Sampdoria host Hellas Verona on Sunday morning in a high-stakes scrap at the foot of the Serie A table.
Sitting rock-bottom and 18th respectively, Samp and Verona make up two of three teams in a relegation zone that is slipping further and further away from the rest of the top flight each week.
Match preview
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Samp quickly fell two goals down to Juventus in a breathless contest at the Allianz Arena last Sunday night but responded with a pair of strikes from Tommaso Augello and Filip Duricic in the space of two first-half minutes.
Adrien Rabiot fired Juve in front after the break, although even the Frenchman thought his effort would swiftly be ruled out for handball, but the decision never came - much to the evident frustration of Samp manager Dejan Stankovic who lamented: "My heart bleeds for these lads, they deserve better."
Matias Soule finished off the scoring in a 4-2 victory for Juventus, which extended Sampdoria's winless sequence to 10 Serie A matches, comfortably the longest in the division.
Samp also opened the season by failing to win their opening 10 league games; Marco Giampaolo left the club (for the second time) during this barren stretch, but Stankovic has overseen just two league wins - only Ligue 1's Angers have collected fewer points than Sampdoria's 12 across Europe's top five leagues this season.
The 1991 Serie A champions are not only teetering on the brink of sporting disaster but financial ruin, as the players had to agree to forego the wages they were owed in December 2022 to avoid a points penalty - where the money to pay the rest of the year's salaries is going to come from remains to be seen and will only be harder to find if Samp drop into Serie B.
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Since earning promotion in 2019, Verona finished in the top half of Serie A three seasons on the spin - yet, the departure of manager Igor Tudor in the summer has left Verona scrambling around in a relegation dogfight.
After defeating Sampdoria in September at the Bentegodi, Verona endured a ruinous run of 10 consecutive league defeats going into the World Cup break.
Verona's board turned to Marco Zaffaroni during the winter hiatus, replacing caretaker Salvatore Bocchetti - who lost all of his matches in charge - and inspiring his new side to 14 points from 11 games in 2023, only one fewer than AC Milan since the World Cup.
Zaffaroni has taken Verona off the foot of the Serie A table, above Sampdoria and up to 18th - however, the four-game winless streak that the club takes into this weekend's match has somewhat stalled their progress and leaves Verona five points adrift of Spezia on the other side of the dotted line.
Sampdoria have won nine of their 10 games at home to Verona this century and have not lost to the Gialloblu in Genoa since a Coppa Italia clash in 1974.
Team News
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Tomas Rincon collected a suspension-inducing fifth yellow card against Juventus last weekend, adding one more name to a ballooning list of unavailable players.
Long-term absentees Andrea Conti (tendon) and Ignacio Pussetto (knee) are set to remain sidelined, while Manuel De Luca returned from a lengthy absence in March only to aggravate his knee again.
January loanees Sam Lammers and Michael Cuisance both missed the trip to Turin while Emirhan Ilkhan has scarcely been involved since arriving from Torino in the winter.
First-choice goalkeeper Emil Audero also missed the Juventus match with a shoulder injury, while centre-back Jeison Murillo has been struggling for fitness over the past three weeks.
Australia international Ajdin Hrustic rushed himself back to be part of his nation's World Cup squad but is yet to appear for Verona since the winter tournament.
Thomas Henry will be spending plenty of time alongside Hrustic in Verona's treatment room after rupturing his cruciate ligament in January, while Federico Ceccherini and Ibrahim Sulemana have been sidelined with muscular problems for the last month.
Strikers Cyril Ngonge and Kevin Lasagna have three league goals between them this season but may not have the chance to add to their paltry tally after missing last weekend's draw with Monza, while centre-back Isak Hein is also a doubt.
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Turk; Gunter, Amione, Nuytinck; Zanoli, Winks, Paoletti, Augello; Leris, Duricic; Gabbiadini
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Montipo; Coppola, Magnani, Dawidowicz; Faraoni, Duda, Tameze, Lazovic; Kallon, Verdi; Gaich
We say: Sampdoria 1-1 Hellas Verona
Samp have not won a home match all season, while Verona are yet to claim three points on the road this term; there is not a raft of evidence that either streak will end this weekend which suggests that this six-pointer may finish as a draw.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Grey Whitebloom
