Lazio will kick off their 2020-21 Serie A campaign on Saturday when they travel to the Sardegna Arena to take on Cagliari.
The hosts have already taken to the field in the new season, drawing 1-1 away to Sassuolo last Sunday.
Match preview
© Reuters
Under the tutelage of yet another new manager in Eusebio Di Francesco, Cagliari's new season began in mediocre fashion as they were forced to settle for just one point against Sassuolo last weekend.
Giovanni Simeone, who notched up 12 top-flight goals last season, opened his and Cagliari's account for the campaign after 76 minutes before a sweetly-struck free kick from Mehdi Bourabia three minutes from time saw Sassuolo take a share of the spoils.
The 2019-20 season was truly a tale of two halves for Gli Isolani – as evidenced by just three wins from their last 24 outings following a 12-game unbeaten run between September and December – although their last home win was a memorable 2-0 triumph over champions Juventus at the end of July.
Di Francesco will ultimately be tasked with maintaining a strong level of consistency throughout the campaign, although Cagliari will now come up against a Lazio side with a major point to prove after their title hopes were left in tatters at the end of last season.
© Reuters
Lazio pushed Juve all the way during the 2019-20 campaign and looked to be the side most likely to end the Old Lady's reign of dominance in the Italian football scene.
However, having enjoyed a 21-game unbeaten run before the shutdown, Simone Inzaghi's men soon suffered a devastating capitulation and lost five of their final nine matches – ultimately finishing down in fourth after such a promising start to the campaign.
Injuries, suspensions and fatigue all contributed to Lazio's downfall during the summer months, but with a new season comes new opportunities for the Biancocelesti, who will make their return to the Champions League group stages for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
Inzaghi's men will want to get off to a fast start in Serie A before being forced to juggle domestic and European commitments, and Lazio enjoyed an unbeaten run of friendlies in preparation for the new campaign.
Lazio registered back-to-back 2-1 victories over Cagliari last term, while Gli Isolani have not triumphed against their weekend opponents since the 2012-13 campaign.
Cagliari Serie A form: D
Team News
© Reuters
Cagliari must continue to make do without Gaston Pereiro and Alberto Cerri, while Luca Ceppitelli, Filip Bradaric and Kiril Despodov have been quarantining after testing positive for coronavirus.
Ragnar Klavan was also forced off at half time in the draw with Sassuolo and could be replaced by Fabio Pisacane here.
Lazio have welcomed striker Vedat Muriqi to the club from Fenerbahce, but the Kosovo international will be forced to wait for his debut owing to a strain and a positive COVID-19 result.
Elsewhere, Luiz Felipe and Senad Lulic are both nursing ankle injuries, while Valon Berisha has joined Reims permanently and Jony has been loaned out to Osasuna.
Ciro Immobile, who scooped the Capocannoniere and the European Golden Boot with 36 top-flight goals last season, has six strikes to his name in this fixture and is showing no signs of slowing down as he enters his 30s.
Cagliari possible starting lineup:
Cragno; Zappa, Walukiewicz, Pisacane, Lykogiannis; Marin, Nandez, Rog; Sottil, Simeone, Pedro
Lazio possible starting lineup:
Strakosha; Patric, Acerbi, Radu; Lazzari, Milinkovic-Savic, Leiva, Alberto, Marusic; Immobile, Correa
We say: Cagliari 0-3 Lazio
With Inzaghi now blessed with a near fully-fit squad as opposed to the plethora of absentees at the end of last season, we can only see one winner in this tie. Should the 2020-21 Serie A season be allowed to continue uninterrupted amid the global crisis, the Biancocelesti will feel confident of securing a better finish this time around, and we expect Lazio to march to victory against a Cagliari side still finding their feet under Di Francesco.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:dataData 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 57.07%. A draw had a probability of 22.5% and a win for Cagliari had a probability of 20.48%.
The most likely scoreline for a Lazio win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.34%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.91%) and 0-2 (9.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.61%), while for a Cagliari win it was 1-0 (5.68%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Lazio would win this match.
