Udinese vs AC Milan 26/08/19
26 August 2019
AC Milan and Udinese will kick-off the 2019/20 Serie A (SA) campaign at Dacia Arena, with both sides looking to improve on their last season’s achievements.
Warming up for the new league season, the hosts have clinched a comfortable 3-1 home triumph over the lower-league side Sudtirol in Coppa Italia. Success against Sudtirol has coincided with Udinese’s strong finish to the last season that has seen them put together three SA wins. Although two of those victories have come away from home, all have seen the Bianconeri score two or more goals and concede at least one. What’s more, the Friulians have racked up an eight-game SA unbeaten run at home (W5, D3), with four of those triumphs being settled by a narrow one-goal margin in their favor. Hopeful that they can build on that purple patch, Udinese will now look to post their first win against Milan since 2017.
Meanwhile, even though they’ve secured four consecutive wins in the final stage of last SA campaign, the visitors have narrowly missed out on the top-four finish. Desperate to return to the Champions League, the Rossoneri will try to post their third consecutive SA away win and at the same time extend the unbeaten away streak against Udinese to three games (W1, D1). But, to do that, Marco Giampaolo will have to improve Milan’s game when away from home, as they collected just 28 of their total of 68 SA points last season on the road (41%). Another potential worry for the Milanese giants could be a lack of efficiency away from home, as they’ve scored one goal or less in five of their last six SA trips.