"After the first half of the game...how do you feel? Are you tired?"
Looking at the panting players in the locker room, Pan Yi asked a question.
The players looked at each other, but no one answered immediately.
Tired, how could I not be tired?
Although Pan Yi made rotations before, allowing many players to get some rest time, the pressure Croatia put on Italy this time was huge.
In the first half of the game, in order to offset the technical advantage of the opponent's midfielder, the Italian players ran extremely hard. Each player's running range was quite large, which also took a toll on their physical fitness.
However, the one-goal lead and high fighting spirit diluted the physical loss, so when Pan Yi asked this question, although everyone did not answer, the expressions on their faces were still very determined.
That means, we are tired, but there is no problem, we can withstand it!
"Your attitude is very good, but I know that you will definitely feel a little tired." Pan Yi said with a smile, "Although you have been well trained by Mr. Pintus, but such a high-intensity running, I am here The people watching below are all tired, but you will be damned if you are not tired."
Everyone laughed when they heard Pan Yi's joke.
"However, we ran very aggressively in the first half and consumed a lot of physical energy. This is normal. After all, this is the tactic we deployed..."
Pan Yi went on to say:
"But the good news is that our opponents are definitely more tired than us, and much more tired."
“Our large-scale running in the first half certainly made our physical fitness drop quickly, but it also made the Croatian players have to put in more running and energy to complete the attack, so the number of runs they made in the first half There are more than you, and the physical exertion will be greater."
"In addition, they played two consecutive 120-minute games, which adds up to an hour more than us!"
"Furthermore, in both of our knockout games, we established the victory early, and we had a leisurely fight later on, but they couldn't. They fought hard from the first minute to the last minute!"
"Perhaps this physical gap cannot be seen in the first half, but you will definitely see it in the second half. Therefore, we must start to turn defense into offense in the second half!"
"Let them know that not only do we defend well, but we are definitely no worse than the Croats in offense!"
Pan Yi even waved his fist at the end.
The players also raised their fists one after another: "Okay, let them see our advantages and disadvantages!"
Even if defense is in the blood of Italians, offense is always a player's favorite thing to do.
Who doesn’t like offense!
This is why when children start learning football, they often love to play forward and score goals...
Even if these children have now become professional players and players of the Italian national team, their offensive nature will not change.
Even if Pan Yi has made them understand that good defense is the basis for winning, they can still win by a big score. However, hearty offense is always what everyone likes.
"Intensify the pressure in the midfield. The forward line must remember to move to both sides. The midfielder will come to you immediately after stealing the ball."
"You can work alone first, and if you can seize the opportunity to shoot, shoot. If not, wait for your teammates to come up and cooperate."
"Initiate a counterattack from the side and follow up in the center. We will not use short passes from the midfield to penetrate and tear apart the opponent's defense. However, I am absolutely confident in the small coordinated attack between the few of us! "
The tough midfield interception tactics Pan Yi mentioned were actually the tactics he often used against Barcelona when he was in the Champions League.
It's just that when playing against Barcelona, it is often necessary to shrink the defense and compress the space to prevent talented players like MSN from having too many opportunities to cooperate.
Although Croatia is very strong in the midfield and frontcourt, it is definitely not at the level of MSN, so now Italy does not need to shrink its defense, it only needs to strengthen its midfield interception.
On the counterattack, the cooperation between several people with quick ground passes is much more efficient than long passes from the backcourt, especially Chiesa's speed, Balotelli's personal dribbling ability, and Balotelli's ability to dribble the ball. Pan Yi trusts Leila and Tonali's ability to support them from behind.
After explaining what the players had to do in the second half, Pan Yi saw that the time was almost up and waved the players out of the locker room to prepare for the second half.
"Well...Boss, we are already one goal ahead. Isn't it inappropriate to play against each other now?"
After the players all walked out of the locker room, Vialli suddenly asked Pan Yi this question.
"Can you guess that we will attack when we are ahead?" Pan Yi asked with a smile.
"I can't guess..." Vialli said honestly, and then asked hesitantly: "But taking such a risk just for this reason... is not worth it."
