AC Milan entertain Udinese tonight at San Siro hoping to return to winning ways after a recent run of three games without a victory.
Milan have played Udinese 103 times across all competitions in their history, winning 44 of those games with 37 draws and 22 defeats, leaving a win rate of 42.7%, while last season produced a 4-2 to the Rossoneri at home and a 3-1 for the Friulians at the Dacia Arena.
You can read our pre-match preview here, while below are the best stats ahead of the game…
➤ Udinese won their last Serie A encounter against Milan, after six matches without winning (D3 L3); the last time the Friulani won back-to-back games against the Rossoneri in the competition was in 2017.
➤ Milan are unbeaten in 15 of their last 16 Serie A home games against Udinese (W9 D6): the Friulians’ only win in this period came in September 2016, thanks to Stipe Perica’s goal.
➤ Since Stefano Pioli arrival at Milan, Udinese are the only team against which the Rossoneri have both always scored and conceded against in Serie A (13 netted, 11 conceded in seven games).
➤ Milan have only lost two of their last 25 Serie A matches against opponents starting a matchday in the bottom four (W18 D5) – both these defeats arrived in 2023: 0-2 against Spezia on May 13 and 2-5 against Sassuolo on January 29.
➤ Udinese are the fourth team to draw at least seven of the first 10 Serie A seasonal games (L3) in the three points for a win era, after Bari 1998/99 (7), Inter 2004-05 (8) and Cagliari 2006-07 (7); each of these three sides have also drawn their 11th seasonal match.
➤ Milan have won six of their last seven Serie A home games, losing their most recent one, 0-1 against Juventus; the last time the Rossoneri failed to score in back-to-back league matches on home soil was in January 2020, while the last time they lost consecutive games at San Siro was in September 2019, under Marco Giampaolo.
➤ Udinese have spent the joint-fewest minutes leading in away matches in Serie A this season: 15, alongside Hellas Verona; the Friulani have drawn four of their five away matches in Serie A this season (L1), two of those 0-0, having ended last term with five consecutive defeats on the road.
➤ Since Malick Thiaw made his Serie A debut (October 16, 2022), Milan have recorded an average of 2.3 points per game and conceded 0.7 goals per game with him and Fikayo Tomori together on the pitch. By comparison, they have averaged 1.3 points and 1.8 goals against per game without at least one of the two defenders in the competition.
➤ Since the start of 2023, no player has scored more headed goals than Olivier Giroud in the ‘top five’ European leagues (7, level with Erling Haaland and Harry Kane); the Frenchman has become the first Milan player on record (since 2004-05) to score as many headed goals in a single calendar year in Serie A, and is one away from equalling Victor Osimhen in 2022 (8).
➤ Lorenzo Lucca has scored two goals in his last four Serie A appearances, after failing to score in each of his previous six; the Udinese striker is only the second Italian player born since 1998 to find the net for the Friulani in the competition, after Destiny Udogie.
Dont let Pioli see this article cause he might do something to make this winning tradition of ours against Udine change this evening
You jinxed it.