Having seen their fine start brought to a shuddering halt at the weekend, Bologna welcome struggling Genoa to Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Tuesday.
Crushed 6-1 by champions Inter Milan, the Rossoblu suffered a first defeat of their Serie A campaign, while their midweek visitors fell to a third defeat in four.
Match preview
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As they had previously lost both games against Inter last term, Bologna travelled to San Siro on Saturday in hope rather than expectation, despite a bright start to the 2021-22 season to that point.
Going behind to Lautaro Martinez's early strike put the side managed by Sinisa Mihajlovic on the back foot straight away, and they found themselves three goals down at the break.
After conceding a further three times to the irrepressible Scudetto-holders during the second half, Bologna had only Arthur Theate's late debut goal to take away from a miserable evening in Milan.
Only a few days earlier, Mihajlovic's men had kept a second successive clean sheet in sealing a win which kept an undefeated start to the 2021-22 campaign going, when Matthias Svanberg's second-half winner versus Verona put them into the top six of the early-season standings.
Therefore, they may see their weekend mauling as an aberration rather than a sign of deeper troubles within the squad, as they ultimately aim to improve on successive 12th-place finishes achieved since Mihajlovic's return to the Dall'Ara dugout.
With games against Genoa and promoted Empoli to come in the next few days, Bologna have certainly been given a good opportunity to bounce back and boost an already commendable points tally.
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Having conjured up a memorable comeback win in Cagliari just after the international break - with their three goals netted in a spectacular 20-minute spell midway through the second half - Genoa were in buoyant mood ahead of their weekend fixture with Fiorentina.
As the Grifone had lost both of their first two league games - thumped by Inter on the opening weekend before then losing to Napoli - they had some ground to recover, and facing one of their probable mid-table rivals on home soil seemed to fit the bill.
However, well-taken goals from the Viola's Riccardo Saponara and Giacomo Bonaventura saw a dominant away side rewarded for their superiority and commitment to attacking principles, as they ran out 2-1 winners at Marassi.
Without doubt, it is the Genoa defence that under-pressure boss Davide Ballardini needs to address most urgently, as they have leaked 10 league goals already - not to mention conceding three in a recent friendly with Alessandria and two versus Perugia in the Coppa Italia.
It was Ballardini - now in his fourth spell at the Ligurian club - that steadied the ship when the Grifone found themselves in choppy waters last year, and the former Palermo coach was in charge for their pair of 2-0 victories over Bologna during the latter part of the 2020-21 campaign. He would be delighted if his charges could repeat that result again on Tuesday, as the knives are already coming out.
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Team News
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Bologna are set to be without midfielders Jerdy Schouten and Kingsley Michael again for the visit of Genoa, as the pair both have muscular injuries that could keep them out until at least next week.
In their absence, Sweden international Mattias Svanberg is favourite to start in the hosts' engine room, alongside Nicolas Dominguez.
As Sinisa Mihajlovic - who has an otherwise fully fit squad - generally fields a 4-2-3-1 formation, current incumbents Roberto Soriano, Nicola Sansone and Andreas Skov Olsen will battle it out with Musa Barrow and Riccardo Orsolini for a place in the triumvirate which supports lone striker Marko Arnautovic.
Meanwhile, only midfielder Francesco Cassata is a confirmed injury absentee for Genoa, as he continues his recovery from a knee operation, but former Lazio striker Felipe Caicedo is a major doubt for the away side, and his return from injury may be delayed until next weekend.
Mattia Destro was substituted early in the second half against Fiorentina and will have to see off other claimants for a spot up front, including veteran Goran Pandev and primavera graduate Yahya Kallon.
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; De Silvestri, Medel, Bonifazi, Dijks; Svanberg, Dominguez; Orsolini, Soriano, Barrow; Arnautovic
Genoa possible starting lineup:
Sirigu; Biraschi, Maksimovic, Criscito; Fares, Sturaro, Badelj, Rovella, Cambiaso; Pandev, Kallon
We say: Bologna 2-2 Genoa
Genoa just cannot keep the back door shut, so Bologna are almost certain to score at some stage - particularly given some good options behind the central striker.
However, this battle of the Rossoblu is set to end with the spoils shared, as the Emilian hosts may still have their heads spinning from a heavy defeat just three days previously.
Top tip
Jonathan O'Shea
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bologna win with a probability of 55.17%. A draw had a probability of 22.7% and a win for Genoa had a probability of 22.12%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bologna win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.86%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.82%) and 2-0 (9.07%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.67%), while for a Genoa win it was 1-2 (5.8%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5.4% likelihood.
