?Gao Zheng expressed his confidence in winning the game in an interview, and Naples naturally was not to be outdone.

Team captain Hamsik responded to Gao Zhen's statement in an interview: "I agree with Gao's statement that there is no game that can be won easily in this world. So we will do our best in this game. In the Italian Cup, no one will give up easily."

"Hamsik is right. When the game is played, it is difficult for Sampdoria to paralyze its opponents with the low-key point of the game. Think about it, both Roma and Juventus have shown some contempt for this team when facing Sampdoria... They can clearly send out the strongest lineup, but in the end they are often a rotation lineup. Juventus is the most obvious, and Buffon did not even come to the away game. Conte must bear the greatest responsibility for the strength of this game. However, after eliminating Roma and Juventus in succession, I think no one will think that Sampdoria just wants to give up the Italian Cup decently, right?" In the Italian 5 program in the evening, the guests were talking about the next show.

The host asked: "So you are not optimistic about Sampdoria's ability to reach the Italian Cup final?"

The guest shook his head: "I'm not optimistic about them reaching the finals. After all, football is round and everything is possible. It's just that with Naples giving their all and having the advantage of the schedule, it's still difficult for Sampdoria to enter the Italian Cup final..."

He didn't say anything to death, but everyone knew what he meant.

The reason why I didn’t say death is that I couldn’t leave a very obvious handle. If Sampdoria really eliminated Naples in the end, wouldn’t she be slapped in the face?

Since Gao Zheng used his performance on the scorer list last season to slap those experts and celebrities in the face, many people have become relatively cautious about Gao Zheng's issue.

※※※

On the second day of the semi-finals between Udinese and Fiorentina, Sampdoria welcomed Napoli at home.

This is the match between the third and seventh in the league.

One of the reasons why many people are more optimistic about Napoli is the league ranking, which fully reflects the gap between the two teams.

After the 22nd round, Napoli has 44 points and ranks third, but they are far from the top two leagues Juventus and Roma, so they should not have much chance to catch up with the two teams this season. If they can still hold on to the third place in the league at the end of the season, it would be great, at least they can participate in the Champions League again next season.

In terms of honors this season, they can actually compete for the Italian Cup.

So, in this game, Naples definitely does not pay enough attention to it.

They will definitely send out the strongest lineup that can be sent out.

This is not good news for Sampdoria.

In fact, this is true. Napoli sent their main lineup in the league this game.

The one at the forefront is center Higuain, who has scored ten league goals this season.

On the left and right sides are Insigne and Calleon, the midfielder is captain Hamsik, and the back midfielder is Inle and Jorginho.

Four defenders, left back Anthony Revier, right back Marjoer, centre back Albiol and Federico Fernandez.

The goalkeeper is Renner, who transferred from Liverpool.

This lineup is Napoli’s main lineup in the league.

Naples is ranked third in the league, which has a lot to do with their performance.

But in terms of the players' personal abilities, Naples is a level higher than Sampdoria.

After all, except Gao Zheng, the other players on Sampdoria are either young people or players who have been in trouble for many years but have not made a name for themselves.

Unlike Naples, almost everyone is a well-known figure in European football and has rich game experience in wealthy families.

For example, the leading shooter Higuain used to play the main role in Real Madrid, and Callejon was the hope star of Real Madrid.

If we only analyze the strength on paper, I believe no one thinks that Naples will lose.

But football is interesting, and the outcome of the game cannot be simply compared with paper strength.

※※※

After the game started, Sampdoria only launched an attack at the beginning, threatening some Napoli goal points, and then quickly contracted the defense and launched a defensive counterattack that they were best at.

On the other hand, Naples insisted on the attacking style of the wing that they were good at. The wing consisted of two men, Callejon and Insigne, continued to attack Sampdoria's defense.

However, these two sides must slow down when they come to the 30-meter area of ​​Sampdoria.

It was said that when Callehon was playing football in Real Madrid, he felt like he was riding a motorcycle on the field, but when facing Sampdoria's intensive defense, the motorcycle under Callehon had to be replaced with a bicycle...

In fact, in addition to the tactics that Sampdoria is good at using in this game, it was also specially arranged by Di Francesco to target Benitez.

It is to not leave Naples with two room for attacks on the wing roads behind the defense line, so that they cannot play their technical and speed advantages in the wing roads.

In offense, because we must maintain the defensive formation and try not to give Napoli an opportunity to take advantage of, we must rely more on the personal abilities of offensive players in offense.

But Di Francesco is not worried about this, because he thinks they have the best-in-class striker in the world.

Apart from being not good at heading and confrontation, there are basically no shortcomings.

Not being good at heading is not a problem if the team plays defensive counterattacks and lacks midfield and wing support.

Not to mention that you are not good at confrontation, because Gao Zheng is excellent in free kicks! It is impossible for the opponent to stop Gao Zheng without fouling in a game, right? As long as you violate the rules, it will be Gao Zheng's performance moment.

So from this perspective, Gao Zheng is comprehensive and has no fatal weaknesses.

Ten minutes into the game, Napoli's offense had not yet shown any threat, and Sampdoria's intensive defense did play a role.

In the 13th minute, after Sampdoria, who was defending in the backcourt, intercepted Naples' ball, he did not advance through the midfield layer by layer, but directly kicked the football into the midfield with a big foot.

Gao Zheng received the ball just after crossing the middle circle, but was not offside. He turned around and dribbled the ball and walked forward!

"Sampdoria's counterattack!"

The Malasi Stadium heard cheering for Gao Zheng.

Napoli players quickly returned to defense, and the centre-backs Albiol and Fernandez, who were already behind, slowly retreated while waiting for their teammates to return to defense.

The Napoli players in the midfield are quickly returning to defense, and as for the frontcourt, they didn't run much. After all, they are the farthest away. When they run back, they probably will be cold, so it's better to stay in the frontcourt. On the one hand, they can suppress Sampdoria's midfielders and backcourt players and prevent them from overwhelming power. On the other hand, they can immediately invest in counterattack after their teammates' defense successfully.

As mentioned before, Gao Zheng is not a speed player, but he is definitely not the kind of slow high center forward.

He dribbles well, so although his absolute speed is not fast, the dribbles feels slow.

He quickly dribbled the ball and approached Napoli's central defender Albiol.

The Spanish central defender who moved to Naples from Real Madrid this summer is tall but not fast enough and not flexible enough to turn around.

When Gao Zheng dribbled the ball and shot in front of him, he turned his head and glanced at his right. There was indeed Berardi who was plugging in at high speed on his right, trying to answer him.

Albiol noticed Gao Zheng's turn of head, so his eyes were involuntarily followed him to glance there.

This was a very hidden action, but Gao Zheng keenly caught.

He immediately bullied himself!

Albiol's attention was originally on Berardi, but suddenly he saw Gao Zheng leaning forward again, and quickly stretched out his legs to block Gao Zheng with a conditioned reflex.

Gao Zheng gently plucked the football to the front left with his right foot, and the football rubbed against Albiol's toes. At the same time, Gao Zheng took another step and wiped it through Albiol's face.

Because the movement amplitude is very small, it does not affect Gao Zheng's center of gravity and balance, allowing him to quickly connect his movements without too much adjustment to delay time.
Chapter completed!