Chapter 482: Coppa Italia Semi Final; First Leg I
The next step on Uventus’ path was a match against Inter Milan once again, but this ti, it was a Coppa Italia match.
The stakes could be said to be higher considering that it was the first leg in the Coppa Italia’s semi-finals, hence it was a match everyone was looking forward to, the players included.
This ti, the two teams would be facing off at Inter Milan’s ho ground at the San Siro stadium in Milan.
Before the Uventus players even arrived, the Inter Milan players were already on the field, warming up in preparation to unleash hell on their opponents.
They had lost at their last clash and this ti, they wanted to make sure that their opponents were on the receiving end of the goals.
The thought of doing that while cutting off their chances at the Coppa Italia trophy this season was enough to make the Inter Milan players drool internally.
The Uventus were not completely unaware of this line of thought from their opponents, but what did it matter?
They also planned to trample on their opponents to continue marching on towards the Coppa Italia trophy.
That their opponents thought the sa thing wouldn’t matter, only their actions on the pitch would determine anything.
Anyone can fantasize, but only winners turn their fantasy to reality.
With strong and determined minds, the Uventus players arrived at the San Siro stadium for the match.
As usual, they quickly headed to the locker rooms first to change, but this ti, the manager decided to hold a tactical eting first and announced the players in the starting line-up.
Sczezny would be the goalkeeper for the match and he would have the assistance of Cuadrado, De Ligt, Chiellini, and Alex Sandro forming a back line to help him defend the goal.
In midfield was Jason on the wide right, Bentacur and Mckennie in the center of the park, and Chiesa on the wide left.
Ronaldo and Dybala were the two strikers who would be looking to put a few balls past the Inter goalkeeper.
Unlike the previous match in the Coppa Italia where the manager had opted for younger players, this ti, he had put out a more experienced team as he knew that the Inter Milan team would do the sa since they were already at the final stages of the competition.
Jason was more than pleased to be nad in the starting line-up and he quickly ran out with his teammates to the field to warm-up in preparation for the ga.
Despite wanting to crush the Uventus players on the field, the Inter Milan defender was a relieved to note that Jason didn’t pay any attention to him while he did his warm up activities with his teammates on the other side of the field.
‘What am I even thinking?’
‘Am I scared of that brat?’ Skriniar was a bit annoyed to find himself relieved that Jason looked like he wouldn’t be gunning to embarrass him on the field once again.
‘No no no, I’m not scared,’ he quickly shook his head to clear distracting thoughts and with another glance at Jason, resud his own training, but inwardly, he had made a decision to be as rough as possible as long as he could stop Jason from getting past him.
“Yeah, whatever it takes,” he muttered to himself.
The ti quickly ran by as the players ward up and soon, they had moved off the field and were now coming back onto it with their faces the very pictures of seriousness, and the crowd cheering loudly for the players.
Unsurprisingly, the Uventus fans were in the minority at the stadium, but they didn’t allow themselves to be outmatched in energy after being outmatched in numbers.
Under the crowd’s loud and flamboyant cheers, the pre-match formalities were swiftly completed and the ga soon kicked off at the blast of the referee’s whistle.
The ga kicked off with the Inter Milan striker, Lukaku sending a pass back to the his partner up front, Martinez.
Martinez didn’t hesitate to send the ball to another teammate as soon as the Uventus players ca running at him to try and steal the ball.
His credentials included scoring goals and not dribbling through opponents so he wasn’t going to outstretch himself stupidly in such an important ga and lose possession for no reason.
With the ball moving around quickly, the ga got off to a quick start with both teams looking to get the first goal against their opponent.
The Inter Milan team seed to have the upper hand for a little while, but their advantage seed to disappear as the match wore on and soon, it was a back and forth between the two teams with both of them pushing hard.
With such swift movent of the ball, it remained to be seen who would buckle first.
