There is a full round of fixtures in the Italian Serie A this week, including two matches on Thursday the 23rd of July. One of which takes place at the Dacia Arena as Udinese meet Juventus.
The hosts come into the game in 16th place and still need points to ensure they remain in the Italian topflight. The visitors are 8 points clear at the top of the table and look set to win the title again this season.
Udinese enter this match having suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Napoli on the weekend. Udinese took the lead in the 22nd minute but conceded an equaliser before half time. It looked as though they held on to seal a point but Napoli scored the winning goal in the 90th minute. That result means Udinese have failed to win in their last 3 attempts.
In addition to the defeat at Napoli, Udinese have lost 3-1 at home against Sampdoria and picked up a point in a 0-0 draw against Lazio, also played at home. Trends show Udinese have been struggling to win games at the Dacia Arena and they have failed to pick up maximum points in their last 7 home Serie A matches.
There have been 3 defeats and 4 draws in those 7 games. In addition, there have been over 2.5 goals scored in 4 of Udinese’s last 5 league matches.
Juventus picked up a crucial 2-1 victory over Lazio on Monday night to move them 8 points clear of second place Inter Milan. With the game level at half time, Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in the space of 4 minutes early in the second half and despite a late Lazio goal, Juventus held on to take maximum points.
It was an important victory for the defending champions who had failed to win their previous 3 league matches. There was a 4-2 defeat at AC Milan followed by draws at home against Atalanta and away to Sassuolo.
Juventus have lost only one of their last 5 away Serie A games and they are undefeated away from home in their last 10 league matches against Udinese. Juventus have defeated Udinese in 12 of their 15 most recent encounters in Serie A.
Trends show both teams scored in 10 of Juventus’ last 11 away league games.
Team news and Udinese have four players unavailable due to injury with Lukasz Teodorczyk, Mate Jajalo, Rolando Mandragora and Sebastian Prödl all missing out.
Juventus travel without Giorgio Chiellini, Mattia De Sciglio and Sami Khedira who are injured. They also have doubts over the fitness of striker Gonzalo Higuain.
This is a game in which we expect to see both teams find the back of the net. However, Udinese have been poor at home and do not have the quality to beat this Juventus team. An away victory with both teams scoring seems a likely outcome.