Lazio face an important test of their Champions League credentials when they travel to the Stadio Città del Tricolore on Sunday afternoon to face struggling Sassuolo.
The Biancoceleste have overcome a minor blip in form recently by recording back to back wins over Udinese and Palermo, while the Neroverdi’s excellent recent run was ended by back-to-back defeats against Fiorentina and Napoli.
Last season, the tie was an entertaining 2-2 draw, but this time around both sides will be setting their sights on maximum points.
The home side’s youthful front-line of Simone Zaza, Domenico Berardi and Nicola Sansone helped the club to wins over Inter and Milan as Eusebio Di Francesco’s side went on a run of only one defeat in seven league games, but their progress has stalled recently.
Sassuolo sit in 12th place but now find themselves four points adrift of Palermo above them and they will need to pick up points soon if they are to keep pace with the Sicilians.
They will face no easy task, however, as visiting Lazio are flying high following their comeback win against Palermo last weekend.
The result enabled Stefano Pioli’s Aquile to leapfrog Fiorentina into fourth place, and their objective is now to catch Napoli in the third and final Champions League spot.
The hosts have serious injury problems to contend with as Gianluca Pegolo, Alessandro Longhi, Emanuele Terranova, Sime Vrsaljko, Federico Peluso, Luca Antei and Paolo Cannavaro will all miss out.
Captain Francesco Magnanelli will also miss out through suspension.
However, the visitors are not in a much better state as Pereirinha, Santiago Gentiletti, Senad Lulic, Filip Djordjevic, Mammadou Tounkara and Abdoulay Konko are all spending time on the treatment table.
Form Guide: Sassuolo (L-L-D-W-L-D) Lazio (W-W-L-L-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Sassuolo: Consigli; Gazzola, Acerbi, Bianco, Biondini; Taider, Chibsah, Missiroli; Berardi, Zaza, Floro Flores
Lazio: Marchetti; Basta, Mauricio, De Vrij, Radu; Parolo, Biglia, Mauri; Felipe Anderson, Klose, Candreva
