Three minutes of craziness. That’s all it took Udinese to blow out their 2-0 lead vs. Lech Poznań. Three minutes of defensive hara-kiri in the last quarter which, as many times this year, cast a shadow on all the good work done by the strikers and is keeping this UEFA Cup qualification in the balance.

And such a shame too, because the Bianconeri had found the perfect way to warm up their (low number of) supporters at Stadion Miejski: two goals early into the second half which would make even the most frigid of fans excited in sub-zero Polish weather. The upside is that a 2-2 away draw is still a pretty good result for Marino’s boys, who will simply have to avoid any more disasters in the return leg at Stadio Friuli.

Thursday was a particularly cold night in Poland, especially with latest wave of sub-zero weather hitting Eastern Europe the last few days. The snowfall, albeit moderate (and remedied in part by pre-match shovelers), left a rather difficult pitch to play on, something which the superiorly technical Udinese player were having a difficult time with. Especially since Marino’s team playing style is mainly oriented towards short-passing, speed, and counter-attacks. Tactically, the Bianconeri manager kept with Italian tradition at keeping separate domestic & European teams, and thus fielded a 4-4-2 line-up with Sanchez & Quagliarella up front. Pepe & Di Natale were left on the bench.

The first half, much like the scoreline, ended up being a rather balanced affair. The biggest chance for the visitors came a short while after kick-off, from the feet of Inler and Quagliarella: home keeper Ivan Turina was vigilant to keep the ball out. On the other end Handanovic was called into action only once really, rushing out to close down Lewandowski. 0-0 at the break, with the impression this Polish rearguard was anything but impenetrable.

Impressions which were confirmed in the second period, with a quick Udinese one-two which brought the scoreline to 1-0 and 2-0 within minutes: first goal by Quagliarella (D’Agostino free-kick and free header by Fab Quags), the second by Arboleda into his own net (unfortunate deflection after a parried shot from Pasquale). Always great to score two away goals in cold soil right?

Sadly, Udinese’s lead goals vanished minutes from the end as quickly as they arrived. First, a Lewandowski cross-shot from the right side turned into a cushy assist for Hernán Rengifo camping on the second post. 2-1. Under three minutes later, a corner-kick deflected by Asamoah landed towards Manuel Arboleda, and the Colombian center-back had the perfect opportunity to make up for his earlier mistake. And did not fail it: winning header and 2-2. Such a shame for Udinese, even though the final scoreline still puts them at a slight advantage for the return leg.

.

	LECH-UDINESE 2-2 [Match Highlights]
GOALSCORERS: 50′ Quagliarella (U), 55′ Arboleda o.g. (U), 81’ Rengifo (L), 84’ Arboleda (L).
LECH (4-2-3-1): Turina – Wojtkowiak, Bosacki, Arboleda, Djurdjevic – Injac, Murawski – Lewandowski, Stilic, Wilk (67’ Bandrowski) – Rengifo. (bench: Kotorowski, Kikut, Kucharski, Henriquez, Tanevski, Cueto). Coach: Smuda.
UDINESE (4-4-2): Handanovic – Zapata, Coda, Domizzi, Pasquale – Isla (73’ Obodo), Inler, D’Agostino, Asamoah – Sanchez (86’ Pepe), Quagliarella. (bench: Belardi, Sala, Felipe, Zimling, Di Natale). Coach: Marino.

.

Tags: Fabio Quagliarella, Franciszek Smuda, Hernán Rengifo, Lech Poznań, Manuel Arboleda, Pasquale Marino, Udinese, UEFA Cup

Posted in UEFA Cup, Udinese |

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 5:17 am and is filed under UEFA Cup, Udinese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.