Chapter 69 Frustration (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)

Chapter 69 Frustration (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)

Because next summer is the year of the World Cup, the schedules of all major leagues this season are relatively intensive.

After Udinese lost to Chievo in an away game and ended the season's 9-match unbeaten streak in all competitions, the fifth round of Serie A resumed in midweek.

On the evening of September 9, Udinese faced Genoa at home.

This was a boring game. A double match in a week made both sides tired. This also made both sides focus on defense during the game and failed to create decent shooting opportunities.

However, in the 79th minute, an accident changed the course of the game.

At that time, Udinese got a direct free kick opportunity. Di Natale took the penalty and went directly to the goal. The ball hit the opponent's forward Carleo on the way to the goal and was deflected into the goal.

Udinese head coach Guidolin believes that although the home team performed averagely, their victory was not a fluke.He said: "Genoa did not leave us any offensive space. We won very hard, but the win was reasonable. Although we failed to create many scoring opportunities, I am satisfied with our team's attitude and performance."

Genoa coach Liverani said that a draw should be a reasonable result, but there is often no rationality in football games.He said: "The results of such games often depend on some accidents. Maybe we lack offensive desire and experience. I feel sorry for Kaleo's own goal."

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On the afternoon of September 9, the sixth round of Serie A continued, with Udinese challenging Atalanta away from home.

Although Guidolin played all the main players in the game, Udinese, who had played 9 games in September and also experienced a two-week international break, showed that the players were exhausted during the game.

In the first half of the game, Udinese was completely at a disadvantage, but the city never lost.

Just as the first half was about to end, Udinese players showed a slight slackness in their thinking, which resulted in conceding the ball. In the 45th minute, Chigarini took a corner kick and Badu made a not far-reaching clearance. Dennis, who had played for Udinese for a year, defended the back post and dived to the top, giving the home team a 1:0 lead.

After the start of the second half, Udinese stepped up its attack and created a penalty kick in the 47th minute. Just as Di Natale was about to take the penalty, the linesman called the referee. After discussing for a few minutes, the two decided to cancel the penalty kick on the grounds that someone was in an offside position during Udinese's attack.

This made Udinese very dissatisfied, but they were unable to change the referee's decision.

In the 64th minute, Chigarini passed the ball again. Dennis stopped the ball and hit the goal from a small angle and scored twice.

In the end, Udinese lost 0:2 in the away game and suffered their second defeat of the season.

However, Udinese is still ranked fifth in the standings for the time being. In front of them are four teams that are still unbeaten. Among them, Roma, which has six consecutive wins, tops the list, Naples and Juventus, which have five wins and one draw, rank second and third respectively, and Inter Milan, which has four wins and two draws, ranks fourth.

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On the evening of October 10th local time in Italy.

While people in China are thinking about the National Day holiday, the European competition is in full swing. In the second round of the Europa League group stage, Udinese faced the Portuguese Super League team Estoril at home.

In order to save energy for the seventh round of Serie A next weekend, Guidolin arranged for veterans such as Di Natale to rest, and Udinese played with a young lineup.

Faced with Estoril's defeat at the Friuli Stadium, Bruno refused to let the team suffer a losing streak. After conceding one goal first, he helped Udinese score two goals in the second half, reversing the opponent's lead.

However, due to Sevilla's 2-0 victory over Freiburg at home, Udinese can still only rank second in Group H.

After two rounds of group matches, the situation in Group H far exceeded everyone's expectations. Freiburg, the team that was originally the favorite to qualify, ended up at the bottom with two consecutive losses. Although there is still a theoretical hope of qualifying, everyone with a discerning eye knows that this hope is very slim.

On the other hand, Sevilla, who was originally not optimistic, actually won two consecutive victories, overtaking Udinese, who also won two consecutive victories, to rank first. The qualifying situation is excellent.

Of course, Udinese is also in good shape. With two consecutive wins, they may surpass their opponent Sevilla at any time and rise to the top of the group.

Especially the next two teams will face back-to-back games in the group stage at the end of October and early November.

In these two games, whoever can beat the opponent will take the lead in the competition in Group H.

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Returning to the Italian arena, Udinese defeated Cagliari 7-2 at home in the seventh round of Serie A. Di Natale had one shot and one pass in the game.

Subsequently, world football entered the second international match day of the new season.

In the 7 games between the two international matches, Bruno contributed 4 goals and 2 assists, and his performance was very good. He once again received a call-up to the Portuguese national team.

During this national team match day, Portugal will usher in a life-and-death battle in the European qualifying group stage of the Brazilian World Cup, competing with Russia for first place in the group, and then competing for tickets to directly enter the Brazilian World Cup finals.

在前8轮的小组赛里，俄罗斯6胜2负拿到18个积分，力压5胜2平1负的葡萄牙，排名F组第一名。

Therefore, in the two games during this international match day, Portugal must ensure that they do not make mistakes and win both games, but also count on the Russians to make mistakes, otherwise they will definitely not be able to reverse Russia and take first place in the group.

Fortunately, the schedule is relatively favorable to Portugal. Both of their games are at home. One opponent is Israel, which is third in the group, and the other opponent is Luxembourg.

In the ninth round of the group, Portugal and Russia played on the same day, but Russia's away game against Luxembourg kicked off more than an hour first.

When the match between Portugal and Israel started, Russia already led their opponents 3:0.

Such a result put huge psychological pressure on the Portuguese.

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After the game started, Portugal relied on its strength and home court advantage to suppress Israel on the scene. However, the slightly impatient Portugal did not take the lead until the 28th minute. Pepe shot from the right side of the penalty area and Ricardo Costa shot from close range. Scored a header.

In the second half, Portugal continued to attack Israel's goal, but shots from Almeida, Nani, Ricardo Costa, Oliveira and Antunes failed to expand the score.

Just when the Portuguese thought they could usher in a victory, Israel equalized the score in the 85th minute. Portuguese goalkeeper Patricio made a mistake in making a clearance, and Ben Basat scored with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area.

After being equalized by the opponent, Paulo Bento suddenly replaced Bruno Fernandez, but this was already the 87th minute of the game, and it was Portugal's last substitution. Previously, Jesue and Olivier La was replaced in the 70th minute.

After Bruno came on the court, he still created an excellent scoring opportunity for Portugal. In the second minute of stoppage time, he broke through on the right and won Portugal an excellent free kick 2 yards from the goal. However, Ronaldo's free kick was saved by Israeli goalkeeper Ayot.

In the end, Portugal regrettably drew 1:1 with Israel at home, which basically caused Portugal to lose the chance to compete for first place in the group.

在9轮小组赛后，俄罗斯7胜2负积21分，打进19球失4球；而葡萄牙则是5胜3平1负积18分，打进17球失9球。

Since Russia and Portugal won their opponents 1:0 at home in the two direct games, their respective records were considered tied.

Under such circumstances, if Portugal wants to reverse Russia and take first place in the group, the only possibility is that Russia loses to Azerbaijan in the final round and Portugal wins Luxembourg at home with a big score, thus winning by difference even if the points are the same. The ball advantage over Russia.

However, this possibility is almost non-existent.

There is nothing wrong with Portugal winning against Luxembourg at home, but expecting Azerbaijan to stop big brother Russia at home is unreliable.

Sure enough, in the three games that started at the same time four days later, Russia led Azerbaijan 3:1 early in the away game, and the final score was 0:1.

But this draw made Portugal's victory at home in vain, and they had to participate in the play-offs as second in the group to compete for their last hope of entering the World Cup finals in Brazil.

In this game, Bruno once again appeared in the final garbage time and did not make any contribution.