Udinese

Udinese have done it. They've clinched third place in Serie A with a 2-0 victory over Catania (11W-15D-12L).

The Zebrettes finish the season with 18 wins, 10 draws and 10 losses with 64 points—an incredible 16 points behind second place AC Milan.

Nevertheless, Udinese can breathe with relief. They will play in the group stages of the Champions League next year. 

The win means Lazio and Napoli's games—win, lose or draw—were irrelevant.

Lazio (18W-8D-12L) recorded an emphatic 3-1 win against sixth-place Inter Milan (17W-7D-14L) to finish fourth with 62 points in the league. Meanwhile, Napoli (16W-13D-9L) won 2-1 against Siena (16W-13D-9L) and ended in fifth place with 61 points.

Although only a draw was necessary for Udinese to clinch a Champions League berth, the Udine side played to prove to Serie A that they can be serious contenders in Europe. 

Home side Catania played an attacking 4-3-3 formation, whereas Udinese packed the midfield and played 3-5-2. 

Antonio Di Natale missed a sitter in the first minute of the first half, but later scored from a Maurizio Domizzi through-ball with 26 minutes left in the half.

It should have been his second, but he made up for his miss with a fantastic finish. 

With just over five minutes to go before halftime, Udinese's Roberto Pereyra gave up a penalty and was shown a yellow card. Alejandro Gomez took the spot-kick, but sent the ball agonizingly wide. 

In the second half, Diego Fabbrini scored for Udinese with just under an hour gone to effectively take Catania out of the game. 

The away side completely dominated their opponents, recorded 12 shots at goal, eight of which were on target (67 percent accuracy-rate) and scored twice. They recorded 20 fouls, which knocked Catania out of rhythm, and ended up with five yellow cards. Meanwhile, keeper Samir Handanovic had little to do, producing two saves for Udinese. 

A fantastic season for Francesco Guidolin's side comes to an end, but with serious consequences. The coach has since revealed plans to resign from the club.

If he does, the next manager has some big shoes to fill. 

Udinese is enjoying third place in Serie A after scoring two goals against Genoa on Sunday. Luckily for the Udine-based club, Napoli dropped points at Bologna, while Lazio won 2-0 against Atalanta.

Although Udinese and Napoli were tied in points after last week, Udinese managed to gain a foothold against the Partenopei.

The Bianconeri stands at third with 61 points, as fourth-place Lazio are at 59 and the recent loss to Atalanta sends Napoli to fifth with 58 points. 

If Udinese manage to record a win against Catania next weekend, they will be guaranteed a spot in the group stages of the Champions League.

Relegation-threatened Genoa found themselves playing with a man down in the 29th minute, as already-booked Juraj Kucka went in on a challenge on Diego Fabbrini. Kucka was shown his second yellow, and Udinese was rewarded a free kick in dangerous territory.

Antonio Di Natale found the back of the net from a wonderfully struck free kick—his 22nd goal of the season. 

Genoa ended up with nine men on the pitch after Rodrigo Palacios was sent off for insulting the referee in the 38th minute. ESPN reported that Palacios was venting his frustrations toward Emiliano Moretti, but the referee thought they were aimed at him and showed the Argentine the red card. 

Udinese scored their second in the 66th minute through Antonio Floro Flores' true and powerful shot, which saw the ball in the roof of the net.

Dusan Basta looked like he was searching for Di Natale, but the cross was too pacey for the towering striker. It found the feet of Flores, who struck it for Udinese's second of the match. 

Now in third, Udinese have a great chance to see themselves play in the group stages of the Champions League. There's only one game left—against 10th-place Catania, who have allowed 50 goals this season. 

In their match on January 8th, Udinese scored four goals against AC Cesena—a team to be relegated next season. 

Now, with two games left in the season, Udinese find themselves in fourth, in contention for the Champions League spot. Right on their tail are SSC Napoli, SS Lazio and Inter Milan, with 58, 56, and 55 points respectively. Udinese plays Genoa (17th) at home on May 6th and ends the season with an away fixture, at Catania (10th).

On May 2, Udinese played at Cesena's Stadio Dino Manuzzi for their 36th game in the 2011-12 season.

The game started off quickly, with Diego Fabbrini finding the net for the away side within five minutes. It came from a Gelson Fernandes lob over a defender, which found the foot of Fabbrini, who volleyed the ball into the back of the net. 

Cesena replied almost immediately, but Damjan Djokovic couldn't slot it past Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. The hosts had a chance to level the game after they were rewarded a penalty from a clumsy challenge by Maurizio Domizzi, but Adrian Mutu could not convert and hit the post, perhaps demonstrating Cesena's disastrous season—the team has scored just 22 goals in 36 games.

At the 24 minute mark, Cesena goalkeeper Nicola Ravaglia saved Udinese defender Danilo's header, and with 32 minutes played in the first half, Ravaglia made another save, this time from Di Natale shooting from outside of the box. 

Kwadwo Asamoah could have put Udinese up by two, but his shot hit the woodwork, keeping him at three goals this season. 

The second half saw a more defensive Udinese, content with their one goal over Cesena.

