Palermo Vs. Udinese: A 7-0 Udinese Victory, Goals Shared Between Alexis Sanchez And Antonio Di Natale

You know the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, in this case, a video is worth a thousand words, so watch the highlights of Udinese’s 7-0 win at Palermo as soon as they’re available. Alexis Sánchez scored four within 50 minutes, Antonio Di Natale grabbed a hat-trick to put him on 21 goals in Serie A, and somewhere in all the fun, two Palermo players were sent off. Oddly enough, save for the penalty conversion that gave Udinese their seventh, no goals were scored after Palermo went down to nine men. Perhaps at that point Udinese were simply feeling sorry for their hosts.

The match got off to a cracking start when Captain Toto scored his first in the ninth minute. Palermo left Di Natale completely unmarked in front of goal, a theme they’d embrace for the rest of the match. Toto’s header met Pablo Armero’s cross for Udinese’s first. Within ten minutes, Alexis Sánchez had doubled the lead, this time due to the mistake of Palermo goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, another weakness that would crop up again and again throughout the match.

Udinese had played less than thirty minutes when they had their third, again at the feet of Alexis Sánchez. With seven goals in this match, you’d think it would be tough to choose the best, but this one easily grabs the gold. Udinese scored their third with a brilliant piece of counterattacking football. Sánchez got free on the right hand side and sped off down the pitch, with none of the rose shirts able to catch him. Sirigu could do nothing except sit down when Sánchez got close. A bit of fancy footwork and the ball was in the back of the net.

Then in the 40th minute, Palermo midfielder Armin Bačinovič was shown his second yellow. Almost before he’d left the pitch, Udinese had scored again. Sirigu had a blinder of a game, this time dropping Kwadwo Asamoah’s long-range shot at the foot of Sánchez. The keeper managed to bat away Sánchez’s shot, but it went about a foot, right to where Toto was standing, and Udinese had their fourth.

But four wasn’t enough for Udinese. Alexis Sánchez wanted his hat-trick before the break, and a minute later, Siniša Anđelković made sure to hand it to him. The Palermo player stumbled and let Sánchez free in front of goal, leaving Alexi with little option but to score. The halftime whistle blew a few minutes later and Palermo cried tears of relief.

Fifteen minutes was not enough for Palermo to regain their composure, however. Less than three minutes after the restart, Sánchez had scored again, making four for the man who, prior to this match, had never scored more than one in a Serie A game. That was six for Udinese and, in a moment of mercy, Sánchez made way for Germán Denis, possibly due to the fact that Lega Calcio had no way of recording five goals for a single individual.

Palermo continued to display the collective intelligence of an earthworm, however. Pablo Armero got loose in the area and instead of letting him take a shot -- considering Palermo were down a man and down by six, a comeback was likely not on the cards, so what was one more goal? -- Matteo Darmian grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him down. Darmian was shown a red and the referee pointed to the spot. Toto stepped up to the spot and converted the penalty with a shot low and to the right, completing his hat-trick and giving him 21 goals on the season.

After the seventh in the 60th, however, Udinese decided to play nice. Scoring three more against a nine-man Palermo would have just looked mean, after all. Instead, the zebretteare were content to conserve their energy for a European fight: Udinese are now in fifth, just one point behind Lazio, who dropped all three points against Cagliari this weekend.