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

Chapter 266 First place in the group

On the evening of December 12, the 1th round of Serie A started with a game, with Udinese visiting Turin to challenge the Red Bulls.

According to the schedule, this game was originally scheduled to be played on the evening of December 12th, but because Udinese was going to play in the Club World Cup, after negotiation between the two parties and with the consent of the Italian Football Federation, the game was moved forward to December 20st. Take place at night.

During the game, Bruno received a pass from veteran Francisco Lodi and scored a goal at the end of the first half.

This was the only goal in the game. Udinese finally defeated Turin 1:0, extending the lead to 12 points after playing one round first.

Bruno's number of goals in 2015 also increased to 53 goals.

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On the afternoon of December 12, in the 5th round of Serie A, Udinese continued to challenge Viola Fiorentina as a guest.

This is Udinese’s 4th consecutive away game!

At the Stadio Franchi, the entire Udinese team performed very sluggishly. They conceded a goal each in the 26th, 62nd and 85th minutes, falling behind 0:3.

In the last few minutes of the game, although Udinese scored a goal each from Bruno and Di Natale to tie the score to 2:3, these two goals were too late and Udinese eventually lost 2:3. , suffered their second defeat in the league this season.

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On the evening of December 12, this season’s Champions League group stage came to a close. Udinese faced CSKA Moscow at the Friuli Stadium.

Since Udinese had already qualified one round ahead of schedule and secured first place in the group, Guidolin did not hesitate to send a full substitute lineup to play in this game, and Bruno also got a chance to rest.

However, Udinese, who played with an all-substitute lineup, actually defeated CSKA Moscow 2:1 at home, which was considered a minor upset in this round of the Champions League group stage.

In the end, Udinese achieved a record of 5 wins and 1 loss in the Champions League group stage this season, ranking first in Group B of the death group with 15 points.

In another game played at the same time, Wolfsburg narrowly defeated Manchester United 3:2 at home, thus ending the group stage with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses, and took the second place in the group from Manchester United.

Manchester United, who lost, was eliminated and had to be relegated to play in the Europa League knockout rounds.

This caused a big blow to Manchester United, and Manchester United's share price plummeted 3% the next day.

One day later, the Champions League group stages of the other four groups also ended, and all 16 teams that advanced to the knockout rounds were announced. Real Madrid, Udinese, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Zenit St. Petersburg topped the group, while Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg, Benfica, Juventus, Roma, Arsenal, Dynamo Kyiv and Gent advanced as second runners-up in their group.

Cristiano Ronaldo became the top scorer in the group stage. He scored 6 goals in 11 games, setting a new record for goals in the Champions League group stage.

Ronaldo's outstanding performance also made Real Madrid the team with the most points in the group stage. The Galaxy Battleship achieved an unbeaten record of 5 wins and 1 draw, and scored 16 points.

Udinese, Bayern Munich and Zenit St. Petersburg followed with a record of 5 wins and 1 loss.

Among the sixteen teams that advanced to the knockout rounds, the lowest score was Roma. The Red Wolves scored 1 points with 3 win, 2 draws and 6 losses in the group stage. They scored 11 goals and conceded 16 goals, including a 1:6 bloodbath by Barcelona, ​​but this still could not prevent them from qualifying for the group due to their advantage in winning and losing, becoming the worst performing team among all qualifying teams since the Champions League was restructured.

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Judging from the odds of winning the Champions League announced by major European betting websites, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are still the most promising favorites to win.

Barcelona ranks first with 1 to 3.25 loss. Despite suffering serious injuries at the beginning of the season, the Red and Blues are still advancing side by side in the league and Champions League. With Messi returning from injury, the MSN combination's terrifying offensive firepower has to make any team feel afraid.

With the lifting of the FIFA transfer ban in January next year, two strong players, Arda Turan and Alex Vidal, can play for the team, and the pressure on the midfield and backcourt will be greatly alleviated. For them, who are aiming to win the fifth Champions League trophy in team history, this is undoubtedly an even more powerful thing.

In addition, Bundesliga class leader Bayern Munich follows closely behind with an odds of 1 to 3.75, and Real Madrid ranks third with an odds of 1 to 6.5 to win the title.

In addition to the three "Universe Teams" mentioned above, seven teams including defending champion Udinese, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, and Juventus form a huge second group.

The draw ceremony for the top 16 of the Champions League will be held at 12 noon Central European Time on December 14 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

According to the traditional drawing principles, the first place in the group will fight against the second place in the group, and teams in the same group and the same Football Association need to avoid. The quarter-finals will begin on February 2 next year, with the team ranked second in the group stage playing home first.

