed the defender from the right rib, inserted diagonally into the penalty area, and passed to the back point, accurately finding his teammate Ronald of the Brazilian national team.
Dinho.
The superstar overwhelmed Cambiasso at the back post and headed into a blind corner with a header that he was not good at.
There is nothing Cesar can do about it!
But this conceded goal made Mourinho completely give up all illusions. Especially in the second half, he was almost determined to burn the boat and made substitutions and adjustments one after another, all to strengthen the offense.
AC Milan made continuous substitutions, and in the end even Pato was replaced by Flamini.
Ancelotti obviously wanted to win the three points at home and teach Inter Milan a painful lesson.
The Nerazzurri are stronger. After Mourinho's continuous substitutions and adjustments, the offensive is fierce, but AC Milan's Christmas tree formation is also impregnable, preventing Inter Milan from taking any advantage.
Until the stoppage time, Inter Milan was almost overwhelming AC Milan.
First, Quaresma shot a volley from the outside of his instep on the right side, which narrowly missed the goal.
After that, Inter Milan continued to apply pressure and continued to attack.
Just three minutes later, at the last moment of stoppage time, Maicon made a diagonal pass from the right.
AC Milan's defensive players were so attracted by Ibrahimovic and Adriano in the front that they ignored Cruz in the back.
The Argentinian center grabbed the spot, headed the ball in front of the back post, and blasted the ball into the goal guarded by Abbiati.
One to one!
In the end, thanks to Cruz's goal, Inter Milan drew with AC Milan one to one away from home.
Since Naples reversed Bologna 4-1, when Inter Milan drew with its rival in the same city, Naples also relied on a two-point advantage to overtake Inter Milan and top the Serie A standings for the first time this season.
This once again caused an uproar in Italy.
Everyone realizes that Naples this season is not consistent with what the outside world speculated.
Especially in the two-front battle between the Champions League and Serie A, although Naples did not perform as well as expected, they managed to score points steadily.
But the real test will come in midweek in the Champions League.
