Chapter 59 A funny start to the season part 2

After the last game the players were talking more about the last 2 games they had at the beginning of this season.

I don't know why, but are you guys feeling like you're stalling on the pitch when the 2nd half starts? (Usman)

A bit if I'm going to say it's like we're playing better than the end of last year, but in exchange we're holding back so we don't get tired in exchange we end up making more stupid mistakes. (Astori)

I noticed that too, I started playing at the end of the 2nd half in the first game and even though I was winning, I felt enormous pressure. (Desena)

Well I can tell you why they felt that way for you or I can just leave it up to you to figure it out. (Conti)

What do you prefer?

Well, I think you'd better speak up, so we can figure out a way to deal with this weird pressure we're feeling. (Usman)

Well then I'll talk about it for you 4 it's simple when you joined the team none of you had the chance to start the season playing and get the 1st win. (Conti)

???? (The 4)

What?

It's simple the last time we had a victory at the beginning of the season was in the 2007-2008 season and a factor of experienced players in a club is that depending on the ability of the team to win the first round it is to be ahead of its rivals while for others winning the first round is the chance to go further in the competition, simply getting into the Champions group, it is this pressure that you are feeling is that none of you has ever been champion in any club. (Conti)

We understand now. 4

Well, but I think I shouldn't mention it because we will be playing the cup in the next game and not the league the cup the pressure is even worse, because every team has a chance of being champion, all it takes is a victory over its opponent team and at all 5 victories to be champion and we will face the Udinese Calcio team, in this team there is also a monster in the attack Antonio Di Natale, that is, it is an extremely difficult team to deal with. (Conti)

We are really feeling so much pressure with only 2 consecutive victories, imagine now facing last year's Artilheiro team. (Astori)

Well let's get back to training maybe we can feel better. (Cossu)

Let's go. (Usman)

A few days passed and it was time for the team to enter.

GK Avramov 25

CB Ariaudo 3 Astori 13 RB Camilleri LB Pisano 14

DMF Conti 5 © CMF Nainggolan 4 Dessena 21 AMF Cossu 7

CF Sau 27 and Usman 10

and the banks

GK Ruzittu 12 CB Rossettini 15 SB Pisano 14 ... CMF Eriksson 16 and AMF Cepellini 32 CF Nenê 18 ...

The Udinese team would come with

gk romo

CB Benata, Ridgewell and Danilo L.

DMF Pinzi CMF De Marcos e Willians LMF R. Pereyra RMF Fabbrini

SS Di Natale CF Ighalo

The players entered the field and looked around the stadium seeing the two fans from the Calcio region applauding.

Players from both teams positioned themselves in their seats and the game started when the whistle sounded.

Sau plays the ball to Usman who plays the ball back to Dessena, Dessena plays to Nainggolan who was next to him and Nainggolan sees Pisano on the left wing and plays a long pass to him.

Pisano has to go back to get the ball from Nainggolan's pass and he watches the whole field after dominating the ball, he watches his teammates move and sends the ball over to Sau, but who wins the ball in the air is Bentana who manages it heading it to Pinzi who was retreating to help the team in defense, Pinzi dominates the ball and passes it to De Marcos who drives the ball and loses it to Nainggolan who marks him in the center of midfield.

The ball that was picked up by Nainggolan from Pinzi goes towards Cossu, Cossu hits the ball and makes a first pass forward near Usman's location, Usman chases the ball and manages to dominate it, Usman continues to drive the ball and dribbles Ridgwell and continues leading De Marcos who was retreating tries to arrest him with one hand, but Usman is faster and manages to pass him leading the ball and goes towards the goal of Udinese.

Getting close to the area Usman dribbles Danilo L. and manages to pass him, but Ridgwell who was dribbled before manages to chase him and touches the ball before he finishes the ball in the goal which prevents Usman from kicking it right in the goal, even so Usman tries to kick the ball in the goal even though he is off balance he kicks the right into the goal, but the ball simply goes over the crossbar while Usman continues to be knocked down by Ridgwell.

Usman got up and faced Ridgwell after that play meanwhile Cossu comes close to him and told him not to be stressed in this game the referee won't call almost any fouls normally as the two teams are from the same region.

Romo puts the ball back into play with a forward shot the ball falls towards Ighalo who manages to head the ball towards Di Natale, Di Natale goes up and heads to Williams who manages to control the ball, but he was slow enough for Conti managed to kick the ball he was driving.

Di Natale who sees the ball was kicked by Conti runs towards the ball and dominates it again playing for Williams who repositioned himself receives the pass and drives the ball until he manages to see Fabbrini who is more on the right side of the field.