Since the second place in the group includes last season's Champions League runner-up Juventus, as well as the powerful "Paris" and Gunners Arsenal, this undoubtedly increases the possibility of a strong dialogue in the quarter-finals.

As the knockout rounds of the Champions League begin, for the wealthy teams, the real competition for the championship begins; and for the fans, the truly exciting Champions League games will be staged.

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On the afternoon of December 12, a focus match of the 13th round of Serie A kicked off at the Friuli Stadium, with top-ranked Udinese facing off against Inter Milan, ranked second in the standings.

在此前的意甲积分榜上，乌迪内斯多赛一场的情况下，16轮取得了14胜2负，拿到了42分排名第一。而国际米兰则是在15轮联赛里取得10胜3平2负，积33分紧随其后。

Both teams can be called dark horses in Serie A this season.

After losing many of last season's main players in the summer, Udinese was not favored by the media and betting companies before the start of this season. However, when the season was about to pass halfway, they were in a situation where they had played one more round. , leading the Serie A standings with a 1-point advantage, which was completely beyond everyone's expectations.

This result is because Udinese made the best signing in the summer, and that was Bruno staying on the team.

In the 16 rounds of Serie A that Udinese has played in the new season, Bruno has 16 goals and 8 assists, leading both the Serie A scorer list and the Serie A assists list. He single-handedly defeated Udinese. Brought to the first position in the standings.

As for Inter Milan, their record in the past few seasons has been poor and they have missed the European war for many consecutive seasons. The poor warm-up results in the summer did not make people have too many expectations for this team.

But Inter Milan has won three points one after another by virtue of victory after victory. From the current point of view, Inter Milan is indeed one of the teams most likely to win the championship in the first group.

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For this game, although Udinese leads Inter Milan by 9 points in the standings, the media and betting companies are more optimistic about Inter Milan winning.

Inter Milan's biggest advantage is that there is no European war.

It is well known that physical fitness is a decisive factor in football matches. Once a team has a physical problem, it's basically a disaster.

Previously, Naples led Inter Milan 2:0 at home, but the Nerazzurri, who faced the challenge with 10 men, almost overturned Naples in the second half. If not for bad luck, Inter Milan should have at least got a draw. The reason is that Napoli, who had just finished playing in the Europa League, was somewhat powerless in the second half.

Although Udinese carried out a comprehensive rotation in the final game of the Champions League group stage in midweek, because Inter Milan has 6 fewer games than Udinese in the new season, the physical fitness of Inter Milan players has been reduced. The situation is definitely better than Udinese.

Furthermore, from a strength perspective, Inter Milan is also stronger than Udinese.

In the summer, Inter Milan's recruitment work was still very good.

With the addition of Jovetic, Perisic and Ljajic, the team has accumulated a large number of talented strikers on the offensive end. Each of these new players can be the terminator of the game. Ljajic, Jovetic, and Biabiani have all scored winning goals.

Inter Milan's defensive signings are even more commendable. Murillo, Miranda, Melo and others can exert their greatest power in Inter Milan. It is a pity that Inter Milan's standard king Kondogbia does not seem to show his worth.

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Inter Milan's defense has been extremely solid this season. Currently, the Nerazzurri have conceded the fewest goals in Serie A with 9 goals. The "MM" combination of the team's new aids Murillo and Miranda is perfect. In addition, both veteran Melo and Medel in the midfield position can protect Inter Milan's entire defense line.

Inter Milan's excellent defense also helped goalkeeper Handanovic complete a remarkable achievement. Last season, Handanovic kept a clean sheet 37 times in 11 league rounds, and so far this season, 16 games have been played. After all, Handanovic has already blocked his opponent 11 times!

However, Inter Milan's scoring rate is relatively low. They only scored 15 goals in 18 rounds and averaged only 1.2 goals per game, which was almost half of Udinese in front of them.

On the contrary, Udinese's defense is the same as in previous seasons, which can be called the team's shortcomings. They have conceded 16 goals in the previous 17 games, which is the most conceded among the top five teams in the standings, and is almost twice the number of goals conceded by their opponent Inter Milan!

Udinese's advantage is their offense. They have scored 16 goals in 37 league rounds, far ahead of second-placed Fiorentina and Roma. Viola and Giallorossi have only scored 30 goals.

Of course, Udinese's offense relies largely on the combination of Bruno and Di Natale. Udinese's two captains scored a total of 23 goals, accounting for 62 of the team's total goals. %!

(End of this chapter)