Head coach Di Francesco felt a drop of cold sweat pouring down his forehead.
This former Italian international, who was a Roma midfielder during his player days and played in the 2000 European Cup, is actually just a rookie in terms of coaching experience.
Lecce is only the first top league team he has coached, and it is also the first year he has led the team in Serie A.
But he immediately felt the dangers of such a high-level competition.
You can't kick anyone!
Lost to Udinese 0:2, Atalanta 1:2, Verona 0:3, Cagliari 0:2, Palermo 0:2...
They haven't even touched a team that can be called a strong team!
Later, it was only a narrow victory over Bologna in the last-place battle that gave Di Francesco his precious first victory in Serie A.
After only scoring three points in the first six rounds, Di Francesco has already felt the management's distrust of him, and rumors of dismissal are also circulating around him.
So today, when facing AC Milan, his strongest enemy since entering Serie A, Di Francesco was ready to defend the entire field and vow to score a point.
Five defenders and four midfielders form two iron walls, which will make Milan's attack in vain.
But now...
Isn’t AC Milan too powerful?
From the opening to the present, in just a few dozen seconds, Milan has already completed its first shot.
The defensive line that Di Francesco thought he had carefully laid out seemed like paper in front of Milan's attacking group.
Especially when Milan's three forwards and three midfielders were pressing in the frontcourt, they felt so well-trained and had a clear division of labor that they grabbed the ball instantly.
Then he started the attack very resolutely. The black guy in the midfield handed the ball to the wing without hesitation. Then the Arab took the ball and passed the ball. Finally, Ibrahimovic completed the shot.
Although he did not concede a goal, Di Francesco already had an ominous premonition.
If we continue to fight like this, it's impossible for Lecce to defend!
After all, a football match lasts ninety minutes!
Di Francesco couldn't help but turn his head and look at the visiting team's bench.
Allegri, the head coach of Milan, was just sitting in his seat, looking as usual.
Based on Di Francesco's past research on Allegri's playing style, this Italian colleague usually pays attention to the balance of offense and defense, and even prefers defense.
Today is an away game, why are you so aggressive?
Aren’t you going to give me some face?
Di Francesco shook his head and began to pray silently.
It's just the start of the game now. It's impossible for him, and he doesn't have the ability, to make any major adjustments to the tactics laid out before the game.
Moreover, he is originally in a defensive formation, can he still adjust to an offensive formation to fight against Milan?
Do you think your life is too long?
He can only hope that AC Milan will focus on offense now, so that if there are loopholes due to the high pressure of the defense, Lecce can counterattack and steal, and the situation will be much better.
But after Di Francesco looked at it for a few more minutes, he realized that he was wrong.
Milan presses and presses from a high position. Although the players often attack, the overall formation is very compact.
In particular, the two wings of the frontcourt are closer to the center when defending, compressing the entire space very compactly, the formation is also very meticulous, and the overall movement is very coordinated.
It seems that Milan's tactics deliberately compress the effective range of the game into a small area in the middle. When Lecce had to move the ball to the wing, Milan suddenly suppressed their wing players, forming a local numerical advantage, and then again
Steal the ball.
Coupled with the fact that Milan pressed harder in the frontcourt today and invested more resolutely, the entire Lecce team was overwhelmed and had no chance to counterattack.
The game lasted eight minutes, but Lecce couldn't even make a single attack.
On the other hand, Milan launched offensives again and again, and each time they became more threatening.
The time had just entered the 10th minute when Salah, who was still on the right, took the ball and forced a breakthrough. He reached the right side of the penalty area and sent a cross pass.
Ibrahimovic turned his back and Boateng rushed in from the back row and rushed into the penalty area, then fired angrily.
The ball went straight to the upper right corner of the goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! Milan scored! The away lead!"
Lecce's "iron wall" defense only lasted less than 10 minutes before it collapsed!
……
"Good shot!"
In front of the visiting team's bench, Pan Yi jumped up, clenched his right fist hard, and roared.
Allegri and Tassotti looked at him in surprise.
Now Pan Yi has experienced so many Serie A and Champions League games, and has become accustomed to such goals and victories.
Under normal circumstances, he would only be more excited when he scores goals when facing strong opponents or facing difficulties.
Today, he only faced the underdog Lecce, and he scored a goal so early. Why was he so excited?
How did they know that Pan Yi and Lecce had a personal grudge!
When he went for the interview, he was kicked out by Lecce's senior management without saying a word. He remembers it!
Just like when he was rejected by the National Football Team U17, it would be fine if he really felt after the interview that he did not meet the team's requirements, but Lecce simply rejected Pan Yi because he was young and a native of Long Guo.
He can't swallow the breath!
As the saying goes, thirty years to the east of Hedong and thirty years to the west of Hexi. Don’t bully young people into poverty. A gentleman takes revenge. Four months is never too late...
Now that there is this opportunity to slap someone in the face, can Pan Yi not let it go?
This is why he strongly promoted the use of violent attacks as Milan's main tactic today.
Enter as many as you can, no mercy!
Now, the cheers of Milan fans can be heard on the court, and Boateng also excitedly rushed out of the court to celebrate.
This midfielder was not appreciated by Pan Yi at first. He thought that he played relatively freely and casually and could not implement Pan Yi's tactics.
But as time went by, he gradually understood Pan Yi's tactical intentions with Ibrahimovic, and gradually proved himself in training, and was finally able to strictly enforce tactical disciplines in games.
Now his strong body, tenacious fighting will, and formidable aggressiveness in defense are all very much in line with Pan Yi's taste, and he has naturally become the main force in the team.
It can be said that Boateng has many similarities with Gattuso and Ambrosini, and he is younger, has better physical strength, and has stronger momentum. He can even play his role in this system.
Offensive potential.
Boateng scored today and he was naturally very excited.
After he finished a Dragon Kingdom kung fu-style celebration, he rushed to the sidelines and high-fived his teammates, hugged and celebrated, but he also did not forget to salute the visiting team's bench.
"Well done, keep attacking! Keep scoring goals! Fight to death!" Pan Yi stood on the sidelines and shouted loudly.
The words reached Di Francesco's ears not far away, and his eyes widened.