Hellas Verona continue to pick up points, as a very unlucky deflection off Rodrigo Becao looped into the top corner, cancelled out by Udinese midfielder Lazar Samardzic.
This was a Friuli-Venezia-Giulia Derby and the hosts missed Gerard Deulofeu and Adam Masina, with Roberto Pereyra only fit for the bench. Hellas were without Josh Doig, Marco Davide Faraoni, Thomas Henry, Miguel Veloso, Ajdin Hrustic and suspended Pawel Dawidowicz.
It took just under four minutes to break the deadlock with a bit of luck, as first Beto gave the ball away cheaply in midfield, then Darko Lazovic’s shot took a massive deflection off Rodrigo Becao to loop up into the far top corner past a helpless Marco Silvestri.
Lorenzo Montipò made the save to deny Isaac Success from a tricky angle, while Giangiacomo Magnani was very fortunate his handball was clocked on the very edge of the penalty area and not a few inches further inside.
Tolgay Arslan’s low drive after a charged down free kick was well saved, but Montipò couldn’t get to the Lazar Samardzic snooker shot into the far bottom corner from a Beto lay-off.
Jakub Bijol scored the winner the last time these teams met and should’ve got another on 32 minutes here, volleying into the ground and over from six yards on a corner.
Magnani performed a goal-line clearance to deny Destiny Udogie, who had followed up Beto battling his way through defenders to test the goalkeeper from close range.
Samardzic almost added another with his header from a corner drawing a fine reaction save after the restart, while Montipò also got his gloves to an Arslan free kick.
Verona were under the cosh for long periods, but still threatened when Cyril Ngonge off the bench immediately tested Marco Silvestri at full stretch with an angled drive from the edge of the box and Bijol charged down Kevin Lasagna’s strike in the box.
Ondrej Duda made his debut in the Verona jersey as well.
Udinese 1-1 Verona
Becao og 4 (V), Samardzic 21 (U)