Chapter 259 Steady Progress
In the last week of October, Serie A has a double match every week.
In midweek, Udinese visited Rome's Stadio Olimpico to challenge Roma.
This is a powerful dialogue between the top two teams in the standings, and it is also a battle that attracts worldwide attention.
For Roma, this is also a game they cannot afford to lose. Because once they lose at home, they will be 10 points behind their opponents in the standings, which almost means that they will be eliminated early from the Serie A title race this season.
Egyptian winger Salah, who moved to Roma from Udinese in the summer, was suspended due to accumulation of yellow cards and missed the match against his old club.
The recent frequent games have made Udinese exhausted, while Roma, playing at home, has high morale. After a fierce battle, Udinese lost with a score of 1:3 and missed the chance to create the tenth consecutive start of Serie A. historical record of wins.
Roma successfully blocked Udinese at home, not only narrowing the point difference between the two sides to 4 points, but also avenging Udinese's best eight-game winning streak in the team's history two years ago.
………………
On the last night of October, Udinese faced Sassuolo at the Estadio Friuli in the 11th round of Serie A.
Since they will face Wolfsburg at home next week, Guidolin continues to rotate Udinese's lineup, but Bruno still plays the role of an iron man and wears the captain's armband.
The strength gap between the substitute lineup and the main lineup is quite obvious.
Although Udinese's lineup deployed half of its main players, it still performed poorly against Sassuolo, who was in excellent form this season. It was difficult for the team to stay in the same rhythm, and the offensive and defensive organization was relatively chaotic.
Bruno was very active in the frontcourt, but the Udinese midfielder did not provide enough offensive support to the frontcourt.
In the 35th minute of the first half, Bruno created an opportunity on the right and passed it to the penalty area. Rodrigo Aguirre took the ball and responded. Taylor followed up and volleyed directly, giving Udinese the opening goal. record.
But in the 60th minute, Ed Nelson committed a foul that was not calm enough when defending the opponent's offensive player, and was directly sent off by the referee with a red card. As a result, Udinese was short of one person, which made Udinese The field becomes more passive.
But the good thing is that Sassuolo saw the hope of winning and finally pressed forward.
In the 86th minute, Bruno dribbled the ball, drove straight in, and assisted Rodrigo Aguirre to score.
This is the Uruguayan forward's first league goal this season.
In the end, Udinese defeated Sassuolo 2-0 at home.
The score doesn't tell much, but Bruno has experienced it personally and the team's state is indeed quite average. In addition to good luck, the opponent Sassuolo also had many main players absent in this game, which is also a very important reason for being able to win a victory.
………………
Udinese's first game in November is the Champions League home game against Wolfsburg.
When the game reached the 87th minute, after receiving a pass from Cancelo on the left, Bruno quickly turned around and got rid of Wolfsburg's right back Sebastian Jung and took the ball from the left. Cut inside to the edge of the penalty area and cross to the right side of the top area.
Di Natale stepped in from the back row and met the ball in one fell swoop, helping Udinese lock the score at 2:0!
In this game, Udinese played harder, mainly because Udinese has played very intensive games recently. Since entering October, it has been double matches a week. With Udinese's thin lineup, it is very difficult to cope with it.
Fortunately, Udinese is relatively lucky. Players rarely suffer injuries, making the lineup relatively complete. Only then can they persevere in two-front operations, and their results are pretty good. They have always ranked first in Serie A and the Champions League group. After 4 rounds, we have already scored 9 points and qualifying is in sight.
In today's game, both sides played very anxiously in the first half, and the 0:0 score continued into the second half.
Udinese broke the deadlock in the 55th minute of the game. Itura's pass tore through Wolfsburg's defense. Bruno, who came in later, hit the goal from the left wing of the penalty area and scored his fifth goal of the season. Champions League goals.
After 4 rounds of group matches, Udinese ranked first in Group B with 3 wins and 1 loss, while Manchester United, which defeated CSKA Moscow 1:0 at home, ranked first in the group with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss and 7 points. two. CSKA Moscow ranks third with 4 points with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses, while Wolfsburg is at the bottom of the group with 3 points and 1 win.
However, judging from the situation of the entire group stage, we cannot say which team has advanced early, nor can we say which team has been eliminated early.
Generally speaking, Udinese has the best qualifying situation. They basically only need to win one more victory in the next two rounds of the group stage to lock in a qualifying qualification.
However, even Wolfsburg, which is at the bottom of the group, is still possible. As long as they defeat CSKA Moscow and Manchester United in the next two rounds, their advancement situation is still not bad.
………………
On the afternoon of November 8th.
In the twelfth round of Serie A, Udinese challenged Naples away from home.
Having just defeated their powerful rival Wolfsburg at home in the Champions League, Udinese will challenge Maurizio Sarri's team non-stop away.
After Benitez left, Naples invited the still-unknown Sarri. Many people thought that Naples would collapse as a result, but after the start of the season, Naples' performance was pretty good.
In Serie A, Naples scored 22 points with 6 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss in the first 11 rounds, temporarily ranking fifth in the standings.
In the Europa League, Naples performed even better, ranking first in the group with 4 consecutive wins, scoring 16 goals and conceding only 1 goal.
Especially in Thursday night's game, Naples went on a killing spree at home, slaughtering Midirant 5-0.
In such a hot state, Sarri is full of confidence in defeating his opponent at home.
The first ten minutes of the game were completely dominated by Udinese.
Bruno scored in the first three minutes, with an assist from Itura, allowing him to score smoothly.
In the sixth minute, Bruno assisted Taylor to score and expand the score.
With a two-goal lead, everyone felt that Udinese was already assured of victory. But Bruno still didn't dare to be careless and kept calling on his teammates to be more vigilant.
In the subsequent games, the two sides did not score again, and Udinese entered the halftime break with a 2:0 advantage in the away game.
Not long into the second half, Naples pulled one back.
In the 53rd minute, Jorginho made a direct pass. Higuain turned around and broke into the penalty area. He shoveled the ball 9 meters in front of the goal and hit the inside of the far post. This was the 200th goal of his club career.
In the end, Udinese defeated Naples 2:1 away from home.