The ‘Biancocelesti’ have certainly changed their defending since the first half of the season, having now secured four consecutive Serie A clean sheets after just two from their first 19 league games.
Udinese
A third failure to score from their last four Serie A fixtures condemned Udinese to a hefty 4-0 defeat at Verona, the third time this campaign they have lost by a four-goal margin. Whilst it’s not yet their worst season across the last decade – they survived the drop in 2018/19 despite having five fewer points at this stage of the campaign – they still sit uncomfortably close to the relegation zone. Recent history doesn’t suggest this upcoming tussle with Lazio will draw them further away from the bottom three. Not only have Udinese won just one of their six home Serie A clashes as pre-match outsiders this season, ‘I Bianconeri’ have now hosted Lazio eight times without success over the previous eight seasons and with a paltry total of just two goals to their name across the most recent seven.
Lazio
They’re unlikely to get any reprieve or favours from an in-form Lazio side that’s chasing the top four, and that in the space of four league games have cast aside Salernitana (away), Fiorentina (away) and Bologna (home) via a 3-0 scoreline. In fact, they’ve scored exactly three goals in seven of their ten league outings since a chaotic 4-4 H2H draw at home to Udinese, and are clearly now bearing the fruits of an improved defensive effort. The ‘Biancocelesti’ have certainly changed their defending since the first half of the season, having now secured four consecutive Serie A clean sheets after just two from their first 19 league games.
If they’re going to witness an 11th consecutive Serie A away fixture with more than 2.5 total goals, whilst closing the gap on the top four, the bulk of the scoring will surely come from their red hot scoring unit, although they could be without top scorer Ciro Immobile here.
One of Beto’s four-team opening goals for Udinese this Serie A season was recorded in the 4-4 H2H draw, a game that also saw one of Serie A’s assist kings (8), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, get on the scoresheet for Lazio. The second half has not been the highest-scoring half in any of the last seven H2Hs.