ABANO TERME. The sign of work in progress is still placed in plain sight in front of the Juventus construction site, less than a week before next Friday’s Coppa Italia match in Friuli against Ascoli and exactly 15 days from the debut in the league with Juventus, but from the friendly match won on Saturday 7 August by 1-0 on an own goal against the same Empoli grade, Udinese sent at least some encouraging signals with respect to Lens’s foolishness.
It was exactly what everyone expected in the world, from the coach Luca Gotti to the fans, above all, who after having witnessed the gragnola remedied in France had only partially believed in the justification dictated by the gap in condition and brilliance. Okay, it was instantly understood that the Empoli seen yesterday in Abano Terme is not Lens, and feeling the former Aurelio Andreazzoli will have his work cut out to save the Tuscans, but yesterday it was Udinese who sought to make a difference. He did it through ball possession dictated by a series of phrases and triangulations combined in the strait that immediately gave the impression of a better compactness between the departments, but also thanks to the external players in the median who gave a precise meaning to the 3- 5-2, the old “high road” that Gotti decided to (re) beat last week after the initial tests at 4-2-3-1.
Gotti said that it will be like this until the transfer market is over and then we’ll see, but in the meantime, being able to rely on two external roles such as the returning Nahuel Molina and the powerful Destiny Udogie, the midfielders have benefited from being able to widen the game, the defense has felt covered and also the unprecedented attacking couple – more mobile than reference – made up of Cristo Gonzalez and Pussetto -, he found more than a few crosses from the flanks. Not surprisingly, the only goal of the match came at the sunset of a first half in which the bianconeri did not risk anything, apart from when Mancuso, after two minutes, shot out on Walace’s kind homage (lost ball).
At 44 ‘Udogie put the turbo on the left, entered the area and on the back he crossed hard and taut a ball that passed Vicario and was then pushed into the net by Viti, before it was Pussetto who did it. It wasn’t the only flicker of the millenial Udogie, indeed. The former Veronese was the best in the field for ease of running and personality, showing it also on 13 ‘of the second half, when he touched the right goal, and on 37’ serving on the tray the ball of doubling to Forestieri, who was ate yet another goal of this preseason.
Here, the errors in the finalization phase cannot be a topic to be dismissed, because even yesterday, just as happened against Sturm Graz, and partly also with Lens, Udinese collected much less than they produced. There were eight real scoring chances yesterday, and only Cristo Gonzalez devoured three easy goals. In the second half the Empoli was revived in the final by the young Ekong who touched the equal twice and the defense danced if caught in speed, especially when the set-up of the median was modified with the changes, including when the German entered. Samardzic, employed by right infantryman. All this, making up for the absences of Pereyra, Becao and Padelli (fatigued) and the “usual” Deulofeu, who in a worrying way has not yet been launched into the fray.
.