Udinese meet in Sunday afternoon’s match at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi, with both sides looking to put together some winning form on the back of recent league victories.
After winning their respective matches over Carpi (2-1) and Sampdoria (1-0), both the Gialloblu and Bianconeri Friuliani will be keen to notch a fifth win of the season which will see the victor close in on the top half of the Serie A table.
Chievo coach Rolando Maran will, arguably, be more desperate for the victory given his men’s narrow win over bottom placed Carpi stands as their only victory in eight Serie A fixtures.
Maran, however, may take confidence in the fact that his team has been resolute playing at home having lost just twice this season against Inter and Napoli respectively.
The Flying Donkeys will look to inflict a third straight loss on the road for the Zebrette, as coach Stefano Colantuono looks to build consistency having yet to record back-to-back victories this season.
In doing so, Colantuono will look for significant improvement in his attack with Udinese recording the second-least amount of goals in the league (11), only ahead of Hellas Verona (8).
In fact, the Bianconeri have recorded only three Serie A goals in over 450 minutes of football, with former Chievo forward Cyril Thereau one of their few positives upfront having notched 3 goals and 2 assists in this season’s Serie A.
The 32-year-old is likely to be joined upfront by young Uruguayan forward Rodrigo Aguirre, set to start just his second match of the season amidst the ongoing doubts around veteran Antonio Di Natale’s immediate playing future.
The sides were unable to be separated in both of last season’s outings with both fixtures finishing 1-1.
The Gialloblu will be close to full strength for Sunday’s encounter while their Udine counterparts are still without Guilherme, Duvan Zapata and Panagiotis Kone who remain on the sidelines.
A win for the understrength Udinese outfit would see them jump their weekend opponents on the table while a Chievo victory could move them as high as 8th position in the league.
Form Guide: Chievo (L-L-D-L-W) Udinese (W-L-D-L-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Chievo: Bizzarri; Frey, Cesar, Gamberini, Gobbi; Castro, Rigoni, Hetemaj; Birsa; Inglese, Meggiorini.
Udinese: Karnezis; Wague, Danilo, Felipe; Widmer, Edenilson, Badu, Lodi, Iturra; Thereau, Aguirre.
Infographic courtesy of sporticos.com
