2026/2027 season

Serie A

Team page
Serie A · Team page
Udinese
Head coach: Kosta Runjaić · Défense à trois avec supériorité numérique au milieu ; les sources divergent sur le libellé exact du système (3-4-2-1 selon tuttoudinese.it, 3-5-2 selon betfair.it).
Rank
15th
Pts
4
P
7
Form
🟠 Poor

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings
5/10
Attack
2/10
Defence
2/10
Form
4/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High

15th with 4 pts from 7 matches: 1 win, 1 draw, 5 defeats.

9 goals scored, 15 conceded.

Good afternoon and welcome to the live narrative of the Series A football game that faces the Udinese against the Lecce corresponding to Day 7. From the Sports World, we offer you all the coverage minute to minute, the previous, the alignations, the best games and goals of the encounter and the result with all the reactions to the post match.

Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

"Now we must defend better, create opportunities and turn them into goals"

ANSA Sport · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Runjaic's boys host the training in the lunch match of the 7ª at Bluenergy Stadium

Tuttosport · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The Turkish midfielder, who accused a muscle problem, underwent instrumental examinations: this is when he can return to the field

Tuttosport · 14 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches
⚠ This team's latest match may not be reflected below yet (football-data.org can lag slightly between the table and the match details) — the table's points/goals are up to date, but momentum, rest and the home/away split may be one match behind. Run a refresh again in a few minutes if needed.
Lvs Torino FC (A) · 1-2
Lvs Cagliari Calcio (H) · 0-1
Lvs FC Internazionale Milano (A) · 3-5
Lvs SS Lazio (H) · 1-2
Wvs AC Monza (A) · 3-2
WDLLLLL
9 scored / 15 conceded over 7 matches played
Rest: 6 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
0W - 1D - 2L
Away form
1W - 0D - 2L
Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match
1.6
Goals conceded per match
2.4
At home
1 scored · 3 conceded in 2 matches
Away
7 scored · 9 conceded in 3 matches
Over 2.5 goals
4 of 5
Both teams score
4 of 5
Clean sheets
0 of 5
Failed to score
1 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How Udinese play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity
Preferred system
Défense à trois avec supériorité numérique au milieu ; les sources divergent sur le libellé exact du système (3-4-2-1 selon tuttoudinese.it, 3-5-2 selon betfair.it).
Philosophy
A block built around a back three and attacking wing-backs (Vojvoda, Kamara), with a great deal of freedom of movement given to Ekkelenkamp between the lines.
Attacking strengths
The Davis-Zaniolo duo presented by tuttoudinese.it as one of the league's most prolific pairings; in fact, the matchday 2 goals came from midfield (Piotrowski, Kamara, Ekkelenkamp against Monza).
Defensive solidity
A department seen as fragile (“dietro si balla un po'” according to tuttoudinese.it); 3 goals conceded in 2 matchdays (1-1 against Como, 3-2 against Monza).
Pressing
A tactical analysis from tuttoudinese.it (30/08/2026) describes selective rather than full pressing: the team willingly drops its block and cedes territory to the opposition, but triggers targeted, aggressive pressure in certain zones or on opposition errors (Kamara's goal stemmed from an immediate turnover after a Mout build-up error); an editorial from the same site confirms the existence of a “pressing alto in fase di non possesso”, which led to Piotrowski's opener.
Transitions
Attacking transitions are identified as Udinese's strong point, with a systematic search for depth immediately after winning the ball back (“attaccare immediatamente gli spazi”, “sfruttare ogni squilibrio avversario”) and effective progression despite having less possession at Monza (47.98% against 52.02%); the tuttoudinese.it editorial (30/08/2026) does, however, note at least two poorly handled counter-attacks that deserved a better outcome.
StrengthAttacking full-backs (Vojvoda, Kamara) providing depth, freedom of movement for Ekkelenkamp between the lines, stability of the project with Runjaic beginning his 3rd consecutive season in charge.
WeaknessUnstable defence, Zaniolo absent (strained right adductor) until after the international break, and the captain's armband still not assigned following the departures of Bijol and Thauvin.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood
Squad confidence
The Friuli side's start to the season is holding up: four points in the league and a Coppa Italia qualification snatched after falling behind, 2-1 against Venezia thanks to a Vakoun Bayo brace. Runjaić stressed the “stability” his squad showed, while pointing to phases of the match still to be improved. The dressing room takes the same line, with Christian Kabasele saying that “the defence must be a strength of this team” after a laboured start. The close of the window is experienced as a relief by a head coach who repeats that “the road is set” and that every player knows his role.
Coach / players / board relationship
The Pozzo model is broadly endorsed this summer by the local press, which judges that Friuli's real success is not an arrival but a retention: Oumar Solet was kept despite concrete interest from Crystal Palace, and Runjaić himself named him the window's genuine coup, alongside keeping Zaniolo and Davis. The sales of Atta and Kristensen generated the usual profits without dismantling the spine. The head coach publicly welcomed the close of the window, seeing it as the condition for calmer work. No disagreement between staff and board is reported.
Mood with the supporters
The European chant of the three thousand supporters present at the summer presentation still hangs over an encouraging start to the season, and the Coppa Italia qualification secured at the Bluenergy Stadium provided the Friuli public with further satisfaction. The draw now sends Udinese to face Atalanta in the last 16, a fixture that should mobilise. In the league, hosting Lazio on Monday 7 September at 20:45 is the next home fixture. The gap persists between popular expectations and the staff's deliberate caution.
Pressure on the head coach
Kosta Runjaić keeps up a deliberately moderating message despite the results: after the win at Monza, he had already reframed expectations by setting survival as the priority, and he continued in that vein after the cup qualification by underlining what remains to be improved. His handling of players returning from injury is methodical, as the case of Keinan Davis shows, eased back in the cup before an announced start against Lazio. Losing Nicolò Zaniolo for around a month deprives him of a major attacking option. No pressure is being applied to him by the board or by the local press.
Club objectives
Survival remains the objective officially set by the head coach, with a first milestone of forty points, but the club has added a cup ambition: the last-16 tie against Atalanta offers a concrete prospect. Runjaić insists on the project's continuity — “the road is set and we do not want to change it” — and on the clarity of roles within a squad that kept its best players. The local press does point to one limitation: the absence of a reliable deputy to Keinan Davis up front, with Gueye still needing to develop and Bayo unconvincing so far, even if his brace in the cup changes the perspective.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension is reported, and the mood is in fact particularly calm since the window closed. The only real subject is medical, with Zaniolo's strain ruling him out for around a month and young Matteo Palma unavailable for two to three weeks. Kabasele spoke sympathetically about the difficult period Bayo went through after the Como match, a sign of a dressing room attentive to players who are struggling. The debate about the European objective, driven by the public and by president Pozzo, remains the only difference in message with a deliberately cautious staff.
Absences
InjuredNicolò Zaniolo — Right thigh strain sustained against Como; around a month out, with a return targeted for 10 October.
InjuredMatteo Palma — Out for two to three weeks according to the medical update of 25 August.
BackKeinan Davis — Recovered and eased back in the Coppa Italia; Runjaić plans to start him against Lazio.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

