The Slippery Meazza: Could Inter's "Water Attack" Disrupt Manchester City's Passing Game?
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At Inter Milan's training ground.
Nerazzurri's players are training.
This is the last day of training for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16.
The players were very serious, and head coach Laino was meticulous as well.
The reason is simple: Inter Milan saw a chance to advance!
As Chivu said, due to Tang Long's absence in the first leg and the poor form of Manchester City's striker, they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Inter Milan despite several good chances.
A draw, plus an away goal, brought immense joy to the entire Inter Milan!
Playing at home, Inter Milan has the advantage of playing the second leg at home. If they can keep a clean sheet against Manchester City, Inter Milan will advance to the quarterfinals regardless of whether they score a goal themselves.
Due to a major overhaul of the team's core lineup after last season, coupled with Mancini's departure, Inter Milan not only lacks the strength to compete with Juventus for the league title this season, but their league ranking has also plummeted.
So far, 30 rounds of the season have been played, and they are in 6th place, 7 points behind Napoli, who are in 4th place.
They were also eliminated early from the Coppa Italia.
Laino has also faced a crisis of confidence, and his situation is now precarious.
However, his "good friend" Ausilio told him that if they could advance to the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, it would be a historic breakthrough for the club in recent years, and he might be able to use that to fight with the owner to keep his job as manager for next season.
Therefore, Laino sees this second leg of the UEFA Champions League knockout stage as a lifeline for his job, and he must hold onto it tightly!
Bonazzoli dribbled the ball around the field, practicing his Pendulum Dribble against various imaginary opponents.
"Left, right, left!"
Not only was his body swaying, but he was also shouting out directions in sync with his strides.
Candreva, who was discussing tactics with some of the team's veteran players, couldn't help but laugh.
He shouted at Bonazzoli:
"Hey, you silly kid, don't shout 'left, right, left' during the match. If you shout that out loud, how are you going to deceive your opponent?"
Bonazzoli ignored Candreva's teasing and continued to train the pendulum diligently.
As he swayed, large beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, and his back steamed under the sunlight.
A few days ago, while taking his mother to Manchester for medical treatment, Bonazzoli unexpectedly received a precious gift from his former teammate Tang Long – a compilation of Ronaldo's dribbling highlights recorded at Inter Milan's training ground in 1998.
Upon returning, Bonazzoli repeatedly watched the match footage and, during training, used all his free time to constantly mimic Ronaldo's dribbling style by following the movements on the video.
Ronaldo's dribbling skills were endless, Bonazzoli didn't know where to start practicing.
Fortunately Ronaldo was his agent. With just one phone call, Ronaldo gave him feedback, starting with the pendulum.
Because the swing of a pendulum can be large or small, it is essentially the swaying of the body and feet.
It's not easy to do it well or master it, but if you can master it to a certain level and apply it in a competition, it's even more deceptive than Step Over.
So until the very last day before the match, Bonazzoli was still training hard on the training field, determined to show off this move the next day.
Santon nodded repeatedly as he looked on, and said to Candreva:
"You know what, Bonazzoli's moves are actually pretty decent. Although he's not as good as Ronaldo, his pendulum move is somewhat similar to what Dom used to do at Inter Milan last year."
Candreva chuckled and patted Santon on the shoulder.
"Little brother, I'll just take this as another good-natured joke to encourage the young players!"
"What's the point of him dawdling around in training? I know this kid better than anyone. He's okay at holding his position, leaning on opponents, and shooting, but if you ask him to dribble past people, look at his clumsy steps, do you think he can get past them?"
Then Candreva deliberately imitated Bonazzoli's pendulum with exaggerated and comical movements.
He was chuckling and shouting "left, right, left," when suddenly he yelled "Ah!", opened his arms wide, laughed, and fell to the ground, rolling around on the floor!
Santon, displeased by Candreva's clownish performance, turned and left.
Santon was quite annoyed that Candreva called him "brother" right away.
Who is Santon?
He won the treble with Inter Milan in 2010.
Born in 1990, he is only 26 years old this year, but he is the most senior player in the entire Inter Milan squad. He is also a jewel left over from the treble-winning era. All the players from that wave left Inter Milan in 2010, and he is the only one left in the team.
Although Candreva is a key player for the Italy National Team and has played in Serie A for many years, he immediately became dominant upon joining the team, engaging in locker room politics and clearly showing a tendency to want to be the boss.
But with your character, do you even deserve it?
Santon also felt resentful, recalling how Candreva had teased Bonazzoli.
He recalled that when Tang Long was first promoted from Inter Milan's youth team to the first team, he often imitated the pendulum motion during training.
At that time, Tang Long and Bonazzoli were very similar; their pendulum movements were quite stiff, and Tang Long was even less natural and skillful than Bonazzoli is now.
But what happened in the end?
That season, Tang Long became Inter Milan's player with the highest dribbling success rate!
Head coach Laino has already announced the starting lineup to the players. Thinking about starting tomorrow against his former teammates Tang Long and Ranocchia, Santon has mixed feelings.