Fabbrini receives the pass and drives the ball down the right side of the field to the bottom line and tries to cross into the area the ball hits Pisano and goes for a corner.

Di Natale crosses inside the area, the ball is headed by De Marcos, the header hits Astori and goes to the other side where Pereyra receives the ball facing the free goal.

In desperation Pereyra kicks the ball without dominating it and it hits Conti who runs against him to block the ball, the ball goes up high and goes down close to the goal where Pereyra manages to position himself and gives a bicycle to the ball it goes up it hits the crossbar and hits Marcos who was closest under the beam.

Goooooool!!!!! from Udinese the Udinese team starts to celebrate the goal that was scored while the Cagliari players were screaming for having failed in this move.

What no one expected happened the referee marked offside.

All players were confused because of this and it was shown in the replay on the screen when Pereyra took the rebound and kicked the ball hit the crossbar and did not enter, but De Marcos who positioned himself in front of him under the crossbar was in an improper position causing the goal that was scored by hitting him was disallowed.

Usman for the first time on the field felt what it's like to be lucky if Pereyra had hit the bike his team would be losing.

The game restarts with Avramov sending the ball to the middle of the field and the two teams getting into confusion to dominate the ball until Cossu manages to dominate it and play for Camillieri on the right wing.

Camillieri continues to drive the ball and touches the front after seeing Nainggolan, Nainggolan manages to catch the ball and drives it, getting close to entering the area he touches it over to the other side of the field no one could say who the pass was for as it went over de Sal and did not go to Usman who was beside him, he passed far from the position of Dessena who was following on the left side of the half moon.

The pass given by Nainggolan stops at the foot of Fabbrini who simply dominates the ball and takes it from and drives it towards the Cagliari goal, but Dessena who was close to him chases him and steals the ball touching it forward in Sau.

Sau dominates the ball and tries to dribble Ridgwell and enter the area.

Ridgwell again hits the player while stealing the ball and touches it to Fabbrini, Fabbrini holds the ball and waits for Willams to pass until he plays for him, Williams continues driving and passes to Pereyra on the left side, Pereyra dominates and watches Di Natale following outside the defense from Cagliari, Pereyra throws the ball over where Di Natale chases it and manages to dominate it, seeing that he was being reached Di Natale tries to dribble it pulling back and ends up losing the ball to Ariaudo who touches it in Pisano.

Pisano dominates the ball, turns his body, looks at the opponent's half and touches Astori who goes forward, Astori dominates the ball and touches Conti, Conti receives it and goes back to Ariaudo, Ariaudo touches Dessena who receives it and passes it to Pisano who was located in the back center midfield, Pisano touches to Cossu, Cossu touches to Usman , Usman tries to make a pass in front to Nainggolan but the ball stops at the foot of Ridgewell who passes the ball to De Marcos .

De Marcos receives it and tries to pass it ahead, but the ball hits Cossu who tries to catch it later, with his miss De Marcos runs after Cossu and desperately tackles them from behind and with luck he just catches the ball and touches it her in Ighalo.

Ighalo dominates the ball and touches it in front of De Marcos, but Ariaudo positions himself to intercept the pass and steals the ball, Ariaudo touches the ball to Cossu who dominates it and touches Sal , Sau touches it to Usman , Usman dribbles Danilo L and tries enter the area but he can't, as Danilo touches the ball taking his foot off Usman's ball, but Cossu who was beside him manages to catch the ball that was removed from Usman entering the area and finishing the ball is blocked by Ridgewell who arrives putting the whole body in front.

The ball hits Ridgewell and is pongando (hitting the ground and going up), Ridgewell comes back and manages to kick it low, the ball stops at Cossu's foot with Di Natale next to him sharing possession of the ball, Conti he manages to dominate it but at the same moment he loses it, Di Natale drives the ball, Nainggolan who was close manages to steal the ball easily and touches Dessena.

Dessena receives the pass looks forward and passes it to Usman, Usman dominates and tries to go inside the area, but this time Danilo L arrives and steals the ball from him again, Usman does not give up and chases the loose ball when Danilo catches the ball again Usman manages to steal it and continues attacking again, Usman comes close to entering the wall when Pinzi who was retreating manages to make the defense and steal the ball from Usman.

Usman again loses possession of the ball, the ball goes up where Danilo heads it to Willians, touching it to De Marcos and receiving the ball back Willians decides to keep possession of the ball in defense at the end of the first half, gaining time until the referee whistles the end of the first half.

