On the evening of the 26th, all the staff and players of the team who returned to the club's residence gathered in the cafeteria for a group dinner, which can be regarded as a joint celebration of the festival and the achievements made so far. Although there were no alcoholic drinks, everyone still had a good time, especially Li Mudi's joke about Cassie flying back to Spain on Christmas Day to accept a medal called Avila's Responsible Ambassador, and the Torino coach bluntly said that it was an award that he couldn't figure out what it was used for through Google, which caused the audience to laugh.

The euphoria continued into Thursday, when Juventus beat Fiorentina by two goals at home in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia, which ended first this week. In the Milan derby, which has been the focus of domestic football, the Rossoneri, who have underperformed in the league, showed rare resilience as they eliminated their local rivals 1-0 in a close hand-to-hand fight with substitute Patrick Cutrone on the 103rd minute of extra time to knock out their local rivals 1-0 and secure their place in the semi-finals.

Born on January 3, 1998, Cutrone has a potential of up to 176 in the FM system, and there is still room for improvement, and the current ability of 130 is also considered top-notch at this age group. Li Mudi, who is known for "Taikong", naturally will not fail to notice. However, on two occasions last year and this year, Pantario Longo asked AC Milan for an offer, and the response was that it was not for sale, and the Torino boss had to abandon his plan to bring the young demon with strong finishing ability and the possibility of succeeding Inzaghi into his team. However, watching the young man who is about to turn 20 continue to show his ability in the limited playing time, he will continue to salivate.

But before Li Mudi could wake up from the fantasy of this genius joining his team, something happened to the team, and it was a very significant event. Belotti sprained his right knee during a regular training session on Thursday afternoon without any physical contact with others. The team doctor immediately examined him on the spot and confirmed that it was likely to be another anterior cruciate ligament injury. In October, Red Beibei was out for a month due to a ligament injury in his right knee, and on the premise of choosing conservative treatment, he almost missed the two-legged World Cup qualifying play-off against Sweden.

Less than an hour after the incident, photos of the Torino No.9 being carried off the training ground in tears went viral in various media and on the Internet, and everyone speculated whether last season's top scorer in Serie A would become a glass man like Basten and Ronaldo, and never get rid of the knee ligament injury again. There are also some experts who don't know the so-called nonsense, saying that through the analysis of the situation shown in the photos, it is believed that Belotti is likely to have torn or even ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament, and will face more than half a year of absence. In addition, some people are gloating that it is fortunate that giants such as AC Milan did not shell out the 100 million yuan that has become the biggest joke of the summer to bring in the player, otherwise it would have been their turn to cry.

Fortunately, the official news of the Torino club's refutation of the rumors came relatively quickly, and on the morning of the second day, director Antonio Comey specially held a small press conference to inform the outside world of Belotti's injury as it was, and responded to the injury. He said the team's forwards did not suffer ligament or meniscus damage, which was the result of a detailed examination by a medical professional. However, despite suffering a normal sprain, given the previous cases, it is uncertain how long Belotti will be sidelined, depending on how he recovers from the injury, but it is certain that he will not return to Genoa, Bologna and Roma's Coppa Italia games before the winter break.

Just when the Italian media were rejoicing for the local striker who was in his playing years, another piece of news came from Spain that they were very surprised, Montella, who left San Siro at the end of November, had found a new job abroad, and La Liga powerhouse Sevilla officially announced that the "Little Plane" would take over the coaching whip of the team and sign a contract with him until June 2019. The former Europa League treble winners currently sit fifth in the La Liga table, two points behind Real Madrid ahead of them, and there is still a Champions League spot in contention. It is worth mentioning that Montella is the first Italian coach in the history of Sevilla FC and the ninth Italian manager in the history of La Liga.

However, Li Mudi is obviously not in the mood to pay attention to whether his peers have found a new job at the moment, and he once again held an impromptu meeting with all the staff after the training session on Thursday to discuss and decide to reduce the intensity of the players' practice again to prevent other injuries. This over-the-top caution also caused a number of key players to not be able to adjust to their best before Saturday's league game began, leading to some difficulties in the manager's line-up.

Fortunately, the Red Bulls faced Genoa, who was not strong and ranked 15th in the standings, on their home ground this round, and even if they didn't play with all their might, they had the upper hand in winning. Considering that the team will play a cup match against Roma next Tuesday, this league once again has a number of rotation players in the squad and even the starting lineup, allowing the bookmaker to temporarily adjust the odds.

The home side responded in a 4-4-2 formation, and although Kassi's finger contusion had largely recovered, Li Mudi still put him in the stands, and Serbian young goalkeeper Milinkovic Savic got his first chance to start in Serie A. Of the back four, two young full-backs, Dimarco and Diekman, both played, with veteran Moretti and Diego Llorente in the middle. In midfield, the quartet of Las Diarra, Baseli, Boyer and Edra started together, with the latter two being wingers playing as wingers as wing-backs, but also carrying a lot of defensive responsibilities. The attacking duo of Immobile and Manuel Pellegri were the only centre-forwards in the first team following Belotti's injury, and to supplement the vital presence on the bench, the coaching staff brought in German striker Johannes Egerstein from the youth team on a temporary basis as a precautionary measure.

And even such a strange line-up was announced early, but it did not make the Genoa coach who had just taken office in early November Ballardini have a hint of relaxation, and he still came up with a more defensive 3-5-1-1 formation on the road, in which the three players in the middle of the midfield all appeared in the position of dragging back after the kick-off, and this iron bucket formation was tight enough. When attacking, the front field is handed over to the front midfielder Moroccan international Tarabut and the veteran striker Pandev to play the simplest counter-attack, except for the two wide defenders who occasionally step forward to help, the rest of the men rarely enter the front of the home team's penalty area. It was this kind of retrenched defence that allowed the Griffins to keep the score at 0-0 at half-time, with just 35 per cent possession and one shot on goal.

