Udinese 1-2 Lazio: Gudmundsson's header off the bench sinks the hosts

Jesper Karlström gave Udinese the lead four minutes into the second half at the Bluenergy Stadium, and for a while it looked enough to hand Kosta Runjaić's side a first win over one of Serie A's early pace-setters. It was not: Davide Frattesi equalised in the 75th minute, and four minutes after coming on to replace him, Albert Gudmundsson headed the winner in the 88th. Lazio finished the night on nine points from three matches, level at the top with Roma and Inter.

Two injuries before half-time

The story of Udinese's afternoon was written before Karlström ever scored. Jakub Piotrowski went off injured after 15 minutes, replaced by Lennon Miller, and Oumar Solet followed him down the tunnel on 38 minutes, with Christian Kabasele coming on in his place. Both changes were forced, not chosen, and they used up two of Runjaić's five substitutions before the second half had even started — a problem that would matter later. Karlström himself had been booked in first-half stoppage time for a foul, then made the most of the opening he got four minutes after the restart, finishing right-footed from the right side of the box after a pass from Keinan Davis.

"We lost Piotrowski and Solet and we paid a heavy price for those two changes, as we lost two substitution slots, so I had doubts. Lazio played well, they are a strong team and they have bought strong players. They started as favourites."

— Kosta Runjaić, Udinese manager

Frattesi levels, then his own replacement wins it

Lazio needed until the 75th minute to find a way past a Udinese defence reorganised twice already, but when the equaliser came it was simple: Mattia Zaccagni squared for Frattesi to finish from close range into the roof of the net. Gennaro Gattuso then made his own substitution five minutes later, sending on Albert Gudmundsson for the goalscorer. It paid off almost immediately — Gudmundsson met a Danilho Doekhi cross with a header into the top left corner in the 88th minute, turning a battling point for Udinese into a third straight win for Lazio.

How the three goals came

Nineteen shots to ten, the same return on target

Lazio had almost twice Udinese's share of the ball and nearly double the shots, but both sides finished with six on target from very different volumes — Udinese needed only ten attempts to get there, Lazio needed nineteen. The disciplinary count told its own story: five yellow cards for Udinese, one for Lazio, as the hosts got increasingly stretched chasing the game with a bench already thinned by injury.

Contrasting form arriving into round three

The two sides had taken very different paths to this point. Lazio arrived unbeaten and yet to concede, having won 1-0 away at Bologna and 1-0 at home to Genoa in their first two matches — this was already their third game to Udinese's third, but their record was the more commanding one. Udinese were unbeaten too, just less convincingly: a 1-1 draw at home to Como on the opening weekend, then a 3-2 win away at Monza. For roughly half an hour, Karlström's goal had this game shaping up to extend that run.

What followed

The defeat was not a one-off for Udinese. They were beaten 5-3 at Inter the following week and lost 0-1 at home to Cagliari the week after that, three defeats in a row heading into the international break despite generating plenty of chances in both games. Lazio, by contrast, could not carry a perfect record into round four — Diego Moreira's second-half double earned AC Milan a 2-2 draw at the Olimpico — but they responded by winning 2-0 away at Venezia, leaving Gattuso's side with just the one dropped result, and that at home, through five rounds.

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