Summit meeting for Udinese and Atlético

The top two in UEFA Europa League Group I meet on matchday three with Udinese Calcio and Club Atlético de Madrid taking four points each from their opening games. Previous meetings • The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition. • In Udinese's only games against a Spanish team, they lost 4-1 away and 2-0 at home against FC Barcelona in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. • Atlético's 15 games against Italian sides ended W7 D2 L6 (W2 D1 L3 in Italy). Atlético beat ACF Fiorentina after a replay in the 1962 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final, and overcame FC Internazionale Milano 2-0 in the 2010 UEFA Super Cup. Match background • Udinese won all three of their UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage home fixtures, having won both of their Stadio Friuli games (against Tottenham Hotspur FC and GNK Dinamo Zagreb) in 2008/09. • Atlético are unbeaten in five European away games – three wins and two draws. Their record in six UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage away games is W2 D3 L1. Team facts • Atlético are within two goals of conceding their 100th in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. This is their 88th game in the two competitions, their first being a September 1971 contest with Panionios GSS, when they ran out 2-1 victors. • Udinese midfielder Almen Abdi celebrates his 25th birthday the day after the game. • Atlético's Brazilian midfielder Diego played in Italy with Juventus in the 2009/10 season. He made a cameo appearance in a 1-0 Serie A home win against Udinese. • Atlético's Tiago Mendes played for Juventus from 2007 to 2009. He featured in a 1-0 home defeat by Udinese in the 2007/08 season. • Udinese boss Francesco Guidolin spent the bulk of his playing career with Hellas-Verona FC, representing the Veneto club in four separate spells. His coaching career included a stint in France as AS Monaco FC boss in 2005/06. Since then he has been in charge of US Città di Palermo (2007-08) and Parma FC (2008-10), taking over for a second spell at Udinese in 2010, 11 years after his first. • Udinese are one of five clubs Guidolin has led in Europe along with Vicenza Calcio, Bologna FC, Monaco and Palermo. He successfully guided Monaco through the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage but missed the cut with Palermo the following season. • A coach since his late 20s, Atlético boss Gregorio Manzano's most tangible achievement in football was leading RCD Mallorca to the 2002/03 Spanish Cup. He took over at Atlético for a second time in the summer after a spell at Sevilla FC, who gave him a belated first taste of UEFA competition in the 2010/11 season.