
Roma Finally End Away-Day Voodoo Against Udinese as Derby del Sole Looms
By Emmet Gates
It looked like Roma were on their way to yet another league defeat. The Giallorossi had won three of the previous five games and remained unbeaten since the 2-0 loss to Como in mid-December.
At the Dacia Arena, Lorenzo Lucca rifled home a 38th minute shot to give Udinese a 1-0 lead and, to that point, Roma had produced little. It was Lucca’s eighth of the season, and the Italian striker has already matched his tally from a year ago, earmarking himself as a potential future striker for the Azzurri.
Whatever Claudio Ranieri said at half-time, it clearly worked. Ranieri swapped Zeki Celik for Eldor Shomurodov in a bid to add some attacking thrust for the beginning of the second half, while Stephan El Shaarawy replaced the ineffective Tommaso Baldanzi 13 minutes later.
Ranieri also switched formations during the course of the game in order to turn the tide against an Udinese side still harbouring dreams of European football next season.
Roma skipper Lorenzo Pellegrini earned, and then scored, a penalty to level the game, before the Giallorossi were handed a second spot kick by referee Simone Sozza. Artem Dovbyk stepped up to send goalkeeper Razvan Sava the wrong way, and Roma had turned the game around.
Ranieri’s men looked most likely to add another goal in the final half an hour. Yet despite missed chances they managed to contain Udinese. It was Roma’s first away win for nine months.

Roma had surprisingly lost to Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday evening, and Ranieri believed he needed little in the way of a team talk.
“I didn’t need to get the lads fired up, they were already fired up after AZ,” admitted Ranieri post-game. “We came here with anger and desire and to put an end to this sickness [not winning on the road].”
Ranieri is slowly starting to turn Roma around. They’re unbeaten now in their last six games and have only lost once in the last eight.
After the truly horrendous start to the season, Roma aren’t bouncing up the league, but rather climbing at a steady pace and gaining the necessary points.
With the teams above them — Bologna, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Juventus — all showing major signs of inconsistency, there’s no reason why Ranieri can’t guide Roma back into European contention. Only six points separate Roma in ninth and Fiorentina in sixth, though La Viola have a game in hand.
Ranieri isn’t getting carried away with the recent upturn in results and wants his players to have the ‘anger away from the Olimpico’.
Roma’s away record prior to the win at Udinese had been dreadful. Their last victory came 276 days ago against — coincidentally — Udinese in late April. Aptly enough, Roma won by the same score line then, with Bryan Cristante knocking in a 95th minute winner.
From that win against the Zebrette last year, Daniele De Rossi lost three of his final seven away games; Ivan Juric lost all-but-one of his during his brief reign as coach, while Ranieri has already lost to Como and Napoli.

In the steamy environment of the Stadio Olimpico, Roma could be counted on to produce sterling performances due to the vociferous nature of their fans yet, as Ranieri alluded to, the same can’t be said for away games. Therefore winning against Udinese at the weekend was imperative for confidence going into a tricky set of fixtures.
Having lost their previous Europa League fixture, Roma need to beat Eintracht Frankfurt in order to secure progression to the round of 32.
Considering their track record in the competition in recent years, Roma’s campaign this time around has been underwhelming. Only two wins from seven means they are in danger of being eliminated altogether.
Next up in Serie A is the Derby del Sole with Napoli, a game that’ll see Ranieri up against old friend Antonio Conte.
While not one of Italy’s biggest derbies, it’s still hotly-contested, and Ranieri will be keen to get one over on the club he managed in the immediate post-Diego Maradona era of the early 1990s.
Ranieri also knows that a result against the current league leaders would be a major boost for dressing-room morale. Moreover, Napoli represented Ranieri’s first game back charge in mid-November, a 1-0 loss.
Ranieri was never going to come in with a magic wand and change things overnight. Yet even at the age of 73, the wily old sage of calcio has proven he can still get a tune out of players where other coaches couldn’t.
Ranieri brought Mats Hummels straight into the side, with the German international strangely ignored by predecessor Juric. Hummels has played alongside Gianluca Mancini and Evan N’Dicka to shore up the defence, to an extent.
Roma are still shipping goals, but Ranieri is at least utilising his players in their true positions. No longer will we see Angelino operating as a left-sided centre back in a three. Paulo Dybala is a guaranteed starter if fit, despite clauses in his contract reportedly stunting his participation.
Ranieri has kept it simple, and the results are beginning to pay off. Roma aren’t ripping up trees, but they have quietly put together a decent string of results and, after the game against Napoli, they have a very winnable set of games against Venezia, Parma and Monza on the horizon – a major chance to pull themselves back into the race for European places.
For now, at least, they’ve got a first away win of the season under their belt.
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