Carpi left it too late to suddenly emerge as an attacking force, defeating Udinese 2-1 at the Dacia Arena but are doomed to Serie B nonetheless.
Simone Verdi bagged a brace in impressive fashion three minutes apart, but the Falconi ultimately came up short in their bid for Serie A survival. Antonio Di Natale marked his Udinese farewell with a goal from the penalty spot.
It was the home side who produced the first chance of the match when an Emanuele Suagher error in defence allowed Bruno Fernandes to seize the ball in the box and square to Duvan Zapata but the Colombian’s effort was deflected wide.
Ivan Piris saw a 40-yard-effort punched away by Simone Colombi before Fernandes and Cyril Thereau narrowly miss the target as the home side were seizing control.
In the 35th minute, against the run of play, Felipe bundled Kevin Lasagna over forcing the referee to point to the spot. Simone Verdi stepped up and coolly converted the penalty to give Carpi a valuable advantage. In the aftermath of the goal, Thereau was shown a straight red for dissent.
Two minutes later, Verdi doubled the lead with a fantastic solo effort. The AC Milan loanee collected the ball and some neat trickery created enough space from a narrow angle to curl his effort past goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis.
Ninety seconds later, Cristian Zaccardo nearly put the match to bed but his hard low cross was pushed away from danger by Karnezis, as Carpi were now finding inspiration.
Just after the interval, Verdi fired a left-footed shot just over, as the 23-year-old was sniffing around for his hat-trick.
Udinese talisman Di Natale was introduced for a13-minute swansong. Fittingly, the icon scored from the penalty spot with his first touch of the match, after Filippo Porcari tripped Silvan Widmer in the box.
Carpi hung on for the victory but unfortunately for the Falconi, the victory could not keep them in Serie A, as Palermo stay up courtesy of their win over Hellas Verona. The Biancorossi finish their first-ever season in the top flight in 18th place.
Though their survival was already assured, Udinese ultimately narrowly escaped relegation themselves, finishing in 17th with just one more point than their descending counterparts.
