Lecce – Udinese: pressure at the Via del Mare for Lecce 
Eight games without a win, a toothless attack and the drop zone breathing down their neck. Lecce welcome Udinese on Sunday in an atmosphere that feels heavy and claustrophobic. The hosts are playing with fire after scoring just twice since the turn of the year. Udinese come here buoyed by two straight wins and sitting comfortably in the top half. Two opposite runs, the same desperate need for points. That’s the set-up.
Lecce: silence in front of goal is getting deafening 
Still pointless in 2026, Lecce slipped back last weekend with a narrow 1-0 loss in Turin to a Torino side that’s hardly firing on all cylinders. A draw against Lazio a few days earlier bought a bit of air and stopped a run of four straight defeats — but that felt like a false dawn.
The table tells the blunt truth. Seventeenth and a whisker from relegation, Lecce are walking a tightrope. The real issue is obvious: the attack has dried up. Four games without a goal, 13 all season — the worst tally in Serie A. Since January they’ve taken just two points from seven matches. It’s a freefall.
Rescue might have to come at the Via del Mare, but the numbers don’t help. Two wins in 12 home matches and a recent hoodoo against Udinese — four defeats in the last five home meetings. Sunday will take more than a raucous crowd to change this.
Udinese: a smooth-running unit 
While Lecce hunt for a spark, Udinese have been steady. The Bianconeri have got their mojo back with two wins on the spin: a convincing 3-1 at Verona, then a tight but priceless 1-0 at home to Roma. Jurgen Ekkelenkamp’s deflected free kick did the damage and dropped a top-four hopeful, leaving Udinese ninth on 32 points.
In the last dozen seasons they’ve only once had a better return at this stage. Win on Sunday and it’ll be their best points haul after 24 games since 2013. Kosta Runjaic has put together a compact, hard-to-break unit. The aim is simple: finish safely in mid-table with no scares.
There’s another nugget that matters. Udinese have won the last four meetings with Lecce, home and away, including that flashy 3-2 in October. After two away wins, they can even eye a third straight road victory — a feat they haven’t managed since 2022. Not nothing.
Likely lineups
Lecce : Falcone ; Veiga, Gabriel, Siebert, Gallo ; Coulibaly, Ramadani ; Pierotti, Gandelman, Banda ; Cheddira
Udinese : Okoye ; Bertola, Kristensen, Solet ; Ehizibue, Atta, Karlstrom, Ekkelenkamp, Zemura ; Zaniolo ; Bayo
Football Prediction Lecce vs Udinese
Lecce or Draw
On paper everything points to Udinese. Form, confidence, recent history — all tick the boxes. But Lecce are playing for their lives and can’t afford to be cute. If the Salentini finally break this scoring drought, they’ve got a defense that’s conceded only twice in the last four matches and could frustrate the visitors. Expect fight, tension and sweat. Nights at the Via del Mare often come down to grit more than rankings.
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