Late Floro Flores Brace Sinks Nine-Men Reggina

The final game of matchday 31 saw Reggina and Udinese clashing at the Granillo stadium on Sunday afternoon and it was a strange game, full of incident, which ended 2-0 in favour of the visitors.

Reggina were without influential players Francesco Cozza and Bernardo Corradi, whereas Udinese coach Pasquale Marino opted to rest his best players ahead of the second leg of the UEFA Cup second leg clash against Werder Bremen.

This resulted in a very balanced first half with both teams creating some very good goal scoring opportunities, but the game remained at nil-nil when the teams returned to their dressing rooms.

The second half was more entertaining and full of emotions. First, Maurizio Lanzaro was sent off for the Amaranti and the referee awarded a penalty to the Bianconeri, only for Maurizio Domizzi to shoot over the bar from the resuling spot-kick.

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In the 62nd minute, Reggina had their second player of day sent off when Antonino Barilla was shown a red card by referee De Marco.

Then, with just nine minutes of normal time remaining, nine men Reggina were awarded a penalty of their own. But they failed to convert it when Samir Handanovic saved Franco Brienza's shot.

Reggina, however, crumbled in the final minutes and Antonio Floro Flores scored a brace in the 85th and 87th minute to leave them in bottom position with just 20 points from 31 games played, seven points away from the survival zone.

Udinese climbed a few places as they now have 39 points, along with Napoli in 12th place.

( Glenn Debattista / Goal )