From the man behind the football king to the football king

In mid-week, the European war ushered in the final round of the group stage.

Juventus' game in Turkey on Tuesday night was postponed to Wednesday afternoon due to heavy snow. As a result, in a snowy battle, Juventus was defeated by Galatasaray 1:0 in the away game, and ultimately ranked third in the group. Knocked out of the Europa League.

The tragedy in Naples still happened. Although they defeated Arsenal 2:0 at home, Dortmund also defeated Marseille 2:1 away from home. As a result, Arsenal, Dortmund and Naples all have 12 points. Dortmund ranks first with 5 goal differences, Arsenal ranks second with 3 goal differences, and Naples with only 1 goal difference can only rank third. Third, they were eliminated from the Europa League again.

Of the three Italian teams competing in the Champions League, only AC Milan in Group H successfully advanced. They drew 0:0 with direct rival Ajax at the San Siro Stadium. As a result, AC Milan ranked second in the group with 9 points.

On Thursday night, the three Serie A teams competing in the Europa League took to the field.

Fiorentina, who played first, defeated Dnipro 2:1 at home and advanced to the knockout rounds as the first in the group.

Then Udinese, who traveled to the Iberian Peninsula, and Lazio, who played at home, played.

In the away game, Bruno helped Udinese defeat Estoril with one shot and one pass, locking in second place in the group.

At the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Lazio, which had already qualified, had a goalless draw with Turkey's Trabzonspor, and Lazio also ranked second in the group.

As a result, all six Italian teams competing in the European competition have not yet been eliminated, except that Juventus and Napoli have been eliminated from the Champions League to the Europa League.

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On Friday, the Udinese team flew back to Udine from Portugal, while the team's general manager Giaretta and head coach Guidolin went to the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, to attend the meeting that started at noon that day. Europa League knockout draw.

When Bruno and his teammates returned to Udine, the results of the Europa League knockout draw were also announced. Udinese drew Eredivisie powerhouse AZ Alkmaar, and the schedule was also relatively unfavorable.

This is the second time the two sides have met in the Europa League. In the 2011-2012 season, the two teams met in the Europa League quarter-finals. Udinese lost 0:2 in the away game. Although they returned to home in the second leg and pulled back a score of 2:1, they were still eliminated with a total score of 2:3.

This time, the two sides met in the top 32.

However, the two-leg knockout round is still two months away.

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On December 15, Udinese ushered in the 16th round of Serie A and faced Torino, who was eighth in the league, at home.

Since this game was less than 70 hours apart from the midweek Europa League game, Udinese looked very tired. On the contrary, the Turin team playing away from home played very proactively and had a posture of attacking the away team.

The score was 0:0 in the first half.

After the start of the second half, Udinese almost conceded the goal. Turin launched a quick counterattack in the 48th minute. Cerci's pass almost penetrated Udinese's defense. Fortunately, Kanter made the clearance before Fanarrud, otherwise the Swedish midfielder would have received a single goal. Chance.

In the 75th minute of the game, Kanter made another contribution on the defensive end. He intercepted Diamanti's pass.

After surviving two disasters, Udinese had good luck in the 81st minute of the game. Bruno's pass penetrated Turin's defense, and Di Natale successfully countered offside and sent the ball into the Turin goal.

1:0!

It was the only goal of the game.

After the game, Kanter became the best player on the field selected by fans and media reporters. The small defensive midfielder contributed 5 steals in this game and was the best Udinese player on the field.

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On the afternoon of December 21, Udinese visited Novara Piola Stadium.

This is the last game before the winter break in Serie A, and it is also the first time Bruno returns to the Piola Stadium after moving to Udinese.

When Bruno appeared at the Piola Stadium, 10,000 home fans stood up and applauded him at the same time to pay tribute to the team's hero in returning to Serie A.

However, when the game started, the pre-game warmth was gone.

The Novara in front of him was a bit unfamiliar to Bruno, because nearly half of the players were new faces. After the end of last season, many players left the team, including those like Bruno who were poached by other teams because of their good performance, others who could not keep up with the pace of Serie A and left the team, and the team's old captain Rubino Retire at the end of the season that way.

When someone leaves, new people will naturally arrive, and among the new faces, Bruno basically doesn't recognize them.

Novara's current situation is very bad. Before meeting Udinese, they had been winless in 6 rounds, and their ranking in the standings dropped to 18th, falling into the relegation zone.

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The strength gap between Novara and Udinese is still huge.

After the game started, Udinese, led by Bruno, quickly suppressed Novara and helped Udinese take the lead in the 11th minute. At that time, Kanter intercepted the opponent's pass in the midfield and passed it to Bruno immediately.

Without any delay, Bruno sent the ball behind Novara. Di Natale faced the Novara goalkeeper and succeeded in shooting from a small angle.

1:0, Udinese, playing away from home, took the lead.

However, Novara equalized the score 30 minutes into the game.

In the first half, the two sides battled 1:1.

In the second half of the game, Udinese still took the initiative on the court and exceeded the score again in the 65th minute.

At that time, Udinese got a corner kick. Bruno's corner kick found Di Natale at the front point. The old captain of Udinese scored twice.

This is Di Natale's tenth Serie A goal this season and the second Udinese player to score double figures in the league.

The other one who scored in double figures is naturally Bruno. He has now scored 12 league goals and is tied with Fiorentina's Giuseppe Rossi for the top scorer list in Serie A.

Next is Di Natale, who scored 10 goals. The old captain of Udinese ranks third in the Serie A scorer list.

The two shooters rank among the top three in Serie A, which is a key reason why Udinese has been able to remain at the top of the standings this season.

However, this may also be the reason why Udinese will be in trouble in the future, because apart from Bruno and Di Natale, the team lacks a third scoring point with stable goal efficiency.

In Udinese's formation, defender Erto has the third most goals in the league, with 3 goals.

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As this round of competition comes to an end, Serie A will also enter a half-month winter break.

Udinese's half-way performance is definitely the most surprising.

After 17 league rounds, they are ranked second in Serie A, just 1 point behind Juventus. The 42 points set a record for points gained in the first half of team history, and left the original record far behind.

Prior to this, Udinese's highest points before the winter break was set in the 2011-2012 season. At that time, after 16 rounds, Udinese had 9 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses, scoring 32 points, ranking third after AC Milan and Juventus.

In the 2011-2012 season, Udinese also created the best ranking in Serie A in recent years. They finally scored 64 points in 38 league rounds, ranking third in the league.

In the other two seasons of the Guidolin era, Udinese was ranked tenth before entering the winter break. In the 2010-2011 season, they scored 23 points in 17 league rounds, while last season they were ranked tenth. Got 24 points in 18 league rounds.

This season, Udinese has ushered in a transformation, with its points suddenly reaching 40 points, and it is the only team other than Juventus with more than 40 points.

Behind them are Roma who scored 38 points in the 17th round, Naples with 35 points, Fiorentina with 33 points and Inter Milan with 31 points.

Moreover, Udinese's points at home and away are relatively balanced. The home record is 7 wins and 1 loss, and the away record is 7 wins and 2 losses. They both scored 21 points. They are the team with the third most points at home and the second highest away points.

With such stable results, it is no wonder that major Italian newspapers and major European gambling companies have listed Udinese as one of the favorite teams to win the Serie A this season.

Currently, Juventus has the lowest odds of winning Serie A, followed closely by Udinese.