With all Italian eyes firmly on the domestic scene following a disappointing round of midweek action we begin with two of Serie A’s former European prize winners.
We begin with a labouring Parma side who are definitely free-wheeling to the summer break, they have picked up just 10 points in their 13 league games in 2019 (W2 D4 L7); only relegated Chievo have earned fewer (three).
Opponents AC Milan have plenty to play for though and they have won eight of their last 11 Serie A games against Parma (D1 L2), scoring at least two goals in nine of those.
Bologna’s coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has drawn four of his eight games against Sampdoria (W2 L2) – he played 110 matches and netted 12 goals for the Blucerchiati in the top flight, also managing them for 64 games.
Sampdoria (six) and Bologna (five) have scored the most penalties in Serie A this season; in addition, Fabio Quagliarella (six) and Erick Pulgar (five) are the players with the most goals from penalties in this period.
Surprisingly Cagliari and Frosinone have faced each other only once in Serie A: 1-1 in the reverse fixture earlier this season.
Four of visiting Frosinone five wins in the current campaign have been in away games, while seven of Cagliari nine wins have been achieved at home. This could be more interesting than it looks on paper.
Eyes turn to the lower end of the table where Empoli haven’t gone six top division home games unbeaten since May 2016 (currently five, W3 D2).
Improving SPAL have won seven more points (35) after 32 games this season than last season (28), the biggest positive differential in points across the two seasons after 32 games.
Genoa fell to defeat against Torino in their last home match in Serie A – this after going unbeaten in their previous 14 encounters at Ferraris against them (W8 D6).
The Turin side have interestingly lost only one game away from home this season: a record alongside Barcelona and Liverpool in the Top-5 European Leagues 2018/19.
One of the two stand-out fixtures sees champions in waiting Juventus look to secure another league title. They have won 27 of their first 32 games in Serie A this season – they are the only team to have achieved this feat but have done it twice before (in 2013/14 and 2017/18).
It is no real surprise that the only player of current Fiorentina team to have scored against Juventus is Giovanni Simeone: The Argentinian striker found his first brace in the top-flight against the Bianconeri in November 2016, when playing for Genoa.
Another match vying for top billing is the Champions League qualification grudge match between Inter and Roma. The Giallorossi have lost both fixtures at Meazza Stadium against Milan sides (Inter and AC Milan) only once during the last 17 Serie A campaigns (in 2014/15).
Roma have lost six away games in Serie A this season; the Giallorossi had not lost more than five away matches in a single season in their previous five campaigns.
Finally, in the last five games at the San Paolo between Napoli and Atalanta, the same result has never been repeated in back-to-back games (the Partenopei won the last league meeting between the two sides).
Atalanta are one of two teams to have gained more points in the first part of the season than in the second part after the same number of games (+7, alongside Bologna), while only three teams did worse than Napoli (-6).
