Chapter 207: Destiny's Favor?

Chapter 207: Destiny's Favor?

The match against Fiorentina marked the fourth time this season that Udinese won a Serie A match with a score of 3-2. However, this wasn't the most frequent scoreline for Udinese this season. The most common scoreline was 2-1, appearing in nine matches. Additionally, there were four 1-0 victories, making a total of 17 matches where Udinese won by just one goal.

Udinese had a total of 24 wins in Serie A this season. Among the remaining seven victories, only one was a three-goal margin, while the other six were two-goal wins.

These numerous narrow victories indicate two things: first, the matches were closely contested, showing that Udinese and their opponents were not far apart in terms of strength. Second, it highlighted Udinese's resilience and determination to emerge as the winners in tough situations. Of course, luck played a role in many of these scenarios.

This situation left Juventus fans feeling discontented with Udinese's 10-point lead in Serie A. In many matches, Juventus dominated their opponents, resulting in more significant victories. They had four wins with a three-goal margin, including a 7-0 thrashing of Parma and a 4-0 demolition of Verona.

Juventus's more substantial victories gave them a significant goal difference advantage. After 28 rounds, Juventus had a goal difference of +38, while Udinese had +29. Despite having a superior goal difference, Juventus trailed Udinese by 10 points, leaving their fans frustrated.

Regardless of how upset Juventus fans were, it was clear to everyone by this point in the season that Juventus's chances of winning the Serie A title were slim. Udinese's championship win was just a matter of time.

After defeating Fiorentina, the football world entered an international break, causing Serie A to pause for two weeks.

Following the match, Bruno and Cancelo returned to Portugal to prepare for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers. Thanks to their recent performances at Udinese, Cancelo received his first call-up to the Portuguese national team.

During this international break, Portugal had two matches: a European Championship qualifier against Serbia and a friendly against Cape Verde.

In the match against Serbia, Bruno started as expected, while Cancelo began on the bench. Bruno recognized many players on the Serbian team, including Chelsea's defensive core Matic and Ivanovic, his former Udinese teammate Dusan Basta, Schalke 04's Nastasic, Manchester City's Kolarov, Southampton's Tadic, and Roma's Ljajic.

Serbia had a strong team, but their recent performances were poor. Apart from being penalized with a 3-0 loss due to fan misconduct, they had only managed a draw against Armenia and a home defeat to Denmark, leaving them at the bottom of Group I.

Portugal's excellent performance in the European qualifiers and friendly wins against France and Argentina had satisfied the fans, filling the 64,000-capacity Estádio da Luz in Lisbon for the match against Serbia.

With the support of over 60,000 home fans, Portugal launched a fierce attack on Serbia from the start, aiming to overwhelm their opponents.

Portugal scored in the 10th minute through a quick counterattack. Eliseu's breakthrough on the left was cleared by Basta for a corner. Bruno took a short corner, received a return pass, and crossed with his left foot, finding the unmarked Carvalho, who headed in from 8 meters out, scoring his first goal for Portugal in eight years.

Unfortunately, Carvalho was soon injured and had to be substituted. This was bad news for Portugal, as Pepe was already missing due to injury, and now they lost their starting center-back duo.

Serbia, aware of Portugal's weakened defense, increased their attacking efforts to equalize. However, instead of scoring, Serbia conceded another goal.

In the 31st minute, Portugal intercepted the ball in midfield and launched a quick counterattack. Ronaldo broke through on the left and crossed to the center, where Bruno finished from close range.

The match then entered a stalemate, with Portugal retreating to defend their two-goal lead, wary of Serbia's counterattacks. By halftime, the score remained 2-0.

In the second half, Serbia took the initiative, increasing their attacking efforts while Portugal defended and waited for counterattack opportunities. Serbia managed to score in the 61st minute. Kolarov's corner was flicked on by Petrovic, and Matic scored with a left-footed volley from a tight angle, his first goal for Serbia.

This goal spurred Serbia to attack even more, hoping to equalize. However, just two minutes later, Portugal extended their lead back to two goals through a quick counterattack. Ronaldo found Bruno, who crossed to the back post, where Coentrão scored with a left-footed shot from 3 meters out.

Both teams then made several substitutions: Djuricic replaced Markovic, Quaresma replaced Coentrão, Tosic replaced Tadic, and William replaced Danny.

Despite Serbia's efforts, the score remained 3-1 until the end, giving Portugal their fourth consecutive win and 12 points, keeping them at the top of Group I.

Albania, initially considered the weakest team in Group I, performed surprisingly well, winning three out of four matches and sitting second with 9 points, ahead of Denmark, who had 6 points.

Two days later, Portugal played a friendly against Cape Verde in Estoril. This match was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Portuguese Football Federation, and Cape Verde was chosen due to their close ties with Portugal. Despite being a relatively unknown team, Cape Verde were ranked 38th in the world and could pose some threat to Portugal.

Portugal's main players were given a rest after the European Championship qualifier, and coach Santos included 11 young players from the Portuguese league, as well as three U21 players, in the squad for this match.

Santos rotated the entire starting XI to rest his main players and assess the younger talents. However, the result was surprising: Portugal trailed 0-2 at halftime. When Portugal increased their attacking efforts in the second half, Pinto fouled a Cape Verde player near the penalty area and was sent off.

In the end, Portugal's young and inexperienced team lost 0-2 at home.

Although Portugal suffered a defeat, it didn't affect Bruno, as he, like Ronaldo and the other main players, remained on the bench throughout the match.

After the international break, a rested Bruno returned to Udinese.

On the afternoon of April 4th, in the 29th round of Serie A, Udinese played away against Genoa.

Earlier in the season, Genoa had defeated Udinese 4-3 at the Stadio Friuli, so Udinese entered this match with a desire for revenge. More importantly, they wanted to secure a win to maintain their lead in the standings and clinch the Serie A title as soon as possible.

Genoa had performed well this season, with 10 wins, 10 draws, and 8 losses from 28 matches, sitting seventh in Serie A with 40 points and aiming for a European competition spot.

In this away match, Udinese struggled due to the FIFA virus, with many players looking fatigued. Genoa took the lead in the 19th minute with De Maio scoring from a Tino Costa pass.

Udinese equalized in the 68th minute through a goal by substitute Thereau, who tapped in Salah's cross.

In the 92nd minute, Udinese scored the winning goal. Salah broke through on the right and crossed, Thereau headed the ball down, and Bruno poked it into the net before the defenders could clear it.

Udinese secured their tenth 2-1 victory in Serie A this season!