After a shaky start to the season left them playing catch-up, Juve’s current seven-game undefeated run in the league, including four clean sheets, shows they’re trending in the right direction.
Juventus
Reeling from their heartbreaking 121st-minute extra-time loss to Inter Milan in the Supercoppa Italiana, Juventus will be looking to continue their march up the Serie A ladder. After a shaky start to the season left them playing catch-up, Juve’s current seven-game undefeated run in the league, including four clean sheets, shows they’re trending in the right direction. In order to get themselves into the prime European spots, the ‘Old Lady’ will need to improve their performances at the Allianz Stadium, given they’ve collected less points at home this league campaign (17) than away (21). A visit from Udinese could help close that gap, as they’ve won each of the last six home H2Hs in all competitions, scoring at least twice each time.
Udinese
After an encouraging first few weeks of the season, Udinese now find themselves fighting the wrong battles, as they hover precariously around the drop zone. Their last away match saw them record a rare win (4-0 vs Cagliari), only to follow it up with a 2-6 drubbing at home to Atalanta, highlighting their inconsistencies and making their attempt to finish in the Serie A top ten for the first time since 2012/13 already unlikely. Clean sheets in their first and last away Serie A matches notably produced their only wins on the road this season, with the seven games sandwiched in between seeing them concede 16 times. Keeping the opposition out therefore appears key, especially as Udinese are one of only three teams yet to win after conceding first in Serie A, while they’ve dropped a mammoth 11 points after scoring first.
Five of Alvaro Morata’s seven Juve goals this season have come in the first half, while Gerard Deulofeu – a scorer in the reverse fixture – has seen five of his last six goal contributions arrive away from home. No Serie A side has conceded fewer goals past the 60th minute this season than Juve (five).