Both Sampdoria and Bologna will be looking to return to winning ways when they continue their respective Serie A seasons with a clash in Genoa on Sunday night.
Sampdoria will enter the match off the back of a 2-1 defeat at Roma on Wednesday night, while Bologna suffered a 2-0 loss against the champions Juventus on Monday.
Match preview
© Reuters
Sampdoria have suffered two defeats in their two matches since resuming their 2019-20 campaign on June 21, although the losses have come against Inter Milan and Roma, both away from home.
Claudio Ranieri's side are back on home soil this weekend, though, and will be looking for their eighth league victory of the 2019-20 campaign.
I Blucerchiati have not played outside of Italy's top flight since the 2011-12 campaign, while they have been in the top half of the table in each of their last three seasons.
Sampdoria are certainly in danger of being relegated to the second tier for next season, though, as they currently occupy 16th position in the table, just one point clear of 18th-placed Lecce.
© Reuters
Bologna, meanwhile, currently sit 11th in the table, having picked up 34 points from their 27 matches this term, recording nine wins and seven draws, in addition to suffering 11 defeats.
The Red and Blues have only played once since the restart and were on the end of a 2-0 defeat to the champions Juventus on Monday night.
Sinisa Mihajlovic's side are nine points clear of the relegation zone and only a point behind 10th-placed Cagliari, meaning that they should be looking up the division rather than down at this stage.
Bologna have been fairly strong on their travels this season, picking up 17 points from their 13 matches, while they have been victorious in their last two Serie A matches with Sampdoria, including a 2-1 victory in the reverse match earlier this term.
Sampdoria Serie A form: LWLWLL
Bologna Serie A form: WWLDLL
Team News
© Reuters
Sampdoria will be without the services of Jakub Jankto due to the yellow card that the 24-year-old picked up in his side's 2-1 defeat to Roma on Wednesday night.
Fabio Quagliarella and Alex Ferrari remain on the sidelines through injury, but the hosts have not picked up any fresh fitness concerns ahead of this weekend's clash.
Mehdi Leris could take Jankto's spot in midfield, while Federico Bonazzoli is also in contention to start.
As for Bologna, Andreas Skov Olsen is again expected to miss out with a muscular problem, but the visitors are otherwise in good shape heading into this match.
It would not be a surprise to see the same side that started against Juve again take to the field, although Andrea Poli will certainly be in his manager's thinking when it comes to potential change.
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Audero; Bereszynski, Yoshida, Tonelli, Augello; Depaoli, Thorsby, Ekdal, Linetty, Leris; Gabbiadini
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Danilo, Denswil, Dijks; Svanberg, Medel; Sansone, Soriano, Orsolini; Barrow
We say: Sampdoria 1-1 Bologna
Both teams will be determined to return to winning ways this weekend, but we are finding it hard to separate them. There has not actually been a league draw between these two sides since January 2014, but we fancy a 1-1 at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
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 Bologna win with a probability of 37.36%. A win for Sampdoria had a probability of 37.32% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bologna win was 0-1 with a probability of 8.56%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.34%) and 0-2 (5.98%). The likeliest Sampdoria win was 1-0 (8.55%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.94%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with an 8.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Bologna would win this match.
