Shocker in the Serie A! Udinese inflicted José Mourinho one of the most brutal defeats in his career as the Bianconeri dismantled Roma 4-0 at the Dacia Arena on Sunday night.
The Friulani thus reached the Giallorossi in the third place of the league table, courtesy of a magnificent poker signed by Destiny Udogie, Lazar Samardzic, Roberto Pereyra, and Sandi Lovric.
For Roma, this seems to be the same old story. The Giallorossi had had a promising season start and were sharing the top spot with Atalanta, but failed once again their trial of fire and experienced a painful reality check. On a side note, Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta now have a chance to gain the solitary lead in the table if they beat Monza tomorrow.
But aside from Roma’s incredible black out, credit must be given to the Udinese coach Andrea Sottil, whose side played a perfect game, well-led by the Tottenham-bound Destiny Udogie and the Spanish striker Gerard Deulofeu.
It was the future Premier League player to open the scoring for the home side after just five minutes. Udogie showed no mercy in punishing a sounding blunder on the part of Rick Karsdorp, who delivered the ball to him with a clumsy clearance attempt.
It looked like a single episode as the Giallorossi did have a reaction. Paulo Dybala was the most positive among the visitors and challenged Marco Silvestri with a tricky shot, but Udogie managed to deflect it off target. La Joya had been the author of the first shot in the game, just 27 seconds after kick off, but it also went wide off the net.
That was a short-lasting illusion as Udinese quickly regained control of the game and had more chances with Deulofeu, Pereyra, and Isaac Success.
Mourinho understood that something needed to change and replaced Karsdorp and Bryan Cristante at half time, sending in Mehmet Zeki Celik and Andrea Belotti in their place.
However, Mourinho was betrayed by his countryman Rui Patricio as the goalkeeper should have done better from a Samardzic long-range shot that resulted in Udinese doubling their lead.
Roma lost their heads and were punished twice more by the Bianconeri on the counter. On 75 minutes, Pereyra found the back of the net with a brilliant curl. Then, it was Lovric to set the score at 4-0, making the best out of a Deulofeu service.
The Giallorossi were left fuming at a disallowed penalty when the score was still 1-0 (Rodrigo Becao pushed down Celik in the danger zone) but moreover at an absolute setback that doesn’t seem to have any logical explanation.
Udinese, on the other hand, are now unbeaten in four games and find themselves third in the table with ten points, ahead of the likes of Inter and Juventus. Who would have guessed that?
MATCH SCORECARD
September 4, 2022 – Serie A 2022-2023 Round 5
UDINESE – ROMA 4-0
SCORERS: 5′ Udogie, 56′ Samardzic, 75′ Pereyra, 82′ Lovric
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UDINESE (3-5-2): Silvestri: Becao, Bijol (16′ Ebosse), Perez; Pereyra (84′ Ehizibue), Samardzic (61′ Makengo), Walace, Arslan (61′ Lovric), Udogie; Success (61′ Beto), Deulofeu (Padelli, Piana, Festy, Jajalo, Abankwah, Nuytinck, Nestorovski, Semedo) Coach: Sottil |
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ROMA (3-4-2-1): Rui Patricio; Mancini (64′ Zalewski) , Smalling, Ibanez; Karsdorp (46′ Celik), Cristante (46′ Belotti), Matic, Spinazzola; Dybala, Pellegrini (80′ Camara); Abraham (76′ Shomurodov) (Svilar, Boer, Shomurodov, Vina, Bove, Keramitsis, Volpato, Tripi) Coach: Mourinho |
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Udogie, Makengo, Pereyra (U), Dybala, Pellegrini (R)
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