Chapter 273 A Good Start (Wishing All Book Lovers a Prosperous 2024)

PS: The last update of 2023. As the title says, I wish all book friends a good start in 2024, and then a prosperous all the way!

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Guidolin accepted Bruno's advice and planned to sign Immobile from Dortmund. In fact, he also planned for the future of Udinese.

The Italian striker will not turn 26 until February, which is the prime age. Under normal circumstances, players can still maintain their peak for four or five years.

Udinese's current strikers are old and young.

Di Natale is 38 years old. He has made it clear to the club that he will hang up his boots after the end of this season and will not continue to play.

Another striker of the team, Tero, will also turn 33 in April and has also entered the twilight of his career.

Among the other three forwards, Duvan Zapata is 24 years old and is about to enter the golden period of his career, but the Colombian forward has never been known for his efficiency. He has played for Naples for two seasons and has never scored more than 10 goals in a single season.

Udinese loaned him from Naples last summer, but he has not performed at a high level so far. In the first half of the season, he played a total of 13 times in Serie A and the Champions League, including 8 substitutes, and scored 3 goals and 1 assist.

As for Aguirre and Perica, the two basically did not get any opportunities, and they could not be expected to be in their early 20s.

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Dortmund really wants to raise the price, not really want to keep Immobile in the team. After all, the past season has proved that the Italian striker cannot adapt to the Bundesliga game, so what is the point of staying?

It is better to sell Immobile early while he is still young, so that he can sell a little more transfer fee.

In fact, for a team like Dortmund, there is no so-called non-saleable product at all. As long as the money is in place, what players can't be negotiated?

Finally, after bargaining, Dortmund agreed to Udinese's offer of 11 million euros for Immobile.

A year and a half ago, Dortmund spent 18.5 million euros to introduce Immobile. After a year and a half of downturn, Immobile's value in the German transfer market has fallen below 10 million euros, only 8 million euros. Now that he can be sold at a price of 11 million euros, Dortmund is also quite satisfied.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with Udinese's lack of competitors.

Although Immobile's old club Torino is interested in him, the Red Bulls just want to get it for free and have no intention of paying for him.

The only one who really made an offer to Dortmund is Udinese.

In this case, even if Dortmund wants to raise the price, there is no room for hype.

If it is really raised too much, Udinese will not want it, then Dortmund will have to smash its own hands.

On January 5, 2016, Udinese officially announced that it had acquired 26-year-old Italian striker Ciro Immobile from Dortmund for a transfer fee of 11 million euros, and the two sides signed a five-year contract.

After Immobile joined Udinese, he wore the team's No. 9 jersey. This number originally belonged to Muriel, and it has been vacant since his transfer.

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At noon on January 6, Udinese ushered in the first game of the new year, playing against Atalanta at the Friuli Stadium.

This is the 18th round of the 2015-2016 Serie A season.

In the home team's locker room, Bruno sat in his seat and tied the laces of the red boots on his feet tightly.

After all, it was the first game of the new year, and everyone in Udinese took it very seriously.

Guidolin also sent out all the main players in this game. The goalkeeper is Canitzis, the back line is Cancelo, Danilo, Maguire and Cancelo, the midfield is Badu, Vidmon and Iturra are on the wings, Bruno still appears in the front midfielder position, and the two forwards are Di Natale and Tello.

As for the three new players Vidic, Ashley Cole and Immobile, they are all included in the big list, but Guidolin did not let them start.

"Players from both teams entered the stadium one after another under the leadership of the referee."

"The fans of the home team immediately gave warm applause. They obviously hope that Udinese can get off to a good start in the new year."

"And we saw that many fans at the scene also held up Bruno's banner. A week later, the 2015 FIFA Golden Ball Award will be announced, and Udinese fans are obviously cheering for Bruno."

"In 2015, Bruno's performance was fantastic. He scored 63 goals throughout the year, a number that even exceeded Ronaldo and Messi! At the same time, he also made a total of 36 assists in 2015, also the player with the most assists."

"Because of Bruno's outstanding performance, Udinese won the Serie A championship, the Champions League championship, the Italian Super Cup championship, the European Super Cup championship and the Club World Cup championship, becoming the five-time champion again!"

"The new year has begun, what kind of performance will Bruno have?"

"Let's wait and see in this game tonight!"

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With the referee's whistle, the game officially kicked off.

Tello quickly kicked the ball to Di Natale, and the Udinese captain passed the ball back to the midfield and then back to the defense.

