As the clock ticked by, the penultimate weekend of the year came as scheduled, and while the squad Torino and its staff boarded the city of Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region (there is no airport in Ferrara, you need to transfer buses to get there), the first game of the Serie A round was already on the line, with Chievo losing 3-2 at home to Bologna, allowing the latter to continue to close the distance to European qualification. And when Li Mudi and the others stepped off the plane and prepared to arrive at their destination on the bus that had been contacted in advance, the second and final game on Friday was also decided, with Fiorentina beating Cagliari by a narrow goal away from home to maintain the pressure on the European teams.

Ahead of the break in the middle of January, the Italian Football Federation has moved the kick-off times of the final rounds of the league forward by one day to Friday and Saturday nights. At the same time, the 21st round after the holiday was pushed back by one day, which was considered to squeeze out two more days of rest time for each team, but it was a drop in the bucket no matter how you look at it. Since the start of the season, the players have accumulated too much fatigue for up to four and a half months, so the Serie A teams that have not entered the winter break as in previous years have all faced a huge reduction in the number of forwards, and the poor form of the players has also seriously reduced the quality of the game. Especially for a strong team with a large number of international players, the main team is almost always in high-intensity games and rushes, and it is difficult to adjust themselves, which also makes the probability of several rounds of upsets greater than normal.

Before the kick-off of Torino's clash with SPAL, Li Mudi learned from assistant coach Kevin Sumfield that both Milan teams had lost. After an unexpected loss to Udinese in the previous round, Inter lost 0-1 away to Sassuolo, who was not in good form before, and suffered two consecutive defeats. His city rivals were also ill-fated, with the Rossoneri losing to Atlanta by two goals at home, also failing to score a point in their last two league games. Spalletti naturally needs to seize the time to adjust the team's form and continue to follow in the footsteps of Napoli and Juventus; Gattuso, on the other hand, is a little sad, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses, the team's results are not as good as Montella, which makes the Milan media begin to discuss whether the decision to change the coach is correct.

Turning back to the Paolo Mazza stadium, the home team was the Serie B champion last season, and the main team, including the coaching staff, is still the same as before, but this summer they introduced Palowski and Viviani and other Serie A players, and their main goalkeeper for the new season is the Senegalese Alfred Gomis, who was bought from the Torino team, is an authentic Red Bulls academy.

And Spall's head coach Leonardo Semplic, although he is over 50 years old, is not well-known in the industry, and his qualifications are also a simple mess. As a player, he barely managed to make seven appearances in Italy's third division until he was about to retire at the age of 34, and he has been coaching in the lower non-professional leagues since retiring. It wasn't until he became Fiorentina's Under-19 head coach in the summer of 2013 that Semplic was able to integrate himself into mainstream football.

In July 2014, the club, which had gone bankrupt for the second time in a decade and restructured itself as SPAL 2013, hired the little-known manager, and unexpectedly and unexpectedly embarked on a magical journey. Two years later, the team was promoted to Serie B as the first in the third division, and then completed two consecutive jumps to return to the top flight after 49 years, which speaks volumes about Semplic's coaching ability.

However, winning two championships in the third and even second divisions does not mean that he has the strength to lead the team to make waves in Serie A, and the club's serious lack of financial resources still limits the team's strength and results. And due to the high-intensity confrontation, many players who have been in contact with the world's top level for the first time have poor physical fitness and competitive condition at this stage, so the starting lineup of the SPAL coach is missing some of the previous regular main players, and the two experienced veterans of Palowski and Borelho are also sitting on the bench.

Torino also made some changes and used a 4-3-3 formation, with Iago Farke, Vittorio Parrigini and Immobile up front, with Belotti given the chance to rest. There have also been a few new faces in the midfield that were not so common before, with Gourcuff appearing in the starting line-up for the first time since joining the team.

But even with a number of key players absent, the Red Bulls still took the absolute initiative on the court early in the opening period, and they scored on their first shot. Left-back Bareka, who had returned from injury, sent a pinpoint diagonal pass from midfield, a long-range pass that flew around 35 metres away and into the right side of the penalty area, where Falke cut in at high speed and volleyed into the far corner of the net in an irregular bounce. Goalkeeper Gomis' side-saving couldn't touch anything outside of the air, and he could only watch as the score became 1-0 just 60 seconds after kick-off!

Five minutes later, the home side, who were somewhat stunned by the lightning goal, made a mistake in the pass in midfield, and Torino immediately counter-attacked. Gourcuff ran 30 metres down the middle and split the ball to the left after entering the top of the penalty area, where Benasi, who had been following up, stopped the ball and fired a shot that was blocked by the home team's Polish centre-back Salamon. However, the ball was not kicked out of the danger zone, but bounced to the right after an unknown touch, and it happened to feel that after Falke got the ball there, he saw the fallen Spal goalkeeper and the huge empty goal behind him. The Spanish winger didn't miss the pie and scored with an easy left-footed finish to give the visitors a two-goal lead just six minutes into the game. At this point, all the home team's supporters should be on the verge of collapse, and some have even begun to worry about a massacre.

However, Semplic and his men showed the world in the following games why they can stay out of the relegation zone at almost halfway through the league schedule, and SPAL recovered from conceding two goals in a row very quickly, and after a period of full defence to block the Red Bulls' intentions to chase the victory, he gradually found his form in the attacking end. Casillas was tested by midfielder Schiatarera's long-range shot and striker Flocari's goal, and in the 42nd minute, midfielder Viviani, who joined from Bologna in the summer, took advantage of a free-kick opportunity to close a goal for his team. His direct left-footed effort was quick and angled, but Casey stabbed the ball off the crossbar with a desperate side-to-side pounce, but the Torino goalkeeper also injured his finger when he hit the post, and had to be replaced by teenager Zaccaño, who was unexpectedly given the chance to make his Serie A debut.

Fortunately, after returning to the locker room, after an emergency examination by the team doctor, Cassie's injury was not too serious, protected by gloves, and his left index and middle fingers were only slightly swollen, without hurting bones, and it was expected to be relieved within a few days. However, after the introduction of the young goalkeeper, it became clear that the visitors had involuntary concerns about their own defensive capabilities, the midfielders became less afraid to press, and the two full-backs also greatly reduced their desire to get forward, so that the situation on the pitch gradually found out in a direction more favorable to the home team.

Although he is very optimistic about the future development of the young goalkeeper, Li Mudi is naturally a little worried about Zacanio, who is playing in Serie A for the first time, and is currently leading by two goals, so he acquiesced to the choice of the players and began to arrange defensive counterattack tactics.

After the re-kick-off in the second half, SPAL had nothing to lose anyway, taking advantage of the large number of midfielders in a 3-5-2 formation and slowly recovering some of the gaps in possession. However, due to the lack of an excellent organizational core, most of the time it is a needless kick, and it is difficult to pose too much threat to the away team's goal. It wasn't until the 68th minute of the game that a negligence on the part of the Torino team allowed the home team a good chance.

Diminutive full-back Lazzari couldn't get past Gordaniga with a cross from the right, and the Torino centre-back scrambled to get the ball to the back post before Flocari, who was competing with him. However, in the scramble for the second landing point, Silvestri, who was in a better position, made a big mistake, he failed to see the opposing central midfielder Grassi running at high speed behind him, and casually stretched out his right foot to clear the siege just when he tripped the latter to the ground, and then raised his hands innocently to show that he had not committed a foul.

The referee on duty, Paulo Valéry, who did not have a good angle at the time of the scene, signaled for his video assistant to intervene, and after watching the replay from the sidelines, he returned to the pitch two minutes after the whistle was blown to signal that it was a penalty, which provoked unanimous displeasure in the Torino team, but also had to accept the result.

Milco Antenucci, a 33-year-old homegrown veteran striker who briefly spent a spell at Torino in 2010/12, used his experience to easily fool Zacanio, who was more than a game younger, by locating the ball into the visitors' goal from the middle. 1-2, with more than 20 minutes left in the game, SPAL narrowed the difference between the two sides to the point of reach.

Li Mudi, who found that the situation was not good, immediately replaced Belotti and Baseli, intending to curb the opponent's ambition to equalize by strengthening the attack. The trick paid off ten minutes later, as Red Babe smashed Barreka's cross from the left into the top right corner of the goal, putting an end to Spal's delusions of points from the Red Bulls.

In the end, the away side Torino still managed to win 3-1 and quickly regained their winning touch after losing to the league leaders in the previous round. However, with Napoli's 3-2 win at home to Sampdoria (Hamsik scored a goal to surpass the legendary Maradona with 116 goals and monopolize the title of the team's all-time top scorer), Li Mudi's team is still six points away from the top of the table, but only one point behind third-placed Inter Milan, which can only be said to maintain a certain competitiveness for Champions League qualification, but the league title is still far away.

In the other match that ended at the same time as the battle for S-Todo, Genoa were awarded a precious penalty in the final minute of regulation time to beat the hapless Benevento, who had an unprecedented start to the campaign with one draw and 17 defeats. In the final focus of this round, Juventus defeated Roma 1-0 at home with a goal from central defender Benatia, and continued to follow Napoli, and the league has been in a two-game situation.

However, compared to the fierce competition in Serie A, the main focus of fans around the world this weekend is undoubtedly the first leg of the Spanish national derby of the season at the Bernabeu. As a result, Real Madrid, who had the advantage of being at home, lost to their arch-rival Barcelona by three goals, and for the first time in history, the latter was defeated on their own turf for three consecutive years.

The game kicked off an hour earlier than the Torino game, so Li Mudi learned the details of the game through the post-match video. In all fairness, Zizou's unexpectedly arranged for Kovacic to start the whole game and kill Messi's tactics still had a great effect in the first half. However, the arrangement of active pressing made the Real Madrid players collapse directly in the second half of the physical decline, and Barcelona, who stabilized the situation, bypassed the home team's high pressing through passing control, and used the Croatian midfielder to be too jealous of Messi to make the return to defense a beat slower, resulting in the first goal conceded, Barcelona coach Valverde's ability is indeed commendable. Then the visiting team took advantage of the victory and continued to attack Real Madrid's defense, and Carvajal's red departure and Messi's penalty also completely lost the suspense of the game.

After the defeat in this game, the Galaxy Battleship, which has one game less, is already 14 points behind its arch-rival, and the hopes of defending the league title can be dashed in advance, which also made many Real Madrid fans criticize Zizou after the game to vent their dissatisfaction. Fortunately, Lafayette came to the team's dressing room as soon as the game ended and comforted Zidane and the players, so that the rumors of a change of coach did not spread again.

The Torino boss also sent a message of comfort to his friend, hoping that he would forget about the current bad situation and take advantage of the upcoming short winter break to adjust and start afresh in the new year to try to get his team back on track.

In Italian football, where the winter break has been postponed, teams have to prepare for the game during the two important holidays of Christmas and New Year's Day. Fortunately, both of these days are Mondays, after each round of the league, so even the teams that have cup tasks this week have given everyone a holiday, and for religious people, even the Champions League or World Cup final is not as important as Christmas.

However, Li Mudi, who has no faith in this regard, is in a state of idleness. His girlfriend was busy filming in Asia, and his parents rejected the proposal to fly over to celebrate the festival together, so he had to stay alone in the apartment to scroll through social software, read e-books, and rely on takeaway to mix up the day, which was very boring.