Sitting tied on points at the top of Group I, both Udinese and Atletico Madrid are looking to make a giants step towards the knockout stages by winning at Friuli.

Despite staying without Alexis Sanchez, Gokhan Inler and Christian Zapata this summer, Udinese have been in impressive form at the start to the season.

The Friulani were unlucky to be eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal, but they soon returned to the right track and are now on a nine-match unbeaten run.

Francesco Guidolin’s side are currently joint leaders of Serie A and are determined to do well on domestic stage, which is why the boss has used Europa League to rest some of his star players and he already stated that he plans to do that again against Atletico.

The Zebrette managed to bring one point from Celtic Park despite the fact that Guidolin had field a very young side, but another such experiment would probably come back to haunt them against Atletico.

Udinese are 2.50 (3/2) with Bet365 to win this game, but given the circumstances, the odds don’t represent a real value for money.

Probable starting line-up (3-4-1-2): Handanovic – Ekstrand, Benatia, Neuton – Basta, Agyemang-Badu, Pinzi, Armero – Abdi – Floro Flores, Fabbrini.

Unlike Udinese, Atletico Madrid have big ambitions in Europa League as they rarely get the opportunity to reach the closing stages of a European competition.

Los Colchoneros have invested significant funds into new signings this summer, with the arrivals of Falcao, Diego, Turan, to name just a few, improving the quality of the squad, but Gregorio Manzano’s side have yet to hit the ground running.

After scoring goals for fun at the start to the season, Atletico have scored just one goal in last four games, which is clearly a cause for concern.

Following goalless draws against Sevilla and Granada in La Liga, los Colchoneros are very motivated to return to winning ways and they are now looking to take advantage of the fact that Udinese will not take this game very seriously.

Considering that Gregorio Manzano is expected to field a very strong line-up, odds of 2.88 (17/9) offered by Victor Chandler on away win do look tempting.

Arda Turan, Eduardo Salvio, Silvio and Antonio Lopez miss out through injury, whereas keeper Sergio Asenjo was left out for technical reasons.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Courtois – Perea, Godin, Dominguez, Filipe Luis – Diego, Tiago, Gabi, Reyes – Falcao, Adrian.