This coming Monday, Udinese and Fiorentina will meet in Serie A for the 97th time. The record so far stands at 45 Viola wins, 28 draws and 23 Udinese victories. However, in the last seven matches it’s been pretty close, with three wins apiece, and a draw in the last meeting between the two teams - 2-2 at the Franchi on 14 January 2024. 2-2 is also the most frequent result between Udinese and Fiorentina, which has been the case on ten occasions.
Udinese are unbeaten away from home in their last two games, and if they were to claim victory on Monday, they will also have recorded two consecutive away wins for the first time since the end of last season (2-0 against Lecce and 1-0 against Frosinone). The Zebrette are still yet to concede any headed goals in Serie A, while they have scored seven headers - Lorenzo Lucca alone has four, the top scorer for headers in Serie A together with Atalanta’s Matteo Retegui. Meanwhile, Fiorentina have only scored one. Both teams have had 11 different players get on the scoresheet, the fourth highest figure in Serie A this season, and are ranked in the top positions for the percentage of clear goalscoring opportunities created (46% for the Viola, 48% for Udinese).
In Udinese’s last clash with Fiorentina both Sandi Lovric and Florian Thauvin scored. If the Frenchman were to get a goal on Monday he would equal his tally for the entire 2023/24 season. As for Fiorentina, Andrea Colpani’s favourite Serie A victim is in fact Udinese – he has scored three goals previously against the Friulians. While Dodo will be absent from tomorrow’s match he holds the best dribbling record for a defender in Serie A (26), one of only two players in the same role with a better figure than Jordan Zemura (19).
Both Kingsley Ehizibue and Thomas Kristensen made their debuts for Udinese against Fiorentina, the former in Udinese’s 1-0 win in Udine on 31 August 2022 and the latter in Fiorentina’s 2-0 win – also in Udine – on 24 September 2023. Two players may face their former sides on Monday - Rolando Mandragora was at Udinese from 2018 to 2021, and Pietro Comuzzo was in the club’s youth ranks in 2016/17.