Parma and Udinese meet at the Stadio Ennio Tardini on Wednesday 28 October at 18.30, and both sides need points badly. Parma are 19th in Serie A with 4 points after 8 matches, while Udinese are 17th on the same total. It is a game between two low-scoring teams with pressure on both benches.

Parma's attacking problem

Parma have scored only 5 league goals and conceded 15 in Serie A this season. That gives them the division's weakest attack so far, and it leaves little room to waste the home advantage they get here. A win would not solve everything, but it would at least give Alberto Gilardino something solid to build on.

The wider concern is that Parma have only one win, one draw and six defeats. Their league position is bad enough already, and the shortage of goals makes it hard to see them controlling matches for long spells. Even in a fixture like this, they may need to keep things compact first and trust that one chance can be enough.

Udinese's slump under Kosta Runjaic

Udinese arrive with a very different kind of pressure. They have lost six straight matches and failed to score in three of those games, including their last two home defeats to Lecce and Milan. Before that slide, they had started the season unbeaten in four matches across all competitions, so the drop-off has been sharp.

Sky Sport Italia says Kosta Runjaic could recall Nicolo Zaniolo from the start alongside Ekkelenkamp behind Davis. Zaniolo has only 3 Serie A appearances and 162 league minutes this season, so any return to the line-up would be about finding a bit more threat without throwing the shape out of balance.

Sports Mole's prediction desk expects the home side to have the edge, saying: "Home advantage could therefore prove decisive as the Emilians condemn the Little Zebras to a seventh successive defeat and potentially end Runjaic's tenure." That is a strong prediction, though the more immediate point is simpler, because Udinese have 4 points and are close enough to the bottom three themselves to feel the weight of this result before kick-off.

The matchday 9 meeting is exactly the kind of game that can shape the bottom half of the table early. Parma need their first goalscoring edge to show up at home, and Udinese need their losing run to stop before it turns this into a deeper crisis.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →