In the seventh minute of the game, the home team took advantage of a corner kick to create chaos in the penalty area.
Midfielder Roman Schrokov cleared Naples' ball out of the penalty area and pushed it back into the penalty area, making the Naples penalty area, which was already in chaos, even more dangerous.
In the chaos, 31-year-old forward Turk took the lead and sent the ball into the Naples goal.
Handanovic had no reaction to the shot.
On the night he arrived in St. Petersburg, that is, last night, the Naples goalkeeper suffered from ailments and a sudden high fever.
One to zero, Zenit St. Petersburg, playing at home, took the lead.
…
Gao Shen exhaled heavily, and a cloud of white smoke suddenly appeared in front of him.
He was wrapped in a thick down jacket and had his hands in his pockets, but he still felt cold all over.
The coldness came from the grass under his feet, penetrated his shoes, and then invaded his body from the soles of his feet.
Contrary to the past when he was able to stand still when directing games, Gao Shen kept moving back and forth tonight.
The weather in St. Petersburg is really cold!
It's still around 20 degrees in Naples even at night, but it's already below zero in St. Petersburg.
What's even worse is that Napoli's away game in Russia has been very unsatisfactory.
The game is held on Wednesday night. According to Naples' plan, they fly to St. Petersburg at noon on Tuesday, which is about a flight of more than three hours. Plus the time on the road, they can also conduct a familiarization training session in the afternoon.
After all, in southern Italy, it is simply impossible to simulate the subzero temperatures and site conditions of St. Petersburg.
Naples also attaches great importance to this away game and even chartered a special flight to go to the away game.
But who would have thought that it was precisely because of the chartered flight that problems arose before departure. It was said that the arranged plane suddenly broke down and needed maintenance, which made Naples wait at the airport for more than four hours.
In the end, the airline had no choice but to temporarily arrange to change the aircraft.
By the time we arrived in St. Petersburg, it was already very late.
It was 20 degrees before getting on the plane, and it was below zero when we got off the plane. This is a huge difference.
Even though everyone in Naples was well prepared, it was still not enough.
Not long after Handanovic fell asleep, he suddenly developed a high fever, and the team doctor was busy all night.
There are many players in the team who are not used to it and have been unable to sleep all night.
For young people, staying up all night is nothing.
But just this afternoon, when the team came to the St. Petersburg Stadium for pre-match preparations, they found that the field conditions were not ideal. Although the geothermal system was turned on, it was still bad and the players were very uncomfortable.
It's not surprising when you think about it. After all, the temperature here is below zero, which is incomparable to southern Italy.
Although Handanovic had a high fever all night, Gao thought carefully and sought his own opinions, and finally decided to let him start. After all, Jezzo's ability was somewhat worrying.
As a result, there was a chaotic scene in the first seven minutes.
…
After a goal was stolen by his opponent, Gao Shen made adjustments on the sidelines, signaling the players to temporarily retreat and adopt a defensive posture.
Only then could they barely stabilize their position, but the lagging behind in the score still made Naples unable to feel at ease.
Gao Shen continued to appeal to the players on the sidelines to stay calm and be patient.
Zenit is not a weak team, it was the winner of the Europa League last season.
The head coach is the famous Dutch coach Dick Advocaat. Since 2006, he has trained Zenit into a team with superior strength. The team not only has top stars, but also has a brilliant performance in the European Cup this summer.
Arshavin, the midfielder also has future Bayern star Tymoschuk.
The key is that Zenit is very rich.
This summer, he spent a whopping 30 million euros to bring in Portuguese genius Dani from Dynamo Moscow.
When Gao Shen was arranging his troops, he attached great importance to restricting Arshavin, Tymoshchuk, Dani and others. The team also did a good job. But who would have thought that instead, it would give Schrokov and Te
Wait for the opportunity for players to emerge.
It’s really hard to guard against.
Advocaat's team adopted a typical Dutch 433 tactic, while Gao Shen played 433 in the away game. The lineup was relatively balanced and the strength was advantageous. However, the away game was restricted by various conditions, especially the venue.
The incompatibility with the climate made Naples play very awkwardly.
Gao Shen simply chose to shrink his defense and try to stabilize his position first, and the team gradually stabilized.
Facing Naples, Zenit did not dare to be too aggressive even if it was a home game.
Everyone knows that Gao Shen's best tricks include defensive counterattacks.
Didn't Real Madrid win the double title by relying on defensive counterattacks?
…
During the halftime break, Gao Shen took the lead in making substitutions.
Mertens replaced Di Maria who was seriously out of shape in the first half.
The Argentine winger is seriously not used to this cold weather, and more importantly, he was one of the people who didn't sleep all night last night.
Mertens has been performing well recently and can play on either wing or even as a forward. Gao Shen put him on the field at this time, hoping that he could impact Zenit's defense.