And to think that we're being mobbed they're not only beating us on the pitch physically but they're managing to keep possession of the ball and they've taken more shots on goal really is the first time since my game against PSG that I'm feeling like I'm being mobbed on the pitch, not even games like Milan, Juventus gave me as much fatigue as what I'm having now. (Usman)

Don't think too much about it, it's most likely that we're playing better than them because so far none of us has managed to use irregular strikes to manage to stop them, even though we've practically failed to the point of almost taking a bicycle kick goal. (Conti)

Well let's go back to the field and continue the game if we can't score we have to go to penalties. (Cossu)

Let's go. (Conti)

2nd half started

Ighalo touches to Di Natale and Di Natale passes to De Marcos who dominates the ball and drives it until it gets close to Sau where he simply touches to Pereypra and Pereyra passes the ball to Di Natale, Di Natale touches to Ighalo who drives the ball towards to the goal trying to dribble Ariaudo and easily loses the ball.

Ariaudo touches the ball to Camillieri , Camillieri drives the ball and touches Conti who gyrates his body and looks at the Udinese field touching Dessena , Free Desena dominates the ball and drives forward touching it to Usman passing the ball over Danilo L..

Usman dominates the ball and goes towards the goal trying to dribble Ridgewell who was the wall of the game in the first half.

When Usman was close to passing him Willians came back to help score and make a siege with Ridgewell with one scoring on one side and the other on the other, Usman could not dribble them and lost the ball to Ridgewell who steals the ball and kicks it forward over the .

The ball is disputed in the air by Ighalo and Astori, Ighalo wins and heads to De Marcos who ends up being scored by Nainggolan, De Marcos plays the ball to Ighalo in desperation and Astori who is marking him catches the ball.

Astori passes the ball to Nainggolan who takes a position on the right wing , Nainggolan dominates the ball and drives towards the Udinese area until he crosses into the area for Cossu to head it into the goal the team continues to keep the ball high and head home towards the Udinese goal until Sau manages a header close to the goal next to the goalkeeper he heads the ball the goalkeeper prepared to defend capture it.

Romo puts the ball back on the field kicking it away, where Dessena disputes with Pinzi in the air and wins, the ball stops at the foot of Cossu who drives the ball and pulls the defense to the left end and plays for Usman.

Usman tries to enter through the center, but fails and pulls to the right end of the field and touches Nainggolan, but ends up failing with the interception of Benatia .

Benatia touches the ball to Pereyra who tries to follow with the ball driving it, but loses it to Usman who has been chasing the ball before he even dominates it.

The stolen ball stops at the foot of Camillieri who dominates it and touches it on the other side of the field in Pisano, Usman who repositioned himself receives the pass from Pisano, but ends up being marked by Danilo L. and loses the ball to him.

Danilo L steals the ball and touches it to Di Natale who continues driving and passes it to De Marcos who holds the game and retreats to Danilo.

Danilo dominates the ball and touches Fabbrini on the right, Fabbrini dominates the ball and drives it to the bottom line and crosses into the area where Camillieri appears to save Cagliari, taking the ball from inside the area with a first-rate kick in the air.

The ball flies out of the area and is disputed in the air by Pinzi and Usman.

Pinzi wins and heads it towards Conti who dominates the ball and loses it to Willians who arrives hitting him stealing the ball, then Pereyra who was close takes advantage of Conti's loss of the ball with his dispute against Willian and dominates the ball , leads her towards Cagliari's goal.

Conti, who realizes his failure, runs back at a frightening speed, fearing that his failure is what would take the team's chance to pass to the next stage of the cup and steals the ball from Pereyra and retreats to goalkeeper Avramov.

Avramov dominates the ball and touches it on the right end in Camillieri, Camillieri is holding the ball and ends up losing it to Ighalo, with the loss of the ball the whole team retreats to help defend it meanwhile Ighalo touches the ball to Di Natale who pulls and prepares to hit from outside the area.

Di Natale manages to kick the ball, but Astori manages to throw himself on the ground, tripping it and preventing it from passing him.

The ball goes up and is disputed between Di Natale and Conti, Conti wins and heads the ball away from his area, the ball rests on Pinzi's foot who dominates it and risks a shot from 30 meters away from the goal.

Seeing that his team is practically playing defensively Iva changes Conti and puts Nenê on the field, after replacing him he also changes the formation from 4-1-2-1-2 to 4-1-2-3 offensively possible.

Avmarov restarts the game touching Astori who passes the ball to Ariaudo, Ariaudo dominates looks at Camillieri and then passes the ball to Pisano.

