Serie A | Lecce 0-2 Udinese: Friulani soar out of danger zone

Originally posted on Football Italia | By Susy Campanale | Last updated 5/13/24

Udinese climbed out of the relegation zone with this desperately-needed victory away to already secure Lecce, as Lorenzo Lucca and Lazar Samardzic came up big.

The hosts were already celebrating their Serie A safety, but Roberto Piccoli sat out a ban, with Lameck Banda, Mohamed Kaba and Kastriot Dermaku missing the rest of the season. The Friulani knew a victory would take them out of the bottom three, but the lengthy absentee list included Florian Thauvin, Sandi Lovric, Marco Silvestri, Gerard Deulofeu and Enzo Ebosse, but Nehuen Perez and Martin Payero returned from suspension following the 1-1 draw with Napoli.

Both teams were wearing special edition jerseys with their maternal names in honour of Mother’s Day.

See how the match unfolded on the Liveblog.

Perez was immediately called into action with a desperate block to stop Nikola Krstovic firing in the Pontus Almqvist pull-back from 12 yards, while Lazar Samardzic saw his free kick deflected over the bar and Thomas Kristensen nodded the resulting corner off target.

Isaac Success fired inches over from the edge of the box and Udinese finally broke through when Lorenzo Lucca soared above the crowd to nod a Payero cross into the far bottom corner.

A TOWERING header!

Lorenzo Lucca opens the scoring after getting on the end of a wonderful cross

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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 13, 2024

Lecce took a while to get going, but started to test Maduka Okoye with a ferocious Santiago Pierotti strike from a tricky angle that stung his gloves, then a Federico Baschirotto header from the Remy Oudin free kick.

Just as Udinese were sitting deeper and deeper and Lecce pushed for an equaliser, they scored on the counter-attack to lock down these three precious points.

Roberto Pereyra’s cross found the head of Keinan Davis at the back post, forcing a reaction save from Wladimiro Falcone, but only into the path of Samardzic to turn in the rebound.

Lecce 0-2 Udinese

Lucca 36 (U), Samardzic 85 (U)

13-05-2024 17:30 MatchDay 36 Stadio Ettore Giardiniero - Via del Mare

Lecce

Udinese 0 - 2

Player statistic

1st half

Alexis Blin		17'
		36'		Lorenzo Lucca (Assist: Martín Payero)

2nd half

Patrick Dorgu		57'
		60'

Martín Payero 85'

Lazar Samardzic

Match statistic

65 Possession % 35 9 Total shots 16 2 Shots on target 3 3 Shots off target 10 4 Blocked shots 3 8 Corners 2 1 Offsides 12 Fouls 11 Lecce Udinese

Starting lineups

Wladimiro Falcone Goalkeeper 25

Antonino Gallo Defender 6 Federico Baschirotto Defender 5

Marin Pongracic Defender 13 Patrick Dorgu Defender 72' 17

Valentin Gendrey Defender 29

Alexis Blin Midfielder 56' 8 Hamza Rafia Midfielder 56' 20

Ylber Ramadani Midfielder 9

Nikola Krstovic Attacker 7 Pontus Almqvist Attacker 72' 40 Maduka Okoye Goalkeeper 12

Hassane Kamara Defender 29

Jaka Bijol Defender 19

Kingsley Ehizibue Defender 74' 18

Nehuén Pérez Defender 31 Thomas Kristensen Defender 24 Lazar Samardzic Midfielder 90' 32 Martín Payero Midfielder 11

Walace Midfielder 90' 7

Isaac Success Attacker 67' 17 Lorenzo Lucca Attacker

67'

Substitutes

Lorenzo Venuti Defender 98 Alexandru Borbei Goalkeeper 45 Rares Burnete Attacker 40 Jasper Samooja Goalkeeper 21

Federico Brancolini Goalkeeper 59 Ahmed Touba Defender 83

Daniel Samek Midfielder 23 Sebastian Esposito Defender 18 Medon Berisha Midfielder 56' 50 Santiago Pierotti Attacker 56' 16 Joan Gonzàlez Midfielder 72' 10

Rémi Oudin Attacker 72' 93

Daniele Padelli Goalkeeper 33 Jordan Zemura Defender 27

Christian Kabasele Defender 22

Brenner Attacker 79 David Pejičić Midfielder 16 Antonio Tikvic Defender 30 Lautaro Giannetti Defender 70 Federico Mosca Goalkeeper 37

Roberto Pereyra Midfielder 67' 9

Keinan Davis Attacker 67' 2 Festy Ebosele Defender 74' 13 João Ferreira Defender 90' 6

Oier Zarraga Midfielder

90'

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

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