Hopefully, we get to see this wonderfully defensive side progress to the Champions League—the club has allowed only 35 goals in 36 games. 

How could it happen?  That was what people in Pescara were thinking Saturday when visiting Livorno’s Piermario Morosini fell during the two sides’ Serie B match, never to regain consciousness.

Tragedy has struck yet again.

Pescara is still reeling from the loss of goalkeepers coach Francesco Mancini who died of a heart attack at age 43 two weeks ago on March 30.

The local area had just spent the past week remembering the more than 300 people who died in the L’Aquila earthquake of April 6, 2009. L’Aquila is just 41 miles from Pescara.

Morosini, who was just 25, appeared to be perfectly fine. His team scored two quick goals in the first 11 minutes to surprise Pescara.  But the match would continue until just the 31^st minute, when he collapsed on his own.

Livorno’s official web site, which gives a minute-by-minute account of the game mentions that Morosini made a nice take away from playmaker Marco Verratti in the 14^th minute. Verratti is considered by many to be a rising star in Italian football and has drawn some comparisons to Andrea Pirlo.

Retired Italian soccer player Giacomo Dicara, who grew up in the Pescara area and spent many years as a Pescara player went to Facebook to express his grief.

“How sad,” Dicara wrote. “It doesn’t seem possible. One can’t die on a soccer field at age 25.”

All remaining games in Italy at all levels have been postponed as a result of the tragedy.

Morosini, who was on loan from Udinese, played 18 times for Italy at the Under-21 level.

In recent years, talk about the downfall of Serie A has been common.

The measuring stick has been poor results in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, the latter of which seems to more of a burden than anything else for Serie A clubs. It has caused Serie A to lose a spot in the Champions League beginning in 2012-13. That spot will go to the German Bundesliga.

A chance to grab back that spot doesn’t look strong. Next season, two surprise teams from Italy will be in the Champions League as Napoli has secured third place and the fourth place spot will either go to Udinese or Lazio, which will start from the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

The reality is that Serie A is solid across the board and no team is a sure bet for the Champions League. Not once over the last six years has Serie A placed its elite four clubs of Internazionale, AC Milan, Juventus and AS Roma in the Champions League all together.

By contrast, the English Premier League has only recently begun to see a slight change of the guard.

Prior to this season, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool finished as the top four squads in four of the previous six seasons, with Tottenham’s fourth-place finish in 2009-10 and Everton’s fourth-place finish in 2004-05 being the only differences.

With Napoli joining, Serie A will have sent 10 different clubs into the Champions League over a seven year period, as Fiorentina, Lazio, Chievo, Sampdoria and Udinese have been past participants.

It was just a season ago that Udinese finished in 15th place in Serie A and actually did nothing to upgrade its team in the offseason. In fact, it actually sold several of its top players and wouldn’t even be in the Champions League discussion if star forward Antonio Di Natale hadn’t rejected a proposed transfer to Juventus.

Certainly much of the credit of Udinese’s success belongs to coach Francesco Guidolin.

Guidolin’s second stint with the club almost ended before it ever got off the ground.

Udinese looked destined for major trouble after five weeks when it had just a single point and was at the bottom of the Serie A standings.

But a 93rd-minute goal by Mehdi Benatia in a 1-0 win over Cesena in week six got Guidolin’s group going and they haven’t stopped since.

As Udinese has quietly climbed the ladder in the Serie A standings, Sampdoria has done the exact opposite.

A year ago Sampdoria was the surprise fourth-place finisher in Serie A. Luigi Del Neri was its head coach. He moved to Juventus in the summer, but the rest of the puzzle remained relatively intact. Sampdoria, which is not a deep squad, didn’t add any major pieces to improve itself in last summer’s transfer window, even though it has been suggested that owner Riccardo Garrone has deep enough pockets to make major changes.

Nevertheless, Sampdoria performed very well in its Champions League qualification tie with German side Werder Bremen. The two sides were tied after regulation following two legs and it took an extra time goal from Werder Bremen to send Sampdoria out of the competition.

That was the beginning of bad things to come.

Not long after the season began, Garrone had a falling out with Antonio Cassano, the team’s best player. It isn’t the first time Cassano has had problems with a coach or someone in management before. Garrone decided Cassano needed to be benched for then-coach Domenico Di Carlo followed orders. Without Cassano the side started to slide. His striking partner Giampaolo Pazzini was like Robin without Batman.

So when the January transfer window opened, Garrone decided to cash in on not just Cassano, but Pazzini as well. Less than six months later the club now finds itself headed to the second division of Italian football after narrowly missing the group stage of the Champions League at the beginning of the season.

Young Italian striker Federico Macheda, on loan from Manchester United, was never able to remain a regular, even though the door was left wide open for him to take either Cassano's or Pazzini’s starting role.

Udinese’s Champions League hope is still not secure as it needs at least a point against AC Milan in its final match of the season to remain ahead of Lazio, which is two points behind.

But the reality is that neither Udinese nor Lazio were thought of as Champions League caliber teams when the season began.

And it seems that Serie A fans should get ready for more disappointing results in the Champions League.