Palermo to the Stadio Olimpico for Sunday’s Serie A matchup and the Granata will stop at nothing to reclaim their winning form of late at the hands of an inconsistent Rosanero outfit.
The home side are coming in off the back of a frustrating midweek encounter at the Stadio Bentegodi against high-flying Chievo, where they finished at the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline thanks to a late goal from man of the match Lucas Castro.
Torino will rue the loss as the first blemish on their undefeated record in Serie A thus far, where they’ve trumped the likes of Fiorentina and Sampdoria in convincing fashion already. Fabio Quagliarella looks hungry for the goals up front with four to his name already while Brazilian duo Danilo Avelar and Bruno Peres have inspired an even split combination of four assists, however the former will be out injured for Sunday’s tie.
Palermo, meanwhile, found themselves going into the Torino game off the back of a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Sassuolo at home. Despite back to back victories to kickstart their campaign, the six points had come at the hands of bottom feeders Udinese and Genoa by a narrow one goal margin. The boys in pink then made heavy weather of a visiting Carpi side afterwards to rescue a point in the dying moments before giving AC Milan a scare in an eventual 3-2 loss.
Giampiero Ventura’s side will need the three points to keep their pace at the top of the table alongside Chievo and Sampdoria who all sit level on 10 points in fourth place.
The two clubs have an evenly matched competitive history within their visits to each other for both Serie A and Serie B competition with three wins and six draws a piece.
Torino will be without the services of Nikola Maksimovic, Alexander Farnerud, and Danilo Avelar, while Palermo are missing Francesco Bolzoni, Michel Morganella, Uros Djurdjevic and Stefano Sorrentino.
Form Guide: Torino (L-W-D-W-W) Palermo (L-L-D-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Torino: Padelli; Moretti, Glik, Bovo; Molinaro, Obi, Vives, Benassi, Zappacosta; Belotti, Quagliarella
Palermo: Colombi; Vitiello, Gonzalez, El Kaoutari; Rispoli, Maresca, Hiljemark, Jajalo, Lazaar; Vazquez, Gilardino
Infographics Source: www.sporticos.com
