Udinese: Just Say No To Christmas

The good news:

The bar has been set pretty low after the weekend, right? Hip hip for the key to happiness: low expectations.

The bad news:

This is one o'them six-pointer things, a magical and imaginary three points awarded because the two clubs are chasing the same goal which magically disappears overnight, sometimes sooner for the losing team. (Curious, that.) The other (other) jailbird striped club is sitting four ahead in the race to spend next season punting the Europa League, as all Italian teams do. Comes with the UEFA contract, I think.

Plus there's the horrific sight of [Insert subpar Roma defender here.] standing just a little too far off Toto Di Natale from 25 yards and having him casually plant one high right into the back of Maarten's cage. Which might actually be written into Francesco Guidolin's gameplan.

The excellent news:

Given the inherent nature of both teams, this could - should - be a stormer for the neutral, and this one's at home, which makes a 9-8 victory all the more likely.

Projected XI:

Stekelenburg

Rosi, Kjaer, Heinze, Taddei

Gago, DDR, Pjanic

Totti, Osvaldo, Bojan

CONVOCATI

CURCI Gianluca
DE ROSSI Daniele
GAGO Fernando
HEINZE Gabriel
KJAER Simon
KRKIC Bojan
LAMELA Erik
MARQUINHO
OSVALDO Pablo Daniel
PERROTTA Simone
PIGLIACELLI Mirko
PJANIC Miralem
ROSI Aleandro
STEKELENBURG Maarten
TADDEI Rodrigo
TALLO
TOTTI Francesco
VALDES J. Angel
VIVIANI Federico