Udinese vs Roma

Roma’s bid to secure European football for next season continues on Monday as they travel to Dacia Arena to take on bottom-half Udinese.

Udinese’s hopes of ensuring Serie A survival received a boost last time out as they squeezed past fellow relegation rivals Sampdoria 2-1 at home to end a run of three league games without winning (D2, L1). ‘I Friulani’ now face the prospect of racking up back-to-back Serie A victories for the first time under current boss Gabriele Cioffi. Yet, after failing to get on the scoresheet in the last 282 minutes of Serie A football against Roma, Udinese will doubt their chances here. By extension, they have suffered a staggering 15 defeats across their previous 17 top-flight meetings with Roma (W2), frustratingly drawing a blank on ten occasions in the process. What’s more, Udinese have lost seven of their last eight Serie A H2Hs at Dacia Arena, scoring just twice in that period.

Meanwhile, fresh from a 1-0 first-leg win at Vitesse in the first leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 tie, Roma will hope to pick up where they left off in Serie A. ‘I Giallorossi’ have won both previous league matches by the identical 1-0 scoreline, with head coach Jose Mourinho seemingly back to his old habits. ‘Kill off the entertainment’ has been Roma’s policy of late, as four of their last six outings across all competitions have seen one or both sides fail to score in fixtures featuring under 2.5 goals. However, Mourinho’s defensive approach has paid dividends as the visitors head into proceedings unbeaten in their last seven Premier League matches (W4, D3). Avoiding defeat in Udine would see Roma go unbeaten in eight Serie A games for the first time since August 2020.