Cesena extended their winless run to seven games as they lost to Napoli away and they thus stayed deep in the relegation zone. Udinese, on the other hand, remained very close to the top of the standings after beating Sampdoria, so the Zebrette will fancy their chances in this clash.

Is there a way out for Cesena?

Cesena couldn’t have wished for a better start to the season after gaining promotion from Serie B as the Cavallucci Marini brought one point from away game with Roma before beating Milan and Lecce at home, but little did they know that their season would soon go in completely different direction. Once the excitement subsided Cesena started showing their real face and it didn’t take long for them to slip to the relegation zone, where they still are. Cesena are indeed just two points behind safety, but after filing to win any of their last seven league games, their survival chances don’t look too good at the moment. Having scored just 17 goals so far, it was little wonder coach Massimo Ficcadenti was eager to sign a new striker in January, but he wasn’t granted the wish, meaning Bogdani and Giaccherini will continue in attack, despite scoring the total of 8 goals between them.

The hosts have major selection worries as key midfielder Luis Gimenez is suspended, while Dominique Malonga, David Santon, Paolo Hernan Dellafiore and Fabio Caserta remain doubtful for this clash.

Red hot Udinese

Udinese have established themselves as genuine mid table team long time ago and with the club’s main orientation being the development of talented players, odd as it may sound, the results were never the priority for Zebrette. The team always did enough to escape the relegation battle, while promoting several talented youngsters along the way, so with that in mind, their results this season look thoroughly impressive. The mere fact Udinese are just nine points behind leaders Milan after 24 rounds shows how well Francesco Guidolin’s team have been playing this term. Having recorded five wins in last seven games, beating Inter, Genoa, Juventus and Sampdoria in the process, while sharing spoils with Milan at San Siro, Udinese are definitely the team to beat, and they definitely look like a good bet against struggling Cesena.

Emanuele Belardi is likely to deputize for the injured keeper Samir Handanovic, but the most important thing is that impressive Alexis Sanchez and Antonio Di Natale will start up front.

Verdict

Cesena are all over the place at the moment and the hosts are under big pressure to win this game, but I just don’t see how they are going to do that. With Udinese scoring at least two goals in nine of their last ten games, the hosts will have to score at least two in order to get something from the match, which is highly unlikely to happen seeing they have scored the total of 17 goals in 24 games so far. Therefore, I see a great value in away win.

Our prediction: Away win

Odds: 2.10 (11/10)

Bookmaker: Sports Interaction