Sunday will be the 30th time Udinese and Empoli have faced off in Serie A. The scales are tipped in Udinese’s favour, with 12 wins, ten draws and seven losses. Udinese have remained unbeaten in the last four head-to-heads against Empoli (two wins and two draws) and conceded no goals in the two most recent games, including the game on 6 October that ended 0-0. Out of all the teams that we’ve faced less than 15 times at home, we’ve had the most wins against Empoli (eight).
Empoli have lost without scoring in all five of their last away games and, after Napoli, could become the second team to concede more than one goal from Lazar Samardzic. The Serbian is looking to increase his record goal tally in a season, which he equalled with his goal against Lecce on Monday. Lorenzo Lucca, who also scored in Salento, is the youngest Italian with at least eight goals in Serie A and the first debutant to reach this number since 2015/16 (Daniel Ciofani, nine goals for Frosinone).
Festy Ebosele and Kingsley Ehizibue could reach their 50th appearance in all competitions in Udinese colours on Sunday (they are both currently on 49). There’ll be another challenge for two of the top four goalkeepers for saves made in 2024: Elia Caprile is first, having made 65 saves and Maduka Okoye is joint third with Michele Di Gregorio on 55 saves.
There are three ex-Udinese players and staff among the Empoli ranks. Giuseppe Pezzella made 20 appearances with the Zebrette: 19 between the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons and one in 2019/20 after a period at Genoa. Samuele Perisan played for Udinese’s youth academy for ten years, without ever making it to the first team. Lastly, their coach Davide Nicola who oversaw 15 games as Udinese head coach between November 2018 and March 2019. He witnessed four wins, four draws, and seven defeats.