Tang Long stood with his arms spread, ready to welcome the Argentine's embrace, when suddenly a heavy weight landed on his back, nearly knocking him off balance.
Captain Ranocchia's 195-centimeter frame was almost entirely draped over Tang Long!
"You can actually pass! You actually put the ball into the box! What were you thinking, huh?"
Everyone crowded around Tang Long to celebrate.
As a result, Icardi, who had scored the goal, seemed a little less conspicuous.
Several players on the bench jumped up, cheering wildly.
Berni's towel helicopter whirred into action at just the right moment!
Mancini applauded with a somewhat wooden expression, his mind still struggling to catch up.
He'd just been regretting the miscommunication between Podolski and Icardi, and now they'd scored again. Everything was happening so fast!
Mancini noticed, however, that even though the referee had awarded the goal,
four or five Bologna players were still surrounding the head referee, arguing incessantly.
"Ref, that was definitely offside!"
"I was the last man in defense. Icardi was definitely behind me!"
"Are you blind, linesman? Ref, I swear to God, Icardi was a hundred percent offside!"
In the early months of 2015, Serie A had not yet introduced VAR.
There was no way to use slow-motion replays to help the referee determine whether a player was offside.
The head referee spoke with the linesman through his earpiece. "David, you didn't raise your flag. Icardi wasn't offside, right?"
The linesman was actually a little unsure.
But he hadn't raised his flag at the time, and he couldn't take back his decision now.
"He wasn't offside. I'm sure."
Even Tang Long himself couldn't be certain. He'd simply followed the AI's prompt and passed the ball as quickly as he could. He had no idea whether he'd really made the pass within 1.5 seconds.
Icardi, who had scored, didn't care in the slightest whether he'd been offside. He was a striker; pushing the offside line was in his nature. The referee hadn't blown the whistle, so it was a good goal!
According to Serie A's rules,
controversial offside calls like this wouldn't be replayed on the stadium's big screen.
The point was to spare the fans' feelings—if this really had been offside, the home crowd in Bologna would definitely have caused a scene.
On the television broadcast, however, they showed three replays.
The moment Tang Long touched the ball, a yellow offside line appeared in Bologna's penalty area.
"Coach Zhang, was that offside or not? Looking at the slow-motion replay, it's hard to tell." Duan Xuan was studying the pixels on the screen.
"Heh, heh! Hard to say about this one," Zhang Lu chuckled in his trademark way. "It was a matter of millimeters. Whether to call it or not was a split-second decision made by the linesman with his own eyes."
"If we can't be a hundred percent certain even with slow motion, how could the linesman be sure just by looking? We can't be too hard on the officials. Hopefully, in the future, the head referee will be able to watch a slow-motion replay from the sidelines for these controversial calls. That might be fairer."
Zhang Lu said that, but he was feeling pretty pleased with himself.
If the linesman had called Tang Long's assist offside, Coach Zhang would definitely have been cursing under his breath!
The score remained 1–1 at halftime.
In the home team's dressing room,
Bologna's players were arguing noisily.
Several defenders insisted the referee was blind and had got the offside call wrong!
Their anger was contagious. Even the players who hadn't had a clear view of the play were now cursing the linesman.
Some even said they'd find a chance to have a drink with the referee after the match and settle things face-to-face.
Coach Lopez walked in, his expression dark.
"What are you all shouting about? So they equalized. You're going to take a swing at the referee over something this minor? Is that all you've got?"
Borrelli looked aggrieved as he complained to the coach.
"Boss, Ranocchia's like glue. Wherever I go, he follows. He sticks to me the whole time, and he's even taller than I am. I can't get the better of him!"
Short-legged Tiger Giaccherini was in just as bad a mood.
"Nagatomo Yuto and D'Ambrosio switched sides. That Japanese guy's as short as I am, and he turns really fast. I can't seem to get past him with my footwork."
Destro, who had scored a goal, was complaining too.
"That old fox D'Ambrosio secretly tugs at my shirt whenever I jump, and he always manages to block the referee's view. I appealed a few times, but it was no use. The last time, he even grabbed me right in the crotch. That bastard's ruthless!"
Lopez walked over to the tactics board, writing on it with a marker as he spoke.
"When you play a team like Inter Milan, you can't afford to make mistakes. They'll seize any chance you give them. In the second half, we'll start like this, then do this, and then this..."
When he'd finished, Lopez singled out defensive midfielder Davis.
"Davis, what did I tell you before the match? I told you to get Tang riled up, but you didn't do your job. Tang even set up a goal!"
Davis scratched his head.
"Boss, I've hassled him plenty of times, but the kid seems totally unfazed. I cursed him in both Italian and English, and he just smiled at me like an idiot. I don't even know if he understood what I was saying."
Lopez lifted his marker and rapped it hard against the Canadian's head!
Thunk!
"Davis, I heard your grandfather used to fish in Canada's Extreme Cold Fishing Ground. In my mind, people from freezing regions are all iron-blooded tough guys!
"What good is verbal harassment? Get physical!
"Push him, kick him, slide-tackle him! Take him down in an endless siege!
"You knocked him over with the ball back at the start of the match, didn't you? If you're a man, pay him back. Make him lose his temper, make him retaliate, make him get sent off with a red card!"
Only then did Davis nod in understanding.
He sprang to his feet and immediately declared, "All right, boss. I don't have a yellow card yet, so I'll go after that Chinese guy without holding back!"
Before long, he was pumping up his teammates too.
"Brothers, are we confident we can beat Inter Milan at home? We are! We have to be!"
The players from both teams emerged through the players' tunnel.
Davis rushed over and pretended it was an accident as he slammed into Tang Long's shoulder from behind.
Tang Long stumbled, and Ranocchia quickly steadied him.
Icardi was right beside them. He'd seen everything and angrily started toward Davis to settle the score.
Ranocchia grabbed him.
"Don't worry. I know how to deal with him."
"Mauro, don't rush," Tang Long said with a smile, rubbing his shoulder. "There are cameras all through the tunnel. Don't worry, I know how to deal with him too."
Bologna's entire team carried out Coach Lopez's violent tactics.
They came out fired up, charging at every Inter player on the ball like a pack of snarling wolves.
Whoosh!
The 20-year-old Kovacic had barely paused with the ball for a second before an opponent rushed in with a long stride.
The man drove his thigh and hip muscles into the Croatian, knocking him over. Kovacic rolled three times across the ground.
The referee hesitated before blowing his whistle, but he didn't show a card.
Perhaps they'd tested the referee and found his standards fairly lenient.
Bologna kept committing fouls against Inter players that were just on the borderline between a booking and no booking. The match became disjointed, with constant stoppages, and was ugly to watch!
In the first 20 minutes of the second half, neither side managed a single shot. They were locked in a midfield battle.
Bologna's players already had the advantage in height and bulk. Now that they'd returned to a familiar style of play, they were thriving.
During one spell of possession, Bologna advanced upfield, and Tang Long received the ball with his back to goal.
Before he could turn, he felt a cold draft rush toward him...
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