Chapter 123 Mancini is under great pressure Five minutes later, Adriano was substituted. Cruz felt a little regretful when he saw himself being replaced. He felt that his condition and physical fitness were very good and there was no problem for him to play the whole game. But since the head coach arranged it this way, he had no choice but to obey. After coming on the court, Adriano found Lin Feng with excitement on his face: "Lin, remember to pass the ball to me more often, like the through ball in the first half!" In fact, there was no need for Ade to come over and speak. Cruz had been substituted, and Lin Feng could only pass the ball to Adriano. In the 71st minute, almost in the same position as before, Lin Feng sent a straight pass to Adriano. Unfortunately, Adriano did not seize this opportunity, and the Roma goalkeeper rushed out to destroy it.
Adriano seemed to be out of form. He was not decisive enough in handling the ball just now. If he had not adjusted and shot directly, he might have actually scored. A few minutes later, Lin Feng tried to break through at the front of the penalty area. After attracting several defensive players of the opposing team, he passed the ball into the penalty area along the narrow gap between the defensive players of the Roma team. Adriano reacted quickly this time, breaking into the penalty area at high speed from the back and getting a one-on-one chance after receiving the pass from Lin Feng. But Roma goalkeeper Doni reacted very quickly and blocked Adriano's shooting space. Ade looked to push towards the far corner but the ball was blocked by Dhoni's outstretched leg while rolling. Adriano once again missed a great scoring opportunity, which made the Inter fans in the stands very disappointed. Although Inter Milan's offense during this period did not score any goals, they firmly controlled the midfield and at one point formed a siege on Roma's goal. Seeing this, Mancini replaced Lin Feng with Stankovic so that he could rest for a while and have enough physical strength to deal with the game two days later. Inter Milan's schedule is very tight during this period. How to rotate and reasonably allocate the players' physical energy has become a big problem for Mancini. If the rotation problem is not handled properly, the team's condition is likely to get worse and worse, and finally collapse. When Lin Feng left the field, tens of thousands of Inter Milan fans present gave him warm applause and cheers. Although he has joined the team for less than half a season, Lin Feng has completely conquered Inter Milan fans and won their recognition and support. "Good job, take a good rest!" When Lin Feng walked up to Mancini, he was only planning to shake hands with him, but he didn't expect Mancini to take the initiative to hug him. ………… After Lin Feng left the field, Inter Milan's offensive slowed down. Seeing this, Roma took the opportunity to launch a counterattack. But after Zanetti came on, Inter's toughness in the middle was further improved, and Totti was targeted more closely. Without Totti's core connection and organization, Roma's offense had a harder time achieving results. In the 73rd minute, seeing that there were a lot of defensive players around Totti, De Rossi simply passed him and made a long pass over the top, going directly to the striker.
Taddei was on the left side of the penalty area with his back to the goal and it was difficult for him to turn around, so he simply made a bicycle kick. But I don't know whether he kicked the ball wrong or wanted to pass the ball to his teammates. After the ball was kicked, it did not go straight to the goal, but instead flew to the center of the penalty area. The ball was a bit too long for Montella to handle, so he had to imitate Juventus striker Ibrahimovic and do a scorpion kick. As a result, I don’t know if it was because he didn’t learn the skills well enough or he just didn’t perform well, but his acrobatic shot missed the ball and went straight out of the baseline. The ball was so off target that there was a burst of boos from the stands. Fortunately, the ball was shot off target. If it had gone in, these two mistakes, which happened by accident, might have been interpreted as an extremely tacit and imaginative cooperation between the two players. By then, this goal will definitely be selected as one of the top five goals of this round of Serie A, and Inter Milan will become a background board. Although the team's attack was hindered because Totti was targeted by the opponent, Roma did not give up trying. In the 80th minute of the second half, Totti passed the ball to Mancini on the wing amid fierce competition from the opponent. After receiving the ball, the latter used his speed and dribbling ability to break through on the left rib and kicked the ball into the penalty area. The ball was touched by Zanetti's leg during flight, but still deflected to Montella's feet. Montella was overjoyed and was about to shoot, but Samuel followed closely and blocked his shot. The football bounced out and happened to hit the arm of Cambiasso who had just returned to the penalty area. The