The Prince of Inter Milan starts with Brother Xiaosa

Chapter 196 Advance to the Knockout

In the final round, unless Paraguay wins by a large margin and Italy loses, Italy will fall behind its opponents on goal difference.

Otherwise, no matter what the result is, Italy has already secured the top spot in the group.

New Zealand and Slovakia currently have only one point in hand. Even if they win the last game and successfully qualify, they will only be ranked second behind Italy.

Of course, if I have to say it, Italy had better score more than one point in this game with Slovakia, so that they can 100% ensure that they qualify as first in the group.

Because in this way, their opponent in the quarter-finals will be the second place in Group E. Whether it is Japan or Denmark, they will always be much easier to deal with than the Netherlands.

On June 6, at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, Italy ushered in the last game of the group stage against Slovakia.

Although the Azzurri have escaped becoming just the fourth defending champion in history to be eliminated in the group stages, they will also be fighting to secure top spot in their group.

In the last round of the group stage, Lippi made a comprehensive rotation.

Iaquinta, Di Natale and Pazzini formed the front three.

Camoranesi, Palombo and Gattuso formed a midfield three.

Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta and Buffon continued to play in the defense.

Leo, who helped Italy win the first two games, took a break today and sat on the bench.

As for their opponents today, in Slovakia, the most well-known starting players are Hamsik who plays for Naples and Liverpool defender Skrtel.

Therefore, before the game started, there was no feeling that Italy would lose to Slovakia.

Defending champion Italy ushered in their 80th World Cup match in their history.

At the beginning of the game, Pazzini passed the ball, and Di Natale volleyed from the outside of the penalty area and shot over the crossbar.

Hamsik committed a foul after losing the ball in the frontcourt, and Criscito took a quick free kick from the backcourt and passed the ball to the front of the penalty area!
  Iaquinta's chest returned to his teammates, Di Natale scored the ball, and Camoranesi's left-footed low shot from the left side of the penalty area missed the near post.

One minute later, the Slovak midfielder made a long diagonal pass from the left, and Vitek nodded the ball in front of him.

Hamsik, who was unmarked in the middle, volleyed with his left foot in front of the goal but was blocked by Buffon and then missed the far post!
  Di Natale took a free kick from the left, and Iaquinta pushed the defender and turned and volleyed into the net, but the referee believed that he had committed a foul and the first goal was invalid.

In the 13th minute, Slovak midfielder Štebal tackled Gattuso, and England referee Webb showed his first yellow card.

The game went on like this for more than ten minutes. There was no exciting offensive and defensive contest, and Italy had a slight advantage.

Although the defense was a little unstable, several Slovak counterattacks were resolved one by one by Buffon.

In the 25th minute, Camoranesi made a pass error when no one was pressing in the backcourt!
  Kutska stole the ball in front of Palombo and passed it straight. After receiving the ball, Hamsik dunked past Cannavaro and passed into the penalty area!

Wittek fell to the ground on the penalty area line and fired with his right foot into the lower left corner!
  One to zero!

Slovakia takes the lead!
  Although even if they win, whether Italy can advance still depends on the result of another game.

But through their hard work, they retained their last glimmer of hope of advancement!
  The head coach Lippi on the sidelines sighed deeply, he is still old.

Four years ago, Cannavaro had a hundred ways to block Hamsik's pass, but today he is no better than a training post on the court.

Sometimes you have to refuse to accept old age. After all, there are not many older players like Buffon who smoke and drink all day long and still maintain their condition.

The Azzurri, who were lagging behind, tried their best to launch a counterattack, but the abilities of the players in the midfield and frontcourt were really limited.

In Serie A, the three forwards who started today scored more than fifty goals in a season.
  But when it came to the World Cup, it was difficult to even deal with Slovakia.

Cannavaro blocked Kutzka's foul and was shown a yellow card by Weber.

Former Chelsea player Stouch took a free kick from the left into the penalty area, and Buffon hit the ball with both fists!

Strba's powerful low shot from outside the penalty area was sideways blocked by Buffon and missed the left post.

Di Natale's long shot from the edge of the penalty area did not pose much threat to the Slovak goalkeeper.

Camoranesi passed a diagonal pass from the right, and Slovak defender Skrtel headed the ball in front of the goal to clear the ball and almost scored an own goal!
  The ball barely missed the crossbar and flew out of the baseline.

Pirlo and Leo were both absent, and Di Natale took the corner kick.

Di Natale took consecutive corner kicks on the right side, but none of the Italian players in the penalty area were able to reach the ball and Mucho confiscated it.

At the end of the first half, Slovakia unexpectedly led Italy 1-0.

In another match in the same group, Paraguay temporarily drew 0-0 with New Zealand.

If Slovakia continues to score goals in the second half and win the game, they might really hope to advance to the knockout rounds as second in the group!

At the beginning of the second half, Italy stepped up its attack.

However, Lippi was not in a hurry to make substitutions. He sat on the sidelines expressionlessly.

Hamsik took a corner kick from the right and Chiellini made a header to clear the ball, but Hamsik then passed the ball back to the goal!
  Vitek got in front of Cannavaro and shot with his right foot into the near corner of the goal!
  Not only did Cannavaro fail to block, he also blocked the line of sight of his teammate Buffon. His extremely poor defense directly caused Italy to concede another goal.

