Juve - Udinese

#JuveUdinese: key names and numbers

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#JuveUdinese: key names and numbers
#JuveUdinese: key names and numbers
#JuveUdinese: key names and numbers

Black and white vs. black and white

A fun fact ahead of Saturday’s match is that Juventus and Udinese are the only two teams in Serie A to have black and white as their primary colours, with the likes of Cesena and Siena no longer in Italy’s top tier.

Contrary to the two aforementioned sides, Udinese have been an ever-present in Serie A since 1989 and managed an impressive third place in the division both in 1997/98 and 2011/12.

However, such achievements have rarely come at the expense of those of Juventus – the team to have defeated them more than any other in Serie A, 56 times out of a total 84 meetings.

Thirty-one of those victories have been sealed in Turin and four at Juventus Stadium, but it would be the Zebrette to take the spoils from their most recent outing at the iconic arena in August 2015 – incidentally the last time that Juventus lost at home in all competitions.

Contrasting form

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Victory over Udinese on Saturday would extend the Bianconeri’s winning run at Juventus Stadium in Serie A to 20 consecutive matches.

Juve have been the epitomy of watertight in defence, conceding just five goals in their last 19 home games, and they go into tomorrow’s game in red hot form up front too, scoring 12 with no reply in their last four fixtures in all competitions (4-0 vs. Cagliari and Dinamo Zagreb, 1-0 vs. Palermo and 3-0 vs. Empoli).

By contrast, Udinese’s last four games have yielded just one point (a 2-2 draw at home to Fiorentina), as they’ve let in a total of eight goals against the Viola and in the trio of recent defeats to Chievo (1-2), Sassuolo (0-1) and Lazio (0-3).

Remember me?

Ties between Juventus and Udinese are not merely limited to colours. Indeed, a number of players have represented both clubs in recent years, including three current members of the Bianconeri squad.

Kwadwo Asamoah (in 2008), Juan Cuadrado (2009) and Medhi Benatia (2010) all made their Serie A debuts for the Zebrette.

Asamoah Udinese

Despite being attached to Torino the previous season, Udinese was also where Asamoah made his first ever full professional appearance and would go on to make a further 113 more in the league for the Friuli-based outfit.

Cuadrado and Benatia, meanwhile, pulled on the Udinese shirt 20 and 80 times respectively in Serie A.

The links between the two clubs also extend to the bench with Luigi Del Neri, who managed Juventus in the 2010/11 season, taking over the reins at Udinese on 4 October.

Main men to watch out for

Juventus go into this game with three of their forwards in scintillating form: Gonzalo Higuain’s ratio of one goal every 66 minutes represents the best in Serie A this term, Paulo Dybala has struck twice in his last two outings for the Bianconeri against Zagreb and Empoli, while Mario Mandzukic scored four times in Croatia’s two World Cup qualifiers last week.

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Dybala
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In terms of going forwards, Juve have statistically the most dangerous defender in the whole of Serie A on their books: Alex Sandro’s 43 crosses and 21 goalscoring chances created represent the second highest across Europe’s top five divisions, with Nantes’ Lucas Lima the only man to better the Brazilian’s figures.

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For Udinese, Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul stands out as the player to have participated in the most forward moves with 13 shots and as many assists to his name so far this campaign, while the Bianconeri will also need to be wary of French striker Cyril Thereau, who has netted three times against Juventus since the 2012/13 season. Only Mauro Icardi has put more past the Bianconeri in the same timeframe.

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