Pisano dominates the ball and touches it to Dessena, but his pass comes out strong enough for Dessena to chase the ball, with that wrong pass Danilo takes advantage and manages to steal the ball touching it to De Marcos who touches it to Pereyra on top, but the ball is intercepted by Astori.

The intercepted ball heads back to De Marcos who is being marked by Dessena, Dessena trips De Marcos from behind, touching the ball and taking possession of his foot, but what nobody expected is that the ball was left for Ighalo.

Ighalo dominates the ball and plays for Pereyra, Pereyra drives the ball and holds the play looking across the field to see who he would touch, he touches De Marcos who is in front of him close and tries to run to receive, De Marcos makes a shot in front , but the pass comes out too early and stops at Ariaudo's foot, Ariaudo dominates the ball and saves it so as not to lose it to Pereyra who was coming towards him.

Ariaudo manages to turn towards the Udinese field and touches the ball between 2 players who were coming to get the ball in Dessena, Dessena dominates the ball and passes it to Usman who is in the center of the midfield playing the role of Cossu.

Usman tries to drive it towards the attack and tries to dribble De Marcos, but loses the ball and falls to the ground, De Marcos tries to play for Pereyra and Astori manages to intercept the pass and steal the ball.

Astori touches the ball to Sau who chases the ball towards the Udinese goal with Usman, Cossu and Nenê at his side.

But this time he doesn't make the pass to anyone and tries to take everyone alone, but ends up being marked by Danilo L and loses the ball, giving Udinese a chance to counterattack in the last minutes of the game in the 2nd half.

The ball manages to reach Udinese's attack where Barreto, the player who entered at the same time as Nenê, dominates it and heads towards Cagliari's goal leading it.

Barreto tries to make an overhead pass into the area on Ighalo and the ball manages to be headed by Ariaudo.

This being the last attack of the 2nd half, the referee whistles for the 2nd half of the game.

I really don't like what's happening the only time I went to extra time I went to penalties and in penalties I lost mine having that happen in the first cup match I can't say if that's a good sign or a bad sign. (Usman)

Well, I don't think he'll keep you on the field until the penalties as far as I know the boss could end up replacing you before the penalties arrive so as not to psychologically shake you for this loss even more you were the star in 2 consecutive games you're still too young to acquire responsibility for the team's victory or defeat. (Conti)

Yeah, but I'm a starter on the team, right? I have to be aware of this.

Just don't stress about it and focus every match on yourself. If you don't win with us, with your talent you'll go further than us. (Cossu)

Let's go, the first period of extra time will begin. (Astori)

Returning to the field, Ivo replaces Cossu with Cepellini, Sau starts the game playing for Nenê, Nenê passes the ball back to Astori.

Astori touches the ball to Nainggolan who dominates and passes to Ariaudo on the other side, Ariaudo touches Pisano, but he sends the ball so hard that Pisano cannot control it and chases the ball until it goes out the side.

Fabbrini charges the wing throwing the ball to Di Natale, Di Natale dominates and passes the ball to Willians who throws the ball back at Danilo. L, Danilo exchanges passes with Ridgewell and De Marcos, De Marcos dominates the ball and tries to go on the attack trying to create a play.

The ball is lost and stops at the foot of the Cagliari team who start an attack with Ceppelini touching Cossu and Cossu throwing the ball over to Sal, but Romo was smart as the area that Sau was running was free, Romo anticipates and leaves from the goal toward the ball and manages to catch the ball that was thrown by Cossu, thus taking away any chance for Cagliari to shoot on goal.

After that move, the Udinese team attacked and Ariaudo took the ball to the side when the ball came out, he was in the extra time of the first period of extra time and Iva tied uman and put Pinilla on the field to play the 2nd period of extra time and beat the penalty if none of the two teams managed to remove the 0 from the scoreboard.

Barreto starts by touching the ball to Di Natale, Di Natale touches it to Willians, Willians touches it to De Marcos, De Marcos touches the left side to Pereyra, Pereyra keeps driving the ball until Camilleri manages to mark him and steal the ball.

Camilleri continues with the ball leading and touches Nainggolan who receives it and passes it to Dessena, Dessena sees no way to continue leading and plays to Pisano.

Pisano holds the game and returns it to Dessena who throws the ball over to Nainggolan, but the ball is cleared by Bentania and stops at the foot of Barreto who first touches the ball to Di Natale.

Di Natale dominates the ball and takes it to the attack, losing it to Ariaudo in the 1-1 and the ball stops at the foot of Dessena who was behind Di Natale.

Dessena doesn't even have a chance to show joy, because Fabbrini comes behind with a tackle and he has to play the ball fast to Pisano, Pisano receives the ball and touches Ariaudo, Ariaudo touches the ball to Dessena again who is now being scored by De Marcos, when trying to dribble De Marcos Dessena loses possession of the ball.

