Serie A: Udinese 1-2 Roma – Cristante at the death | OneFootball

Roma finally concluded their Serie A match against Udinese with a 2-1 victory at the Stadio Friuli after Bryan Cristante nodded in a header from a Paulo Dybala corner with virtually the last kick of the game.

There were only 18 minutes of regular time, plus stoppages, played between the two sides on Thursday evening, as the originally scheduled match on April 14 was suspended in the 72nd minute after Giallorossi defender Evan Ndicka collapsed on the pitch.

The Ivorian was not involved for the final minutes of the Udinese game, but he has been cleared to return to training and is expected to be available for the final games of the 2023-24 season.

Roma came into the Stadio Friuli ranked fifth in the Serie A table on 55 points. It was not mathematically possible for them to move any higher up the league standings on the night, but they had to be wary of Atalanta, who also have a game in hand and were just one point behind the Giallorossi at the start of the evening.

Udinese, meanwhile, were in need of points as they sat in 17th place at the start of the night, only outside the relegation zone on goal difference. A win for them would mathematically confirm relegation for Serie A’s 20th-placed side Salernitana.

Starting again with the scores level at 1-1 after goals from Roberto Pereyra and Romelu Lukaku in the first portion of the game, it was Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye who got proceedings back underway with an uncontested drop ball, rather than a customary kick-off.

From there, it was Roma who enjoyed the vast majority of the possession until the game’s first incident.

Two minutes in, play was brought to a halt yet again after a clash of heads between Neuhen Perez and Sardar Azmoun. Both were seen to by club doctors on the pitch and were able to continue.

Though they enjoyed more of the ball in the opening minutes, Roma were not able to create too many clear-cut opportunities in regular time. Dybala had tried to find Azmoun and Abraham with balls in behind, but those were both collected by Okoye.

Udinese, meanwhile, caused a bit of panic in the Roma defensive third after Gianluca Mancini brought down Roberto Pereyra between the touchline and the penalty area. The resulting free-kick was not particularly useful, but the following phase had the Giallorossi nervous and resulted in a series of corners.

The biggest chance of regular time fell to Azmoun, who closed down Perez on the edge of the Udinese area, won possession, and launched a quick-fire shot on goal, which was smothered by Okoye.

A series of subs ensued: Chris Smalling was taken off for Diego Llorente, Perez was eventually replaced by Christian Kabasele, and Stephan El Sharaawry was introduced in place of Rick Karsdorp.

Into injury time, Udinese had one last chance from a corner, which came to nothing, and unfortunately resulted in a series of set-pieces down the other end.

Dybala stepped up to deliver the Giallorossi corner, which was met by Pellegrini on the volley and was deflected behind for one last chance. La Joya delivered again, this time right onto the head of the on-running Cristante, who glanced a header in towards the far post.

There was very little that could be done by either side from the re-start, and the hectic, short-lived game between Udinese and Roma eventually reached its conclusion, 11 days after it had originally kicked off.