Round 23 of this Serie A season is more spread out than most, with Lazio starting the week’s action in their Thursday night win over Empoli at the Stadio Olimpico.
Things continue as relegation-threatened Chievo take on Roma. The Flying Donkeys have only won one of their 16 Serie A home meetings aga Roma (1-0 in December 2012): six wins for the Giallorossi and nine draws.
Stuttering Champions League hopefuls Roma have won nine league games this season: they last managed fewer wins at this stage of the competition in 2004/05, when they finished 8th in the league table.
Over to Florence for one of the stand-out fixtures takes us to Florence. Following four draws and four losses, Fiorentina won their last top-flight home match against Napoli practically ending their title aspirations last year, in April 2018 (3-0).
The visitors have scored the most goals in the last 15 minutes of games in this campaign (14), whilst Fiorentina have curiously conceded a higher percentage of their goals in that period of games than any other team in the league (40 percent – 10/25).
This will be the 50th Serie A meeting between Parma and Inter: the Nerazzurri have won 19, the Crociati 16 (D14).
Opponents Inter have surprisingly won only 17 percent of their away meetings against Parma (4/24): among the sides faced 10+ times in the competition, only against Juventus have they gathered a lower winning percentage away from home (13 percent).
Worrying for the visitors is the poor form of talisman Mauro Icardi who has failed to score in his last six league games, his longest run without a single goal in Serie A since he joined Inter.
Despite looking like a relatively even game on paper, Bologna have conceded only three goals in their last 10 top-flight meetings against Genoa: they have won five, drawn three and lost two games in the process.
Genoa have conceded the most league goals in the first halves this season (22), whilst Bologna have scored the most on average in the first 45 minutes of play (59 percent, 10/17). Will this trend continue?
Over to Bergamo where high-flying Atalanta have earned 35 points in 22 league matches: only in 2016/17 (39) did they manage more at this point in the season.
SPAL are on a mini-revival and are unbeaten in their last three games (W1, D2): the last time they have went on a better run was back in April 2018 (four matches without a defeat).
In the blue half of Genoa, hosts Sampdoria have kept a clean sheet in their last three home encounters in the top-flight – they last went longer without conceding a goal on home soil in October 2007 (run of six).
Unlikely to spoil that record are travellers Frosinone who have failed to find the back of the net in four of their last five Serie A matches, however, they did score four in the other game.
In Turin, Torino are unbeaten in their last six league meetings against Udinese (W3 D3), netting 23 goals in total during this period (3.8 per game on average).
Ominously for their opponents, the last three occasions Udinese have collected four or fewer wins at this stage of the competition they have been relegated (1986/87, 1989/90 and 1993/94).
Sassuolo have lost nine of their last 11 Serie A games against Juventus (W1 D1), never scoring more than one goal in a game during this period (six goals in total).
Relentless Juventus are unbeaten in their last 23 top-flight away games (W19 D4 L0): only between 2011 and 2012 have they gone longer without a defeat in the top division (25).
Finally, hosts AC Milan have won 39 Serie A encounters against Cagliari (D26 L8), more than against any other side in the top-flight.
Visiting Cagliari have conceded more goals in the first 15 minutes of play in the current campaign than any other team (eight): 26 percent of the total goals conceded by them (31 total).