The Inter Milan seed to adopt a possession ga and they were content with passing the ball around patiently in their half whenever they couldn’t seem to find a way past their opponent.
The Uventus players on the other hand were a bit more impatient and would always try to break through their opponent whether a clear chance showed up or not as they knew that currently, the Inter Milan team had the best defensive record.
They couldn’t afford to wait around for the perfect opportunity to show up as there was the slight possibility that such a perfect opportunity would not show up.
Thus they surged forward into the Inter Milan team’s half increasing the pressure to try and get the ball back quicker whenever they lost the ball…
How were they to know that that was exactly what the Inter Milan players wanted?
#9th minute…
The Uventus players surged forward into the Inter Milan’s half of the field, trying to recover the ball after they lost the ball while trying to break past their opponents, but suddenly, Eriksen who was with the ball shot his leg back and hit the ball powerfully, sending it above and past the Uventus players who were rushing out to press.
Before the Uventus players could react, the ball had already flown past almost everybody and was dropping in behind their back line.
Their faces turned even uglier when they saw Lukaku running into the ball’s path like a freight train, holding off De Ligt like it was light work.
De Ligt did all he could, but he couldn’t stop the Belgium-born striker from getting to the ball first and pushing forward at goal.
Seeing that he could not easily push him off the ball, he tried to move a bit quicker and get his leg in for a tackle, but he moved a bit too late as Lukaku suddenly sent the ball forward into the path of Martinez who controlled the ball with a touch and moved with it into the penalty box.
Sczesny rushed forward, but he was no match for the striker’s nerves of steel and the ball was curved around his outstretched body.
{GOAL!!!}
{What a quick start to such an important ga!}
{I’m sure the manager must have emphasized how important it was to get on the front foot against their opponents and it’s clear that the Inter Milan players have heeded to instructions!}
{A well-worked goal it was, they soaked up the pressure and unleashed it all back at their opponents with a resounding bang!} The comntator didn’t need anyone to tell him to do his job and he quickly burst out with all he could.
His comntary served as the perfect backdrop to the San Siro stadium that celebrated wildly to their team’s striker doing his job and striking down their opponents with a shot.
It was just one goal, but the fans’ excitent wasn’t diminished because of that.
None of them was pessimistic enough to think that their team would end up losing the ga when they were already in the lead this early in the ga.
The Uventus players watched with gritted teeth as their opponents celebrated one-upping them, but they didn’t lose their composure because the pessimistic thoughts that their opponents would never choose to think about were the optimistic thoughts they were thinking.
They weren’t out yet.
*****
The match had continued after the goal and the Inter Milan team had tried to build on the montum of their first goal get another, but the Uventus players put a stop to those thoughts quickly, shutting them down whenever they were within sight.
They moved quicker and with more determination than before, aiming to equalize the ga soon, but unlike before, they paid more attention to their defense and this functioned well enough against the opponents.
All they needed was a chance to breakthrough and Jason had taken it upon himself to try and create the breakthrough that the team needed.
As he received the ball on the right flank, he first tried running down the flank toward the right side of the penalty box, but Skriniar was in his way.
He couldn’t turn back either as soone was behind him as well so he did a few stepovers to try and confuse Skriniar, but Skriniar stayed in place and tried to tackle him instead.
With him committing to the tackle, it was easy for Jason to slot the ball through his leg with a reverse elastico and then jump past him before passing the ball infield to Dybala.
Once he sent the ball to Dybala, he continued his run forward, intending to get on the end of the return pass.
Dybala didn’t disappoint and sent a chip pass over to Jason before he ran past the offside line.
Catching the ball on his chest and pushing it down as towards his feet with his knee as he stepped into the penalty box, Jason looked at the goalkeeper, ready to hit the ball, but before he could, Skriniar ca flying in from behind him with a sliding tackle like a nuke and crashed hard into Jason’s leg, sending him off his feet like a ragdoll.
A sharp, numbing pain shot through Jason’s leg before he even hit the floor.
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