Udinese — Milan

At homeSunday 25 October at 20:45Matchday 8
In 7 days. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says

No preview found for this fixture. The press mostly covers the big games, and usually the day before.

Prediction
EstimateUdinese — Milan
20 %
1 · Udinese
22 %
X · draw
58 %
2 · Milan
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 7 matches played by Udinese, 6 matches by Milan. Confidence: medium
The match details of at least one of the two teams may be one match behind at football-data.org — the home/away split and the home advantage may depend on it.
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
  1. League average. 187 goals scored over 130 team-matches played (20 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.44 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
  2. Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
    TeamGoalsRawKept
    Udinese — attack9 in 7 matches0.890.94
    Udinese — defence15 in 7 matches1.491.26
    Milan — attack11 in 6 matches1.271.14
    Milan — defence5 in 6 matches0.580.79
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.54 for Udinese and 0.50 for Milan. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
  3. Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.65 goal scored on average by the host against 1.33 by the visitor, over the 52 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.24; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.44, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.10. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
  4. Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
    Udinese at home: 0.33 pts/match versus 0.67 overall over 3 matches → ×0.880
    Milan away: 1.50 pts/match versus 2.00 overall over 4 matches → ×0.917
  5. Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
    λUdinese = 1.44 × 0.94 × 0.79 × 1.10 × 0.880 = 1.04
    λMilan = 1.44 × 1.14 × 1.26 × 0.917 = 1.89
  6. Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 20.4%, draw 22.2%, away win 57.4% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-1 (only 10.5%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
  • It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
  • The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
  • γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
  • The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
  • No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers
  • Maduka Okoye
  • Bartosz Mrozek
  • Daniele Padelli
  • Edoardo Piana
Defenders
  • Saba Goglichidze
  • Hassane Kamara
  • Nicolò Bertola
  • James Abankwah
  • Matteo Palma
  • Branimir Mlačić
  • Mërgim Vojvoda
  • Christian Kabasele
  • Oumar Solet
  • Alessandro Zanoli
  • Enzo Ebosse
Midfielders
  • Sandi Lovrić
  • Oier Zarraga
  • Jesper Karlström
  • Nicolò Zaniolo
  • Juan Arizala
  • Jakub Piotrowski
  • Giorgi Chakvetadze
  • Jurgen Ekkelenkamp
  • Lennon Miller
  • Unai Gómez
  • David Pejičić
Forwards
  • Idrissa Gueye
  • Keinan Davis
  • Vakoun Bayo
  • Giulio Vinciati
This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.
Squad last verified on 31 Aug 2026 — source: corrieredellosport.it/squadra/calcio/udinese/rosa (squad, cross-checked with besoccer.com/team/squad/udinese/2027); tuttoudinese.it (captaincy status).

