Udinese are set to face Cremonese in their next league fixture, with the game kicking off at 15:00 CEST on Sunday 23 April. Here’s how the two sides have matched up in their previous games.
The two teams have drawn six out of their nine matches against each other in Serie A, with Udinese picking up two wins and Cremonese one. Six out of their last seven head-to-heads have ended in a draw, including their most recent league meeting in October, which finished 0-0. The Friulian side have lost just one of these nine matches in Serie A, when they fell to a 0-2 defeat on 19 May 1985, with goals from Giancarlo Finardi and Marco Torresani for the Grigiorossi. The last time Udinese beat them in Serie A was on 17 September 1995, when Alberto Zaccheroni’s side won 3-2 against Luigi Simoni’s Cremonese team. Oliver Bierhoff bagged a brace and Paolo Poggi got another for Udinese, while Riccardo Maspero and Matjaz Florijancic got them for the visitors.
Udinese have never lost at home against Cremonese in Serie A, with a record of two wins and two draws. Counting all goals together in those matches, the score would be 9-6, with an average of 3.8 goals per game. Both home matches where it was their second encounter of the season ended in a draw (1-1 in March 1990 and 3-3 in April 1994).
In the second half of this Serie A season, Udinese and Cremonese have achieved the same number of points (11 in 11 games).
Andrea Sottil has faced Cremonese four times in Serie A and B, with an evenly balanced record: one win, one loss and two draws (including the 0-0 draw in October). This will, however, be the first meeting between Sottil and Davide Ballardini in the topflight. Ballardini has come up against Udinese 10 times in Serie A, registering three wins, four defeats and three draws. He has, however, never lost at Dacia Arena in the league, picking up one win and two draws.
Referee Francesco Fourneau has taken charge of 33 Serie A matches in his career, with seven of them this season. Udinese have not won any of the four league matches where he has been at the helm, registering two defeats and two draws. Cremonese lost both their matches where he was refereeing. Both of them were away from home, losing 3-1 to Inter last August and 3-2 to Sassuolo in March.
Both teams have three players who are one booking away from suspension on Sunday: Sandi Lovric, Isaac Success and Destiny Udogie for Udinese, and Luka Lochoshvili, David Okereke and Leonardo Sernicola for Cremonese.