"Of course it's not just about these." Pan Yi nodded, "Think about it, when Croatia found that we attacked aggressively in the second half and left more gaps in the backcourt than in the first half, they would Won't we press further forward? By then, we will have more opportunities."
"But they may also switch to a defensive counterattack and use speed to beat our backline..." Evani also frowned.
It seems that the two assistant coaches don't quite understand Pan Yi's approach.
As traditional Italian coaches, they often have a relatively fixed thinking, that is, since they have gained a lead through defense, they can continue to use defense to consolidate this advantage, and seize the opponent's eagerness to equalize to counterattack. .
Pan Yi suddenly said that he wanted to strengthen the offense. Whether it was Vialli or Evani, it was a bit beyond their understanding.
Pan Yi also explained patiently: "They are not on the court now with Mandzukic. In fact, their ability to attack tough situations has declined, so I am not afraid of confronting them."
"Of course, more importantly, Croatia's defense is not that good. There are quite a few holes in their defense."
"I analyzed it with you before the game, and in fact it was the same in the first half of the game. Lovren was slow, Vida was brave but not stable, Vosaljko's defensive ability was average, and Strini Qi prefers assists..."
"Compared with their defense, we are much more stable! If there is an attack, I am confident that we can score the goal before them!"
"But..." Vialli scratched his bald head, "This reason... doesn't seem to be enough?"
"Okay, there's another reason." Pan Yi spread his hands, "I'm not very confident in defending this goal lead."
At this moment, both Vialli and Evani were stunned.
lack of confidence? These words came out of the mouth of Pan Yi, who had always been extremely confident, and seemed so rare...
Pan Yi smiled and explained: "Actually, it is difficult for us to break Croatia's defense just by counterattacking. Otherwise, we would not have scored a goal just by relying on a free kick."
"In other words, our lead is actually due to a certain amount of luck. If Croatia scored one of their several shots, the situation would not be as optimistic as it is now."
"Moreover, even if we all defend in the second half, we may not be able to completely prevent their attack."
"Since a counterattack may not lead to a goal, and defense may not concede a goal, then compared to this kind of risk, I would rather take the risk of attacking with Croatia..."
"So, are you satisfied with this explanation?"
Vialli and Evani looked at me and I looked at you. They seemed to see doubts in each other's eyes, but they were indeed convinced by Pan Yi.
Well, as a head coach, Pan Yi actually has no need to explain it so clearly to his assistant.
Perhaps Pan Yi would listen to the opinions of his assistants many times, but more often than not their opinions are actually just assistance and cannot affect his final decision-making.
And when it comes to the critical moment - now is the critical moment - Pan Yi has his own ideas - of course his ideas often turn out to be correct.
Therefore, even if Vialli and Evani still have some unsolved doubts in their hearts, they can only follow Pan Yi's lead now.
——
When Pan Yi walked out of the player tunnel, he did not sit down as the head coach, but stood directly on the sidelines.
In the second half, Italy kicked off first.
Chiesa Jr. and Balotelli stood in the center of the court ready to kick off.
They all had smiles on their faces.
On the one hand, because the team is ahead, they are naturally happy.
On the other hand, of course it’s because…
The head coach said that we should try our best to attack in the second half. For offensive players like them, it is naturally more in line with their appetite.
Especially Balotelli, it is simply too painful for him to defend!
When the referee blew his whistle, Balotelli couldn't wait to pass the ball to Chiesa, and then ran forward.
Chiesa took the ball and turned around, but instead of passing it back, he made a direct cross pass to Tonali, who had already pulled to the right.
At the same time, Spinazzola on the left rushed forward, and Barrera also rushed past Tonali at the right time. Italy's attack suddenly broke out!
After Tonali received the ball, he immediately rushed into the Croatian half.
There were many Croatian defenders in front of him, but he was not afraid because he knew that behind him, there were Verratti and De Sciglio, and he was definitely not fighting alone.
The first person to greet him was the opponent's veteran Modric. Facing this Croatian number one star, Tonali sank his shoulders and forced a breakthrough!
But Modric obviously didn't take the chance. He stepped down in time and scooped the ball out.
