| BRESCIA,
February 6 (Serie A) - Udinese picked up an important three
points that lifts them back into third place.
A late goal from Vincenzo Iaquinta settled the encounter
in favour of the visitors from Udine at the Stadio Mario
Rigamonti.
Brescia now only have Atalanta - their bitter Lombardy
rivals - below them in the table and look in danger of fulfilling
pre-season predictions that they would struggle to stay
up after the retirement of Roberto Baggio last summer.
Baggio's four seasons at the Rigamonti may have been in
his footballing dotage but he delivered a healthy mid-table
position at the end of all four campaigns for the Rondinelle.
Brescia's desperation for points was there for all to see
and after 21 minutes they created the first chance.
Jaime Wome tried his luck from distance but his left-foot
shot and was saved low by Morgan De Sanctis.
That stirred Luciano Spalletti's Udinese into life and
after 25 minutes it was Iaquinta who threatened as he was
through with only Luca Castellazzi to beat.
However, he failed to test the goalkeeper as his shot went
past the right-hand post.
Seven minutes later it was Udinese who went close again
when Antonio Di Natale tried his luck from 25 yards but
Castellazzi saved well.
A minute from the break Castellazzi made another fine save
after a Iaquinta shot rounded off a counter-attack inspired
by the quickthinking Di Natale.
Udinese continued to dominate when the game resumed after
the interval.
After 47 minutes, Iaquinta turned his marker and fired
into the sidenetting.
Five minutes later Iaquinta headed over the bar and on
to the top of the goal from a cross from the right by Di
Natale.
With 20 minutes remaining, Brescia almost caught their
visitors out with a clever counter of their own.
Giuseppe Sculli did well on the left and beat David Pizarro
but his right-footed shot was well saved by De Sanctis.
Five minutes later, Andrea Caracciolo forced De Sanctis
into action again with a close-range header in what was
Brescia's best phase of the match.
However, just as the home fans were scenting the prospect
of scoring a goal that would earn three points that would
lift them out of the bottom three they were caught by a
sucker punch.
It was delivered by Iaquinta who got between Brescia players
Luigi Di Biagio and Davide Zoboli to head in a cross from
Marek Jankulovski.
Udinese thus leapfrogged Internazionale whose old bad habit
of drawing once again cost them two points at Parma.
Now only Juventus and AC Milan are ahead of Udinese whose
second win in a row shows they have recovered from the three
consecutive defeats that derailed their own bid for the
title.
Brescia boss Gianni De Biasi must be wondering how long
he will be allowed to remain at the helm of a club that
is looking in desperate need of a creator like Baggio. |