Young Boys edge thriller at Udinese

BSC Young Boys moved level on six points with Liverpool FC in UEFA Europa League Group A after edging a five-goal thriller with Udinese Calcio.

Billed as a battle between two in-form strikers, both Raúl Bobadilla – Basel's hat-trick hero on matchday three – and Udinese's resident goal machine Antonio Di Natale got on the scoresheet. Di Natale missed a penalty, though, and quick-fire goals from Alexander Farnerud and Raphael Nuzzolo ultimately proved decisive for the visitors, despite a late Diego Fabbrini strike.

Beaten 3-1 in Switzerland last time out, Udinese and Di Natale started confidently, the striker crashing a half-volley off the crossbar before sending an angled drive just past the right post. Undaunted, Young Boys soon threatened on the counter, however, and one break indirectly brought their lead. A hastily retreating Udinese conceded a free-kick on the edge of their box, and Bobadilla whipped it into the bottom-left corner to give the Zebrette a sickening sense of deja vu.

Di Natale was handed the chance to level from the penalty spot with the final kick of the half after Alain Nef had fouled Andrea Lazzari, but keeper Marco Wölfli foiled his attempt. The veteran Italian nonetheless made amends immediately after the restart, Wölfli this time at fault. The keeper batted out Pablo Armero's looping cross and Di Natale volleyed into the ground and over the custodian to level.

Farnerud poked wide when clean through, and Željko Brkić parried a carbon-copy Bobadilla free-kick as Young Boys sought to regain the advantage. The pressure paid dividends on 65 minutes, as Farnerud collected the ball 20 metres out and curled into the bottom-left corner, and the lead was doubled eight minutes later as Nuzzolo tucked in the rebound after Brkić had denied Gonzalo Zárate.

Wölfli produced a remarkable stop from a point-blank Mathias Ranégie header and the game threatened to take another twist when Fabbrini lashed a loose ball low beyond the keeper with seven minutes to go. Wölfli's stunning save from a deflected Ranégie effort in the final moments ensured that was not the case.