Prior to this Sunday, Udinese had faced Lecce 36 times in Serie A, winning 21 matches, losing 12 and drawing just three. Their most recent encounter ended in a 2-1 victory for the Puglians at the Stadio Via del Mare last February, while the previous meeting at Bluenergy Stadium resulted in a 3-2 win for the Zebrette. Udinese have lost only once at home to Lecce in the last 20 years (a 2-1 home defeat in July 2020) and have failed to score in only one of their 18 home encounters against them (a 1-0 loss in December 2001).
Udinese are determined to get a win, having not picked up all three points since defeating Monza in late August. What’s more, they haven’t won on home soil since beating Torino back at the end of the 2025/26 season.
In attack, coach Kosta Runjaic can rely on Jurgen Ekkelenkamp’s talents. He recently got his third goal of the current campaign and has become the Udinese player with the most goal involvements in 2026, with seven goals and four assists. Only Adrien Rabiot has performed better this calendar year in Serie A. Their opponents, Lecce, currently sit two points ahead of the Zebrette in the league table but have proven particularly vulnerable in the first half-hour of play, having conceded seven goals during that period so far. Lecce have scored six goals this campaign, four of which were headers, and, alongside Udinese and Inter, they lead the league in goals scored from corner kicks (three).
As for the opposition’s players, goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone stands out as the player with the most saves in Serie A (31), while Amar Fatah ranks third in successful dribbles (13), more than half of which came during their most recent match against Bologna. Lecce will surely and sorely remember Jesper Karlstrom, Keinan Davis and Oumar Solet, all of whom scored against them last season. It was our captain’s first goal for the club, in what was his 45th appearance. In last Monday’s game against Torino, Lazar Jovanovic and David Alaba made their Serie A debuts for Udinese, with Alaba becoming the first Austrian to play for the club since Roman Schramseis Jr. back in the 1947/48 season. Speaking of debuts, Lecce manager Eusebio Di Francesco made his own Serie A managerial debut in a match between his current side and Udinese back in 2011.