The tactical adjustments they made during the halftime break were primarily to exhaust, to lure the snake out of the hole, and thus prepare for the offensive wave they launched starting from over seventy minutes.
To put it bluntly, France Team feared that Italy Team would keep turtling in and drag the match into extra time, so they discussed for fifteen minutes.
But now, Italy Team actually tells France Team, you don’t need to lure the snake out because we planned to be a tiger descending the mountain!
Sure enough, Candreva’s appearance directly gave Italy Team an extra player in the front field.
Both he and Morici started to lean their movement forward.
Italy Team’s 4312 suddenly turned into a 4132!
Full of aggression!
"What a chance!"
Italy Team’s adjustment, although making them more robust in attack, left Drake alone dealing with Zidane on the defensive end.
This was a huge challenge for Drake.
In the front field, Nelka and Rubeus executed a brilliant position switch.
Afterward, Rubeus and Robben switched again.
Italy Team’s defense line made a switch-defend error for a split second, leaving Rubeus unguarded on the left side of the penalty area.
Light sparkled in Zidane’s eyes as he made a through pass.
Bang!
Drake flew in for a slide tackle, sending the football towards the right sideline.
Zidane’s through pass failed!
Canyes rushed up to receive the ball, launching a long pass immediately.
Italy Team’s counterattack appeared!
Compared to previous offensives with a lack of manpower.
This time, with Candreva’s and Morici’s inclusion, Canyes had abundant options for passing points.
He executed a long pass transfer, finding Candreva.
Candreva, upon receiving the ball, faced the defense from France Team’s center-back.
Candreva immediately passed to Lu Yang and then moved forward but was soon intercepted by France’s defensive midfielder Plazza.
Joseph is left to occupy the positions of both Lu Yang and Morici, quite stretched thin.
But his positioning was precise, whether dribbling or passing to Morici, Lu Yang remained within Joseph’s defensive range.
This is top-tier defensive intuition.
Lu Yang passed back to the advancing Praxedes.
"He’s scared!" laughed France Team’s assistant coach.
Based on their study of Lu Yang, in situations where dribbling breakthroughs have a success rate of over fifty percent, especially when the team isn’t in the lead, Lu Yang prefers to take risks.
Because his success rate in risky attempts is exceptionally high.
Although Lu Yang isn’t any dribbling king, high-order data shows that Lu Yang’s threatening dribble success rate and goals and assists following dribbles are the highest at this European Cup!
This data is very obscure but holds significant meaning.
It implies... in some sense, that in critical moments, Lu Yang is even stronger than Robben!
But this highly efficient Lu Yang, when given the chance to execute a fast break, chose to forgo the dribble attempt and passed back to the home left-back, allowing the team to organize a regular attack.
Ordinarily, playing like this is fine, but it clearly contradicts Maniero’s arrangements.
Maniero facilitated Candreva’s advance to bolster Italy Team’s attack.
But perhaps there are too many offensive players in the front field, leading Lu Yang to believe he doesn’t need to take the risk of dribbling, but can let the team play regular tactics based on the advantage of having more attacking players.
Lu Yang’s thought wasn’t wrong, but the result of this undoubtedly decreased the attacking rhythm and, in fact, did not increase the team’s offensive power, but rather weakened the team’s defense because of Candreva’s presence.
This is a trouble many teams may encounter after making substitution adjustments aimed at strengthening offense.
The result is that the frequency, efficiency, and number of attacks actually have reduced!
This is because the psychological burden on the players is too great.
After all, if Lu Yang had just chosen to attempt the dribble and was intercepted, everyone would complain about why he didn’t pass the ball? With so many people in the front field, why didn’t you pass, why must you act solo?
Isn’t this wasting the run by Candreva and Morici?
Too solitary!
"It seems, the question of who contributed the most for Italy to reach the finals of the European Cup is still affecting Lu," said France Team’s coach, "They haven’t let this topic affect their unity, instead they’ve become even more cohesive."
"But because they are more united, they’ve lost reliance on their individual abilities. Lu Yang’s overly team-oriented performance has harmed the team!"
Sounds absurd, but it’s true.
When to act solo and when to cooperate is always the hardest balance to strike in team sports!
After Praxedes inserted, France Team had already fully contracted, so Italy Team essentially lost the opportunity to capitalize on the mismatch.
In the upcoming positional warfare, France Team wasn’t afraid.
Praxedes made a short pass to the side, finding Candreva.
Candreva, after taking a few strides, seemed somewhat bewildered.
He looked left, looked right; everywhere there were teammates asking for the ball, but nowhere was there a good opportunity.
Candreva’s action resembled a clueless rookie.
At this point, to create a passing point for Candreva and a threatening pass opportunity, Praxedes aggressively moved up the flank.
But was closely marked.
Ancelotti moved to the wing, Perrotta retreated, Lu Yang advanced and exchanged positions with Perrotta.
On the right, Morici and Canyes moved forward simultaneously, taking a gamble.
Almost all of Italy Team’s midfield and forward players were in motion.
Seen from a macro perspective, besides Candreva, most blue dots and white dots were moving.