Antonio di Natale matched Roberto Baggio’s record with his 205th Serie A goal on Tuesday, as his nine-man Udinese side lost 2-1 to Inter.
Mauro Icardi converted a penalty for Inter in the 48th minute, Di Natale equalized two minutes later and Lukas Podolski scored the winner in the 65th.
Udinese defender Maurizio Domizzi picked up his second yellow card five minutes before halftime and midfielder Emmanuel Badu was sent off in the same manner in the 58th minute.
Photo: AP
The win stretched Inter’s unbeaten run to five matches and moved Roberto Mancini’s club into seventh place, two points from the UEFA Europa League places.
“We played much better when it was 11 versus 11 than when it was 11 versus nine,” Mancini said. “When their second player was sent off, four or five of our players stopped playing. These are matches that need to be finished off.”
Udinese remained in 13th position.
The 37-year-old Di Natale moved level with Baggio in sixth position on Serie A’s all-time scoring chart. Silvio Piola holds the record with 274 goals and AS Roma captain Francesco Totti is second with 241.
“It’s an incredible achievement, and he did it with humility and hard work,” said Udinese manager Andrea Stramaccioni, who began his Serie A coaching career at Inter.
Udinese had trouble matching Inter’s pace at the start.
Domizzi’s first yellow card was for protesting and his second came for a late tackle on Brazilian midfielder Hernanes.
Hernanes and Icardi each produced chances for Inter in the first half.
Less than 30 seconds into the second half, Inter were awarded a penalty following a sliding tackle by Brazilian defender Danilo on Mateo Kovacic.
After lengthy protests from Udinese, Icardi calmly found the target with his spot-kick, matching Carlos Tevez as the league’s top scorer with his 18th goal of the season.
Di Natale’s goal was the work of an expert.
After receiving the ball outside the area, the former Italy forward dashed between a pair of defenders and wasted no time before launching a shot beyond the reach of goalkeeper Samir Handanovic.
As Inter pressed forward for another, Badu protested when he thought he was pushed down inside his own area — and then took a swipe near the referee’s face, drawing his second yellow.
Less than 10 minutes later, Podolski scored with a curling shot from outside the area just seconds after coming on — his first goal since joining Inter on loan from Arsenal in January.
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