Congratulations on Florence’s successful entry into the Coppa Italia final, where they will face the Sampdoria club from the first division.
Florence fans are very excited that the team can reach the Italian Cup final, because if they can beat Sampdoria in the final, Florence can be promoted to the European Cup Winners this season, which is a big temptation for Florence, which has not participated in European competitions for many years.
……
In May 1994, in order to make way for the World Cup, the major leagues in Europe came to an end one after another, and the Italian Serie B played by Florence also stopped fighting.
In the last three rounds, Florence still won easily with its strong strength and brought the championship trophy back to Florence.
Although Florence fans don’t attach great importance to this championship, it doesn’t prevent them from celebrating with this excuse. Many fans shout "Here comes Serie A" while celebrating. In the eyes of these fans, this Serie B championship is just an ornament for Florence to return to the first division.
"I think we should give the fans a bigger gift! What do you think? " Zhuang Ge looked out of the window in his office, and there were also a large number of Florence fans outside the Florence office building. Among them, they either held large posters of their favorite stars-such as batistuta and effenberg, or held long slogans and banners and even portraits of Zhuang Ge.
In front of the window, Zhuang Ge saw a dozen fans in the crowd holding a giant cartoon depicting almost all the first-team players in Florence this season. They were wearing armor and carrying weapons to make a charge. The leader was the current head coach claudio ranieri.
However, Zhuang Ge was so interested in this portrait because he saw his young Florence president dressed as a magician and looking very quiet with a scroll in his hand. Ranieri, on the other hand, is a coach who asks Zhuang Ge to play a magician for help, and he also writes a very interesting dialogue in bold and large font.
Ranieri wrote "Chairman, I need more excellent players!"
Next to Zhuang Ge’s portrait, it says, "Don’t worry! My scroll can meet all the requirements of Florence! "
Magician? Touching his nose, I thought that I was responsible for what Florence’s president really said about the wizards who could not do.
The training base, experimental center, players and general manager … were almost created by Zhuang Ge.
"When I think about it, I feel that I am still quite awesome!" Although it’s depressing to run around all the time and there are so many things that he is always busy, Zhuang Ge enjoys the feeling that "there are only two Italian Cup finals left!"
……
On May 4th, Florence took the seat at Frankie Stadium and waited for her to come from Genoa to challenge Sampdoria, the "Navy Corps".
Florence attaches great importance to this final, because if Florence finally wins the championship, the team can participate in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. At this time, the gold content of the Cup Winners’ Cup is second only to the European Cup. After all, the champions of the two countries can compete for the European Super Cup title …
Considering that many players in Florence have never experienced the final, coach Ranieri gave priority to those players with experience in big games when arranging the starting lineup of a game, and all the teenagers such as vieri, giuliano giannichedda and Montera sat on the bench for standby.
On the other side of the stadium is Sampdoria, which is at the end of the "Golden Sampdoria". Most of the players in Sampdoria have experienced the baptism of big games many times, and the new boss of the team, mantovani Jr. (the former chairman, mantovani’s father paolo mantovani, died in a car accident on January 14, 1993, which was also regarded as the turning point of Sampdoria’s prosperity and decline by later fans), has carried out his own imaginary "transformation" on the team, and the overall style of play has remained the same as before. Therefore, many people predict that Florence, who just won
Katanic, Evany, gullit, lombardo, pagliuca, Verjoward, Mancini … Now this Sampdoria team is full of stars and the team’s record is quite good. It won the third place in the season league (7 points behind the champion AC Milan). Sampdoria has the fiercest firepower in Serie A (64 goals). If it is not for poor defense (Lazio conceded more goals among the top teams with 39 goals), it may win the league championship.
Perhaps it was because of losing the long-awaited league champion Sampdoria that the team broke out in the game. Although almost all Sampdoria’s main players were over 30 years old, it was difficult to be physically weak, but the defense line composed of Katanic, Mannini, Verjoward and pagliuca resisted the Florence offensive again and again. Evany and gullit organized and dispatched in the midfield, and lombardo and Mancini repeatedly attacked the Viola defense line.
The game was passionate, but it failed to break the opponent’s goal. Finally, the two sides tied at home in Florence. The second leg will be held in laris Stadium, home of Sampdoria, a week later.
Chapter 39 Jedi counterattack
After Florence’s home draw by Sampdoria in the first round, many Italian media and experts claimed that they were more optimistic about Sampdoria’s victory.
"It’s impossible for Florence to win at laris Stadium (home of Sampdoria) after being tied at home."
"This Fiorentina team is still too young. The oldest player in the main team is 29-year-old crippa, and the 25-year-old player has seven players! In the face of the old Sampdoria Florence, these young people still need to exercise. "
"Sampdoria, almost all of these players have experienced the baptism of the big game. Florence, these little guys are still young!"
At that time, Sampdoria won the championship.
After the second round, the performances of both sides seemed to confirm the media and many public opinions before the game. Sampdoria was composed of lombardo, gullit, Katanic, Evany and Pratt. The midfielder completely suppressed Florence counterpart Mancini, while Ranieri seemed to want the players to scramble hard to disrupt Sampdoria’s rhythm and consume the opponent’s physical strength. However, from the scene, the players were running around the football field like flies, and Zhuang Ge sat in the box frowning at this chaotic scene.
I have to say that Zhuang Ge feels that Ranieri’s tactical arrangement has made a big mistake. If Florence used this high-tempo confrontation tactic in a game, it might win a big victory, because the Serie A had just ended for three days, and the Sampdoria veterans had not recovered and consumed a season’s physical strength.
