Chapter 18 17. The Disaster of Injuries

The Juventus team in Lippi's hands is a very strong offensive team. The team has Roberto Baggio, Vialli, Ravanelli, and other top forwards who are the most deterrent in Italy at that time. In addition, Rising star Del Piero made his debut last season (93--94 season), the striker, who was not yet 20 years old, performed well. He played 11 times and scored 5 goals, showing excellent potential.Lippi is very satisfied with having so many elite soldiers. However, in the first league game of a new season that started at the end of August 1994, Juventus played very awkwardly, and their offense and defense were not smooth at all.Although they finally defeated Foggia 2:0, Juventus' performance was still far from what Lippi expected.Therefore, he decided to continue to reform the team's style of play, and he once again emphasized that the opponent should be pushed into their half.Since then, Juventus has played more and more smoothly, and Vialli has become an important contributor to the team's victory.

In the past few years, the Serie A league was almost dominated by AC Milan. In this league, although AC Milan has been affected by the World Cup syndrome, a group of main players have not fully recovered from the exhaustion of the World Cup. With the lineup, AC Milan is still one of the strong contenders for this league championship. In the previous rounds of competition, the points were slightly ahead of Juventus, ranking first. On October 30, 1994, in the eighth round of the league, Juventus and AC Milan faced each other.The soldiers of the Juventus team know that only by defeating AC Milan can they leap to the top of the standings and take the lead in the final championship.As the captain of the Juventus team, Baggio naturally knew the weight of this game, and he did not dare to neglect at all, ready to catch the opportunity at any time and give the opponent a fatal blow.After the start of the game, the two sides fought fiercely and wanted to win the opponent.Baggio was like a divine help. I saw that he got the ball in the midfield, dribbled the ball forward, took advantage of the opponent's player to block it, split the ball to the left, and then quickly advanced into the penalty area. His teammates knew how to hang the ball diagonally.Baggio looked at the right time and rushed to the top. The ball passed Rossi's ten fingers and entered the net. With this ball, Juventus defeated a strong opponent and sent the team to the top spot in the standings.Baggio opened the door to the championship with his outstanding performance.

However, just as Baggio led Juventus to victory, bad luck once again fell on his head.In the game against Padua on November 27, after Baggio scored a wonderful goal, his right knee was seriously injured again and he had to go off the field for treatment. He had to stay away from the game for more than three months. After Baggio was injured, the fans were very concerned about his injury, and a steady stream of fans wrote to Baggio to ask about his recovery.Baggio was very moved by this. He himself was unable to reply to these emotional letters one by one due to his injuries, so he specially hired two secretaries to reply for him, which shows Baggio's respect and affection for fans.

More than two months have passed in a blink of an eye. After receiving meticulous treatment, Baggio's injury has improved greatly, and he can already do some recovery training. One day in February 1995, in order to let fans know about his recent situation, he publicly issued a statement: "Please rest assured, I feel very good now, my knee injury has basically healed, and I may need another week or two to reply. If the effect is satisfactory, I hope to play against Sampdoria in the league at the end of this month." Juventus fans were very excited to hear the news, and they had long been eager to see Baggio back on the field. Fight for the Bianconeri championship dream and bring them happiness.The Sampdoria team, as if they were facing a big enemy, urgently mobilized the whole team to make mental preparations and study ways to deal with Baggio.However, in that game, Baggio did not play, which made people feel a little disappointed.Perhaps Lippi felt that Baggio hadn't fully recovered, and there might be other reasons.Next came a game against Inter Milan, 90 minutes passed, and people still didn't see Baggio's shadow on the field.

When will Baggio play?