Chapter 303 Tit for Tat

Many outside media are talking about penalty kicks. More people think that in the game between Italy and England, there will be a penalty shootout situation, and the two teams will decide the winner by 'brutal' penalty kicks. , Italian media continued to build momentum for Italy, and many neutral media followed 'not optimistic about England'.

The English media quickly launched a "counter-attack" to justify the name of the England team. The "Daily Mirror" is the leading media. They used the analysis of the Italian team's data to show that even if there is a penalty shootout, the England team has a high winning rate.

The "Daily Mirror" specially analyzed the penalty kicks of the main penalty takers in Italy and England from the 2008-2009 season to the present, and analyzed the Italian players' taking habits in detail. help Hart."

The figures are not optimistic for Italy.

Italian striker Balotelli hit all 9 penalty kicks in the past. Relatively speaking, he is more inclined to take the ball to the left side of the goalkeeper. His efficiency is still very high, and he is considered to be the only certainty in the Italian team. A player who can score a penalty.

Another striker, Cassano, has been saved twice from a penalty kick, and the scoring efficiency is not high, but Cassano's penalty kick direction is difficult to find regularity.

From the 2008-2009 season so far, De Rossi has only hit half of his penalty kicks, and his preferred angle is the top right corner of the goalkeeper.

Di Natale may be the best penalty taker in Italy, Italy's "King of Penalties", he is not paranoid about taking left or right, all he does is find a way to score, but his The scoring efficiency is actually not high - 9 of 14 penalty kicks, less than 70% of the hit rate is just barely passable.

Finally, there is Pirlo, the core of the Italian midfielder. Many people compare Pirlo with Morris, and think that Pirlo's technology is better than Morris, and then subconsciously think that Pirlo's penalty efficiency is definitely better than Morris. be high.

Actually, this is wrong.

Of the past nine penalties, Pirlo has missed three, and it is worth noting that Pirlo never kicks the ball to the left side of the goalkeeper, although he doesn't hit a high percentage on the right side (out of seven). 4).

The "Daily Mirror" finally commented, "According to historical records, Italy is not good at penalty kicks. In the past 7 penalty kicks, they have only won 2 times."

The key to the analysis of the "Daily Mirror" is to prove that 'the Italians' penalty kicks are not very good', and then the article listed England's penalty kickers - Rooney, Morris, Gerrard, Adrien Shili - Cole, Ashley - Young and Milner, but out of possible "confidentiality" considerations, the "Daily Mirror" only gave pictures and did not analyze it.

The rest of the English media quickly followed, and also began reporting on the Italian's penalty.

In addition to the penalty kicks of the two teams, many media reports also focused on the two core players - England's core Maurice, and Italy's most sought-after player is striker Balotelli.

Balotelli is a genius in the Italian team. He is only 23 years old, but he has become the core player of the striker. Almost every team that encounters Italy has to worry about defending Balotelli.

At the age of 15 years and 7 months, Balotelli played on behalf of Lumezzane in the Serie C, creating a historical record in the Italian professional league.

On the last day of the summer transfer in 2006, the head of Inter Milan's transfer department found Balotelli's brother and his agent Corrado and asked for relevant information, and immediately gave Balotelli a copy. three-year contract.

In the 2006-07 season, Balotelli scored 19 goals in the first 20 games of the U-17 youth team, and was promoted to the U-19 youth team in the second half of the season, scoring 9 goals and helping Inter Milan U-19. The youth team won the youth league championship, so it was concerned by the first team coach Mancini.

On December 17, 2007, 2 minutes before the end of the match between Inter Milan and Cagliari, Balotelli replaced Suazzo as a backup. This was his first appearance for the Inter Milan first team in an official match. Three days later, in the match against Reggina in the Coppa Italia, Balotelli made his first start in the first team game. He not only played 90 minutes, but also scored two goals.

Balotelli's outstanding performance also helped Inter Milan win the 2007-08 Italian Football League Championship.

