Fiorentina travel to Udinese on Saturday evening as part of Week 26 of Serie A – and we’ve put together this collection of five key facts and stats about the game to tide you over until kick-off.

2.    The first Udinese v Fiorentina match-up in the top tier of Italian football took place on 17 June 1951, on the last day of the 1950/51 season. It finished in a 2-2 draw, with Ardico Magnini and Alberto Galassi getting the goals for the Viola. Fiorentina got their first win at Udinese the very next season: a 3-0 victory in Week 25 on 16 March 1952 secured courtesy of Giuseppe Chiappella, Rodolfo Beltrandi and Andrea Roosemburg.

3.    Udinese v Fiorentina has been a favourite date in the diary for many of the Viola’s greatest strikers, starting with Beppe Virgili – a Friuli native – who won the Scudetto with Fiorentina in 1956. Francesco “Ciccio” Graziani, meanwhile, scored away at Udinese on 10 January 1982 to help the Viola secure a 2-1 win, a result that kept Fiorentina at the top of the table on Week 14. Famously, Gabriel Batistuta scored a hat-trick as Fiorentina won a topsy-turvy match 3-2 at Udinese on 31 August 1997. Even Mario Gomez – who didn’t have the happiest of times at Fiorentina – managed to score a brace away at Udinese on 22 March 2015, thought the Viola could only manage a 2-2 draw. More recently, Giovanni Simeone scored away at Udinese on 3 April 2018 (the match was originally scheduled for 4 March that year but was postponed following the death of Davide Astori) to give Fiorentina a 2-0 win over Udinese following Jordan Veretout’s opener from the spot.  That was the Viola’s last win away at Udinese, incidentally.

4.    On the subject of Davide Astori, we cannot talk about the trip to Udinese without remembering the shocking news of his death at the Hotel La di Moret in Udine on 4 March 2018. The news broke just a few hours before Fiorentina were due to kick-off against Udinese, with the match – and the rest of the Week 27 fixtures – called off as Italy tried to come to terms with the tragedy.

5.    The most recent Udinese v Fiorentina match, on 3 February 2019, finished in a 1-1 draw. Jens Stryger Larsen handed the home side the lead on 56 minutes, but Edimilson Fernandes equalised nine minutes later with a fine effort from outside the box. Udinese have often got the better of Fiorentina since the club’s refoundation in 2002: the Viola have managed just two wins at Udinese since then, the aforementioned 2-0 victory in 2018 and an unremarkable 1-0 win on 8 November 2009 decided by Juan Manuel Vargas on 84 minutes. Aside from those two wins, it’s been five draws and eight defeats for Fiorentina in Udine since 2012, including a four-match losing streak between 2010 and 2014.