
Tottenham defender Destiny Udogie came off the bench and provided an assist as Italy won 4-1 against Israel in the UEFA Nations League game on Monday night.
The Spurs defender also featured in the 2-2 draw against Belgium and played the final 20 minutes.
Udogie has been impressive for Tottenham under Ange Postecoglou and has started in all the Premier League games so far.
He is the first-choice left-back at Spurs, and he will be brimming with confidence after making a significant contribution for his country.
Udogie played out a brilliant pass for Giovanni di Lorenzo, who scored the final goal for Italy.
How the Italian press reacted to Destiny Udogie’s display v Israel
While Riccardo Calafiori has drawn major attention from Italian newspapers, it appears that Udogie has impressed them heavily as well.
The famous pink newspaper, La Gazzetta Dello Sport, said that it was a “perfect” pass from Udogie, and they gave him a 6.5 rating out of 10.
Although he only managed nine passes during this short time (as per whoscored.com), he did enough to make an impact.
Corriere della Serra wrote – “There is life after DiMarco” while describing his performance.
Udogie should look to make more of an impact for Tottenham
The highly talented left-back joined Spurs from Udinese in the summer of 2022. He was immediately loaned back to the Italian club for the rest of the season.
Last season, he made 30 appearances in all competitions, and so far, he has cemented his place in the first team under Postecoglou.
Udogie is very strong at tackling, managing around 3.1 tackles per game. He is also equally exciting to watch attacking-wise and usually makes the right passes (88.2% passing accuracy).
However, Postecoglou would love to see him contributing with goals and assists as well. It makes a lot of difference when your fullbacks make an impact that can change the outcome of the game.
Having said that, he is still young and could develop into a top-class defender in the future for both the club and the country.
