Udinese defeated AC Milan 2-1 at the Stadio Friuli on Saturday afternoon in Serie A.
Goals from Giampiero Pinzi and Emmanuel Badu were enough for Andrea Stramaccioni’s side to overcome a poor Milan side despite a late goal from Giampaolo Pazzini, adding to the Rossoneri’s woes.
Milan survived an early scare from Antonio Di Natale, as he bore down on goal after being freed on the edge of the area with Milan’s defence left wide open, only for his swerved shot to be parried wide with ease by Diego Lopez.
The home side continued to create chances, and just minutes later Alexandre Geijo worked his way into the box after a smart pass by Di Natale who rushed in to aid, yet with the goal at his mercy the Spaniard managed to skew his shot horribly, reaching neither the target or his on waiting team-mate.
After battling the Zebrette onslaught for the first quarter of the half, Milan pushed forward hoping to create a few chances of their own; though each cross from the visitors failed to reach it’s target leaving much of the battle to be played without any solid chances.
With Udinese controlling the majority of play it came as no surprise to see them come close again, this time Silvan Widmer coming within a whisker of scoring firing a header across goal, then Guilherme who snapped a volley inches over the crossbar, leaving a stunned Lopez to gaze gratefully over the bar.
Antonelli had the ball in the back of the net on the brink of half time, receiving the ball inside the area and slotting it past Orestis Karnezis, however the goal was rightly ruled out by the referee as he adjudged the Italian to have fouled Widmer prior to shooting.
Both sides went into the the the second half goalless, but Udinese soon broke the deadlock with a deserved goal less than 15 minutes after play resumed.
Pinzi found himself alone 12 yards from the goal as a lackadaisical Milan defence failed to clear from a corner or close down the veteran midfielder, who calmly hooked his shot into the corner to give his side the advantage.
Matters then became worse for the Rossoneri as Badu doubled that advantage, a brave run at goal from captain Di Natale forced Lopez into pushing the ball wide, however unbeknown to the keeper Guilherme waited on the wings ready to send the ball back into the centre for Ghanaian international to slide it into the near post.
Pazzini searched for a route back into the match and was eventually rewarded with a headed goal with less than three minutes left on the clock.
Milan however were unable to capitalise on this goal, proving as only a consolation, despite making for a tense ending,
After earning the victory, Udinese temporarily move up to 12th place, while Milan add another defeat to their tally, sitting below European spots.
