The eagerly anticipated Derby della Scala takes place in Serie A on Sunday at 12:30 CET as Hellas Verona host their city rivals Chievo at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi.
The game always promises to be a feisty affair and with only four points separating the sides Chievo will be looking to close the gap on their neighbours and claim the bragging rights this weekend.
Both matches last season ended 1-0 to the away side, and before that the two games in 2001/02 ended 2-1 to Chievo and 3-2 to Hellas, so if past meetings are anything to go by the game should be quite an equal encounter.
The Flying Donkeys currently sit just above the relegation zone in 17th place with just three wins all season, but last week’s 2-0 home defeat to Inter was their first defeat in five games after a mini revival under coach Rolando Maran who took over in October.
Chievo have lost eight of their fifteen matches so far in Serie A, and their top scorer, Alberto Paloschi, has only three goals, but they should be confident of finding the back of the net on Sunday as their opponents have already conceded 26 goals this season; only the bottom two have leaked more.
Andrea Mandorlini’s Verona are 13th, and finally arrested a run of eight games without a win by claiming a 2-1 victory at Udinese last week thanks to goals from Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and top scorer Luca Toni.
Both players will feature again this week for the Mastini, but they will have to do without the suspended Alessandro Agostini who should be replaced by Davide Brivio at the back.
Goalkeeper Rafael should return to the side after injury, but Artur Ionita and Mounir Obbadi remain sidelined while Jacopo Sala, Bosko Jankovic, Luna and Juan Gomez are also unlikely to feature.
Chievo have no fresh injury concerns but Ruben Botta begins the first of a three-game ban after his sending off against parent club Inter last week.
Nicolas Frey and Ervin Zukanovic are set to return at full-back in place of Gennaro Sardo and Cristiano Biraghi after serving their own suspensions.
Expected Starting XIs
Verona: Rafael, Martic, Moras, Marquez, Rodriguez, Brivio, Christodoulopoulos, Tachtsidis, Hallfredsson, Nico Lopez, Toni
Chievo: Bizzarri, Frey, Gamberini, Cesar, Zukanovic, Birsa, Izco, Radovanovic, Hetemaj, Paloschi, Meggiorini