From Marcos who stole the ball and touches it to Pereyra dominates the ball and passes it to Barreto, Barreto dominates the ball and continues driving it down the left side of the field while being marked by Camilleri, seeing Ighalo in front Barreto makes a pass to Ighalo who controls the ball perfectly next to Astori who is guarding him.

Astori manages to steal the ball from Ighalo and kicks it away from Cagliari's defense causing the referee to whistle the end of the game.

In Penalties, who starts hitting is Pinilla do Cagliari who has the responsibility of being the first batter.

Pinilla hits the bottom left corner of the goal and the goalkeeper hits the corner but he jumps over it and the ball ends up going under him and into the goal – Goooooooooooool !!! Cagliari 1-0 Udinese

Ighalo is Udinese's first batsman and has the responsibility to do to equalize.

Ighalo hits the bottom left corner, goalkeeper Avmarov jumps at the right height and in the right corner but the ball hits the ground and goes over him showing that Ighalo was lucky to manage to tie the game the Udinese fans start singing the team anthem to give your players strength while the Caglairi fans were screaming I believe.

The third player to take the penalty was Nenê, who faces the goalkeeper and hits the ball into the right corner with a light, relaxed kick as the goalkeeper jumps in the opposite direction and high. Goooool!!! Cagliari 2 x 1 Udinese on penalties.

Barreto now had the responsibility of equalizing for Udinese and he beats the penalty with a bomb on the right side of the goal, the goalkeeper throws himself in this direction and height, but the ball passes by his side after he has passed the spot Gooool!!! ! of Udinese 2 x 2 Cagliari on penalties.

The 5th batter who goes is Cepellini who simply kicks calmly in the left corner of the goal, Romo gets the position and height right this time, but he doesn't reach the kick and it's Gooool!!! from Cagliari 3 x 2 Udinese.

The 6th batter is Pereyra who also has the responsibility of equalizing with his kick he hits the high right corner a bomb the ball goes in the corner of Coruja a place where the goalkeeper hits side and height, but ends up not reaching the finish. Goooool!!!!!! From Udinese 3 x 3 Cagliari.

The 7th Batsman is Dessena he simply kicks ball on the left side but sends the ball out.

8th Beater is Fabbrini he kicks low near the center and the goalkeeper manages to save defending the kick.

9th Batsman is Nainggolan he kicks the ball low into the left corner just like Ighalo he got lucky and the ball lands on the ground and goes over the goalkeeper Gol!!!! Cagliari 4x3 Udinese

The 10th Batsman is De Marcos the responsibility of continuing to dispute the cup is on his feet, he starts to get more nervous than usual with tremendous pressure to continue participating in the penalties he hits the ball on the left side of the goal.

Go outside!

Cagliari moves on to the next round the players pile up on the field and the fans invade the field to join the party they are in the next round.

Players and fans alike hailed Avramov as the hero of the game for saving Fabbrini's shot at the most dangerous moment.

After the party Sofia shows up to talk to Usman on the field.

Congratulations! (Sofia)

Thanks.

It looks like really or a lucky girl.

Why are you the lucky one?

Good analyzing their last 2 games and this match I don't doubt that in the next 10 games we got a sponsorship or several sponsorship proposals.

It's really interesting that you find that.

Well, now that I congratulated you, it's time for the photo.

OK

Sofia approaches Usman with a cell phone and takes a picture kissing his cheek.

Usman didn't care too much about it, he was in a celebratory mood after the win over Udinese and went through with it.

CB Astori 13 Other Positions (-)

Nationality Italy

Annual Salary 822,000 Market Value 1143

Height 188 Age 26 Stronger Foot Left

Attack 53/99 Defense 85/99 Body Balance 84/99

Stamina 81/99 Top Speed 77/99 Acceleration 74/99 Agility 74/99

Responsiveness 81/99 Dribble accuracy 73/99 Dribble Speed 70/99 FK accuracy 63/99

Short Pass accuracy 70/99 S.Pass Speed 73/99 Long Pass accuracy 68/99 L.Pass Speed 69/99

Shot accuracy 59/99 Shot Power 77/99 Shot Techinque 61/99 Techinque 73/99

Swerve 66/99 Header 79/99 Jump 81/99 Aggression 57/99 Tenacity 74/99 Teamwork 77/99

Form 7/8 Weak Foot Accuracy 4/8 Weak Foot Use 4/8 Injury A

Skills

ManMarking*

coverage *