However, just like last weekend's Spanish derby, the constant passive defense will always make the side in a rapid physical drain, even if the Genoa players do not use high pressing, more in their own half of the defensive trenches, but in the face of the home team's constant transfer back and forth through the ball, they are under tremendous pressure to make a stubborn resistance, when the game enters the 70 minutes, it is a little unsustainable.

In the 72nd minute, substitute Benassi sent a delicate through ball that gave Manuel Pellegri a good chance to get on the ball after entering the box. In desperation, the visiting centre-back Spoli made a reckless tackle that not only did not resolve the danger, but instead tripped the Torino youngster from the side. The referee's whistle sounded without incident, and the penalty was awarded very firmly. Although Mobile's powerful shot was predicted by Perrin, the near-perfect speed and angle of the ball still allowed the ball to accurately drill into the bottom right corner of the goal, 1-0, and the Red Bulls took an important lead at the critical moment before they could not attack for a long time.

Seven minutes later, Las Diarra's sudden move down the right flank caused a brief holebreak in the Genoa defender's defence, as he shook off the somewhat unresponsive Uruguayan full-back Laxalte and fired a powerful cross that coincidentally hit the outstretched arm of centre-back Lianco, who had switched from Torino in the summer, and the Brazilian was standing just inside the penalty line. Although he was suspected of being a hitter with the ball, the referee once again blew the penalty because the visiting centre-back's arms were spread out of his body and did seriously change the route of the pass. After the Genoese players protested to no avail, Immobile stepped in front of the penalty spot again, this time with a smoother goal, as he deceived Perrin and comfortably sent the ball into the same position as before.

The difference between the two goals completely ended the suspense of the game, and in the end, the Torino team won 66% possession and 6-0 shots in 15 to 0 with an overwhelming upper hand, and with Immobile's two penalties, they won the Griffons who were not in good form overall, and bid farewell to the glorious and great 2017 with a victory.

In the rest of the Serie A fixtures, the top two teams in the table have won away from home, with Hamsik scoring three goals in a row to help Napoli beat Crotone 1-0 and Juventus beat Verona 3-1 to keep the league at the top of the league. The rest of the powerhouses are winless, with Roma being held 1-1 at home by Sassuolo, and Fiorentina's two strong meetings with AC Milan and Inter Milan and Lazio also ended in draws. The most surprising and surprising team was undoubtedly Benevento, who finally picked up their first Serie A three points in the team's history in the closing game of the first round of the league this season, and thanks to striker Massimo Coda's goal in the 64th minute, the team that set the worst start to Serie A still had a bowl of hot dumplings before the New Year.

Exactly halfway through the 19 league games, the White Dolphins and Old Lady occupy the top two positions in the standings with 48 and 47 points respectively, while Inter Milan, who have suffered a four-game winless run, have 41 points and have been overtaken by Torino with 42 points, sliding out of the European qualification zone, and the Red Bulls are in the top three again after three months.

Also temporarily occupying the Europa League quota position are the capital duo, with Roma on 37 points and Lazio on 33 points also maintaining pressure on the teams in the third and fourth places, and they are both with one game less, once the rematch is over, it may further close the gap with the teams in front of them, and it is still unclear how the European qualification will be distributed next season.

The seventh to tenth places are Sampdoria with 30 points, Fiorentina with 27 points, Udinese with 27 points and Atalanta with 26 points. It is worth mentioning that after sacking Del Neri and hiring Odor in late November, Udinese completed a wave of 1-5 wins in the league and the winning streak is still continuing to rebound strongly, and the ranking has soared all the way from the edge of the relegation zone to the middle of the table, which can be said to be one of the most interesting teams in recent times. Otto's popularity has also risen rapidly in Italian football, and he has already been added to the ranks of the most promising young coaches.

Only 7 wins, 4 draws, 8 losses, 25 points AC Milan temporarily ranked 11th, it can be said that there is a huge contrast with the investment of more than 200 million euros in the summer, but the club management who has fired Montella has no way back, unless the results decline again, Gattuso's position must be maintained at least until the end of the league, the damage to the team from frequent changes of coach is immeasurable, and no normal club will make such a choice, Palermo, who have the chairman of the Maniac Devils, have gone to the second division.

In the relegation army, in addition to Benevento, who only has only 4 points, it is still difficult to stage a miracle comeback, Genoa with 17 points, SPAL and Crotone with 14 points, and Verona with 12 points, these four teams have to continue to fight to stay in the top league, and they also happen to be the clubs with the smallest investment in the summer transfer window, which is basically in line with the basic law of modern football where financial resources determine results.

In the scorers' list, Inter's Mauro Icardi leads the way with 17 goals, followed by Immobile with 16 goals, followed by Dybala with 14 goals, Quagliarella with 12 goals, Mertens with 10 goals and Higuain with nine goals. Belotti, who missed many games due to injury, is tied with Dzeko for seventh place on the list with 8 goals, and is still a first-class killer in Serie A in terms of average goal efficiency per game, although it is not as hot as last season's performance, but it is still worthy of the salary offered to him by the club.

After all 10 matches, it was late at night on December 30, 2017, and one more day would make the year history. Although the media and some fans are willing to make a summary or evaluation at the end of the year, the head coaches of each team will definitely focus on future personnel adjustments and tactical improvements, they only hate that the time left for them is too short, and they are still in the mood to think about the past.