At the end of Udinese-Lazio, as usual, the report cards of our director, Guido De Angelis, arrive.
PROVEDEL 5.5 – He has no major faults, he was practically inactive until his recovery. After Davis’ handball he should have started waving his arms and protesting. Then, perhaps he could have taken a step further to the right, because the Englishman could only kick there. I didn’t like the timid reaction even after the 1-1 goal. He was the only one who could notice the handball directly, and in fact he noticed it because he raised his arm. But I would have expected greater vehemence, given that we were playing so much…
MARUSIC 5.5 – Punctual throughout the match, in the final he had the enormous demerit of not having knocked out Zaniolo: with ten seconds to go I expected him to be nastier, but instead he didn’t sense the danger. Or rather, he tried to commit a foul, but too lightly. And when Davis entered the area, he inexplicably moved away…
GILA 4,5 – He tries in every way to get us a goal, so Sarri takes it away with 5′ to go. Ekkelenkamp is lost as he hits a header in the first half, then commits a sensational naivety by having the ball snatched by Kamara as the last man and giving a shot to Davis. Not happy, in one of his anarchic adventures he loses the ball and sends Udinese through on goal. Distracted and presumptuous, he risked ruining the match. Already in the first half Davis had stolen the ball from his nose without the Spaniard being able to protect the goal kick. Wrong attitude, poor concentration.
PROVSTGAARD SV – He enters for ten minutes and is not judgeable. Overall he is too crowded on goal and doesn’t come out to Davis on the equaliser.
ROMAGNOLI 6.5 – He does everything well, confirming himself as the silent leader of a defense that even today had conceded little or nothing. Among the most furious in the finale, when he goes to the fourth official and shouts in his face: “Always to us, always to us!”. Doing performances like that and having points deducted for yet another refereeing mistake is truly irritating.
PELLEGRINI 6,5 – Very applied in defense, in constant offensive projection forward. He is growing continuously during the match and has now become a regular starter for Sarri. He feels the game and doesn’t shy away from the most heated duels, even with some forbidden blocks.
LAZZARI SV – Enters only because of the bitter disappointment in the recovery.
BELAHYANE 6+ – He had never played with Sarri and in the whole of 2025 he boasted only one ownership, in Bergamo with Baroni. He holds out for 90 minutes, Karlstrom is warned, he snatches a ball from Zaniolo that is almost as good as a goal. Proactive, he is the smallest of all but he doesn’t know it and goes to fight anyway. The filter phase is appreciable, as are the first ferocious pressures. Involved, without overdoing it. And with decent dribbling.
CATALDI 6.5 – Maybe he takes a risk at the beginning by intervening on Davis in the area, then he spends a generous yellow card and gets nervous. But for the umpteenth time he didn’t miss a ball, he put the team on his shoulders, he almost single-handedly held an unprecedented midfield and was the first to speak to the referee, as added captain. The best of this first part of the season.
NEIGHBOR 6.5 – Growing, he played an intelligent containment match and also found the goal that uncorked the game, thanks to a deflection from Solet. It has lived up to all my wildest expectations.
CLERKS 6.5 – Some signature plays coming out, he is learning to sacrifice himself like Zaccagni and makes us breathe with tactical wisdom. He wins some speed duels with Bertola and Solet, unfortunately he is too light in front of goal: in the second half he opts for a soft left-footed shot instead of wanting to rock the world. But I liked it.
ISAKSEN 5 – He also entered well, but that goal devoured in front of a lucky Padelli weighs like a stone. This is a sliding-doors moment of the match, damn it! In the end he doesn’t manage some counterattacks well, serving Castellanos late.
CASTELLANOS 5,5 – He doesn’t enter the game straight away and is dull and less venomous than usual in his tackles. Soft, too soft. And now his job is seriously at risk.
NOSLIN 6,5 – He doesn’t steal an eye and you can see that he is not a classic center forward from how he handles the (big) opportunity in injury time in the first half, taking forever to reach the small area and remaining off-centre, only to then be closed in a corner by Kristensen. But he is still alive, ties up the defenders and hits the post with a great right foot that would have deserved better luck. It drops a little at distance, but I didn’t mind it.
ZACCAGNI 5.5 – Always generous, but not very involved in front of goal. He could have done much more up front, where he was practically a fastasma. At the end he dramatically squandered the advantage, thinking of throwing Castellanos instead of holding the ball. The result is that it hits Palma squarely and Udinese goes through on goal. Having said that, if there were VAR we would be talking about venial naivety.
SARRI 7 – We would have won again 1-0 on a pitch where almost everyone had lost, including Atalanta and Napoli. We suffer little, we manage to build three scoring chances and take the lead. All without the usual 8 absentees and with an atypical median. Tactical organization and a lot of determination were not enough: yet another refereeing mistake condemns us to no man’s land.
REFEREE AND VAR 2 – That Colombo may not notice the dynamics of Davis’ arm may well be there. That the VAR doesn’t call him back and only checks the first touch of the hand is very serious. There is no rush: it is the last episode of the match, the match is practically over and we should dissect every frame, every possible image. Instead, apparently, you can now score a goal even after stopping the ball with your hand. We are always the first to do jurisprudence, and today we lose two more points in a bad way.
