the 2011–12 season continued in much the same fashion, even though udinese lost three key players to larger clubs – alexis sánchez to barcelona, gökhan inler to napoli, and cristián zapata to villarreal. in the champions league qualifying round, udinese were drawn against arsenal and lost the away leg 1–0. at the stadio friuli, udinese lost 2–1, 3–1 on aggregate, and entered the europa league group stage, antonio di natale missing a penalty that at the time would have taken udinese through. domestically, udinese started strong but with their quality shown in defence, conceding the least of all teams after 15 games, only seven. for the second consecutive season, udinese qualified for the champions league, clinching third place on the final day of the season with a 2–0 away win against catania. in the summer transfer window, key players kwadwo asamoah and mauricio isla were both sold to champions juventus. the club failed to reach the group stage of the year's champions league, however, losing on penalties after extra time to portuguese club sc braga. antonio di natale scored 23 goals to record his third consecutive season with 20+ goals in serie a.