Orestis Karnezis

The hosts were forced to make their first substitution in the 29th minute, with Scuffet replacing Karnezis.

Orestis-Spyridon Karnezis (Ορέστης-Σπυρίδων Καρνέζης; born 11 July 1985) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Born in Athens, but grew up in Corfu, Karnezis started his professional football career at Panathinaikos in 2007.

He made only a few appearances for the club until the 2011–12 season, when he got more chances and impressed.

After a few months, his coach, Jesualdo Ferreira, made him the regular goalkeeper of Panathinaikos.

He had great performances and saved his team at crucial moments.

Reports from Greece indicate that Karnezis was the subject of transfer speculation, as the Greek international attracted suitors from around Europe, following a solid campaign in the Superleague Greece 2012–13 season.

Reports from Greece indicated that Udinese Calcio emerged as front-runners to sign Karnezis, after the Italian club reportedly offered €800,000 to bring Karnezis to the Serie A that summer.

Karnezis took over as Panathinaikos' number one choice in goal that season and played admirably for the Athens giants.

Karnezis' exploits for the Trifylli earned him consistent call-ups to the Greece national football team.

Karnezis completed his move from Panathinaikos to Udinese Calcio, after the two clubs reached an agreement over the Greece international's transfer.

The 28-year-old keeper had been linked with a move to the Serie A side in recent weeks, with Panathinaikos manager Yannis Anastasiou keen to use income from the transfer to continue building his squad.

A fee of €750,000 had been quoted by the Greek press, with a further €2 million due to Panathinaikos if the player returned to Greece to play with another club in the future.

Karnezis signed a five-year contract on 22 July 2013, then was immediately loaned out to Spain's Granada for the season by the Italian club.

Karnezis had earlier in the season played in both legs of the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) against AD Alcorcón on 8 December 2013 and 18 December 2013.

On 12 April, Karnezis was the key player in a 1–0 home victory against Barcelona, saving a shot from Cesc Fàbregas and a 20-yard free-kick from Lionel Messi.

Barça totalled 29 shots on goal, none of which succeeded in beating Karnezis.

Karnezis made his Spanish La Liga debut for Granada in a 3–0 away loss to Almeria on 4 January 2014.

In his return to Udinese after the loan stint with Granada in La Liga, Karnezis made his Serie A debut in Udinese's 2–0 home victory over Empoli on 31 August 2014.

On 9 November 2014, Udinese managed to scrap a 1–1 draw against Palermo as Karnezis parried a Franco Vazquez penalty.

Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport claimed that Napoli were interested in signing Karnezis after his remarkable 2014–15 season with Udinese.

"It is too early", his agent Vasilis Panayotakis said.

"We will see what happens after May 20, when we know what is really going on with the clubs that have shown interest. Karnezis is committed to Udinese until the end of the season, that is more important right now".

During the season former Italian national goalkeeper Dino Zoff had heaped praise on both Karnezis and Mattia Perin, labelling the pair the best glovesmen in Serie A.“It's going well, he's young and can only get better: he is taking confidence that is essential for a goalkeeper.

I think Karnezis and Perin are the best goalies in Series A.”

On 15 March 2015, Andrea Stramaccioni praised Karnezis and Antonio Di Natale after Udinese picked up a point against Atalanta, by stating that throughout the year and not only in that game, Karnezis gave a sense of security to the squad, even without necessarily making difficult saves.

On 14 May 2015, Udinese confirmed they were ready to sell Karnezis, to make room for Simone Scuffet.

Roma were interested and he was linked with a move to the Giallorossi.

"Karnezis could've gone to Benfica last summer, but Andrea Stramaccioni decided to focus on his international experience," explained Udinese director Andrea Carnevale on TeleRadioStereo.

"Now with his excellent season, he can go to a more important club. Our future is Simone Scuffet. We've been preserving him, as a season working as understudy to Karnezis has helped him to grow."

On 24 May 2015, in a home game against Sassuolo, Karnezis was injured.

On 1 July 2015, Karnezis signed a new contract until June 2019 with the Friuli outfit.

"Udinese Calcio announces the renewal with mutual satisfaction of the economic agreement in place with the goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis," read the statement.

On 20 December 2015, with his crucial saves, along with a late first half goal from his teammate Stipe Perica, who rifled a shot past the outstretched fingers of the ‘keeper to nestle inside the far post, and besides the fact that they finished the game with 10 players due to Molla Wague's expulsion, he helped his club to escape with a 1–0 away win against Torino.

On 9 January 2016, despite his remarkable save one-on-one on Cristian Zaccardo, sticking out a trailing foot to deny the angled drive, his club suffered a surprise 2–1 away loss against Carpi in the Serie A. On 7 February 2016, in a 1–1 away draw against Milan, Karnezis was in fine form and produced sensational saves to deny Carlos Bacca, Mario Balotelli and Riccardo Montolivo kicks, helping his club to escape with a valuable draw.

On 24 April, thanks to Karnezis, mUdinese managed to keep the score down to 3–1 against Inter as he made some fantastic saves to deny Geoffrey Kondogbia, Marcelo Brozović and Ivan Perišić, to keep his side afloat.

“The contract of the Bianconeri player will now expire on 30 June 2019." In the opening game of the 2015–16 season against champions Juventus, Karnezis had a particularly strong second-half when Juve piled on the pressure, coming up with key saves and marshalling his backline to more effectively stop the Bianconeri forwards, helping his club to achieve a win. On 25 October 2015, he made key saves helping his club extend their unbeaten run in Serie A to four matches by edging to a 1–0 victory over Frosinone at the Stadio Friuli. On 1 November 2015, in a 0–0 home draw against Sassuolo the visitors threatened with Gregoire Defrel who crashed in two strikes that had to be kept out by Karnezis. On 8 November 2015, Karnezis kept his side level with two good pieces of goalkeeping, as Napoli continued to knock on the door, first when he dived low to keep out Gonzalo Higuaín's effort, before he smothered the ball at the feet of José Callejón minutes later, after Higuain had slipped the Spaniard through.

Despite his saves, the club could not avoid a 1–0 away defeat.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, discussions over a new agreement had begun and the 29-year-old goalkeeper was ready to put pen to paper, to extend his stay until 2020.

Udinese Calcio had turned down offers from Roma, Inter, Napoli, Benfica and other European clubs.