Venezia rallies past Udinese, catches a breath in relegation fight

Venezia needed a win badly, and it found one in just eleven minutes of home-team fury. Toma Basic and Kike Pérez flipped a match that Udinese had leveled almost immediately after falling behind, and the 2-1 result at the Pier Luigi Penzo gives the Venetians a small but real breath of relief in the fight to stay up.

The first half had been back and forth without goals, with chances for both sides but nobody finding the net: Akor Adams, John Yeboah and Antoine Hainaut tried their luck for Venezia, while Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Keinan Davis answered for Udinese. Nothing changed on the scoreboard until the break.

The second half opened with the same script, Ekkelenkamp and Oumar Solet again gave warning signs, until Toma Basic showed up in the 53rd minute. The Croatian met a cross from Hainaut and finished with his left foot, low and inside the post, for the 1-0. Venezia's joy did not last long: three minutes later, in the 56th, a cross ended up in the home net off Matías Moreno, a goal confirmed after a VAR review, and the equalizer seemed to restore the balance to what had been an even match.

But Venezia had another card to play. In the 64th minute, Kike Pérez fired a left-footed shot from outside the box that flew into the top corner off an assist from Pasquale Mazzocchi, a stunning goal that put the home side back in front for good. Udinese stirred something with its substitutions, Giorgi Chakvetadze and others gave it a try, but could not trouble the Venezia defense enough in the closing stretch, not even in the five minutes of stoppage time.

What the numbers say

Udinese controlled more possession and created more from corner kicks, but Venezia was more clinical when it mattered. The difference came down to shots that found the net, not the overall volume of play.

As for the xG calculated after the fact based on the match's shots, Venezia generated 1.427 against Udinese's 1.006, a gap that backs up the final result, though by a tight margin.

The preview had pointed to a fairly even matchup: 42% odds for Venezia, 29% for a draw and 29% for Udinese, with expected goals of 1.45 for the home side and 1.16 for the visitors. The result ended up matching the favorite tagged by that projection, though the path there included the scare of the own goal that nearly derailed the plan.

What the table shows

The standings remain grim for both clubs. Venezia came into this match in 19th place with 6 points from 11 games, while Udinese sits in last place with 5 points from the same number of matches. The gap between the two in the table was just 1 point before this meeting, confirming how much every result weighs for both clubs near the bottom of Serie A. With this win, Venezia catches its breath; Udinese, on the other hand, is left with no margin for error.