He was both happy and worried.
I'm happy to finally reunite with my two former teammates after nearly a year apart.
Especially Tang Long; if Tang Long hadn't used him on the left wing last season, Santon, who had lost two and a half menisci, would almost have faced being kicked out of the team.
Since then, Santon has been playing better and better, and this season he has gradually secured the starting position at left-back, keeping Dimarco firmly on the bench.
What worries him is that Nerazzurri's ability to draw with Manchester City away from home in the last match was largely due to luck.
The opponent had several sure goals, but they were all just a hair's breadth away from being scored. Manchester City was absolutely dominant on the field.
Of course, the biggest stroke of luck was that Tang Long wasn't there!
Can Inter Milan continue their good fortune from the last match, playing at home this time?
Tang Long will definitely make an appearance.
Santon felt a pang of worry.
He then looked at Laino, thinking of this coach who had been promoted from the youth team. What ability did he have to contain Manchester City's attack?
Laino is a relatively unknown coach in Italy football.
Before being promoted to head coach of the first team, he was the head coach of Inter Milan's youth team.
He spent most of his playing career in the second division and retired before the age of 30.
In terms of the honors he won as a player, they pale in comparison to those Chivu as an assistant coach during his playing career.
Their technical and tactical skills go without saying.
Chivu left the youth team in anger because of a conflict with Laino over coaching philosophy and because he couldn't stand Leno's outdated and backward tactics.
However, Laino's ability to remain in the football world for so many years is certainly due to his strengths.
Since Tang Long is certain to play in this match, the Inter Milan first-team coaching staff has been preparing meticulously, holding several meetings to discuss ways to limit Manchester City's possession-based tactics.
Laino knew perfectly well that luck couldn't always be on his side!
Manchester City played their passing and possession very well in the last game, but they were just a little unlucky at the end. Tang Long will be on the field this game, so they can't rely on luck anymore. Playing at home, they must take the initiative.
Since I can't come up with any tactical solutions, I'll resort to some underhanded tactics!
Inter Milan have concluded their training session on the final morning of the pre-match period.
That afternoon, the entire Manchester City team also took a flight from Manchester to Milan and checked into their hotel.
However, in the afternoon, Laino remained at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza to begin his stadium renovation plan.
"Make it smaller, yes, make the stadium smaller, to limit their passing and possession tactics!"
Under Laino's direction, the stadium administrators at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza erased the existing white lines and prepared to redraw them.
"Should we narrow it a bit more, Mr. Coach? Isn't this too narrow? How are our players supposed to play then?"
The stadium manager measured the width with a tape measure while looking at Laino with a puzzled expression.
He had been employed by Inter Milan for over fifteen years and had never seen the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza so narrow.
"Don't worry about all that, stop talking nonsense, just do as I say!"
The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza is 105 meters long and 68 meters wide.
Under Laino's direction, the width of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was reduced by 4 meters, from 68 meters to 64 meters.
According to Laino, Manchester City's possession-based tactics definitely utilize the width of the pitch when passing the ball, using stretching to make Inter Milan players run back and forth, and then Tang Long will look for an opening to deliver a fatal pass.
The reduction in pitch width will limit Manchester City's use of width to the greatest extent possible.
Defensively, this also allows Inter Milan, who rely on counter-attacking football, to pack their formation closer together and strengthen their defense in the middle.
The next day arrived.
Laino returned to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza and had the stadium manager activate the automatic sprinkler system hidden underground, which sprayed water continuously.
Every blade of grass at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza was covered with glistening water droplets.
It glitters under the Mediterranean sun, and looks like a vast ocean.
"Should we add more water, Mr. Head Coach? If we add any more, this place will turn into mud!"
"Not enough, not enough! Keep adding water! We've only just started! Add more water!"
The water sprayed for another 20 minutes.
Finally, the stadium manager couldn't take it anymore and turned off the sprinkler valves, saying that if they continued spraying like that, all the grass would be drowned, and they would have to repave it, which would cost hundreds of thousands of euros.
Laino nodded, then started running across the lawn.
He wasn't wearing professional soccer cleats, but rather a pair of running shoes without spikes. Plus, the ground was wet everywhere. Before he'd even run 10 meters, Laino slipped and landed on his back, his head hitting the ground hard.
The stadium manager rushed over, worried that the head coach might be injured. The match was scheduled to start that evening; what if he suffered a concussion?
Unexpectedly Laino sprang up with a somersault and excitedly hugged the administrator.
"Well done! That's exactly the effect I wanted. Tonight's game is a sure thing!"
Laino believes that since Manchester City plays a possession-based style, they must have very high requirements for the quality of their pitches.
An overly slippery pitch is definitely not conducive to the opponent's passing of the ball, but it is actually advantageous for Inter Milan to score one or two goals in their chaotic attacks.
Reducing the width of the field and over-watering the grass.
These are the two key strategies Laino emphasized before the match!