Locked in a battle for the European spots, Bologna and Lazio, separated by one place in the Serie A table, face off at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara in Sunday's gameweek 29 encounter.
Vincenzo Italiano's sixth-placed side are a point behind the capital club entering this weekend, and they aim to seal a sixth consecutive home success at the expense of their opponents, who have drawn three of their previous four top-flight fixtures.
Match preview
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Aiming to continue their commendable 2025 form, Bologna seek their seventh victory since the turn of the year to supplant their opponents this week and possibly overtake fourth-placed Juventus, who travel to Fiorentina on Sunday.
Only Roma (eight) have more wins than the Rossoblu (six) in the new year, with the Emilians' victories coming in 11 matches; they have accrued four fewer points than Claudio Ranieri's team (26).
Strikingly, five of the Red and Blues' six triumphs have come in front of their supporters, who have seen their team defeat Monza (3-1), Como (2-0), Torino (3-2), AC Milan (2-1) and Cagliari (2-1) this year, having notched one point from a possible six before the ongoing run.
Having been successful in their last away match, securing a 2-1 success at Hellas Verona, Italiano's men have now secured three wins on the bounce for the second time this season — they beat Cagliari, Lecce and Roma between October and November last year — and the Rossoblu aim to notch four consecutive victories for the first time in a year, when the club won six on the spin between February and March 2024.
Despite losing the reverse fixture 3-0 in the capital, supporters at the Dall'Ara will be aware of their side avoiding defeat in Lazio's five recent visits, claiming three wins and drawing twice, with the away side winless in Emilia-Romagna since December 2018.
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It will be fascinating to see if Marco Baroni approaches Sunday's Bologna visit aiming to notch maximum points to end Lazio's seven-year wait for maximum points or take fewer risks, given the possibility of falling to sixth.
The Biancocelesti have been involved in three stalemates in their recent four top-flight games, playing out score draws against title-contending Napoli (2-2) and Udinese (1-1) while drawing 0-0 at struggling Venezia in late February.
With the capital club missing out on the chance of moving to fourth on Monday after they could only draw with in-form Udinese despite Juventus' 4-0 hammering at home to Atalanta, Baroni might consider a front-foot approach to possibly exploit any slips from the Old Lady who visit Fiorentina.
Despite the Aquilotti's lack of recent wins entering Sunday's fixture — Lazio have drawn three of their last five games (two wins) and have notched just four victories from 10 in 2025 (four draws, two losses) — the visitors have strikingly avoided losing in four away matches on the bounce, defeating Verona (3-0), Cagliari (2-1) and Milan (2-1) and playing out a goalless encounter with second-bottom Venezia.
Only Atalanta and Roma (four wins each) have won more away matches in the same period, highlighting Lazio's strength on their travels, where their eight wins on the road better every club except Atalanta (10) this term.
With the fourth-best away side travelling to the in-form Bologna, who have the third-best home record, Sunday's match-up between these European hopefuls should be fascinating.
Team News
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Unless Bologna suffer setbacks in the 48 hours before the game, Italiano has a seemingly healthy squad for Sunday's fixture.
Despite coming off the bench, Nicolo Cambiaghi has been involved in three goals in the last three games, assisting in the wins over Milan and Cagliari and scoring the match-winner at Verona in the 28th round, and it will be interesting to see if the forward gets his second league start against Lazio.
Not only has Riccardo Orsolini scored more match-winning goals (three) than his teammates, but the nine-goal man, who has netted more home strikes (six) than his teammates, aims for more key contributions on Sunday.
Elseid Hysaj has not played for Lazio since early February against Cagliari, and the versatile full-back could remain sidelined with his hamstring issue.
Pedro and Mattia Zaccagni have netted four and three game-clinching strikes, respectively, and the forwards could be decisive for the Biancocelesti.
Zaccagni, who netted a brace against the Rossoblu in February 2022, has scored three goals against the Emilians, his second-favourite opponents after Sassuolo against whom he has scored five times.
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Ravaglia; Silvestri, Beukema, Casale, Miranda; Freuler, Moro; Orsolini, Fabbian, Ndoye; Castro
Lazio possible starting lineup:
Provedel; Marusic, Gila, Romagnoli, Tavares; Guendouzi, Rovella; Isaksen, Dia, Zaccagni; Castellanos
We say: Bologna 2-1 Lazio
Despite failing to keep a clean sheet in four of their previous matches at the Dall'Ara, Bologna are backed to get the better of Lazio on Sunday, extending their winning sequence in front of their supporters and avoiding defeat to the capital club on home soil for the sixth game running.
Lazio's Europa League exertions on Thursday give the Rossoblu the physical edge, and Italiano's side should exploit that to supplant the visitors.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
