Udinese v Torino – Preview: A Non-Traditional Cinderella Match

Date: 6th March 2015 at 2:18pm
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Udinese host Torino at the Stadio Friuli in Serie A on Sunday, hoping to get revenge for their away defeat to the Granata earlier in the season.

In the first match up in the 2014/15 campaign, Udinese lost away to Torino thanks to a lone goal by former Zebrette Fabio Quagliarella.

However, revenge will not come easy, as Torino have been having a fantastic year in 2015. The Turin-based team, who currently sit eight in the Serie A table, have not lost a league match since November 2014’s Derby della Mole; when il Toro lost 2-1 to Juventus thanks to a late Andrea Pirlo goal.

Torino are also having a brilliant season in Europe, becoming Europa League darlings and being one of five Italian teams to progress to the Round of 16, after dramatically beating Athletic Bilbao 5-4 on aggregate.

Udinese, on the other hand, have not had such an inspiring season.

Rather, the former European darlings and Serie A dark horses have struggled. Head coach Andrea Stramaccioni has not been able to recreate the Zebrette magic the team experienced under former boss Francesco Guidolin; the Furlan foals currently sit in 14th place on the Serie A table, one of their lowest position in the last five years.

And so the en-vogue-Serie-A-Cinderella-story meets the passé-Serie-A-Cinderella-story.

Sunday’s match will reinforce fans from both sides one of the harshest truths in football: if the Calcio gods can giveth, the Calcio gods can taketh away.

For a modest, mid-table team, sometimes success can be more terrifying than failure; Torino only need to look to current Udinese to see what can become of fast rising, successful clubs.

Out for the Cinderella match will be Udinese’s Alexandre Geijo, Maurizio Domizzi, and Thomas Heurtaux and Torino’s Alvaro Gonzalez and Salvatore Masiello; all of which who lost their glass slippers earlier due to injury.

Form Guide: Udinese (L-L-L-D-W-D) Torino (W-D-D-W-W-W)

Expected Starting XIs

Udinese: Karnezis; Heurtaux, Danilo, Piris; Widmer, Allan, Pinzi, Guilherme, Pasquale; Kone, Di Natale

Torino: Padelli; Bovo, Glik, Moretti; B. Peres, Farnerud, Gazzi, El Kaddouri, Darmian; Martinez, Quagliarella

 

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