However, the shoveled ball fell to the feet of De Sciglio who followed up to respond. De Sciglio immediately made another through ball and passed the ball to Chiesa further forward on the wing.
After Chiesa caught the ball, the only one left to defend him was Fusaliko.
Facing this full-back who was far slower than himself, Chiesa began to force a breakthrough!
He is faster than Tonali and has better passing skills, while Fossalico's defensive ability is obviously not as sophisticated as Modric.
So this time, Chiesa succeeded. Fossalico was a little slower. Chiesa passed the ball over his body, and then rushed over like the wind!
Chiesa Jr. is a relatively typical Italian winger, with excellent breakthroughs and fast speed, but sometimes he acts like a reckless man on the court, dribbling the ball from the wing to the bottom line before turning back.
This time, he got "sick" again.
After reaching the bottom line, Chiesa looked up to observe the situation in the penalty area. After seeing Balotelli and Barrera already coming to the penalty area to respond, he immediately made a pass!
Although Varela is not tall, he is very flexible in running. He attracted the attention of Lovren and Strinic in the middle. Balotelli followed up with a diving header!
Just when the Croatian fans were about to scream, Subasic saved Croatia, just like he has repeatedly saved the grid in this World Cup.
Faced with Balotelli's diving attack, he reacted immediately, saved the ball quickly, and then stretched out his hand to lift the ball over the crossbar.
"I'll hit you!" Pan Yi covered his head and roared.
Italy are already very good at the surprise attack after the opening. It would have been much easier to hit if this goal had been scored. Unfortunately, it was just a little bit short...
"Italy's fierce attack at the beginning almost expanded the score again! Under the leadership of Pan Yi, they are now always able to take advantage of the opponent's weakest psychological moment to launch an attack. Croatia survived the disaster!"
Although Italy shocked everyone in Croatia with an attack at the beginning, in the eyes of the commentators and the audience, Italy will mostly focus on defensive counterattacks.
They are in the lead, but they may not be better than Croatia offensively. It seems better to use less effort to counterattack defensively.
They used this tactic to withstand the attacks of Germany and England. Even if Croatia's offense is stronger than these two teams, it doesn't seem to be much stronger.
Even though Dalic was a little wary because of the opponent's fierce attack, he didn't think Italy would give up its one-goal lead to attack Croatia...
However, Italy immediately surprised everyone.
After this attack, Croatia launched a fierce attack, and Italy launched a crazy interception in the midfield. Their running distance may be less than in the first half, but they ran longer than in the first half. Be reasonable.
Modric was surrounded by Varela and Verratti in the midfield and almost couldn't hold the ball. In the end, he couldn't pass the ball to Rakitic.
Rakitic passed the ball to Kramaric, who dribbled the ball forward. After a one-two with Perisic, he shot from the front of the penalty area, but Donnarumma flew out and blocked it.
De Sciglio took the ball from the wing, faced Modric who was rushing forward and forced the ball forward, and then knocked the ball to Tonali. Tonali ran and passed it straight to Varela in front. Italy's offensive once again break out!
Barrera strode forward with the ball, and Brozovic came up to him. The two collided and were staggered at the same time.
Before Varela lost his balance, he raised his foot and passed the ball to Balotelli at the front of the penalty area. Balotelli took the ball and turned around. Facing Vida's defense, he did not force a breakthrough. Instead, he raised his foot and distributed the ball to the left. Spinazzola came in from the edge of the trap.
Spinazzola ran up like the wind and matched Strinic's speed.
In terms of physical confrontation, Spinazzola and Strinic could only be regarded as half a pound to half a pound at best, but they had a slight advantage in terms of speed.
Without giving Strinic time to interfere with himself, Spinazzola forced a distance and immediately passed the ball into the penalty area with his left foot.
Although it was in a hurry, the curve ball was still passed beautifully. Barrera came from the back row and wanted to shoot directly, but it missed the baseline slightly due to the interference of Lovren.
"These guys want to attack us?" Dalic raised his eyebrows, thinking in surprise.
This was something he never expected.
What happened next confirmed his guess, Italy and Croatia really fought against each other!
