Udinese defeated Cagliari in Serie A Week 9 on Friday, October 25, 2024, at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine, Italy. Historically, Udinese has now triumphed in 28 out of their 57 Serie A encounters with Cagliari, recording 17 draws and 12 losses. This makes Cagliari one of the teams Udinese has had the most success against in the league, alongside Atalanta and Lazio. In their last 10 Serie A meetings, Udinese has remained unbeaten in nine of them, winning six and drawing three. The only victory for Cagliari during this stretch was a narrow 1-0 win on April 21, 2021, in Friuli.

Udinese has secured their fifth victory in nine matches, solidifying their spot in the standings. As they await the outcomes of other games, they climb to fourth place, sharing points with Thiago Motta's Bianconeri and sitting two points clear of Milan. Meanwhile, Cagliari's impressive run of four consecutive positive results comes to an end, marking their return to defeat after a month.

Udinese have won three of their four home games in this championship - the only exception being the 2-3 defeat against Inter on 28 September - and have not achieved four wins in their first five home games of the season in Serie A since 2014/15, under the guidance of Andrea Stramaccioni.

Cagliari are unbeaten in their last three Serie A games (W2 D1), after three consecutive defeats without scoring; after their success in the last round (3-2 vs Torino), the Sardinians could get two wins in a row for only the second time in the calendar year 2024 in Serie A (1-0 vs Empoli and 4-2 vs Salernitana in March previously).

A clash between two of the four teams that make the most use of crosses from open play in this championship: 124 for Udinese and 132 for Cagliari, only Lazio (142) and Inter (135) have more than them; in particular, only the Nerazzurri (four) have scored more goals than the Friulians (three) following a cross from open play in this tournament. With a victory in this clash, Davide Nicola would reach 50 victories as a coach in Serie A, with his teams also having scored 198 goals in the competition; the Cagliari coach is a former player of the match, having led Udinese in 15 top-flight games between November 2018 and March 2019 (4W, 4D, 7P).

Player Stats

Jordan Zemura netted his first two goals in Serie A during Udinese's home match against Cagliari last season, which ended in a 1-1 draw on February 18, 2024. The talented player, born in 1999, also scored Udinese's most recent league goal against Lecce on October 5. Notably, he has contributed to two of his team's last three goals, with one goal and one assist.

Nicolas Viola has found the back of the net twice against Udinese in Serie A, with only Torino being a tougher opponent for him, as he has scored three times against them. Both Cagliari's number 10, Viola, and today's rival, Zemura, are among five players who have successfully converted direct free kicks in this season's championship, joining Cristiano Biraghi, Danilo Cataldi, and Nikola Krstovic.

Roberto Piccoli scored in his last match against Udinese in Serie A, coming off the bench and scoring the goal that made it 1-1 with Lecce away from home, in the 83rd minute, after just six minutes from his entry into the field; the Friuli team could become the first team against which he has scored more than one goal in the top flight (currently 15 goals against 15 different opponents).



Photo via x.com/Udinese_1896