novelraw Chapter 588 - 399: Slippery Meazza, Can Inter’s "Water Attack Strategy" Disrupt Manchester City’s Possession Game?
Chapter 588 - 399: Slippery Meazza, Can Inter’s "Water Attack Strategy" Disrupt Manchester City’s Possession Game?
Club honors Grand Slam progress:
[English League Cup: Unlocked!]
[UEFA Europa League: Unlocked!]
[FA Cup: To be unlocked]
[Community Shield: To be unlocked]
[League Champion: To be unlocked]
[Champions League Champion: To be unlocked]
[FIFA Club World Cup: To be unlocked]
Unlock progress: 2/7.
League Champion unlock reward: Potential threshold breakthrough of data over 90
Champions League Champion unlock reward: Choose one data to be maxed out
Grand Slam unlock reward: Unknown
...
At the Inter Milan training ground.
The Blue-Black Corps players are training.
This is the last day’s training before the second leg of the Champions League round of 16.
The players are serious, and the head coach Leno is also meticulous.
For one reason, Inter sees the hope of advancing!
As Chiwo said, since Tang Long didn’t play in the first leg, plus Manchester City’s forwards were out of form, missing several good chances, they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Inter Milan.
A draw, and taking away an away goal, this result made the entire Inter Milan team overjoyed!
This time playing at home, Inter Milan has the advantage of home after away, as long as they can keep a clean sheet against Manchester City, under this premise, regardless of whether they score themselves, Inter Milan will advance to the quarter-finals.
Since the end of last season, the team’s main lineup has drastically changed, plus Mancini’s departure, this season Inter Milan not only lacks the strength to compete with Juventus for the league championship, but their league ranking has also plummeted.
So far, the season has played 30 rounds, they are in 6th place, with a gap of 7 points from fourth place Napoli.
The Coppa Italia was also exited early.
Leno has naturally encountered some trust crisis, his situation is already precarious.
However, his "good friend" Ossilio told him that if they can advance to the Champions League quarter-finals, it would absolutely be a historical breakthrough for the club in recent years, he might use it to fight with the boss to keep his position for next season.
So in Leno’s view, this second leg of the Champions League knockout became the lifeline for his position, he must hold on to it!
Bonazzoli continuously dribbles on the field, practicing pendulum dribbling against various imaginary foes.
"Left right left!"
He’s not only swaying his body, but also loudly shouting the directions with each step.
On the side, Kandrewa, who was discussing tactics with several old players, watched and wanted to laugh.
He shouted to Bonazzoli:
"Hey, silly boy, you shouldn’t shout ’left right left’ in the game, if you say it out loud, how can you deceive your opponent?"
Bonazzoli ignored Kandrewa’s teasing and continued his diligent pendulum practice.
With his body’s swaying, large sweat beads on his forehead drop down, his whole back steamed under the sunlight.
A few days ago, when taking his mom to Manchester for medical treatment, Bonazzoli unexpectedly received a precious gift from his former teammate Tang Long — a highlight reel of Ronaldo’s 1998 dribbling at Inter Milan’s training ground.
After returning, Bonazzoli repeatedly watched the game footage and during training used all his freer time to mimic Ronaldo’s dribbling poses from the tape.
Ronaldo’s dribbling tricks were endless, Bonazzoli didn’t know where to start practicing.
Fortunately, Ronaldo is his agent, one call and Ronaldo advised him to start with the pendulum.
Because the pendulum can be large or small in sway, its essence when broken down is still bodily and footwork swaying.
It’s not easy to do well and refine it, but to grasp it to a certain extent and use it in a game can be more deceptive than step-overs.
So even until the very last day before the game, Bonazzoli was still training hard on the field, determined to showcase this move tomorrow.
Santon watched and nodded frequently, saying to Kandrewa:
"Bonazzoli’s moves are quite in shape, though still not like Ronaldo, yet quite reminiscent of Tang last year while at Inter doing the pendulum moves."
Kandrewa laughed and patted Santon on the shoulder.
"Little brother, I’ll take your words as good-natured encouragement for young players!"
"What’s the use of him swaying during training? I know this kid well enough. You let him stand, oppose people, shoot, he’s fine. But you ask him to dribble past someone, look at his clumsy steps, can he do it?"
Then Kandrewa intentionally used exaggerated and comical moves, mimicking Bonazzoli’s pendulum.
He laughed while shouting "left right left", then suddenly yelled "ah", spread his arms, laughed, and fell on the ground, making a roll!
Santon watched Kandrewa’s clown-like performance, feeling displeased, turned and left.
Kandrewa calling him "little brother" outright made Santon unhappy.
Who is Santon, after all?
He represented Inter Milan in winning the treble in 2010.
Born in 1990, although he’s just 26 this year, he’s the most senior player in the entire Inter Milan squad, a remnant of the treble era, in 2010 all those players left Inter Milan, only he remains in the team.
Although Kandrewa is a key player in the Italy national team and has played in Serie A for years, coming to the team and trying to rule, engaging in locker room politics, clearly hints at wanting to be the boss.
But with your character, do you deserve it?
Recalling Kandrewa’s teasing of Bonazzoli, Santon also felt displeased.
He remembered back when Tang Long was promoted from Inter Milan youth team to the first team, he also frequently mimicked pendulum moves in training.
At that time, Tang Long and Bonazzoli were quite similar, the pendulum moves were both awkward, even at that time Tang Long wasn’t as natural as Bonazzoli is now in dribbling.
But in the end?
That season, Tang Long became the player with the highest dribbling success rate in the Inter Milan team!
Coach Leno had already announced the starting lineup for the match to the players. Thinking about starting tomorrow and facing former teammates Tang Long and Ranocchia, Santon had mixed feelings.
He was both happy and worried.
Happy because, after a year, he could finally reunite with his former teammates.
Especially Tang Long, if it wasn’t for Tang Long activating him on the left last season, Santon, who had lost two menisci, would almost have been kicked out.
After that, Santon played better and better, gradually securing the main position of left-back this season, firmly keeping Di Marco on the bench.
What worried him was that in the last match, the reason the Blue-Black Corps managed to hold Manchester City to a draw away was largely due to luck.
Several of the opponent’s sure goals missed by a hair’s breadth, and in terms of the scene, Manchester City was absolutely dominant.
Of course, the biggest luck was that Tang Long wasn’t on the field!
Now hosting at home, can Inter Milan continue the luck from the last match?
At the very least, Tang Long would definitely be on the field.
Santon couldn’t help but worry in his heart.
He looked at Leno, thinking about this coach promoted from the youth team, what ability did he have to limit Manchester City’s attack?
...
Leno is an unknown name in Italian football.
Before being promoted as the first-team head coach, he was just the head coach of Inter Milan’s youth team.
During his player career, he roamed the Serie B for a long time and retired before the age of 30.
The honors won during his player career were far less than the then assistant coach Chiwo.
As for technical and tactical skills, don’t even mention it.
Chiwo left the youth team in frustration due to a conflict with Leno on coaching philosophy, disliking his outdated tactics.
But Leno, being able to survive in the football world for many years, naturally had his strengths.
Since Tang Long would definitely appear in this match, Inter Milan first-team coaching staff meticulously prepared, holding several meetings to discuss tactics to limit Manchester City’s passing and control style.
Leno was clearly aware that luck could not always be on his side!
In the last match, Manchester City’s passing and control were actually played very well, just the luck fell short in the end. With Tang Long playing this match, they couldn’t rely on luck anymore, playing at home, they had to take the initiative.
If tactical ideas couldn’t work out, then I would play some dirty tricks!
Inter Milan completed the last morning training session before the match day.
That afternoon, Manchester City also took a flight from Manchester to Milan and checked into a hotel.
However, in the afternoon, Leno remained at the Meazza Stadium, starting his plan to modify the field.
"Make it a bit smaller, yes, make the pitch smaller, to limit their passing and control tactics!"
Under Leno’s command, the stadium manager at the Meazza erased the existing white lines, preparing to redraw them.
"Do you want to narrow it down further, Head Coach? Wouldn’t that make it too narrow? How would our players play then?"
The stadium manager measured the width with a tape, looking at Leno with a puzzled expression.
He had been employed by the Inter Milan Club for more than fifteen years and had never seen the field width at Meazza become so narrow.
"Don’t worry so much, stop nagging and just do as I say!"
The Meazza field length is 105 meters, and the width is 68 meters.
Under Leno’s command, the Meazza field width was reduced by 4 meters, changing from 68 meters to 64 meters.
In Leno’s view, Manchester City’s passing and control tactics would definitely use the width of the two sides of the field during ball transfers, using stretching, to make Inter Milan’s players run back and forth, and then Tang Long would find the gap to deliver a deadly pass.
And reducing the field width could limit Manchester City’s use of width to the greatest extent.
On the defensive end, it would benefit Inter Milan, who primarily plays defensive counter-attacks, to narrow the formation and strengthen the central defense.
The time came to the next day.
Leno once again arrived at the Meazza Stadium and had the field manager turn on the automatic sprinkler system hidden under the field, spraying water continuously.
Every blade of grass at Meazza was covered with crystal water droplets.
Under the sunlight of the Mediterranean, they sparkled, looking like a vast ocean from a distance.
"Should we keep adding water, Head Coach? If we add more, it will become a mud field!"
"Not enough, not enough, keep going, we’re not even close! Add water!"
Water was sprayed for another 20 minutes.
Finally, the field manager couldn’t bear it anymore and shut off the sprinklers, saying if they kept spraying, all the grass would drown and would need to be relaid, costing hundreds of thousands of euros again.
Leno nodded and then started running on the grass.
He wasn’t wearing professional soccer shoes but was in running shoes, without cleats, and with water everywhere on the ground, he slipped after not even running 10 meters, landing on his back, his head hitting the ground heavily.
The stadium manager quickly ran over, afraid the head coach was injured. The game was going to be played in the evening. If he got a concussion, what would they do?
Unexpectedly, Leno sprang up excitedly and hugged the manager.
"Good job, this is the effect I wanted. Tonight’s match, is assured!"
Leno believed that since Manchester City primarily focuses on passing and control, they would have extremely high requirements for the quality of the grass.
Overly slippery grounds would certainly not be conducive for the opponents to pass the ball smoothly, instead benefiting Inter Milan in using the mess to snatch a goal or two.
Reducing the field’s width and overly watering the grass.
These were the two moves Leno primarily deployed before the match!