Sassuolo will be looking to continue their excellent start to the 2020-21 Serie A season when they welcome a struggling Udinese on Friday night.

The home side have picked up 14 points from their first six matches of the campaign to occupy second position in the table, while Udinese currently sit 18th, having struggled for form early in the season.

Match preview

Sassuolo manager Roberto De Zerbi pictured in July 2020 © Reuters

Sassuolo's form in the early weeks of the 2020-21 Serie A campaign has been excellent, winning four and drawing two of their six matches to collect 14 points, which is enough for second spot in the table.

I Neroverdi are the leading scorers in Italy's top flight thus far with 18 goals, while they will enter this match off the back of an excellent 2-0 victory away to Napoli last weekend.

Roberto De Zerbi's side finished eighth in Serie A last season, which was their highest placing at this level of football since claiming sixth in 2015-16.

The early indications are that Sassuolo could push high up the table once again, although they have two potentially tricky matches against Udinese and Hellas Verona before back-to-back fixtures against Inter Milan and Roma in late November and early December.

The Black and Greens will enter Friday's match in a confident mood, but they lost both Serie A games against Udinese last season and have not actually triumphed in this fixture since March 2018.

Udinese manager Luca Gotti pictured in July 2020 © Reuters

Udinese, meanwhile, are currently in the relegation zone, winning just one of their six matches - suffering five defeats in the process - during a tough start.

Luca Gotti's side lost their first three league games of the campaign before beating Parma, but they have since lost against Fiorentina and AC Milan to remain in a disappointing position in the table.

Udinese have really struggled in Italy's top flight since finishing fourth, third and fifth between 2010 and 2013. Indeed, they have been a bottom-half side over the last few years and actually ended the 2015-16 campaign in 17th, only avoiding relegation to the second tier by a single point.

The White and Blacks will be determined to return to winning ways in this game as a defeat would place more pressure on them ahead of their next game against Genoa after the international break, while the month of November ends with a difficult fixture at Lazio.

Sassuolo Serie A form: DWWWDW

Udinese Serie A form: LLLWLL

Team News

Jeremie Boga pictured for Sassuolo in October 2019 © Reuters

Sassuolo will be without Filip Djuricic, Lukas Haraslin and Federico Ricci following recent positive coronavirus tests, while Jeremy Toljan is still a doubt despite recently testing negative for the virus.

Domenico Berardi, Francesco Caputo and Vlad Chiriches are also all doubts due to injury problems, meaning that the home side will be far from at full strength for this game.

Jeremie Boga will again feature in the final third of the field, while Hamed Junior Traore and Giacomo Raspadori should also keep their spots following their displays against Napoli.

As for Udinese, Walace and Mamadou Coulibaly have joined Rolando Mandragora and Mato Jajalo on the injury list, and Goti is set to make changes from the side that lost at home to Milan last time out.

Stefano Okaka is again expected to feature in the final third of the field, but there could be an alteration in attack with Kevin Lasagna potentially earning a starting role.

Rodrigo De Paul, who was strongly linked with Leeds United over the summer, will again feature in midfield, but Gerard Deulofeu could drop to the bench for Friday's clash.

Sassuolo possible starting lineup:
Consigli; Ayhan, Marlon, Ferrari; Muldur, Locatelli, Lopez, Rogerio; Traore, Boga; Raspadori

Udinese possible starting lineup:
Musso; Becao, De Maio, Samir; Larsen, De Paul, Arslan, Pereyra, Pussetto; Okaka, Lasagna

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We say: Sassuolo 1-0 Udinese

Sassuolo will be far from at full strength for Friday's contest, but Udinese's form has been really disappointing this season, and it is very difficult to back the visitors here. We are expecting a close game but believe that De Zerbi's side will continue their strong start to the campaign with another three points.

Top betting tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 1.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.

Data Analysis

Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sassuolo win with a probability of 47.79%. A win for Udinese had a probability of 29.32% and a draw had a probability of 22.9%.

The most likely scoreline for a Sassuolo win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.31%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.44%) and 2-0 (6.75%). The likeliest Udinese win was 1-2 (7.08%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.26%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 4.1% likelihood.