Football: Take away half of Boss Mei's skills at the beginning

March 24, 2019, Friuli Stadium, Udinese.

Italy will face Finland here, which is also the first game of the European Cup qualifiers.

The European Cup qualifiers are divided into ten groups. The top two teams in each group will advance, and then the remaining teams will jointly select sixteen teams to participate in the play-offs based on the results of the European Nations League and the group stage.

And Italy's goal is of course to qualify directly.

There are six teams in their group, namely Italy, Finland, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia and Liechtenstein.

According to strength, Italy should have no problem qualifying.

But Italy has just experienced the blow of not being able to qualify in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, so they certainly can't take it lightly.

Mancini really didn't let Matteo start in this game, and he chose to trust Immobile.

This is also in line with Matteo's expectations. He is also happy to be idle and sit on the bench to follow the progress of the game.

In the past few days, after he came to the Italian national team, he was still mainly adapting. He told Rossi to keep a low profile in the team and observe the factions first.

After all, he also knew that there were factions in any national team. If you randomly stood on the side, you might not be able to stand out in the national team.

The more famous ones are the Belgian national team, the Dutch national team, the French national team, and the Argentine national team in the past few years. These are all places where talents are concentrated.

However, according to his observations in the past few days, the Italian national team is not bad.

After all, the big boss Chiellini is not a person who likes to make trouble, so they are relatively united.

Of course, this is only relative unity.

Matteo certainly saw the undercurrents, but he was mainly a quail and did not participate in their open and secret struggles.

In this game, Italy lined up a 433 formation, with goalkeeper Donnarumma, defenders Piccini, Chiellini, Bonucci, Biraghi, midfielders Jorginho, Barella and Verratti, and frontcourt players Kean, Immobile and Bernardeschi.

Because Florenzi was injured, Berardi and Insigne were also in poor physical condition, so Mancini used Piccini as a surprise player in this game, and used Kean and Bernardeschi on the front line.

This also made everyone sweat for them.

However, Matteo was very calm, because he remembered that Mancini was quite stable before the end of the European Cup, and there was absolutely no problem in qualifying.

Sure enough, after the game started, Italy quickly took the advantage on the field.

In the eighth minute, Italy got a set piece in the frontcourt.

Verratti took the penalty and sent the ball into the penalty area, but it was headed out by the opponent's central defender first.

However, Barrera, who was lying in wait outside the penalty area, met the ball and shot it directly into the goal of the Finnish team!

This young midfielder helped the team open the door to victory!

After scoring the goal, Italy did not choose to continue to press forward, but began to use its advantage in ball possession to control the situation.

Of course, this is also Italy's traditional art. It is unrealistic to expect them to play a tragedy like the Germans.

The Finnish team really does not have any strong offensive firepower, so their threat to the Italian goal is also limited.

Matteo is not familiar with most of the players in their starting lineup, and only the bald striker Pukki still has some impression.

However, he is not a particularly powerful player, so the help he can provide to the team is limited.

Of course, they are not without any chances. In the 53rd minute of the game, the winger Rod sent a bottom cross after continuous breakthroughs, and Pukki in the penalty area missed the ball due to the interference of Bonucci.

This is also the closest time for the Finnish team to equalize the score.

And Italy finally locked the victory in the 70th minute.

Immobile brought the ball to the front of the penalty area, and after attracting the attention of two defenders, he passed the ball directly into the penalty area.

Young winger Keane received the ball and rushed into the penalty area. Facing the attack of goalkeeper Hadecki, he gently pushed the ball into the goal!

2-0, Italian fans can finally rest assured.

And Mancini also made the decision to make a substitution: "Matteo, get ready to play!"

Matteo was stunned. He didn't expect that he would have the opportunity to debut so soon.

Although it was garbage time, he had to play, right?

So he quickly warmed up and stood on the sidelines waiting for Immobile to leave.

And Immobile was obviously not happy to be replaced because he hadn't scored yet.

But this was also the decision of the head coach, and he couldn't disobey it.

And Matteo shook hands with him and quicklyran into the stadium.

At this moment, he suddenly felt as if he had reached a new level.

He had become a truly international player!

Of course, this also meant that he would never be able to play for the Tokyo University national team again...

And now Italy no longer wanted to attack, after all, with two goals in hand, the world was mine.

So they began to control the field in various ways, leaving only Matteo to foolishly stir up trouble in the frontcourt.

Matteo was very helpless, but there was nothing he could do, so he could only hope that his teammates would pass the ball to him.

But obviously, this chance was slim.

He even had a feeling that he might not even touch the ball in his national team debut.

But just when the game reached the 88th minute, his teammates finally remembered that there was still a person named Matteo.

So Barrera passed the ball straight to him in the frontcourt.

At this time, he was surrounded by Finnish players. If he followed the normal conservative approach, he should try to protect the ball or dribble the ball to the corner flag area to waste time.

However, he glanced at the opponent's goal.

Just when several Finnish players were about to surround him, he suddenly started.

He poked the ball lightly and immediately dodged the defense in front of him, then accelerated himself and rushed out of the encirclement.

At this time, there were two central defenders in front of him and midfielders who had reacted behind him. It can be said that he was still trapped in the wolf pack.

But he didn't want to run anymore. He aimed at the goal and kicked a long shot directly!

This was beyond everyone's expectations.

You know, now the distance from the goal is 35 meters, and the probability of him hitting the goal is very low.

But the quality of this ball is very high!

It rose rapidly and then fell rapidly, heading straight for the upper right corner of the goal!

And Hadecki couldn't catch this ball at all!

But the ball hit the crossbar with a bang under the gaze of everyone!

Mateo immediately covered his head in depression.

But this shocked everyone.

This is the best embodiment of individual combat capability!

Although the ball didn't go in, it was enough to impress everyone!