But now that these Sampdoria players have had a full rest for a week, Florence will naturally greatly reduce the effect that this tactic can receive in the face of energetic opponents, but it will lead to players’ defensive dislocation due to excessive grabbing …
At this time, the game had already gone on in the second minute. gullit cleverly avoided crippa and Dibiagio’s snatch, and then Li Li made a direct plug. The ball directly penetrated iuliano and Pesoto’s defense line. lombardo inserted the ball from the right side at a high speed and conveniently entered the penalty area. After attracting toldo’s attention, he cleverly divided the ball into the middle and just killed it in the small penalty area. Mancini scored a score.
Sampdoria’s goal seemed to calm some players who knew how to fight for Fiorentina. At the half time, several experienced players from crippa, effenberg and djorkaeff well restrained the young players who were eager to counter the score. The three of them were skillful and didn’t worry about each other, which pressed the rhythm of the game.
After several "old" players dispatched Pessoto and others to finally get rid of the bloody state, they honestly stayed at their own half and concentrated on defense, and Sampdoria players were not very active in grabbing the ball in Florence’s backcourt because they were too old. Florence gradually came out of the chaos in the field.
So nearly twenty minutes after halftime, Florence and Sampdoria spent this stalemate. With the stoppage time ending at halftime, the referee blew the whistle and the Viola entered the halftime with a goal behind.
Zhuang Ge, who has been watching the game in the box, can’t sit still. He wants to go to the locker room to see the situation, but he was stopped by Karin sitting next to him when he got up.
"Tony, I know that you are also worried in Florence. To be honest, I am also worried." Karin’s tone is not gentle but a little warning. "Maybe Claudio (Ranieri) is not an excellent head coach, but one thing you should remember is that the locker room is the most taboo for coaches and players to enter the restricted area."
After listening to Karin’s words, Zhuang Ge also felt that he had acted a little rashly just now, so he obediently sat back in his seat and waited for the half game.
……
At this time, the atmosphere in the dressing room in Florence was very depressing. crippa and other older players were equipped with masseurs to help them recover their energy consumption during the half-time game, while young players such as Inzaghi and Dibiagio were silent, either gulping functional drinks or wearing a towel on their heads.
Claudio ranieri walked into the dressing room at this moment and felt the heavy atmosphere in the room, thinking that it was really good for the boss to dig up these players. The situation was always suppressed, and no one had any negative thoughts about the game.
Clap your hands and put the player’s attention behind him. Ranieri first made a self-criticism. "What happened at half time, I admit, was that my tactics were not arranged correctly. I didn’t consider that you would be caught by the other side when you robbed too much …"
Where have the Florence players seen themselves? The coach was stunned for a moment. No one left the interruption department and listened quietly to Ranieri.
"… I’ve thought about it. Since the chairman said that Florence would become a top club, I think Florence must have its own consistent technical and tactical style. Who can say what our style will be after Florence’s reconstruction?" Ranieri’s eyes scanned all the people in the dressing room.
Effenberg took the lead in expressing his opinion that "the defensive aspect is chain defense, regional man-to-man players should immediately fight back on the spot after losing the ball, and there is also high-position oppression."
"Stefan is right," Ranieri nodded approvingly, and suddenly the conversation turned harsh. "Since you all know the tactics of the team, I emphasized that we should strengthen the grabbing of the opposing players before the game today, but what did you do? One by one knows to run after the ball! This is the result of your training together in the past year? "
Many people are ashamed and bowed their heads. They have never had the experience of playing against opponents of Sampdoria’s level. Coupled with the tension in the final and the strong pressure given by their opponents, they unconsciously forgot a lot of things they usually train. However, Sampdoria’s multi-game made them learn a lot and gradually adapted to the rhythm of Serie A teams. For example, Inzaghi almost scored a goal in front of pagliuca in the last few minutes of the half.
"Our opponent Sampdoria is different from the former Inter Milan. After the Troika left, Inter Milan lacked a sense of domineering and oppression. Therefore, it seems to me that you all played normally in the former Sampdoria game, because Sampdoria’s team that reached the Champions League final was still playing, and they unconsciously released that kind of oppression, which made many teams surrender because they couldn’t bear the pressure halfway, but I am glad that no one in the team has the idea of surrendering." Ranieri looked around the dressing room and found that the players’ eyes became calm and firm. It seems that Jidu has adapted to the pressure of top teams in the previous game and a half.
……
At half-time, neither side changed players. In the box, Zhuang Ge was surprised to find that the Fiorentina players seemed to be completely back to normal, playing their most familiar tactics in an orderly way.
Effenberg divided the ball to the left. Pessoto broke through with the ball and gave it to djorkaeff before Katanic arrived, instead of rushing forward like half-time.
Dibiagio crippa temporarily changed position while Evany was holding the ball to observe Florence’s half-time opportunity to break the ball but there was no defensive dislocation;
Birindelli didn’t put the shovel as rashly as before, but almost stuck to gullit and resolutely refused to let him break through with the ball smoothly;
Mancini was completely submerged in the sea of Florence, and the second striker Tarfa caught the ball in the dense crowd and coordinated.
The situation of the game was gradually reversed when the tenacious Fiorentina players were constantly forced to rob. In Florence, gullit and other veterans were already in a state of physical deficiency. Once when the ball was dead, Katanic even put his hands on his knees and gasped.