Two to zero!
  Slovakia leads by two goals!

In the 49th minute, Lippi replaced Cannavaro with Bonucci who had performed poorly.

The defense was sifted, he couldn't win a header, and he even got a yellow card.

Why don't you just replace it and keep it to cause trouble for yourself?

It was not enough for Cannavaro to be replaced. Two minutes later, Italy substituted another person. Zambrotta was replaced by Maggio.

As soon as the two old guards came off the field, Italy's defense instantly became much more stable.

This is the level that a defending champion known for its defense should be at.

Slovakia still wanted to continue looking for opportunities, but was lost in the layers of defense of the Azzurri.

In the 75th minute, Lippi used up the last substitution place, and Leo came on the bench to replace Camoranesi.

Although the team is two goals behind, as long as Leo is replaced, there may be a chance to reverse the situation?

Two minutes later, Maggio dribbled the ball from the right, cut inside, and kicked the wall with Iaquinta to get rid of the defender.

Iaquinta turned his back to play the ball, and Di Natale's right-footed low shot in front of the goal was bravely blocked by Slovak goalkeeper Mucho!
  Leo broke free from Skrtel's hands and hit the near corner with his left foot before the penalty spot!

Two to one!

Italy gets a goal back!
  Leo also scored his fifth goal in this World Cup!
  You must know that the last World Cup Golden Boot was only five goals!
  Leo also has something to say about this. If there is even a reliable forward who can score in front of him, he is not needed as a midfielder to attack the city again and again.

He wanted to deliver artillery shells to the Italian forwards from behind, but these people had to count on them.

There is still time, so there is no chance to equalize the score!

Leo wasted no time in celebrating and ran straight to the net to pick up the ball.

But Slovak goalkeeper Mucho held on to the ball, and then he punched Leo in the head as everyone watched in shock.

Referee Weber stopped the conflict between the two with a card-drawing action, and Mucho and Leo each received a yellow card.

Leo:? ? ?
  I didn't fight back, why did you give me a yellow card?
  The atmosphere on the field was suffocating, and Slovakia coach Weiss continued to use substitutions to waste time.

Sestak replaced Vitek, and Petrash replaced Jendrishek.

The game entered stoppage time, and Slovakia still maintained a two-to-one lead.

Chiellini vigorously threw the sideline ball from the right and was pushed to the back point by the Slovak defender. Leo grabbed the defensive volley before Skrtel made a clearance!
  Mucho flew to save!

But Leo's shot still grazed the Slovak goalkeeper's fingertips and entered the net!

Two to two!
  Italy equalized the score at the last moment of the game!

Referee Weber blew the whistle for the end of the game. At the end of the game, Italy tied Slovakia with Leo's brace as a substitute!
  “I’m very satisfied with my performance and I regret that I didn’t help the team complete the comeback.

Golden boots? Well, to have the opportunity to win the World Cup Golden Boot would indeed be a very special personal honor for me.

Opponent in the quarterfinals?
  Both Denmark and Japan are strong opponents, and we will go all out to defeat our opponents.

I think Spain, the Netherlands, Argentina and Germany are all strong teams capable of winning the World Cup. This is the World Cup.

Defending the title is the goal of our team, but we still need to work harder to achieve this goal. "

One day later, the group stage ended.

Italy advanced to the World Cup knockout rounds with two wins and one draw as the group leader, and their opponent in the quarter-finals was the second-place Japanese team in Group E, which defeated Denmark in the last round.

Although Paraguay also entered the top 16 as second in the group, their next opponent is the Oranje Netherlands team led by Robben, Sneijder and Robin van Persie.

Good luck to them.

Since the opponent in the next game is the Japanese team from Asia, it is inevitable that there will be some feelings of underestimating the enemy within the Italian team.

Although Japan defeated Cameroon and Denmark and only scored a small goal, the country is in a hot state in this World Cup.

But in the eyes of the Italian team members, these Asians are nothing to fear.

Leo couldn't say much about this. Fortunately, head coach Lippi remained vigilant and did not underestimate any opponent.

Until the start of the game against the Japanese team, Lippi never revealed what tactics he would use or what formation he would use to play.

One game at a time, Italy came to Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, in the first knockout match.

Their match against Japan will take place at Loftus Stadium here.

On June 6, Italy, which had one more day of rest than Japan, had no one on the team injured and faced their challenge in a fairly intact state.

Lippi came up with the most comfortable starting lineup of 4,31,2 in the three group matches.

Balotelli and Pepe double arrows.

Leo's attacking midfielder, behind him are Pirlo, De Rossi and Marchisio.

Left back David Thornton, right back Maggio, Chiellini and Bonucci partnered as central defender and goalkeeper Buffon.

The Japanese team continued their start of defeating the Danish team three to one.

After the game started, the Japanese team did not fall behind. They maintained a very tight defensive formation. The players did not hesitate to run in a wide range and surrounded the Italian ball-carrying players at the first opportunity.

In the Italian half, a siege with more attacks and fewer attacks will be organized. This full-court pressing strategy does bring some troubles to the Azzurri.

(End of this chapter)