Lazio destroyed Sampdoria 5-1 in their previous league game. Ciro Immobile once again proved his worth, with the experienced attacker scoring a hat-trick against La Samp, and, of course, all eyes will be on him in the Rome derby.
The Giallorossi, on the other hand, did well to beat Genoa 3-1 on the road, with the team retaining their spot in the top four. Edin Dzeko scored his 8th goal of the season in the victory over the Rossoblu, meaning that the opposition defenders should have him trapped. The excellent news for Paulo Fonseca’s team is that outstanding defender Aleksandar Kolarov returns from suspension. Anyway, given the attacking potential of the two clubs, both teams to score bet should be considered.
Match Predictions
In addition to boasting the all-time Serie A (SA) H2H advantage of the local rivals, Roma have won 60% of the last ten top-flight meetings against their capital city enemies (W55, D59, L39). Each of those wins saw Roma reach half-time with a clean sheet, after a first-half producing under 1.5 total goals.
A win for Roma would be their third straight H2H league win as the designated home side, with the last two seeing them win the second half 2-1. In turn, if treated individually, five of the last six halves of H2H top-flight action (either club as the ‘home’ side) have seen one team win by a one-goal margin.
Lazio won a designated ‘away’ derby in SA as recently as April 2017 and may fancy their chances of repeating that, having won their last five SA away games by a 2-1 scoreline. The last two saw them come from behind (after conceding inside 20 minutes), while four of them yielded a 1-1 half-time score.
Each of Lazio’s last five SA away wins have also seen them score the decisive winner beyond the 80th minute. Additionally, they have managed to score at the same late stage in four of their last five SA games across all venues (all victories).
Stats and Players to watch:
Roma: Three of Roma’s last four competitive home games have seen Diego Perotti score a penalty. Twice doing so inside the 61st-75th minute period.
Lazio: Scorer of a hat-trick in Lazio’s last league outing, Ciro Immobile has averaged 2.0 goals-per-game across his last three SA appearances.
Four of the last five league H2Hs to produce a half-time leader have seen the team in question eventually win by over 1.5 goals.
Penalties account for five of the nine goals scored (either way) across Roma’s last three SA home games, while Lazio have seen nine of their last ten SA away wins come by a one-goal margin Though on a club-record 11-game SA winning streak.