Udinese was not in a hurry to attack at the beginning, but patiently passed the ball back and forth in the backcourt.

Atalanta plans to take advantage of the opening momentum and take the initiative to put pressure on Udinese.

After several passes, Piris got the ball from the right and kicked it forward directly to the feet of Bruno in the frontcourt.

Bruno picked up the ball with his back, and behind him was the defensive player Andrea Conte. He did not dare to let the ball linger at his feet, and quickly knocked it back to Itura, but he suddenly turned around and sprinted behind him.

Itura understood what he was doing, and he kicked a half-high ball over Atlanta's defense and fell behind him.

"Udinese threatened immediately from the start."

"Bruno caught up with the ball on the left, Atlanta's defensive players were chasing back, and Bruno passed to the back point."

"Follow Di Natale and hit the door directly!"

After an exclamation, all the 40,000 fans at the Friuli Stadium sighed in unison.

Facing Bruno's pass, Di Natale did not stop the ball, but hit it directly. As a result, he failed to suppress the ball and hit it high.

A good opportunity was wasted. The Udinese captain himself was a little depressed, but he still gave Bruno a thumbs up.

This ball is really not Bruno's responsibility, it's mainly because he didn't handle it well.

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After losing the lead to Udinese, Atalanta no longer dared to blindly attack and began to consciously shrink their defense.

Whether it was from pre-match intelligence or Bruno himself knowing the situation, Bruno understood Conte's characteristics. He has good defensive ability and has obvious advantages in preventing high balls, but he is often inattentive and likes to be distracted, which makes him easily thrown away the moment Bruno turns around.

The one that went straight behind him just now is the best example.

But it is a pity that Di Natale failed to seize the opportunity, otherwise the game would have been much easier to play.

Now, with Atalanta paying attention, Udinese's offense is also in trouble.

Bruno also began to feel that his opponents began to strengthen their defense against him, and they obviously paid more attention to him. This is all because he is likely to be the winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2015 and is the strongest in football at that time. Who dares to underestimate him?

Bruno also knows very well that this is a stage that he must go through, and he must break through the opponent's attention and layers of defense, prove his strength, and prove that he is worthy of the Ballon d'Or.

Under this circumstance, Bruno was also very involved on the court, actively running into spaces and patiently waiting for opportunities.

But Atlanta is not a fuel-saving lamp. Under Rhea's training this season, its defensive strength has been greatly improved.

Because they sold three main players last summer, Atlanta had always been considered a favorite for relegation before the start of the season. However, before the winter break, they were ranked tenth in the standings and could be called a dark horse in the first half.

But this time, facing Udinese, we struggled for half an hour.

It wasn't until the 31st minute that Bruno found a gap in Atlanta's defense.

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This was a pass from Udinese's backcourt. Taylor in the penalty area grabbed the first spot and passed the header to Bruno at the front of the penalty area.

Facing the incoming ball, Bruno dunked with his left foot, past the Atlanta player who was returning to defend. After bringing the ball into the penalty area, he grabbed the ball before Conte came up to block it. He volleyed with his right foot and the ball flew straight. The ball goes away.

Atlanta goalkeeper Sportiello made a flying save, but was still unable to prevent the ball from entering the net.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!"

"In the 31st minute of the first half, Udinese finally broke through Atalanta's goal!"

"Goal from Bruno Fernandez, 1:0!"

"This is also Udinese's first league goal in 2016, a good start!"

After Bruno scored, he quickly turned around and rushed out of the stadium, rushed all the way to the bottom of the stands, opened his arms high, and asked all Udinese fans for their applause and cheers.

In the stands of the Friuli Stadium, the Udinese fans were not shy and gave out huge cheers, which even seemed to overturn the stadium.

Behind Bruno, the Udinese players also swarmed up and surrounded him.

"No one should doubt now that Bruno is becoming an increasingly important key player for Udinese."

"In the first thirty minutes, Udinese had the advantage, but was unable to score. The most threatening shot also came from a pass from Bruno, and Udinese captain Di Natale failed to press it. "Bruno tried hard to create opportunities, but failed to break the deadlock."

"Perhaps seeing that his teammates were not very effective, Bruno simply went in on his own and scored Udinese's first goal in 2016. It was also Bruno's 20th league goal this season."

"I believe that now that the game has started, the worries about Bruno can come to an end."

"We can tell everyone with certainty that judging from the first thirty minutes, Bruno basically continued his excellent form in the first half, and his outstanding performance will definitely drive Udinese forward."