Chapter 444: On the Eve of the Semifinals (Part I)
"The game is on, and there are a lot of things to watch in this match between Fiorentina and Parma. The first is whether Fiorentina, who have been unbeaten in 51 consecutive league games, can continue to maintain their form, breaking the record of 58 unbeaten league games set by AC Milan four years ago; The second highlight is the master-apprentice duel between the coaches of these two teams, Capello and Ancelotti, is it the master who proves that Jiang is still old and spicy, or the apprentice who once looked down on him as a lesson? Let's wait and see......"
Although Fiorentina won the Serie A title this season and completed the league three in a row is basically a certainty, Ancelotti's Parma tried to cause some problems for Fiorentina's journey to the title, or rather a bent intention to add to Fiorentina's journey, and they almost succeeded: Buffon blocked Barty's long-range shot and Ronaldo's one-handed shot in the first half. Crespo's goal grabbing in the 22nd minute and Chiesa's free-kick in the 35th minute almost broke through Toldo's goal, but thanks to the Frankie goalpost saving Fiorentina, the Purple Lilies did not end the first half of the game with a score behind.
"Gabriel's ball doesn't seem to be very good." At halftime, Zhuang Mingge said helplessly that so far in the season, the Argentine God of War has only scored eleven goals in the league, ranking last among the four strikers, and even Vieri, who claims to be Barty's apprentice, has scored more goals in the league this season than him.
Although Zhuang Mingge knew that Barty had the habit of spring hibernation in history (that is, before the winter break, Barty was as unstoppable as the real god of war, and began to doze off in the spring of the next year, falling into a long-term goal drought), but Zhuang Mingge thought that in this team of Florence, which is countless times stronger than history, the Argentine god of war should not have this problem.
But some things are just so weird, and no matter how much foreshadowing you've done before, what should happen will still happen.
For example, Batistuta, judging from Barty's performance in this game, the Argentine God of War is indeed very hard in the game, running and scrambling are very active, and the shooting is as strong as ever, but it can't be broken, which makes Zhuang Mingge very depressed: Is there really something that curses Batty in the dark, so that Batty can't score goals after the winter break?
Barty's bad luck seems to have affected other Fiorentina players, such as Ronaldo, the alien twice got a chance to score a solo ball in the first half, but both of them were incredibly kicked directly into Buffon's arms or directly off the bottom line, which made the Brazilian grin and jump on the pitch.
Capello on the pitch seemed to be equally aware of how contagious Barty's goal drought could be, so the Italian coach immediately made adjustments: in the 59th minute, Capello replaced the Argentine god of war with Julio Cruz.
Seeing himself being substituted, Barty's mood was inevitably a little low, after all, as the captain of the team, he did not bring the team a victory, which made him a little unacceptable with a strong sense of responsibility, but he still obeyed the manager's arrangement and walked off the field.
It is also unknown if Cruz is really Fiorentina's lucky star, the Argentine striker brought Fiorentina a goal immediately after coming on the field: in the 64th minute, Zemaria's pass to Stanic was intercepted by Davies, and the Dutchman immediately passed the ball to Redondo in the middle.
At this time, Parma was at the point where the whole team had not had time to recycle the formation when they pressed the attack, and Redondo, who was very good at observing the situation on the field, immediately sent a long pass over the top!
The ball was crossed by Cruise's header and fell behind Thuram, and as soon as the Frenchman turned to intercept it, he felt a gust of wind blow past him, and in the blink of an eye, a player in a purple jersey appeared in front of him!
"Ronaldo! Unparalleled speed and explosiveness! He caught the ball before the Parma defenders could get back! ”
Buffon was the only obstacle to the alien's goal, and in the face of the Parma goalkeeper, who had twice saved his own solo goal in the first half, Ronaldo used his best pendulum dribble, shaking Buffon's center of gravity before picking up his right foot and sending the ball into the net.
1 to 0! Fiorentina lead Parma at home!
With the score behind, Ancelotti's defensive counter-attacking tactics for the team before the game naturally became useless, because with Capello's undisciplined level, Fiorentina, who led by one goal, could have taken advantage of Parma's opportunity to shrink in the back to delay the game and keep the score until the end of the game.
Therefore, at such times, Parma's players had no choice but to change their tactics under the command of Carlo Ancelotti and take the initiative to attack the door of Fiorentina.
Parma's pressing attack put some pressure on Fiorentina's defence, but for the Fiorentina players, the game became much better - the harder the opponent attacked, the more opportunities were left for them to counter-attack.
Carlo Ancelotti is aware of this, but he has no choice, and in his opinion, losing one goal is no different from losing two, which is a rhythm that does not score a point anyway.
In the eighty-third minute, Parma, who had been unable to attack for a long time, made a mistake in passing, Stanic's through ball actually passed directly to Redondo's feet, and the Argentine back immediately launched a quick counterattack with a long left-footed pass, and Cruise once again pressed Cannavaro's header ferry, and once again assisted his forward partner Ronaldo to score and expand the score to 2-0!
In the end, with Ronaldo's brace in the half hour of the game, Fiorentina finally did not overturn at home, and won a victory with a difficult score of 2-0 against Carlo Ancelotti's Parma.
However, the Fiorentina players did not be happy for long, because a week later, at the Stadio Franqui, against the shaky Hodgson's Inter Milan, the Fiorentina forward line led by Barty and Inzaghi failed to find the back of the net against Pagliuca, and the Purple Lilies were finally held to a draw at home by the Nerazzurri, earning only one point.
Zhuang Mingge was not angry because of this draw, and apart from the impact of Barty's recent bad luck in goal, Capello's lack of all the main players in this game was one of the reasons why Fiorentina only got a draw.
Well, who let the first leg of the Champions League semi-final with Juventus be played three days later, and the team drew in the league, and the difference between the second place and the whopping 20 points was not prepared for this time?
Incidentally, the other highlight of this round of Serie A is the civil war between the holy league of AC Milan and Juventus. Juventus, who had poached Vieri years in advance by Zhuang Mingge, still caused a bloody affair at the San Siro Stadium, but the score shrank from a historical 6-1 to 4-0 - Pierrot, the prince of the Bianconeri, scored twice in the game, Zinedine Zidane and Lombardo scored a goal each to lead the Bianconeri to a big win over AC Milan.
Next, there is the Champions League semi-final between Juventus and Fiorentina, which also beat AC Milan into a sieve.