UDINESE v AC MILAN: OPPONENT REVIEW

Having won their last three league fixtures and consolidated their third-place position in the table, AC Milan are looking to continue their positive form on matchday 21 in Serie A. Up next for Stefano Pioli's men is a trip to Udine to face Udinese at 20:45 CET on Saturday 20 January. After a very slow start to the season, the Friulani are now making steady progress, especially in terms of performances.

Udinese were pegged back twice last time out away to Fiorentina, but it takes nothing away from the display produced by Cioffi's side, who, nevertheless, find themselves in an uncomfortable position in the table with just 18 points from 20 matches (one point ahead of the relegation zone). Notably, the Friulani have played out twelve draws so far, the most across the top five European leagues in 2023/24. Not since Torino in 2007/08 has a side had so many stalemates to their name at this stage of a Serie A campaign.

FINDING THE NET AGAIN BUT MORE SOLIDITY NEEDED LATE ON
Recently, Pereyra and co. have certainly made strides forward in attack. In their last three matches, Udinese have scored six goals, an average of two per match. Previously, their goals-per-game average had been 0.9 across their opening 17 Serie A fixtures. Despite their improvement in front of goal, the Friulani continue to concede too many: they've now shipped 32 this season. There's a clear difference between how they start the second half of their games and how they finish them: they're often bright shortly after the restart before becoming disjointed towards the end.

This is backed up by the numbers: Udinese score most of their goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half (7/21 - 33%, the highest percentage across Serie A), a period where they also have the best defence with just one goal conceded. It's the opposite story in the final quarter of an hour, a timeframe where the Bianconeri have the worst defensive record (eight goals conceded). Both Udinese and AC Milan have players who like to take on their opponents. In fact, the Friulani and Rossoneri are the two teams who have completed the most dribbles: 200 for the Bianconeri (a 50.4% success rate from those attempted - a record in Serie A in 2023/24) and 174 for the Rossoneri (49.2%, the fourth-highest percentage).

PEREYRA A LEADER, LUCCA A CERTAINTY
An indispensable figure in Gabriele Cioffi's 3-5-1-1 formation, Roberto Pereyra is a real driving force in an Udinese side with a lot of new players, some of whom are very young. Pereyra has become a thorn in AC Milan's side and could write a small page in footballing history in the upcoming encounter. Indeed, the Argentine has contributed to a goal in each of his last four league games against the Rossoneri (two assists and two goals), including the winning penalty when the sides met at San Siro earlier on this campaign. He could join Antonio Di Natale in becoming the second player to record at least one goal contribution in five consecutive fixtures against the Diavolo in Serie A. Di Natale achieved this feat between 2008 and 2011 while playing for Udinese.

The attacking partner of "Tucu" is Lorenzo Lucca, who has been particularly impressive in the past few matchdays. Lucca is the Udinese player with the most goal contributions this Serie A season - eight (at least three more compared to any other teammate) - which equates to 38% of the Friulani's goals in the league so far. In general, out of all the players who have scored more than five goals and provided more than one assist in the league, only Joshua Zirkzee is younger than the Bianconeri centre-forward. Finally, the Rossoneri will have to keep a close eye on Sandi Lovric, who has been directly involved in four of Udinese's last five goals in Serie A (a goal and three assists). Last time out against Fiorentina, he found the net and set up a teammate to score in the same match for the first time in his top-flight career.

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