In 2008, the 18-year-old Balotelli renewed his contract with Inter Milan until 2011. The annual salary of 1.2 million euros made him the highest-paid player of his age. On November 4, Balotelli played against Cyprus Football League One. He became the youngest player in Inter Milan history to score a Champions League goal, breaking the previous record held by Martins at 18 years and 145 days .

In the 2009-10 season, Balotelli's performance was outstanding. Compared with last season, because he lost several key strikers this season, Balotelli became the third striker after Diego Milito and Eto'o. He then played as a reserve in the first three games, including a 4-0 win over AC Milan in the same-city derby, and then scored two goals and an assist in the home game against Palermo. -3 wins.

Due to his outstanding performance in Inter Milan, Balotelli gained attention from all over Europe and the world. In 2010, he joined Manchester City for a transfer fee of 28 million euros.

Last game, Balotelli was in great shape. He almost single-handedly directed Manchester City's 6-1 slaughter against Manchester United. He played 28 times throughout the season and helped Manchester City score 19 goals.

This performance is enough to get Balotelli to receive the highest attention.

At present, the Italian team is actually not good. After the failure of the 2010 World Cup, Italy fell into a huge trough. Prandelli took over the team and completed the reconstruction that Lippi did not complete. Veterans such as Pirlo, but at the same time, players of the age group such as Cassano, Chiellini, Montolivo, and young players such as Balotelli and Lanozia who have been famous for a few years. The Italian team, so to speak, is in the process of rebuilding.

In this Italian team, Balotelli has attracted much attention, and he can also be said to be the 'number one star' in the team.

The England team is about to play against the Italian team. How to defend Balotelli has also become the focus. Wansheng also attaches great importance to this. During the preparation of the England team, Wansheng also emphasized the blockade of Balotelli to prevent The physical, technical and excellent striker is a threat to England's back line and goal.

Balotelli is not easy to defend, because his technical body is very good.

Wansheng has made three defensive strategies against Balotelli: First, conduct more physical confrontation. The England team is not weaker than others in physical confrontation. Especially after Wansheng took over, the physical attributes of the team's players have been improved. It is Terry, Lescott and other strong defenders who are not afraid of physical conflict at all. They can compete with Balotelli and create enough pressure and trouble for Balotelli.

The second is to create offside.

This is also considering the overall strength of Italy. The long passes of Pirlo and Montolivo are very deadly. In the face of single-handed Balotelli, there is no need to think about life.

If he can make offside successfully, Balotelli's temper will become impatient.

An impatient striker is not much of a threat.

However, Wansheng emphasized that it should be avoided as much as possible, because offside is not dangerous, and the back line must maintain a high degree of concentration, especially on the side of Abeloa, not to be distracted by defending Cassano, If the full-backs are not pressed in time for offside, the goal can become very dangerous.

In order to defeat the Italian team, of course, the overall struggle is indispensable. The midfield has become the most important "battlefield", and striving for the initiative of the midfield is very important for the progress of the whole game.

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In the external reports and the internal preparations for the war, three days passed quickly.

The game between Italy and England is about to start.

Both teams have entered the stadium to warm up, fans and spectators have also begun to enter the stadium to watch the game. England fans have continued their strength in the past. Unless they are against a host like Ukraine, the number of England fans is always the largest.

Some foreign media believe that "England's ability to play such good results is inseparable from the absolute support of England fans."

Italy is relatively weak.

This was a match against Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine. Italy moved from Poland to Dynamo Kyiv. The weakness of the "away" game was fully reflected. There were at least 10,000 fans in England and at most 4,000 in Italy.

This has nothing to do with the majority of Italian politicians joining the boycott of the European Cup in Ukraine, and it has little to do with the downturn in the European economy. It is just because Italian fans have brought their inertia to the national team to the national team, and they prefer to sit at home and watch live broadcasts with friends.

Italy and Ireland, the audience was 17 million at the opening, rose to 20 million when Cassano scored, and Balotelli scored more than 21 million at the end of the game. The number of TV media attention continued to increase, and the increase in the total number showed that the fans did not change halfway. Desk signs.

According to the ratings report of Italian national television, the ratings at the beginning were 67.6%, and at the end it reached 71.29%.

