On Friday evening Udinese and Lecce will meet for the 34th time in Serie A. Up to this point in time the Zebrette have beaten the Giallorossi 19 times, while losing on 11 occasions and drawing three matches. The last two encounters between the two teams have both ended with a victory and clean sheet for Udinese: 1-0 in Udine on 5 October and 2-0 in Lecce on 13 May, the third of the last four matches played at the Via del Mare in which Udinese have kept a clean sheet. The most common score between the two teams is 2-1 to Udinese, but this hasn't happened since 1 February 2012, while the last – and only – draw at the Via del Mare between the Friulians and the Salentini dates back even further, to 19 October 2008.
Udinese have won two of their last three games, as many as they had achieved in their previous 13, and on Friday could win two games in a row for the first time since the early stages of this season. The 33 points picked up so far by Kosta Runjaic's team is the club’s best record at this stage in the last 11 seasons – tied with the 2017/18 campaign – and if they were to win they would reach the milestone of 36 points on Matchday 26, just one point fewer than the last Udinese side who qualified for Europe. Udinese have recorded three clean sheets in 2025 - only Genoa have a better record – the same as Lecce.
Udinese and Lecce share the record for the percentage of successful crosses (25% and 27% respectively, with Kingsley Ehizibue and Hassane Kamara registering 32% individually), but in several other statistics the two sides are at opposite ends of the spectrum: Udinese have scored seven goals from corners (second-best in Serie A), six goals from outside the area (second-best in Serie A) and have had 14 different players get on the scoresheet (also second-best in Serie A), while Lecce are second to last or last in all of these three stats, with two goals from corners, two goals from outside the area and only five different goalscorers. Udinese have scored 28% of their goals from headers - a division record - and have scored 12 goals from crosses, the best figure in Serie A on par with Atalanta and Inter.
If he finds the net against Lecce, Lorenzo Lucca could reach double figures for the first time in the top flight, while Jurgen Ekkelenkamp could score in three consecutive games for the first time in his career. The last Udinese midfielder to do so was Argentine star Rodrigo De Paul back in the 2019/20 season. Florian Thauvin has already reached his record for goals in a single Serie A season (six) and it was against Lecce that he scored his first goal in the Italian top flight, in the 1-1 draw on 23 October 2023. Jordan Zemura and Alexis Sanchez have also already scored against Lecce while playing for the Zebrette: the former did so in the first meeting of the season, while the latter did so on 19 October 2008, more than 16 years ago.
Since his arrival at the club Oumar Solet has completed more dribbles than any other defender in Serie A (12 out of 15), while Razvan Sava ranks second among the goalkeepers in Serie A for number of saves: 37, three fewer than Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.