Round 3 of Serie A is going to take place at Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium in Verona, where Chievo will face off against Lazio.
These two teams know each other well, as they have faced off several times. But for this preview I will only focus on latest fixtures.
Chievo has achieved a shocking victory over Lazio in last year’s season with a (4:0) win. Looking solely at statistics you couldn’t guess the end result as the teams performed similar, at least on the paper. The key factor was Chievo’s ability to convert 4 out of 5 shots on goal, whereas Lazio only managed to shot on the opponent’s goal 2 times in 90′. Not long after a devastating defeat Lazio got their revenge, 5 months later with a win of their own over Chievo (4:1).
The hosts, Chievo managed to surprise everyone and started the season with a win against Inter (2:0). That match has revolved around the Slovene player Valter Birsa, who single-handedly sunk Inter’s ship with 2 goals in 49′ and 81′. Inter did not have a response ready for Chievo, despite having 66%b possession throughout the 90′. Second match of the season was a defeat for the team from Verona. Fiorentina has shown their supremacy over the “Gialloblu” with 59% possession and a strong defense which gave them a win (1:0). Despite the loss, Chievo has performed well, as Fiorentina is known to be strong when playing at home. Going into the upcoming match, Chievo is hoping to repeat last season’s achievement and defeat Lazio once more.
Lazio is currently on 9th position in the league, with the same amount of points as their opponents (3). As for Chievo, the opening match of the season gave Lazio 3 points, when they defeated Atalanta in away fixture (3:4). Following the victory over Atalanta, Lazio had to face off against last season’s champions Juventus. Despite the loss (0:1), they performed well, as I expected to score to be more one-sided for the visitors. Going into this match, Lazio will have to play without Immobile and Quissanga, which will hurt their performance.
VERDICT
Last 2 matches were a “goal fests”, giving us 9 goals. Despite that I don’t see the amount of goals repeating in this one. Chievo will want to continue their strong home record, in addition they surely are highly motivated as they did not perform well in the last 5 fixtures against Lazio. Now with weakened Lazio squad, the “flying donkeys” have a great opportunity to show their fans they are serious about this year’s season. And what better way to do so but to win. Chievo seems strongly organized at home and I don’t see why they couldn’t at least get a draw out of this fixture.
Prediction: Chievo +0.25
Odds: 1.93 Pinnacle
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