Mazzarri's idea was to contain Lazio's offense through three layers of defense, making Lazio pay a heavy price for every step forward. Then Naples' defense finally huddled in the penalty area, completely blocking Lazio's offensive space.
His idea is quite good.
This strategy indeed caused trouble for Lazio in the first half.
As long as Lazio's offense enters Naples' half, their players will face Naples players everywhere.
But Lazio played very patiently.
If they can't score immediately, they won't pass the ball forward - everyone in Lazio thinks that Napoli is planning to counterattack when they press forward.
But Napoli wanted to drag the game into a penalty shootout.
Amidst this misunderstanding, Lazio shook hands with Naples 0:0 in the first half.
During the halftime break, Mazzarri praised all Naples players and asked them to continue playing like this in the second half.
However, some Napoli players raised questions.
"Coach, do we really have to persist like this until the end of overtime?"
Speaks of the team's captain Paulo Cannavaro.
Mazzarri nodded: "That's right. Is there any problem?"
Paul Cannavaro hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "No, there is no problem."
Mazzarri didn't want to let him go easily, because he had clearly seen that Cannavaro seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Since the other party is unwilling to tell, then take the initiative to ask.
See if there's anything he didn't consider, which might have serious consequences during the game.
He asked: "It's okay. Just tell me. If you have any problems, it's better to tell them now than to expose them again during the game."
Paul Cannavaro hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at his teammates, and then said to Mazzarri: "Coach, it's actually nothing, I just feel that we are tired after playing for forty-five minutes.
If we play for 75 minutes...I don't know if our physical fitness can last until that time without making mistakes..."
Fabio Cannavaro's younger brother Cannavaro Jr. said.
Mazari frowned.
It's not that he was dissatisfied with Paul Cannavaro's statement.
But he discovered that this was indeed a problem.
He was enjoying himself in the first half, but now he realized that everyone really looked tired during the halftime break.
It stands to reason that they did not allow Lazio to score in the first half, which should be a great performance, and they should be happy with their performance.
But during the halftime break, these players were somewhat silent.
Thinking about it now, they were too tired.
But this is only the first half. If a professional player feels tired even in the first half, it must be abnormal.
Although the players' physical strength is not a problem, it only means that they are very tired.
In the first half, they consumed too much physical energy.
At this time, Mazzarri began to reflect on the first half.
In the first half, although Lazio did not score a goal, they had a high ball possession rate and ran a lot. The football was always being passed around.
In this way, the defending Napoli players have to constantly move their positions and defend accordingly.
Although the distance they ran was not too long, they started to feel a lot of psychological pressure.
Lazio will constantly try to pass the ball into the penalty area during the attack. This will make the Naples players responsible for defense nervous.
Being in a tense atmosphere for a long time will make players more tired than usual.
When Mazzarri thought of this, he understood.
Why his players are more tired than usual.
This is a problem...
Lazio's head coach who always wins is not an idiot.
In the second half, he found that Naples still couldn't hold on, so any fool knew what Naples wanted to do.
Overtime is definitely not Naples' goal, so there is only a penalty shootout.
At that time, Lazio stepped up their offensive, but Napoli had very little energy and collapsed. What should we do?
Lazio can score even if there are only five minutes left in the game.
Mazzarri had to worry about this.
But what can be done?
Defending until the penalty shootout was the strategy Naples formulated before the game. From a week and a half before the start of the game, the entire Naples team had been preparing for this game.
Now you find that you can't defend it to the death, and you need to temporarily modify your tactics?
That will only make the players more confused.
Mazari is now in a difficult situation.
If you don't stick to it, the consequences may be even worse.
So after thinking for a long time, Mazzarri finally told his players to continue to hold on in the second half.
"I don't know if we can hold on until the end of the game and successfully drag the game into a penalty kick. No one can guarantee this, but no matter what, we should try. Because, very simply, this is the only way we can succeed.
way."
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In the second half, Napoli went on the field with this fight-to-death mentality.
They continued to cause Lazio problems defensively.
And just as Mazzarri was worried, as the game time passed, Chang Sheng realized that his opponent was not trying to counterattack, but was planning to drag the game to a penalty shootout!
