Posts Tagged ‘Pasquale Marino’

Udinese 0-1 Inter: Isla own goal Gives Nerazzurri +9 Serie A Lead (Serie A Matchday 30)

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Inter Milan's Patrick Vieira of France, center, and teammates Luis Figo of Portugal, right and Maxwell react after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match between Udinese and Inter Milan in Udine, Italy, Sunday, April 5, 2009. (AP Photo)

Thank you Mauricio, the Isla(nd) of Inter bliss.

I could find no better way to open this article. I tried. Not too hard, but I tried. When faced with the sad reality of the unstoppable gears of fate (that is, even when Inter play poorly they still manage to win), imagination tends to leaves its place to facility. Writing facility in this case, and all its associated bad puns.

In seriousness though, if Sunday’s win vs. Udinese doesn’t virtually clinch the Nerazzurri’s 17th Scudetto for you, you must still believe in fairy tales. And to make matters worse for Juve (as if their 3-3 draw vs. Chievo earlier in the day wasn’t enough) is that Inter’s winning goal didn’t come from one of the many superstars at José Mourinho’s disposal. No. It came from an Udinese player.

Poor Isla. In the day where, due to his team’s injury problems, he was forced to backtrack to the defensive line (he’s a midfielder), he ended up being the unlikely and unfortunate protagonist for his opponents, as well as the annihilator of all the good work (and many scoring chances) obtained by the Bianconeri in the first 60 minutes.

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Zenit St. Petersburg 1-0 Udinese: Bianconeri Scraping their Way to Quarter-Finals (UEFA Cup Round of 16, 2nd Leg)

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Players of Udinese react after UEFA Cup Round of 16 second leg soccer match against Zenit at the Petrovsky stadium in St.Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, March 19, 2009. Udinese lost 0-1 but gets to the next round. (AP Photo)

Through to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, for the first time ever. Thursday’s 1-0 loss in St. Petersburg was a “happy” loss for Udinese, as Pasquale Marino’s boys achieved a club milestone by beating current champions FC Zenit 2-1 on aggregate, and qualifying for the last 8 of Europe’s “lesser” competition.

If one wanted to push a “schoolyard logic” here, we could say that Zenit beat Man Utd (Super Cup), Udinese beat Zenit, and that therefore Udinese > Man Utd. Ah to be 8 years old again… The Italian 2008-09 adventure in Europe is not looking so grim after all.

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Udinese 2-0 Zenit St. Petersburg: All Hail the Pride of Italy… (UEFA Cup Round of 16, 1st Leg)

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

(LEFT) Udinese's Fabio Quagliarella, left, celebrates after scoring with his teammate Simone Pepe, during a UEFA Cup, Round of 16, first-leg soccer match between Udinese and Zenit St. Petersburg, in Udine, Italy, Thursday, March 12, 2009. (AP Photo) (RIGHT) Udinese's Antonio Di Natale celebrates after scoring on a penalty kick during a UEFA Cup, Round of 16, first-leg soccer match between Udinese and Zenit St. Petersburg, in Udine, Italy, Thursday, March 12, 2009.  (AP Photo) (

All together now: “Thank you Udinese!!”.

The Italian disaster-fest that was the UEFA Champions League this year will not be easily forgotten, but at least there is one team giving us consolation and keeping the peninsula’s pride elevated (to moderate heights at least) as they mantain their presence in Europe’s second-choice cup: the UEFA (soon-to-be Europa) Cup.

With this win, the Bianconeri have demonstrated that their darkest days are finally behind them and to sweeten the deal even further, Udinese’s opponents Thursday night were none other than 2007 Russian Premier League and 2008 UEFA Cup Winners Zenit St. Petersburg, the very same team which not even five months ago was battling it out against Real Madrid and Juventus in the UCL.

Just something to keep the naysayers quiet…

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Roma 1-1 Udinese: As the Olimpico Awaits Arsenal, Giallorossi Saved by Vucinic (Serie A Matchday 27)

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Roma 1-1 Udinese: As the Olimpico Awaits Arsenal, Giallorossi Saved by Vucinic (Serie A Matchday 27)

After a week of steamy press release rants, counter-declarations, suspensions, and controversy (all stemming from last Sunday’s 3-3 affair), Roma could not do better than a 1-1 home draw to Udinese Saturday. A result not doing much good for either team, and which certainly doesn’t help the Giallorossi’s morale in light of their upcoming UCL match vs. Arsenal. With Daniele De Rossi suspended, Totti in iffy condition, and David Pizarro just joining the injury list, Luciano Spalletti will have some serious tactical thinking to do before Tuesday.

The upside for the Romans? Mirko Vucinic. The Montenegrin striker came on for Menez in the 58th and went on the scoreboard just 3 minutes later, tying the game for a valuable point. It’s the kind of scoring efficiency Roma will need against Arsenal, hoping that the stream of dubious refereeing decisions surrounding them will come to an end.

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Udinese 2-1 Lech Poznań: Bianconeri Hanging Tight, Keep Italy’s Presence Alive (UEFA Cup Round of 32, 2nd Leg)

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Udinese's Simone Pepe, right, celebrates with his teammates Gokhan Inler of Switzerland, during the UEFA Cup, Round of 32, second-leg soccer match between Udinese and Lech Poznan, at the Friuli Stadium in Udine , Italy, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009.  (AP Photo)

After their nasty performance in Turin and receiving the heavy criticisms of big boss Giampaolo Pozzo, Udinese can breathe some fresh air again. European air. For not only did they turn a 1-0 half-time deficit over Lech Poznań into a 2-1 victory (and subsequent qualification to the UEFA Cup’s round of 16), they are also the only Italian team to have won in Europe this week. Who would have thought?

It was a tale of two halves, in which the Bianconeri struggled considerably after conceding Rengifo’s goal and which almost mimicked the final 10 minutes of the first leg. However, Marino’s team then picked up it with verve & rage in the second 45 minutes, grabbing goals through Pepe and Di Natale. Udinese will now face the current champions, Zenit St. Petersburg, in the next round, and given the things (as many good as bad ones) this team is capable of, we can only hope their European adventure will not end there.

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