Udinese Vs. AC Milan: Udinese Secure Champions League Place With Goalless Draw Against Champions

Udinese needed a point to all but guarantee 4th place and they managed to do so with a goalless draw against Scudetto winners AC Milan. Milan appeared to be in a magnanimous mood - they weren't going to spoil Udinese's fun - and played an extremely slow match. The only real action of the first half came when Antonio di Natale hit the post off a free kick, although Marco Amelia looked as though he had it covered should it have been on goal.

The second half got more interesting, but it wasn't until the last quarter of an hour that things got very interesting. Referee Paolo Tagliavento awarded a penalty to Udinese after Alexis Sanchez was fouled by Clarence Seedorf, but di Natale's effort wasn't particularly well struck and Amelia could save. Mere seconds prior to the penalty incident, Alexandre Pato suffered what looked to be a nasty injury after being plowed through by Giampiero Pinzi - it's not clear at this point how long he'll be out for, but hopefully he'll be able to make his return before pre-season starts. Gokhan Inler then hit the post with a stunning shot in what had become a frenetic finish.

Udinese didn't actually manage to force the ball home, of course, but they did manage to keep AC Milan from doing the same (not that they were trying very hard). At the end of the day, that was all they needed, with Lazio unable to make up their huge goal differential gap. So, Champions League football for Alexis Sanchez and Udinese, which means another exciting, attacking team in the tournament and provides an interesting twist to this summer's transfer rumours.