Roma received a harsh wake-up call on Sunday night when they fell to a painful 4-0 defeat at Udinese. Leading up to the match, Jose Mourinho predicted that the home players would sway the referee. What he didn’t predict, though, is that his own team would serve an absolute rubbish excuse for a performance.
Mourinho’s luck in norteast Italy lasted just five minutes. That’s how long it’s taken Destiny Udogie to cut a Rick Karsdorp attempted bass back to Rui Patricio to swoop in and score from close range. It was a bad start, but the ending was a lot worse.Paulo Dybala had a chance to level on the quarter-hour, but Marco Silvestri kept the Argentinean out as the black and whites held on. Mourinho tried his new striking partnership of Andrea Belotti and Tammy Abraham but it proved to be utterly useless tonight.
Andrea Sottil’s side were dealt a blow when Jaka Bijol was forced off injured, with Enzo Ebosse brought on with just over a quarter of an hour played. His withdrawal did little to halt the tide of the match, which was now firmly in Udinese’s favour, as Gerard Deulofeu and Isaac Success both had further chances to extend the lead.Lazar Samardzic doubled the lead for the Udine team just after the break and pretty much rendered Mourinho’s half-time talk useless.Then the Friulians benefited from Roberto Pereyra’s terrific left foot and from a clinical Sandi Lovric finish late on. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they looked at the scoreboard.Jose is still playing mind games with his opponents and match officials – and he’ll probably do it forever. But he should also not forget to prepare his players for serious football.SERIE A – MATCHDAY 5SaturdayFiorentina – Juventus 1-1 (1-1)/Kouame 29 – Milik 9/Milan – Inter 3-2 (1-1)/Leao 28, 60, Giroud 54 – Brozovic 21, Dzeko 67/Lazio – Napoli 1-2 (1-1)/Zaccagni 4 – Min-jae 38, Kvaratskhelia 61/Sunday Cremonese – Sassuolo 0-0Spezia – Bologna 2-2 (1-1)/Bastoni 45, Schouten 54 og – Arnautovic 6, 64/Verona – Sampdoria 2-1 (2-1)/Audero 44 og, Doig 45+3 – Caputo 40/Udinese – Roma 4-0 (1-0)/Udogie 5, Samardzic 54, Pereyra 75, Lovric 82/Monday 19.30: (6.25) Monza (4.30) Atalanta (1.61)19.30: (2.40) Salernitana (3.35) Empoli (3.30)21.45: (1.84) Torino (3.70) Lecce (5.00)***odds are subject to change