Kamara chips Udinese in front, Douvikas answers: the Bluenergy opener ends level

Serie A came back on a Saturday evening in Udine, and it took twenty-nine minutes to produce the goal of the night. Jurgen Ekkelenkamp slid Hassane Kamara through, Kamara ran at Jean Butez alone and chipped him. 1-0 Udinese, and the Bluenergy Stadium had its opening.

The scoreline flattered nobody. Como were already the side with the ball — 59% of it by full time — and Cesc Fàbregas' team spent the first half passing around an Udinese block that was happy to sit and counter. Udinese scored on one of those counters.

Como's corner finally paid

Como took ten corners to Udinese's one. The tenth was not the one that mattered — the equaliser came at 54', from a Milla delivery that Chalobah attacked in the air. Maduka Okoye made a very good save from the header and could do nothing about the rebound: Anastasios Douvikas was first to it. 1-1.

Okoye finished with five saves, Butez with two, and that gap explains the evening better than the possession does. Como had twenty shots and six on target. Udinese had sixteen and three.

The chance to win it fell to the home side. Late on, Nicolò Zaniolo squared it for Vakoun Issouf Bayo with the goal open, and Bayo put it over the bar. It is the kind of miss that follows a striker around for a week. 😬

The expected-goals numbers back Udinese up: 1.98 against 1.49, despite the shot count and the possession going the other way. Como controlled the match. Udinese created the better version of it.

Match facts

• 29' — Hassane Kamara (Udinese), assisted by Jurgen Ekkelenkamp
• 54' — Anastasios Douvikas (Como), rebound after Chalobah's header
• Full time: Udinese 1-1 Como, Bluenergy Stadium, Udine

What's next

Udinese travel to Monza next weekend, on Saturday 29 August — their first away trip of the season, against a side beaten 4-1 at Inter on matchday 1. Como go to Napoli on Sunday 30 August, which is a rather harder way to look for a first win.

How the two sides diverged from there

That preview held up for exactly one round. Udinese won at Monza three days later, 3-2, for the first three points of their season. Then the campaign turned: a 3-5 defeat away to Inter and a 0-1 home loss to Cagliari either side of the international break left them with four points from four matches — one win, one draw, two defeats, seven scored and nine conceded. They sit 13th in Serie A, still owed a game in hand from an earlier postponement, five points clear of the relegation zone but with more losing performances than winning ones since the Bluenergy draw.

Como went the other way. The point away to Udinese opened a run of four wins in five: 2-1 at Napoli, 4-1 at Genoa, a Champions League opener won 4-1 at home to RB Leipzig, then 2-1 over Parma, before a 0-2 defeat away to Frosinone brought the run to an end. Ten points from five Serie A games have them 7th, level on points with Juventus in 5th and Lazio in 6th but behind them on the tie-breakers that currently separate a European place — the Europa League and the Conference League play-off — from missing out on both. The draw at the Bluenergy looks, in hindsight, like the one blemish in an otherwise strong opening month for Fàbregas' side.