Udinese-Napoli, Runjaic on Lucca: “He left without saying goodbye”

It’s always nice to meet again in football, even as exes, whether they are teammates, coaches or trainers. It happens every round of the championship that old acquaintances meet again, it will also happen in Udinese-Napoli. Lorenzo Lucca will return to the Bluenergy Stadium as a former player and will meet his teammates from his last two seasons and, of course, also the coach Kosta Runjaic. It’s a shame that on the eve of the Serie A match against the Azzurri, the Friulian coach didn’t have any sweet words for Lorenzo Lucca, in fact he even removed a few pebbles from his shoe: “He left without saying goodbye, I don’t see why I should have expected a call to thank me”. The Udinese coach clarified in the press conference on the relationship with the Italian center forward: “Sometimes in football it goes like this, I wish him the best and he will certainly be motivated on Sunday, but we will be too”. Runjaic continued by talking about the importance of the match against Conte’s team: “We want to demonstrate that in front of our fans we take the field with the right courage and the right energy and we can already do it against Napoli”. In short, no alibi for Udinese, who will host the Italian champions at home.

return to ex

—

There are no post-match chats, pats on the back, nor exchange of shirts (Mourinho-McTominay style at da Luz). Lorenzo Lucca’s return to the Bluenergy Stadium will be particularly sober, according to the words of his former coach. Yet Lucca, under the guidance of Runjaic, reached the peak of career prolificacy last season: 14 goals and 1 assist. The Napoli center forward became the protagonist in the black and white shirt, attracting the interest of the big leagues in Serie A. Last spring, in fact, he became the object of desire of the two Milanese players and obviously of Napoli, where he then settled. Lorenzo Lucca, a name that Antonio Conte has marked in bold in his notebook since last February, since that Napoli-Udinese match ended 1-1. It was the Italian coach himself who admitted at the end of the match, in a press conference, the suffering suffered by Napoli due to the “physically dominant” Lucca. Of course, Lorenzo’s experience in Naples cannot be said to have started off on the right foot. After playing the first three games as a starter due to Lukaku’s injury, he saw a 50 million package delivered to Castel Volturno called Rasmus Hojlund, who would take his place immediately. So a whirlwind of emotions (often negative), of social criticism, of boos at Maradona, of performances that were more often than not lackluster but also peppered with two goals, one in the league and one in the Italian Cup. “He must continue with intense work to improve and become a valid alternative,” Antonio Conte recently admitted. And who knows, the match against Udinese might be the opportunity for Lorenzo to prove himself as a valid alternative to Rasmus. After all, he only scored one goal in the championship, but against Pisa, another former team of his. Udinese could be a stimulus, even more so if you consider Runjaic’s words. When you meet an ex, you always tend to wear your best outfit.