Having a slight dip of form in recent weeks, Udinese have to regain their sparkling form again in the remaining matches especially in the next two games if they still aiming to get a ticket for Champions League football in the summer.
This condition is being acknowledged by the Zebra’s captain, Antonio Di Natale, who encouraged his teammates to give their best in the upcoming important challenges from Fiorentina this weekend and fellow European spot challenger, Lazio, a week after.
The current Serie A top scorer believed that their nine months of hard work will be under serious threat in the next two games as should the Fruliani picked up bad results against Fiorentina and Lazio, their chance in securing the final Champions League spot might be gone. Di Natale added that with As Roma also looking strongly to get into the competition, Udinese are forced to pick up their stunning form that exclusively happened in the start of the year.
This weekend in Florence will be a very important game for us. Against Fiorentina and Lazio we’re gambling with nine months of hard work,” Di Natale said. “Roma are back in the race for fourth too now, so you’ll see that from here to the end the Giallorossi will make very few mistakes. “
After having such an amazing run that allowed them tasting the fourth place position and was only six points behind league leader, Ac Milan, not long ago, Udinese suddenly lose their consistently recently and tasting some surprising defeat. Last weekend is the latest example of the Friulani’s inconsistency as they were defeated by relegation battler, Parma, despite successfully picking an away victory over third place, Napoli, a week before.
Injuries and suspension for important players such as Di Natale, Alexis Sanchez and Gokhan Inler is being speculated by the press as the main reasons that Udinese have been having inconsistent results as they usually lose points when either of those players aren’t playing. However, this judgment is being rejected by Di Natale, who believes that the team should be able to pick up positive results even when they’re missing important personnels.
We’re not looking for excuses, as it’s not the first time we’ve had problems. We had even worse difficulties at Napoli, but we won that game,” Di Natale commented about the recent defeat against Parma.
