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Torino are sliding back towards the drop zone after this second consecutive defeat was decided by a Simone Pepe stunner.
Confidence was in short supply when these two sides clashed, as Toro were thumped 3-0 at bottom of the table Cagliari on Sunday while Udinese had one win in their last five. It was a special match for Fabio Quagliarella, who grew up in the Granata youth system. Torino had lost their last four meetings with Udinese, home and away.
Gianluca Comotto went off after just nine minutes with an injury, but they still tested Samir Handanovic early on with Alessandro Rosina's free kick and a Roberto Stellone header.
It got worse for Toro when Udinese opened the scoring. A fantastic Simone Pepe free kick dipped over the defensive wall and went in off the inside of the near post.
Aimo Diana rose to nod a Rosina corner kick wide, but Toro felt they deserved a penalty for Cristian Zapata's handling offence.
Rosina fought back, testing the goalkeeper with a cheeky free kick at the near post. Rosina continued his personal duel with Handanovic with several chances dealt with admirably by the Udinese shot-stopper.
At half-time Matteo Sereni sustained an injury and was replaced by Alberto Maria Fontana.
David Di Michele went so close to scoring against his old club, as he pounced on an Andrea Coda error to curl his right-foot shot on to the base of the upright.
Torino had a goal controversially disallowed, as Stellone converted successfully, but Di Michele was in an offside position and it is up to interpretation as to whether he really was interfering with play.
Handanovic did well to deny Di Michele and Stellone late on to keep the points safe.
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