Guidolin geared for third-place battle

Udinese boss Francesco Guidolin fears it will be ‘impossible’ for his team to keep third spot in Serie A for the remainder of the season.

A comfortable 4-1 win over Cesena on Sunday helped Udinese move four points clear of fourth-placed Lazio.

Guidolin is wary of the threats posed by the likes of Inter Milan, Roma and Napoli – who all sit below Udinese – and said his team will find it tough to stay third.

“If we keep the same rhythm we can keep our position, but I fear this is going to be impossible for us,” he said.

“As of now, we have gained many points and we’ll try to hold this wonderful position for as long as possible. It’s going to be difficult, maybe impossible, but at the same time it is also so gratifying that I’m sure everyone will be doing their best to hold this position.”

“Of course we know that there are great teams such as Napoli and Inter. We’ve already said that Inter are able to win six, seven or eight consecutive matches – they have won five consecutive matches up to now and they’re quite close to us. It wouldn’t surprise me if they caught us.”

Antonio Di Natale’s brace and goals from Kwadwo Asamoah and Dusan Basta saw Udinese run out convincing winners at Stadio Friuli, despite Brazilian Eder briefly levelling for the visitors in the 39th minute.

Guidolin said the opening quarter of an hour was almost the best his side has played this campaign, and the Italian tactician was also happy with Udinese’s response after conceding.

“Well, of course we’re all happy. The first 15 minutes were great, almost the best minutes of this season,” he said.

“I thought that the players had listened to me during the week and understood the risks of this match, but we have made some mistakes and Cesena managed to draw (level) which made things a little more complicated.”

“During the break we worked on some concepts and the team has started to play better during the second half of our matches and they have managed to win.”