Saturday’s Serie A fixture between Genoa and Udinese will be the 58th time the sides have locked horns in league history. The head-to-head record currently stands at 20 Udinese wins, 20 draws and 17 Genoa wins. There’s been nothing to pick between the sides in the last four matches and if we look over the last 13 then Udinese have remained undefeated throughout this period, recording six wins and seven draws. That makes it the club’s best current streak against any Serie A opponent. However, the Ligurians have only lost one of their last eight home games in all competitions.
In their last away match Gabriele Cioffi’s players recorded an impressive 1-0 win over Juventus thanks to a goal by Lautaro Giannetti. Should the team get three points tomorrow it will be the first time since October 2022 that Udinese have won twice on the bounce away from home, when the Zebrette beat Monza, Sassuolo and Hellas Verona. Jordan Zemura opened his account against Cagliari, grabbing his first goal not only Serie A but also in any of Europe’s top five leagues. The Zimbabwean’s strike means that this season Udinese have had players from nine different countries score for them – only Atalanta (11) and Lecce (10) can boast a more diverse range of goal-getters.
Lorenzo Lucca scored his first Serie A goal the last time Udinese met Genoa. The centre-forward has had a hand in nine goals (six goals and three assists) and could become the first Italian born in the year 2000 to reach double figures for goal involvements in 2023/24 across Europe’s top five leagues. In addition, Lucca has won 63 aerial duels - only Milan Djuric (135) and Duvan Zapata (81) have better records in this regard in Serie A. Since the start of 2024 Josep Martinez and Maduka Okoye sit first and fifth respectively for number of saves made in the league, with 27 and 22 respectively.