Seven out of 10 spectators watched the Blue Shirts game.

Italy's census last year showed that the country has a population of more than 60 million, and more than one-third are concerned about the national team's qualifying battle.

This is already the most watched Italian TV show this year, and the audience for the Sanremo Music Festival was only 13.28 million.

But TV channel ratings do not represent the enthusiasm of Italian fans for supporting the national team. They rarely come to the scene to support fans. Italian star De Rossi said of the small audience: "In this economic background, how many people have the ability to watch football? England fans have been like this for generations, and they came together in large numbers. Fortunately, the game was 11 people against 11 people. If you consider the number of fans, we don't have to compare. I hope that if we qualify again, there will be more fans, like in 2006. Like Germany. Our politicians boycotting Ukraine? The details are unclear, we just play well.”

The small number of fans in Italy is good news for England, and there will be more fans on site to support the game.

"If the team does well, this could be our home."

At the pre-match press conference, Wan Sheng said with a smile, "There will be an advantage at home, I believe the team will also play an advantage, and strive to get more neutral fans to support us."

After talking about some additional topics, the focus returned to the game, and Wan Sheng once again reiterated that he would win the game in '90 minutes', "We will try to win the game in 90 minutes, I believe we can do it. But football games The result is always unpredictable, if there is a penalty shootout, we will be the winner, the only thing is that the game is a bit difficult..."

The Italian media immediately questioned, "Why do you say that?"

"Because of self-confidence." Wan Sheng said, "I know my team very well, and I know Italy very well. Yes, I have never coached an Italian team, but it doesn't matter. I have already learned about Italy through the video of the game. Full understanding, they will not be our opponents."

"If you don't believe me, you can watch it later in the game!"

After Wan Sheng said this, he left the venue.

10 minutes later, the Italian coach Prandelli also came.

Prandelli is a former star player of the Italian national team and has also made great achievements in coaching the team. Verona's two seasons were the beginning of Prandelli's coaching. He not only helped the team successfully advance to Serie A and successfully avoid relegation, but also ranked ninth.

After that, he led Venice to the first class.

Prandelli coached Parma in 2002. It was at this time that he began to receive attention from the whole of Italy. In 2004, he entered the ranks of the giants' coach, but due to his wife's serious illness, Prandelli had to resign as the coach. job.

In 2005, Prandelli joined Fiorentina. As a result, he brought the team into the Champions League in the first season. However, due to the penalty of the telephone door, Fiorentina missed the Champions League and started the second season with a minus 15 points. Although The points were deducted, but Fiorentina still finished sixth at the end of the season and qualified for the Europa League.

In the next two seasons, Florence qualified for the Champions League, and the league and the Champions League performed quite well.

With Ancelotti leaving AC Milan, Prandelli became the longest-serving Serie A manager at the time.

In 2009, he became the longest coach in Fiorentina's history.

Judging from Prandelli's experience, we know that he is a well-known figure in the football world. Even if the team's performance cannot be compared with Wansheng, his prestige is no less than Wansheng. He has been a professional player until now. He never lacked supporters.

Prandelli walked into the press conference and heard the reporter repeat Wan Sheng's words. But the national team is not the same as the club, it is the European Cup, not the Champions League, and he coaches England, not Atletico Madrid."

"He likes to put the familiar set on the team, but the team is different from the team, the game is different from the game, he has never led the team to play against Italy, how can he say 'understand'? I believe , this game will be a lesson for him, let him know not to underestimate the enemy..."

"As for the competition, of course the winner will be Italy!"

Although Wansheng and Prandelli did not meet head-on, their words were still full of gunpowder, so when the England-Italy game officially kicked off, many TV channels gave pictures of Prandelli and Wansheng comparison.

In the picture, Prandelli has a big forehead and a serious expression, while Wan Sheng is smiling and seems to be under no pressure.

"Judging from the expressions of the two, Wansheng is more confident in the game, but Italy is by no means easy to deal with. We can expect to see a wonderful contest!"

Huang Jianxiang, a special guest of "Xinlang Sports", who is known to everyone as an "Italian fan", said.

The game begins.