Udinese climbed out of the relegation zone with this desperately-needed victory away to already secure Lecce, as Lorenzo Lucca and Lazar Samardzic came up big.

The hosts were already celebrating their Serie A safety, but Roberto Piccoli sat out a ban, with Lameck Banda, Mohamed Kaba and Kastriot Dermaku missing the rest of the season. The Friulani knew a victory would take them out of the bottom three, but the lengthy absentee list included Florian Thauvin, Sandi Lovric, Marco Silvestri, Gerard Deulofeu and Enzo Ebosse, but Nehuen Perez and Martin Payero returned from suspension following the 1-1 draw with Napoli.

Both teams were wearing special edition jerseys with their maternal names in honour of Mother’s Day.

See how the match unfolded on the Liveblog.

Perez was immediately called into action with a desperate block to stop Nikola Krstovic firing in the Pontus Almqvist pull-back from 12 yards, while Lazar Samardzic saw his free kick deflected over the bar and Thomas Kristensen nodded the resulting corner off target.

Isaac Success fired inches over from the edge of the box and Udinese finally broke through when Lorenzo Lucca soared above the crowd to nod a Payero cross into the far bottom corner.

Lecce took a while to get going, but started to test Maduka Okoye with a ferocious Santiago Pierotti strike from a tricky angle that stung his gloves, then a Federico Baschirotto header from the Remy Oudin free kick.

Just as Udinese were sitting deeper and deeper and Lecce pushed for an equaliser, they scored on the counter-attack to lock down these three precious points.

Roberto Pereyra’s cross found the head of Keinan Davis at the back post, forcing a reaction save from Wladimiro Falcone, but only into the path of Samardzic to turn in the rebound.

Lecce 0-2 Udinese

Lucca 36 (U), Samardzic 85 (U)

Player statistic

1st half
Alexis Blin Yellow card 17'    
    36' Goal Lorenzo Lucca
(Assist: Martín Payero)
2nd half
Patrick Dorgu Yellow card 57'    
    60' Yellow card Martín Payero
    85' Goal Lazar Samardzic

Match statistic

65
Possession %
35
9
Total shots
16
2
Shots on target
3
3
Shots off target
10
4
Blocked shots
3
8
Corners
2
1
Offsides
12
Fouls
11
Lecce
Udinese

Starting lineups

30
Goalkeeper
25
Defender
5
Defender
13
Defender
72'
17
Defender
29
Midfielder
56'
8
Midfielder
56'
20
Midfielder
9
Attacker
7
Attacker
72'
40
Goalkeeper
12
Defender
29
Defender
19
74'
18
Defender
31
24
Midfielder
90'
32
Midfielder
11
Midfielder
90'
7
Attacker
67'
17
Attacker
67'

Substitutes

12
Defender
98
Goalkeeper
45
Attacker
40
Goalkeeper
21
Goalkeeper
59
Defender
83
Midfielder
23
18
Midfielder
56'
50
56'
16
Midfielder
72'
10
Attacker
72'
93
Goalkeeper
33
Defender
27
22
Attacker
79
Midfielder
16
Defender
30
70
Goalkeeper
37
Midfielder
67'
9
Attacker
67'
2
Defender
74'
13
Defender
90'
6
Midfielder
90'

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