Following a fine few days at home and in Europe, sixth-placed Lazio visit Bologna at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Sunday afternoon.
Victory in both the Derby della Capitale and over Lokomotiv Moscow in the Europa League sets the Aquile up for a shot at their third straight win, while their hosts are without victory in three games.
Match preview
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Lazio's latest three-point haul, secured by goals from Toma Basic and Patric, saw Maurizio Sarri's side run out 2-0 winners in their second straight success at Stadio Olimpico on Thursday.
In fact, the home side spurned several other scoring opportunities, including Pedro striking the crossbar midway through the second half, but they still recorded a first Europa League victory of the season having previously lost their opener away to Galatasaray.
Coming hot on the heels of last weekend's Rome Derby defeat of arch-rivals Roma, the Aquile are now flying high in terms of confidence ahead of Serie A's seventh round.
After more than a year without fans in Italian stadiums, a partial re-opening meant that the 'Eternal City' clash was set to a more familiar soundtrack than the echoing Olimpico of recent times. Also billed as a battle between the philosophies of Sarri and Jose Mourinho, the game was essentially decided by an early two-goal blast from Lazio, which gave them a lead they would never relinquish; as it finished 3-2 to the 'home' team at the final whistle.
Returning to action at Sunday lunchtime - a fact which has irked Sarri, given their continental commitments late into Thursday evening - the Biancocelesti now hope to continue their resurgence after a previous run which saw them both lose and draw twice since the start of September.
The advent of 'Sarriball' in the capital has been far from dull so far, as under the former Chelsea manager, Lazio have scored the most goals in the first half of matches in Serie A this season (nine). Furthermore, he has become the first coach without a single clean sheet in his first six league games in charge of the club since the turn of the century.
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Following a solid start to the 2021-22 campaign, in which they had accumulated five more points than at the same stage last term, Bologna were brought down to earth with a bump by Serie B champions Empoli last time out, as they trailed within the opening minute and spent most of the game trying to recover.
Though he finally found the back of the net late on in the second half, star striker Marko Arnautovic also missed a penalty and hit the woodwork during an entertaining affair, in which the scoring was started by Kevin Bonifazi's avoidable own goal.
A humbling 4-2 defeat in Tuscany continues a worrying trend for Sinisa Mihajlovic's team, who have now conceded 14 goals in their first six games of a Serie A campaign for only the third time in their long history.
They do, however, remain unbeaten at the Dall'Ara so far and will fondly remember a win in their last league contest with Sunday's visitors, which incidentally means they could now put together back-to-back victories over Lazio for the first time since 1997.
Precedent is not in the Rossoblu's favour though, as they have beaten the capital club only once in their last nine Serie A meetings in Bologna - having failed to even score on five of those occasions.
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Team News
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While Lazio midfielder Mattia Zaccagni's hip injury sees him miss out again on Sunday, the visitors' chief concern ahead of the trip to Emilia-Romagna relates to centre-forward Ciro Immobile, who sustained a problem with his right thigh in midweek and was forced off.
Having then had an ice-pack strapped to his leg, the Italy striker's availability will need to be assessed ahead of kickoff, but Vedat Muriqi stands ready to deputise if he is forced to sit out.
That would disrupt a recent tactical switch that Aquile coach Maurizio Sarri has enjoyed some success with; fielding his star striker between Felipe Anderson on the right flank and Pedro on the left of an attacking trident.
The hosts, meanwhile, still have Jerdy Schouten out of action this weekend, and the Dutch midfielder will be joined by Nicola Sansone and Kingsley Michael on the sidelines.
Defender Adama Soumaoro is also unavailable for Bologna, as he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week so is currently self-isolating.
In Schouten's continued absence, Sweden international Mattias Svanberg is set to start again in central midfield, while Andreas Skov Olsen, Riccardo Orsolini and Musa Barrow are all fighting for places in support of Marko Arnautovic up front.
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; Bonifazi, Medel, Theate; De Silvestri, Svanberg, Dominguez, Dijks; Soriano; Barrow, Arnautovic
Lazio possible starting lineup:
Reina; Lazzari, Felipe, Acerbi, Hysaj; Alberto, Milinkovic-Savic, Leiva; Pedro, Immobile, Anderson
We say: Bologna 1-2 Lazio
Neither side are stable enough defensively to sustain a prolonged period of form as things stand, which should make for an open encounter on Sunday afternoon.
Even after a midweek European fixture, though, Lazio should have enough gas in the tank to end Bologna's undefeated start at Dall'Ara, and keep themselves in touch with the top clubs near the Serie A summit.
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 Lazio win with a probability of 38.16%. A win for Bologna had a probability of 36.7% and a draw had a probability of 25.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lazio win was 0-1 with a probability of 8.46%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.45%) and 0-2 (6.05%). The likeliest Bologna win was 1-0 (8.27%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.82%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 2.7% likelihood.