At this time, he stood up from the coaching bench, waved his flag, and Lazio accelerated their attacking rhythm.
Time and time again, Lazio tried passing the ball forward, and the speed of passing and movement between Lazio was obviously accelerated. This speed made the Naples players feel very painful.
They will be more nervous and have more effort when defending.
This physical strength is like water that has opened a floodgate, flowing away.
Generally speaking, a team's physical strength will enter a bottleneck period at seventy-five minutes.
But this time, around the 68th minute, Napoli's players couldn't stand it.
There were problems with their originally airtight defense line, and the cracks were getting bigger and bigger. Eventually... they collapsed.
In the 71st minute, Lazio scored the first goal of the game from Candreva.
This goal completely destroyed Naples' fighting spirit.
Because the game will enter the "Lazio rhythm".
This is the scariest.
When Mazzarri saw Candreva score, he seemed to have lost all strength. He was not angry or annoyed. He just turned around and returned to his seat, and then sat down quietly.
Looking at the stadium in a daze.
it's all over.
Napoli lost their chance to compete for their only title of the season.
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After Candreva helped Lazio take the lead, the game entered Lazio's rhythm just as Mazzarri expected.
Lazio completely took the initiative.
If they want to attack, they attack.
If you want to be quick, be quick.
If you want to be slow, then slow down the pace and deal with it slowly.
Naples couldn't adapt to this flexible style of play.
Coupled with the score being behind, Naples players lost their direction on the court.
Should we attack and try to equalize the score as soon as possible, or should we continue to defend and not concede any more goals?
Naples' players couldn't unite their thinking and acted out of sync during the game.
Such a team cannot compete with Lazio.
In the 77th minute, Rocky scored another victory, extending the score to 2:0.
Everyone understands it, even those who are still lucky.
Naples is destined to lose this game. They have been eliminated early!
Lazio will advance to the semi-finals of the Italian Cup and they will once again reach the semi-finals.
Now that they have basically won the league title, if they can still reach the Italian Cup finals, the chance of winning the championship is also very high.
If Lazio wins both the Italian Cup and Serie A, they will have another chance to win the Triple Crown!
If this is really the case...that would be amazing!
The reporters in the media gallery suddenly thought of this possibility.
They began to wonder uncontrollably whether Lazio would really defend the Triple Crown.
It is not easy to win the Triple Crown once, but it is even harder to win the Triple Crown twice. The hardest thing is to win the Triple Crown two years in a row!
※※※
The game ended with Lazio defeating Napoli 2:0 away from home.
The fans at the San Paolo Stadium were shouting loudly, but they could not save Naples' defeat.
After the game, they seemed a little excited. The stadium quickly strengthened security.
The Lazio players did not stay on the court any longer and quickly withdrew to the locker room.
Chang Sheng's time at the post-match press conference was also very short, and he only answered four questions.
One of them is about the Triple Crown.
When a reporter asked him whether the team would pursue the goal of defending the Triple Crown, Chang Sheng smiled and asked, "Why not?"
So everyone knew what Chang Winning’s plan was—he really planned to defend the Triple Crown!
But now everyone is not as shocked as before. They are just surprised, but not shocked, nor will they exclaim "This is fantastic" or "This is impossible"...
Because after Chang Sheng’s speech on the plane, everyone’s acceptance is now very high.
Since Chang Sheng has said that he will take the path that others have not taken, that must include defending the Triple Crown.
If you don’t even have the title of defending Triple Crown, then what kind of “road has never been traveled”?
Chang Sheng also thinks so, so he now generously admits his goals for this season.
He is not worried that saying this will increase the pressure on Lazio players.
Because he had already tested the players' acceptance level on the plane back to Rome from Abu Dhabi after the Club World Cup.
Since the players are full of enthusiasm and plan to be brave pathfinders with them, they should also know what the team will do this season.
They have already been mentally prepared.
It's time for them to understand this.
So Chang Sheng admitted this very directly.
I just want to defend the Triple Crown!
The words are here, if you want to stop us, just try!
You are all the touchstones for our final victory and will make our championship shine even more!