referee's whistle sounded almost at the same time, and his finger pointed to the penalty spot. There was an uproar at the scene and Inter Milan fans widened their eyes in shock. As the game was about to enter its final stages, Roma unexpectedly won a penalty kick. Thousands of Roma fans who traveled with the team were so happy that they almost jumped up when they saw the referee award a penalty. Originally, after Inter Milan reversed the score, they all felt that the game was doomed to fail. But I didn’t expect to encounter such a good thing! It seems that even God is on their side! Totti, who had been depressed for more than 30 minutes in the second half, took the shot himself. After deceiving Cesar, he pushed the ball into the lower right corner with his right foot and scored. The score became 3:3. Now Inter Milan is in trouble again. The three points were almost in his grasp, but he failed at the last moment. This is totally unacceptable! In the last ten minutes of the game, the entire Inter Milan team pressed forward and launched a crazy siege on Roma. In the 85th minute, Recoba took a free kick from the right side and his direct, small-angle arc shot was tipped over the crossbar by Doni. Figo took a corner kick from the left, Recoba headed the ball to the back post, Adriano headed the ball from 6 meters in front of the goal, but Perrotta cleared it on the goal line, and Samuel's shot was blocked by Taddei's body.
Inter Milan's attack put Roma in constant danger in front of the goal, but they were just a little bit away from scoring. After that, Roma began to find ways to delay time, using all means such as lying on the grass, fouling, and substitutions to delay time. In the 86th minute, Doni was given a yellow card for delaying the game by kicking the ball, Mancini Jr. was given a yellow card for tackling Cambiasso, Perrotta and Cambiasso had an argument and pushed each other, and at one point the players from both sides almost came to blows. There was already very little time left in the game, and with this delay, there is even less time. In the 88th minute, Slepati replaced Montella with Nonda, and Kuffour fouled Figo. Recoba took a free kick and Adriano headed the ball over the crossbar. In the 89th minute, Adriano received the ball with his back to goal, and Chivu was called for a foul after he bumped into him from behind, and Inter Milan was awarded a free kick 30 meters in front of the goal. After Recoba made a false run to cover, Adriano shot with his left foot, which went over the wall and hit the outside of the right goal post and bounced out of the bottom line. There were sighs at the scene. Adriano tried really hard, but he just lacked a little bit of luck. If the ball had been one centimeter to the inside, it would have gone in. During this period, the number of free kicks Inter Milan received increased significantly, but because Lin Feng was not on the court, Inter Milan failed to make good use of these free kick opportunities. This made Mancini very regretful. If he had known this situation would happen, he would never have replaced Lin Feng so easily. Now he has shot himself in the foot. Because there were so many goals in this game and both teams committed a lot of fouls, the injury time was particularly long, a full 7 minutes! Inter Milan fans, who were almost in despair, regained a glimmer of hope after seeing the extra time indicated on the sign held by the fourth official. Inter Milan's players seemed to be energized and launched a frantic attack on their opponents without sparing any effort. In the 91st minute, Veron took a low shot with his left foot from 20 meters in front of the goal, but the ball hit Kuffour and went wide of the left post. In the 93rd minute, Adriano headed the ball past Zidane and it went wide of the right post. In the 94th minute, Figo took a corner kick from the left, Veron passed the ball to Martins, whose volley from the edge of the penalty area was blocked out of the bottom line. In the last minute of stoppage time, Veron brought down Totti who was counterattacking with the ball. After an argument, the two began to push each other, and finally they started to curse each other more and more, and started to confront each other directly on the court. The players on both sides had been holding back their anger for a long time, and upon seeing this, they rushed forward to help. Seeing that the situation was not good, the referee gave a red card to both Veron who committed the foul and Totti who pushed Veron. In the end, the two teams tied 3:3. This result is very unsatisfactory for Inter Milan. Many of the team's main players fought to the point of exhaustion and were unable to beat their opponents at home. Roma could accept this result. After all, before they went away, Inter Milan had remained undefeated at home, and their record was terrifying. It was already very difficult for them to escape unscathed. …… Being tied by Roma at their home ground was a big blow to Inter Milan's players. Physical fatigue is one thing, and the setback in morale is another. The impact of this draw was soon reflected in the next game.
