Udinese-Lecce is a friendly and will be played on Friday at 15:30: news, statistics, formations, predictions, live TV and streaming
Udinese have ended the first part of their season in a less than exciting manner, to the point that it is possible to divide them into two ‘sections’. Up until mid-October, Andrea Sottil’s men left everyone speechless, making one of the Friulian club’s best starts ever. After their opening defeat against AC Milan, the Bianconeri were unbeaten for nine games in a row.
The highlight came between August and September, when Deulofeu and his team-mates racked up six consecutive victories: teams such as Roma and Inter had to surrender at the Dacia Arena in that period. A European pace that Udinese clearly could not maintain. As soon as it drew a little breath, the drop came punctually. And consequently, the results were also lacking. Udinese’s last victory came on 3 October: the 2-1 win in Verona was almost a watershed, since then Sottil and his team have scored five draws and two defeats, and before the break a vigorous reaction was not enough to complete the comeback against Napoli, who won 3-2 at the ‘Maradona’.
Also in the middle was the elimination from the Coppa Italia through Monza. The coach did not see significant improvements even in the two international friendlies, in which Udinese surrendered first to West Ham (1-3) and then to Athletic Bilbao (0-1). In any case, the Friulans have the opportunity to restart from a dignified eighth place, not bad for a club that had set itself the goal of a quiet salvation.
Lecce, who will take on Udinese in a friendly a month and a half after the 1-1 league match, had instead finished on a high, with two victories against Atalanta and Sampdoria. Six points that allowed the newly promoted team led by Marco Baroni to move significantly away from the third-last position.
The Prediction
Both coaches will take advantage of such a match to experiment ahead of their first official game, which they will play against Empoli and Lazio respectively. Udinese should avoid defeat this time but it cannot be ruled out that the Salentini will at least score goals, as they did last November.
- UDINESE (3-5-2): Silvestri; Guessand, Bijol, Abankwah; Ebosele, Arslan, Lovric, Pafundi, Pereyra; Success, Deulofeu.
- LECCE (4-3-3): Falcone; Gendrey, Baschirotto, Umtiti, Gallo; Askildsen, Hjulmand, Helgason; Oudin, Ceesay, Banda.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-1
