Serie A

Football Italia

·11 May 2025

Serie A | Udinese 1-2 Monza – Relegated Brianzoli celebrate rare victory

Monza picked up just their third victory of the season and their first since January with a surprise 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Gianluca Caprari and Keita Balde against Lorenzo Lucca’s Udinese in the early Serie A kick-off on Sunday.

Kosta Runjaic made just one change to his starting XI after a 2-1 win over Cagliari last time out, bringing Martin Payero back into the midfield in place of Sando Lovric. Alessandro Nesta made three changes, swapping Arvid Brorsson, Andrea Carboni and Omari Forson in for Luca Caldirola, Tomasa Palacios and Dany Mota.

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Hassane Kamara, with an acrobatic scissor kick, Oumar Solet after a neat one-two and Keinan Davis on the edge of the six-yard box provided Udinese’s best chances of the first half.

Forson came up with Monza’s only attempt of the first half, which was not on target, which meant the two sides went in for the interval level at 0-0.

Against the run of play, it was the 20th-placed visitors who stole the lead shortly after the restart.

Samuele Birindelli carried the ball down the right wing, drove his way into the area and almost found the bottom corner himself. He struck the woodwork in the end, but Caprari was on hand to slide in and bundle in the rebound.

It had looked like Caprari’s follow-up went in off his arm, but a lengthy VAR review did not overturn the on-field decision and the goal stood.

UDINE, ITALY – MAY 11: Gianluca Caprari of Monza scores a goal during the Serie A match between Udinese and Monza at Stadio Friuli on May 11, 2025 in Udine, Italy. (Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)

Second-half sub Lucca drew the hosts level and almost put them ahead a few minutes before time.

Karlstrom sent a long ball over the top, Lucca waited patiently for it to drop, allowed a couple of bounces in the area before slamming an effort in from a tough angle wide to the right of the box.

Ciurria sent in a tempting cross from the left flank, Kevin Zeroli got a flick to it, which allowed Keita Balde to fire home from point-blank range within the six-yard box for a rare Monza victory.