From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 186 The ambition to win the Serie A title

Bruno's desire to win the Serie A championship is not an unfounded wishful thinking, but an idea based on analysis of the situation in memory and the current situation of Udinese.

Within Serie A, the Milan duo continues to decline and has truly become the Milan duo.After both missing out on the European war last season, if nothing else happens, they will continue to miss out on the European war this season.

Juventus, the most powerful contender for the Serie A championship, has greatly diminished its interest in Serie A after achieving three consecutive Serie A championships, especially after winning the championship with a record 102 points last season.

At present, the old woman has almost devoted herself to the competition for the Champions League. What she never forgets is to win the third Champions League championship in team history.

In Bruno's memory, Juventus did go all the way this season and reached the final Champions League final.Although they were defeated by Barcelona, ​​which has the MSN combination, they are the closest to the third Champions League championship in team history.

Under such circumstances, if a strong team appears in Serie A, Juventus will never fight with the opponent in Serie A and give up the competition for the Champions League championship.

As for the likes of Rome and Naples, in Bruno's opinion, they are really almost meaningless.

If the Napoli team around 2020 is still somewhat competitive, the Napoli team in recent seasons has really not been noticed by Bruno.

It can be said that this season is the best time for Udinese to compete for the Serie A championship.Missing this opportunity, Udinese's desire to get involved in the Serie A championship is really wishful thinking.

Of course, the main reason is that Bruno doesn't know how long he can stay in Udinese. Maybe he will leave at the end of the season?

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Although he is doubtful about Bruno's analysis, Guidolin still agrees with Bruno's statement of grabbing as many points as possible before Juventus really pays attention to Udinese.

In addition, Udinese only needs a draw to secure first place in the Champions League group. Therefore, in the 12th round of the Champions League group stage on the evening of December 9, local time in Italy, Udinese played at home against Basel. , Guidolin conducted a large-scale rotation to save energy for the three games before the next winter break.

Before the winter break, Udinese has three more games, namely the 15th round of Serie A at home against Verona, the 16th round of an away game against Sampdoria, and the Italian Super Cup against Juventus.

In the final match of the Champions League group stage against Basel, Guidolin rotated eight positions in Udinese's starting lineup. However, Bruno, as an iron man, still started wearing the captain's armband in the game.

Udinese, who played as a substitute, played Basel 1:1 at home. Forward Taylor scored Udinese's only goal, and the assist was veteran Ping Qi.

In this game, Bruno really acted as a midfield commander, and he performed very steadily in the position of organizing the midfielder.He rarely gets close to Basel's goal, and stays in the midfield to sort out Udinese's offense.

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With the end of this round of group stages, the competition for this season's Champions League group stages has also come to an end.

In Group B where Udinese is located, although Real Madrid defeated Basel and Ludogorets in the last two rounds, they were at a disadvantage in the head-to-head duel with Udinese, with one draw and one loss. Can reverse Udinese and take first place in the group.

In the end, in the six rounds of the group stage, Udinese had 4 wins and 2 draws, scored 17 goals and conceded 7 goals, ranking first in the group with 14 points;

Real Madrid achieved 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, ranking second in the group with 13 points;
Basel had 1 win, 1 draw and 4 losses, scored 4 points, ranked third in the group, and was relegated to play in the Europa League;

Ludogorets had 1 win, 5 losses, and 3 points. They were ranked at the bottom of the group and were directly eliminated.

Looking at the entire group stage, La Liga continues its dominance in the Champions League.In addition to Real Madrid and Barcelona who advanced to the knockout rounds under the leadership of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi respectively, Atletico Madrid, as the runner-up of the Champions League last season, also easily advanced to the top of the group.

All three of the top three teams in the Spanish Super League have advanced to the knockout rounds, and these three teams are all capable of competing for the championship, which all proves La Liga's dominance in today's European football.

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As the second-ranked league in the Champions League standings, the Premier League's performance this season is unsatisfactory.

Chelsea, coached by Mourinho, once again became the benchmark in England. They brought their strength in the league to the Champions League and easily qualified for the group stage.

Wenger's Arsenal once again committed suicide in a good situation. Although they eventually advanced as second in the group, their prospects were bleak.

