Udinese

Udinese sit in Serie A this season the way they usually do. The club has made a habit of that kind of season, and a second-place finish in 1954–55 remains its high point in Italy's top flight — the closest it has come to the title.

Below that level, the trophy room has more to show: two Serie B titles, in 1924–25 and 1978–79, a Serie C title in 1929–30, and the Intertoto Cup in 2000.

No name carries more weight at Stadio Friuli than Antonio Di Natale's. He captained the side from 2007 to 2016, finished as its all-time top scorer, and was still leading the line when Udinese reached the Champions League for the first time. Oliver Bierhoff had his own moment two decades earlier, scoring 27 goals in the 1996–97 season to drag the club into the UEFA Cup.

Matches against Triestina carry a name of their own, the Derby del Nord-Est, and a plain fact behind it: Udinese and Triestina are the only two clubs from Friuli-Venezia Giulia ever to have played in Serie A.

The club traces back to 30 November 1896, when it started life in Udine as the Società Udinese di Ginnastica e Scherma, a gymnastics and fencing society with no football section at all. Football did not break away under its own name until 1911, and the club would change its name three more times before settling, in 1978, on Udinese Calcio.