Chapter 100: Versatile Bruno

Chapter 100: Versatile Bruno

After the game restarted, the ball was once again in Bruno's possession for organization, and as soon as he entered the opposing half, he was met with Ortiz's tough defense. Since successfully maneuvering past Ortiz with a Marseille turn earlier, Bruno found that technical skills were effective against Alkmaar players, who generally were bigger, moved slower, and had a higher center of gravity.

Ortiz, one of the shortest in the Alkmaar team at 1.75 meters, was contrasted by other midfielders like Victor Elm and Nemanja Gudelj, who were around 1.90 meters tall. If Bruno could evade Ortiz in the midfield, dealing with the taller players would be much easier.

Thus, he frequently attempted to outmaneuver Ortiz with his skills—sometimes successfully, sometimes not. If unsuccessful, he would simply regain possession. Over a year of intensive training had significantly improved Bruno's defensive skills. Now, he did not just make a token effort on defense but possessed genuine defensive prowess.

However, in Udinese's formation, there was already no shortage of defensive strength, and since he was the offensive core, the coach rarely demanded that he focus on defense, which led to his reputation as being weaker defensively.

In the 37th minute, when Bruno was closely marked by Ortiz and unable to turn, he tried to heel the ball to Mahrez, but Ortiz anticipated this and poked the ball away.

Ortiz then tried to secure the position to take full control of the ball, but Bruno reacted swiftly, following the play. Both players jostled physically, neither willing to give up control of the ball. Eventually, Bruno used his physical strength to wrestle the ball back from Ortiz.

Just as Alkmaar was preparing to counterattack, the ball quickly changed hands again, returning to Udinese. This rapid transition caught Alkmaar off-guard, exposing a gap in their defense.

Bruno spotted this gap and sent a penetrating pass behind the defense!

Mahrez, initially moving back to defend, saw Bruno regain the ball and immediately knew what to do. He ran into the gap, and Bruno's pass found him, beating the offside trap.

As Alkmaar's players were still signaling for an offside, their goalkeeper Alvarado had already charged out. At this moment, he was too preoccupied to berate his teammates and focused on saving the shot.

Earlier in the game, Alvarado had saved a one-on-one attempt by Mahrez, and he was confident in his form to do it again. However, while he might stop Mahrez's solo efforts, he wasn't prepared for a two-man play.

This time, instead of shooting, Mahrez passed the ball to the center.

"Bruno's pass...onside! Onside! Mahrez has the ball, one-on-one!... He passes! Cross, beautiful!"

Waiting for Mahrez's pass in the center was Luis Muriel, the Colombian forward starting in place of Dina Tale. Facing a wide-open goal, all he needed to do was adjust his ankle slightly.

The ball struck the inside of his foot, redirected, and bounced into the goal.

"Goal!! Luis Muriel! He has equalized for Udinese! Twenty minutes after conceding, Udinese has drawn level!"

Muriel ran towards the corner flag, and halfway there, Mahrez stopped him, while other Udinese players ran over to join them, including Bruno.

"This is the kind of attack Udinese has shown multiple times this season!" the commentator from Sky Italia excitedly explained, "Sleek and quick passing, with Bruno as the team's organizing core, always able to exploit gaps in the opponent's defense! And Mahrez is no longer the young player who only knows how to charge forward; his pass to the center was spot on and timely... Then, Muriel's job was simple, scoring was just natural! It's a pleasure to see such a goal!"

As the commentator provided his analysis, the Udinese players embraced, celebrating their goal.

"Good job, Luis! Now we've finally canceled out their away goal!" Mahrez patted Muriel on the head.

"That's right! With an away goal for us, we can relax a bit!"

"So, it's okay to let them score one, as long as we score one too, and we'll see who benefits in the end! Haha!"

With that away goal, the mood among the Udinese players was very positive. Although they had only drawn level, they led on aggregate and no longer needed to worry about the away goal Alkmaar scored at their home ground in the first leg.

With the score leveled, Udinese's morale was boosted, and they dominated, bombarding Alkmaar's goal.

In the 43rd minute, Udinese earned a free-kick in the attacking half. Normally, Dina Tale would take it, but he was injured during the warm-up and couldn't play in this match.

However, a team doesn't rely on just one player for set-pieces.

Bruno stepped up to take the free-kick. After half a season, Bruno's free-kicks had gained recognition within Udinese, and he had become the team's second set-piece taker.

Bruno's free-kick struck the wall and rebounded back. Alkmaar's players wanted to capitalize on this for a counterattack, but Aron Johnsson, who hadn't come back to defend, couldn't beat Kante.

Kante intercepted the ball beside Johnsson and shielded it before passing it back to Bruno, who was coming to support.

With an Alkmaar defender approaching from behind, Bruno didn't stop the ball; instead, he tapped it back to Kante with a gesture to keep it steady.

"Don't rush the counterattack," he indicated. While Alkmaar's players were pushing forward, similar to the situation when Udinese equalized five minutes earlier, their own players weren't ready for a quick transition, which would waste the possession.

Kante, not like Danilo and a firm ally of Bruno through their shared agent, followed Bruno's lead without question. Having secured a move from a lesser-known French team to Serie A powerhouse Udinese through Bruno's influence, Kante knew his place and influence.

Stabilizing the play, Kante passed the ball back to the center-back Ertugrul.

Bruno, having shaken off his markers, moved to receive the ball from Ertugrul in the backfield. Ertugrul didn't send a long ball forward as Danilo did at the start of the game; he passed it to Bruno.

At that moment, no Alkmaar player pressed Bruno aggressively since he was in his own half. As Alkmaar's defensive midfielder, Ortiz wouldn't risk running that far to intercept; doing so would be a severe positional error.

In soccer, being out of position can often be more detrimental than letting a marked player slip by.

As long as Bruno didn't cross into the opposition's half, he could comfortably organize an attack—though only through long passes, as Alkmaar, known for their aerial ability, were strong in heading.

Bruno controlled the ball in the backfield, then dribbled across the midfield line back into Alkmaar's half. He assessed the situation, then gestured for Kante to move closer: "Come support me, don't stay so far away."

As Kante moved up, he drew the attention of Alkmaar's players, including Gudelj, who stayed close. Bruno then swiftly passed the ball to right-back Cancelo, who had overlapped on the wing.

Kante made a run but wasn't passed the ball; Bruno signaled to him and rushed forward.

Cancelo, known for his strong offensive capabilities, sometimes seemed more of a winger than a defender. He dribbled along the flank while Bruno kept pace in a more central position, ready to receive a pass.

Of course, Cancelo might choose not to pass to him if a better option appeared. When Cancelo realized he couldn't break through on his own and had no better passing options, he passed the ball back to Bruno.

At that moment, Mahrez had also moved to the flank, hoping Bruno would pass to him. However, Bruno turned away, seemingly planning to pass to either Pereira, who was advancing on the left wing, or to Muriel, who had pulled out from the front.

(End of Chapter)

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