Liverpool, who returned to the Champions League, seems to still need time to adapt to the high intensity of the Champions League. The Red Army has a lot of strong players, but they were suppressed by Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk. In the end, they missed the knockout rounds by 2 points and had to move to the Europa League for solace.It was Premier League champion Manchester City who came ashore at the last moment. In the final game of the group stage, Manchester City faced off against Roma in an away game. They also had to worry about whether Bayern would let CSKA lose.

In the end, Blue Moon won the Red Wolves with hard power, and Bayern also showed the rigorous and realistic side of the German team, eliminating the Russian Super League hegemon without mercy.However, as they advance as second in the group, Manchester City must be mentally prepared for the possibility of encountering a fierce battle in advance in the 1/8 finals.

All four Bundesliga teams that participated in the group stage advanced, with Bayern and Dortmund ranking first in the group, while Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke ranked second in the group.

The three Serie A teams competing in the Champions League group stage had mixed performances.

Udinese was amazing. They won one and drew one against Real Madrid, and finally ended up with an unbeaten record of 4 wins and 2 draws, and advanced to the top [-] as the first in the group.

Juventus, who thought they had a good draw, were almost eliminated in the group stage.Due to consecutive losses to Atletico Madrid and Olympiakos in the second and third rounds, Juventus was once forced into a desperate situation.However, with a 2:3 win over Olympiacos at home and an away win against Malmo, the Old Lady finally advanced with a 3-point advantage over Olympiacos in a tacit match with Atletico Madrid.

Roma is more miserable. In Group E, which includes Bayern Munich, Manchester City and CSKA Moscow, even though the Red Wolves tried their best, they still failed to appear. What is a little consolation is that they finished third in the group and can continue. Go hang out in the Europa League knockout rounds.

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In this season's Champions League group stage, the most dazzling players are two players, one is Barcelona's star Messi, and the other is Bruno.

Messi started 6 games in the group stage, scoring 8 goals and providing 2 assists. During this period, he surpassed Raul's Champions League scoring record and became the top scorer in the history of the Champions League. Among Messi's 8 goals, there was no penalty kick. , the goal is full of gold.

Bruno, who made his career Champions League debut, performed even more amazingly.As the core of Udinese's midfield, Bruno started all 6 games in the group stage and scored 9 goals. He was tied with Shakhtar Donetsk's striker as the top scorer in the group stage. He also sent 4 assists, which is the highest scorer in the Champions League. The assist leader in the group stage.

Udinese also relied on Bruno's outstanding performance to defeat Real Madrid in the group stage, ranking first in Group B and advancing to the knockout rounds.

In fact, it is entirely possible for Bruno to score more goals and assists in the group stage, but in the last two rounds of the group stage, as Udinese advanced to the group ahead of schedule, the team decided to rotate in the Champions League to retain strength for the league. Bruno's personal data was suppressed to a certain extent.

However, Bruno didn't care.He has no regrets about sacrificing personal data for the sake of the team's record.

Moreover, he already ranks first in the scorer list and assist list, and there is nothing more to pursue.

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The top [-] of the Champions League are all announced, and the draw for the first knockout round naturally follows.

According to the rules of the draw, in the first round of the knockout round, the top spot in each group will play against the No. 2 of a certain group.In the two-round match, the top team in the group will play away first and then at home. Teams in the same league will definitely not be drawn together, and teams in the same group will definitely not be drawn together again in the group stage.

The eight first-place teams in the group are: Atletico Madrid, Udinese, Monaco, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, ​​Chelsea, and Porto.

The second-placed teams in the group are: Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Schalke 04, and Shakhtar Donetsk.

According to the rules, it is impossible for Udinese to meet Juventus and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, and the other six teams are all possible.Among them, there are many strong teams, such as Arsenal, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, all of which are stronger than Udinese.

Of course, I am afraid that among the second-ranked teams in these groups, Udinese is also the weakest team in their eyes, and is the team they want to draw the most.

After all, Udinese's lineup is indeed the weakest among the eight group leaders.

In the end, at the draw ceremony held at UEFA headquarters, Udinese and Schalke 04 of the Bundesliga were drawn together.

It was a very good draw for Udinese.Because among the six possible opponents, Schalke 04 is already considered the weakest, similar to Bayer Leverkusen and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Moreover, the knockout round of the top 2 was in February, and it was still very cold in Ukraine at that time. Although it was still very cold in Germany at that time, it was much better than Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Juventus, another Serie A team that advanced, also had a good draw. They drew Monaco from Ligue [-].

(End of this chapter)