Croatia constantly created opportunities with short passes back and forth from the center, while Italy had to play simpler.
The two wingers Chiesa Jr. and Insigne sprinted back and forth on the wing, and the two would also switch positions before sprinting.
The two full-backs Spinazzola and De Sciglio also pressed forward frequently, constantly suppressing the Croatian full-backs from both wings to assist, and then creating opportunities for players in the center.
At the same time, Croatia's offense also encountered a lot of trouble.
The passing and cutting cooperation in their midfield was constantly interrupted by Italy's pressing and fouls. If the ball was directly passed behind the ball, Kramaric would be under the tight marking of the opponent's two central defenders.
Although there is no standard defensive midfielder in today's Italian formation, Italy's three midfielders pay attention to the protection of the front edge of the penalty area. It is difficult for Croatia to attack directly against the central defender.
"Come up and fight them!" Dalic stood up, whistled loudly, and then shouted loudly.
Fight against us? Let's see whose defense will be beaten to pieces!
Just like everyone is very clear about Croatia's strengths and weaknesses, Dalic, as the head coach, certainly also understands that the offensive talents of his players are definitely world-class, but they are a little behind on defense.
Therefore, he is afraid that his opponent will not attack him. If he counterattacks, his unreliable defense line may not be able to defend him.
Now you, Pan Yi, want to attack? Then attack!
Therefore, Dalic made the most exciting decision for the fans. Croatia began to mobilize against Italy and play full offense and defense. The two full-backs boldly stepped forward under the pressure of Italy's wing attack and participated in the attack. go.
As a result, the defensive pressure on both sides began to increase.
But the players from both sides, who were already fighting hard, no longer cared about this. They had only one thought in their minds - to defeat the opponent's defense before the opponent scores a goal!
Varela's long-range shot was saved by Subasic. The goalkeeper's performance in the past ten minutes was heroic, which also made Italian fans a little worried:
Can our Donnarumma perform as well as Subasic?
After all, in a confrontation, if both sides create similar opportunities, the one with the better goalkeeper will often take advantage.
An attack and defense in the 60th minute seemed to prove that the worries of Italian fans were not unnecessary.
With Modric and Kramaric being heavily defended by the Italian midfielders, Rakitic suddenly broke out.
After getting the ball on the right, he quickly dribbled away from Verratti's defense, and then made an emergency stop before Spinazzola came up, tempting Spinazzola to stop, then accelerated again and broke through from the side!
Rakitic, who passed two people, attracted some attention in the Italian penalty area. On the other side, Perisic and Kramaric, who inserted into the penalty area, also attracted some people's attention. For a moment, they ignored it. Modric has already rushed to the outside of the penalty area.
Just when Rakitic passed the ball into the penalty area, Modric suddenly moved forward!
Rakitic's pass was quite beautiful, bypassing countless players on both sides in the front and middle, flying directly to the back point, and then fell at the feet of the unguarded Modric!
Donnarumma felt excited and immediately pounced on him.
He had always been protected by his teammates before, but now, he was alone and had to face the opponent's attack.
Donnarumma opened his arms and tried his best to block Modric's shot path.
However, Modric remained calm enough, facing the rushing Donnarumma, he twisted his body and pushed a ground ball!
Donnarumma struggled to reach for it, but still couldn't touch the ball. He reluctantly looked back, hoping to see the ball fly out of the baseline.
However, the ball kept rolling towards the goal, and then rolled into the goal before Bastoni's long leg stretched out on defense...
"goooooooooooooooooal! Modric! Modric! Modric equalized the score! Two players from Barcelona and Real Madrid completed a wonderful combination, Rakitic's assist, Modric's goal! Now the score It was one to one, Croatia equalized the score!”
The Croatian players cheered and hugged each other, and the Croatian fans in the stands also burst into loud cheers. Dalic waved his hands fiercely and raised his arms and shouted.
Then, he glanced in Pan Yi's direction intentionally or unintentionally, feeling secretly proud in his heart:
"Haha, you're one goal ahead and you don't know how much you weigh? Are you going to challenge Italy against me? It seems like you don't want to enter the final!" (End of Chapter)
