Sassuolo and Bologna square off at the Mapei Stadium on Wednesday afternoon with the two clubs locked on the same points in the Serie A standings.
However, while 11th-placed Sassuolo are unbeaten in three games, Bologna have suffered defeats in that amount of games over the same period.
Match preview
© Reuters
By recent standards, Sassuolo have endured a frustrating opening half of the campaign, winning just six of their 18 matches in Italy's top flight.
However, as well as beating Juventus, AC Milan and Lazio since the end of October, Alessio Dionisi's side are also unbeaten in six league fixtures.
Four of those games have ended in draws, the latest coming on Sunday as they let slip a 2-0 lead at Fiorentina, while you have to go all the way back to September 26 for their last clean sheet.
Dionisi will accept that he still has plenty of work in front of him if he wants to win over the club's supporters, but the 41-year-old cannot be accused of not bringing entertainment to I Neroverdi.
Gianluca Scamacca has stepped up to the plate in recent weeks, the 22-year-old contributing four goals from his last six outings.
© Reuters
While Sassuolo can claim to be on a marginally upward trajectory, the same cannot be said of Bologna who are on their worst run of the season.
Although the level of opposition should be taken into consideration, defeats to Fiorentina, Torino and Juventus have left Sinisa Mihajlovic's team in the bottom half of the standings.
The gap to seventh spot in now seven points, and with Inter Milan and Napoli to follow in January, Mihajlovic knows that collecting points from Wednesday's fixture is imperative.
On a more positive note, Bologna have won two of their last three away games, and they will fancy their chances of upstaging a Sassuolo team which has prevailed just three times in nine home fixtures.
- D
- W
- D
- D
- W
- D
- L
- W
- W
- L
- L
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Given the quick turnaround, Dionisi will consider making several changes to his Sassuolo XI.
Jeremie Boga is an option in the final third, although his participation may depend on the likelihood of a January transfer, while Mert Muldur and Gregoire Defrel could also be handed recalls.
Kaan Ayhan comes back into contention after serving a one-game ban at the weekend.
Lorenzo De Silvestri is a major injury doubt for Bologna with Andreas Skov Olsen most likely to deputise at right wing-back.
The likes of Emanuel Vignato and Nicola Sansone are expected to remain on the substitutes' bench.
Sassuolo possible starting lineup:
Consigli; Muldur, Chiriches, Ferrari, Kyriakopoulos; Frattesi, Lopez; Berardi, Raspadori, Boga; Scamacca
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; Soumaoro, Medel, Theate; Olsen, Soriano, Dominguez, Svanberg, Hickey; Arnautovic, Barrow
We say: Sassuolo 1-1 Bologna
With just one win between them in six outings, this is a difficult match to call. Both teams have the freedom to push for maximum points, but we feel that it is more likely that they cancel each other out in a low-scoring draw.
Top tip
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 Sassuolo win with a probability of 51.17%. A win for Bologna had a probability of 26.02% and a draw had a probability of 22.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sassuolo win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.62%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.35%) and 2-0 (7.68%). The likeliest Bologna win was 1-2 (6.55%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.45%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 1.5% likelihood.