On October 10, Inter Milan visited the Luigi Ferraris Stadium to challenge Sampdoria, who is ranked 29th in the league. Although Sampdoria was once one of the seven sisters of Serie A, their strength plummeted after the team was relegated. Although it has returned to the top league, it is no longer comparable to its glorious days. For Mancini, this place has a very special feeling for him. As a player, he played here for 15 years and helped the team win many championships. The first Italian Cup championship, the first league championship, the first European Cup Winners' Cup championship in team history... He himself was also elected Italian Footballer of the Year twice and won numerous honors. But time is the most ruthless. The glory of the past has long since disappeared, and everything here has changed beyond recognition. However, when Mancini returned to the familiar stadium, he was greeted by applause and cheers from the fans. Many of them have not forgotten the contributions Mancini made to the team. This touched Mancini very much, and then he gave his old friends in Sampdoria a big gift. After 90 minutes of play, the score was 2:2. After being tied by Roma in the previous game, Inter Milan was tied by Sampdoria again. The difference from the previous game is that Inter Milan only played well in half of this game. In the first half, the Inter Milan team was full of energy and showed the momentum of a top team, pressing the home team. Cambiasso and Cordoba scored two goals in the 13th and 38th minutes, looking like they were going to win a big victory over their opponents. But in the second half, the whole Inter Milan team seemed to be under a spell. The players' legs and feet were weak, they couldn't run, they couldn't fight, they couldn't keep up with the opponent's rhythm, and allowed the opponent to drive straight into their backcourt. If it weren't for the lack of time, Inter Milan might not even be able to maintain a draw. Looking at the players collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion, Mancini couldn't blame them. The intensive schedule coupled with the intense exertion in the previous game caused the team to have serious problems with their physical fitness. Coupled with the absence of Veron, Lin Feng became the opponent's key target of restriction, which greatly limited his performance. Mancini knew that the team had physical problems before the game, so he made large-scale rotations as much as possible and developed targeted tactics. Mancini's idea was to take advantage of the physical strength of the main players in the first half, increase the intensity of the attack, and score as many goals as possible. In this way, when the players' physical strength declined in the second half, he would replace the defensive players, use conservative tactics to maintain the leading advantage, and curl three-pointers. But it’s a good idea and half the battle is won. The team did score two goals in the first half, so the lead was definitely not small. But in the second half, he still underestimated the negative impact of declining physical fitness on the players. Even though he used up three substitutions in one go, he still couldn't stop the team's decline. Even if they used foul tactics, they still couldn't stop the opponent's attack.
Sampdoria doesn't have any strong forwards, but even so, the opponent still equalized the score thanks to midfielder Diana's two goals. After two consecutive draws, Inter Milan was overtaken by Fiorentina in the league standings and dropped to fourth place. The gap with the top Juventus has further widened to 7 points! If AC Milan had not defeated Juventus 3:1 in this round of the top battle, breaking the opponent's winning streak and unbeaten record, the gap between Inter Milan and Juventus would probably have widened to 10 points! Although the points difference between the two teams did not widen to double digits, Inter Milan is 10 points behind the top team after 7 league games. For a team like Inter Milan that is determined to win the championship, this is not a good result in any case. Given the stability Juventus has shown in the league, Inter Milan may not be able to equalize the points difference between the two sides even if they defeat them in the next round of the national derby. Not to mention the spoiler AC Milan. After winning the top spot, AC Milan's points reached 25 points, 5 points higher than Inter Milan. Among the three teams competing for the championship, Inter Milan was the first to fall behind! If they cannot adjust their condition as soon as possible, the gap between them and Juventus and AC Milan will probably be further widened. The consecutive draws put more and more pressure on the team coach Mancini! The outside criticism, the fans' accusations and the boss's dissatisfaction all made him feel under tremendous pressure. It is said that Moratti's patience with him has reached its limit. If he fails to lead the team to deliver a report card that satisfies Moratti before the winter break, his days as Inter Milan's head coach will be over. (End of this chapter)