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
Udinese - Lecce, live - 124; Series A
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss18 Oct 2026
Serie A: Udinese-Lecce in campo alle 12.30 DIRETTA
Source: ANSA Sport
rss17 Oct 2026
Football: Runjaic, the situation of Udinese is not beautiful but not even desperate
Source: ANSA Sport
rss16 Oct 2026
Serie A: Udinese-Lecce in campo Sunday alle 12.30 DIRETTA
Source: ANSA Sport
rss12 Oct 2026
Torino wins Udinese with ex-Sporting Daniel Bragança highlighted
Source: Notícias ao Minuto — Desporto
rss16 Oct 2026
Udinese-Lecce: likely formations and direct. Where to see on TV and streaming
Source: Tuttosport
European competition3 Sep 2026
That qualification earns Udinese a Coppa Italia last-16 tie against Atalanta, the date of which had not yet been announced.
Source: Tutto Udinese
Result2 Sep 2026
Udinese qualified for the Coppa Italia last 16 by turning the tie around against Venezia 2-1 at the Bluenergy Stadium: behind as early as the 8th minute to a Sagrado goal following a Correia cross, the Friuli side equalised through a Vakoun Bayo header from a Vojvoda cross (34) before the Ivorian doubled the lead (53) after pressing from Arizala and a pass from Davis.
Source: Tutto Udinese
Head coach2 Sep 2026
Kosta Runjaić was pleased with the performance: “I am happy with the team's performance, I am happy for Bayo. We showed a certain stability, we have to improve in certain phases of the match.” He explained that Keinan Davis needed minutes to regain sharpness and plans to start him against Lazio, and welcomed the close of the window: “The road is set and we do not want to change it, every player knows what his role is.”
Source: Tutto Udinese
Club2 Sep 2026
Christian Kabasele, who like Bertola was playing his first match of the season, defended the collective at his press conference: after a difficult thirty minutes, he judged that the team had put things right and hammered home that “the defence must be a strength of this team”. He also praised Bayo's response, having “not had easy days after Como”, concluding that “hard work always pays”.
Source: Tutto Udinese
Club2 Sep 2026
In its assessment of the window, the local press believes the real Friuli coup of the summer is not an arrival but a retention: keeping Oumar Solet despite concrete interest from Crystal Palace, presented by Runjaić himself as the window's genuine success, alongside those of Zaniolo and Davis. The sales of Atta and Kristensen generated large profits, but the absence of a reliable deputy to Davis is still flagged as the main limitation.
Source: Tutto Udinese
Other2 Sep 2026
Udinese v Lazio, on Monday 7 September at 20:45, has been handed to referee Tremolada, with Maggioni on VAR.
Source: Toro.it
Result1 Sep 2026
A fine performance on matchday 2 with a 3-2 win at Monza, which takes the Friuli side to four points.
Source: Calcio Casteddu
Result30 Aug 2026
Udinese won 3-2 at Monza (goals from Piotrowski, Kamara and Ekkelenkamp) on matchday 2 of Serie A, but Runjaic immediately reset expectations by setting salvezza as the priority objective rather than Europe.
Source: tuttoudinese.it
Injury28 Aug 2026
Nicolò Zaniolo is suffering from a strained right adductor picked up against Como and will be out until after the international break; Runjaic admitted he may have played him a little too much.
Source: Sky Sport
Injury26 Aug 2026
Zaniolo, who said “I have pulled something” as he came off, will therefore miss Lazio's visit; Runjaić does, however, get back Keinan Davis, previously unavailable.
Source: Città Celeste
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.