| Alberto Malesani's triumphant return to Italian football continued despite a valiant Toro comeback, but Gabriele Cioffi could be in for a very long ban after pushing the referee.
The Friulani have now won both games since Malesani took over from Giovanni Galeone, but the Granata suffer their third defeat on the trot. Vincenzo Iaquinta and Giampiero Pinzi were ruled out, so Paulo Barreto was given a rare start upfront.
Alessandro Rosina created the first opportunity by threading through for Simone Barone, but after getting past Cristian Zapata he fired over the bar. Morgan De Sanctis was also tested by an Elvis Abbruscato angled drive and Rosina free kick.Udinese take on a sorry Torino in Week 21 at the Stadio Olimpico. The Zebrette will be willing to test their improvements under new Coach Alberto Malesani, while the Granata will be trying to come out of a nightmare run of negative results.
Udinese are holding seventh place in the table, but they are just two points behind the last Champions League spot. Torino have lost their last two matches and haven’t won in their last four. In Week 20 the Bianconeri had a solid display against Messina winning 1-0, while Torino were defeated 1-0 at Parma.
However, after the first 15 minutes Udinese came out of their shell. Christian Abbiati, returning from a ban, performed a crucial save to keep out Antonio Di Natale's snapshot.
Andrea Ardito clipped the upright for Torino, but the deadlock was broken at the other end of the field moments later. Barreto's through ball cut the Granata defence open and allowed Christian Obodo to turn in the opener for Udinese.
It remained a very open game with D'Agostino's set-piece skimming the frame of the goal and a Barreto counter-attack.
The visitors doubled their lead on 32 minutes with the same two players combining. This time Obodo turned provider, his pass allowing Barreto to spring the offside trap and waltz past Abbiati to deposit into an empty net. Unfortunately, the Brazilian never quite recovered from an earlier knock and limped off to be replaced by Gyan Asamoah.
De Sanctis flew to palm away a curling Barone strike from distance, while at the other end Di Natale and Asamoah combined brilliantly at pace for the Italian to eventually drill over the bar.
The tension grew in the Torino ranks as time wore on, an Abbiati howler almost gifting Di Natale a goal and Asamoah struck the side-netting. Abbruscato wasted a golden opportunity and Toro were punished for it.
Di Natale spread the play for Sulley Ali Muntari, whose cross-shot took a deflection off teammate Asamoah to beat Abbiati for a third time. It was a controversial goal, however, as the Ghanaian World Cup star appeared to be offside.
Torino's heads inevitably dropped and only a fine Abbiati save prevented Di Natale from making it 4-0.
Nonetheless, Abbruscato made the scoreline more respectable in the closing stages by tapping in from close range at the end of a chaotic move.
It proved enough to spark a reaction out of them and the home side went all on the attack with Rosina and Barone shaving the woodwork.
However, all hope seemed to vanish when Gabriele Cioffi saw red for a second bookable offence. The defender could be in for a very long ban indeed, as on his way off the field he pushed the referee.
Yet Udinese were in for a nervous finale, as Abbruscato completed an acrobatic brace deep into stoppages, chesting down the ball and whipping his shot past De Sanctis.
Asamoah could've made it 4-2 at the death, but wasted the opportunity on the counter-attack in a pulsating match.
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