Salernitana play host to Hellas Verona in Serie A on Sunday afternoon looking to remain ahead of their upcoming opponents in the Serie A standings.
Despite being on a five-match winless streak, the home side occupy 14th position in the table, two points and four places above a struggling Verona side.
Match preview
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After Gabriele Cioffi's impact at Udinese last season, Hellas Verona would have been hoping for similar influence on the back of appointing the Italian as their new head coach.
However, the 47-year-old will be desperately disappointed with his team's efforts thus far with just five points coming from their eight games in Serie A.
Their solitary success came against a winless Sampdoria side who have just changed their manager, and Cioffi will be aware that he may face the same fate unless he instigates a change in fortunes.
The most recent three defeats have come at the hands of Lazio, Fiorentina and Udinese, the most recent occurring having held a lead and conceded in the final minute.
With home fixtures against AC Milan and Roma just around the corner, Cioffi knows the importance of avoiding defeat against potential relegation rivals later in the season.
Although Salernitana cannot claim to have fared much better than the visitors, they had recorded some eye-catching results before being thrashed by Sassuolo last time out.
Salernitana succumbed to a 5-0 defeat as their opponents doubled the amount of goals that they had netted all season, and it will have no doubt brought Davide Nicola and his squad back down to earth.
Like with Verona, Salernitana's only win this campaign has come against Sampdoria, but their two defeats at Stadio Arecha have been by 1-0 and 2-1 scorelines respectively.
Team News
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Nicola will inevitably make changes to his Salernitana side, with Federico Bonazzoli among the players who could be handed a recall.
Domagoj Bradaric and Ivan Radovanovic will also hope to make just their second league starts of the campaign after their substitute outings last time out.
Federico Fazio and Boulaye Dia have each been dealing with ankle and hip injuries respectively and remain as doubts.
Ivan Ilic and Diego Coppola are expected to miss out for Verona due to injury.
However, Cioffi may be prepared to stick with the same side which competed with a superior Udinese side, with Yayah Kallon likely having to wait for his first start of the season in the final third.
Salernitana possible starting lineup:
Sepe; Radovanovic, Daniliuc, Lovato; Candreva, Coulibaly, Maggiore, Bonazzoli, Mazzocchi; Dia, Piatek
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Montipo; Hien, Gunter, Ceccherini; Lazovic, Tameze, Veloso, Doig; Verdi; Piccoli, Henry
We say: Salernitana 1-1 Hellas Verona
With neither team showing any kind of form heading into this contest, it is difficult to pick a winner with any degree of certainty. That leads us to opt for a low-scoring draw, one which would suit the home side rather than the visitors.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Darren Plant