Not long after the start of the second half, the Belgian winger got a chance to get the ball near the left sideline. He got rid of Zenit's right back and quickly dribbled the ball horizontally inside, but was tackled to the ground by Tymoshchuk.
Napoli won a free kick in the frontcourt.
But this time the free kick failed to create a threat.
Naples saw the opportunity and began to attack frequently on the left.
Not long after, a long pass from the right was transferred. Mertens once again took the ball to form a one-on-one situation. After passing the defensive player with the ball, he sent a through ball to Cavani's feet in the penalty area.
.
After stopping the ball, Cavani turned around and shot, but the shot was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper.
The angle is too right.
In this icy and snowy weather, everyone in Naples was out of sorts.
Not one and a half, but all of them.
Gao Shen didn't have a good solution for this. He could only further strengthen the attack in the 68th minute and replaced Biglia with Pastore.
This Argentine midfielder, who has always been stable, also performed unsatisfactorily tonight.
Advocaat easily saw through Gao Shen's intentions, but the famous Dutch coach did not take a defensive stance.
Although he was now leading 1-0, he still made two very bold substitutions within five minutes.
First, Argentinian attacking midfielder Alejandro Domingos was used to replace Croatian central defender Krizanaki.
After the substitution, Tymoshchuk returned to the central defender position.
Five minutes later, he made his second substitution, replacing defensive midfielder Zhilyanov with forward Pavel Pogrebnyak, which was also an obvious signal to strengthen the attack.
Obviously, Advocaat wants to pursue the victory and devour Naples at home.
Gao Shen made targeted fine-tuning, allowing Rakitic to withdraw his position and allowing Pastore to gain more freedom in the front. This made Naples' formation look a bit like a 4-2-3-1, which appropriately strengthened the defense.
.
The tit-for-tat battle between the two head coaches temporarily brought the game to a stalemate.
Afterwards, Gao Shen made no more substitutions.
He believes in his players.
Even though Mertens is less than 1.7 meters tall, he is very flexible and does not have a physical advantage. As a result, once he is pressed closely, he will stumble when dribbling the ball, but he can always bring it out.
This is a very smart player, especially when moving without the ball.
He is in good condition recently and Gao Shen trusts him.
…
When the game entered the 80th minute, neither side was able to create any good scoring opportunities.
When Naples was attacking from the left, Pastore pulled to the left to meet Vargas. After receiving the pass, he took a few steps forward and immediately passed the ball to the left sideline before the defensive player could get close.
Mertens himself quickly ran into neutral.
After Mertens faced the pass from the center, he passed the defensive player when he stopped the ball, cut inward laterally, attracted the attention of the opponent's midfielder, and passed the ball to Pastore in the gap.
.
The Argentinian was already standing on the left side of the top of the arc at this time, and he could pose a threat as soon as he got the ball.
Tymoshchuk in the penalty area immediately rushed out, fearing that Pastore would get a chance to kick.
After passing the ball, Mertens suddenly changed direction and penetrated diagonally from the left corner of the penalty area to the left side of the penalty area. Like a sharp knife, it inserted right into the position where Tymoshchuk made the tackle.
Pastore also understood the situation. After stopping the ball, he sent a through ball to the left side of the penalty area.
Mertens caught up with him. As soon as he stopped the ball with his right foot, he pretended to take a kick. In fact, he feinted a shot. He dunked his right foot and kicked a shot with his left foot. The ball passed by the goalkeeper and went straight to the goalkeeper.
Far corner of goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the 83rd minute, the wonderful cooperation between Napoli's two substitute players ripped apart Zenit's defense at the front of the penalty area, one-on-one!"
"Gao Shen's two substitutions finally showed their effect at this moment."
"It has to be said that even though the team encountered various objective obstacles and restrictions, he still helped the team tie the score through on-the-spot command and substitution adjustments. This is already very difficult for Naples."
"After all, everyone knows how terrifying Russia's away games are after entering the cold winter!"
…
After the equalizer, there were nearly ten minutes left in the game including stoppage time.
Gao Shen had to adjust again and strengthen the team's defense.
Zenit didn't want the three points they got to turn into one point, and launched a fierce attack on Naples.
Advocaat even replaced a forward to further strengthen the defense.
Naples retreated across the board at the last moment.
In the end, relying on the team's defensive foundation, Naples held on to the one-to-one score until the end.
But the whole game was played quite poorly. Whether it was the long journey or the players' on-the-spot performance, it was quite unsatisfactory. This made everyone very dissatisfied with the result and they were all working hard.
Gao Shen also mobilized in the locker room after the game.
"After returning to the home court, we will take revenge for this arrow!"
The players all responded, each one more eager than Gao Shen.
