Seeking to continue their remarkable revival over recent weeks, Hellas Verona visit Sampdoria on Saturday afternoon at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
A string of excellent results under new coach Igor Tudor continued for the Scaligieri last weekend, while struggling Samp posted a third win of the season to pull away from the Serie A drop zone.
Match preview
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Unbeaten in their last five matches in the Italian top flight, Verona have continued their ascent of the standings in impressive style.
Following a win over Roma in his first game in charge, Igor Tudor has since helped his new side to beat both Lazio and Juventus, plus hold league leaders Napoli to a 1-1 draw.
On Monday evening, the Gialloblu were able to back up their eye-catching results against Calcio's big boys by turning over promoted Empoli, when Adrien Tameze's late winner sealed all three points at the Bentegodi.
That brought Tudor's tally to 19 points from 10 games, and ninth-placed Verona have lost just once under his leadership. Such success has come via an attacking philosophy, too, as during that time they have racked up 24 goals - the joint-most in the division alongside Atalanta.
In all, only the Milan clubs have been able to outscore them this term, but concern lingers over their inability to convert performances into points on the road. Under three different managers, Hellas have not won an away league game since last April, picking up just five points from their last 10 fixtures outside Verona.
One of their losses during that run came at the hands of Sampdoria last spring, but ahead of a week in which they will also face lowly Cagliari and local rivals Venezia, in-form Verona will nonetheless arrive in the mood to beat an ailing home side.
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Under severe pressure, having collecting just nine points from their first 12 games, Sampdoria travelled down to Salerno last week in as much trepidation as hope.
Surprisingly separated by just two points and one place from promoted Salernitana before kickoff, Samp have been struggling to adapt to life under coach Roberto D'Aversa and had lost four of their previous five.
Therefore, a valuable 2-0 away win - secured by two goals just before the break - ended a three-match losing streak on the road and was enough to lift the Ligurians into 16th place in the table, but still just three points above the relegation zone.
The Blucerchiati also avoided posting their worst league start after 13 games since the turn of the century, so D'Aversa will be thankful for the continued input of a tireless veteran in an otherwise soft Samp attack. After notching the winner at Stadio Arechi last time out, 34-year-old Antonio Candreva - scorer of Serie A's October goal of the month - continues to fire up a faltering forward line with five goals and three assists this term.
If recent form does not lie in their favour ahead of this weekend's assignment, at least Sampdoria can gain some inspiration from precedent in this fixture: they have won eight of their last 11 games against Verona in the top flight, and their last Serie A loss to the Scaligieri came back in 1972.
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Team News
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Giovanni Simeone - who recently struck six goals in seven days - starts up front for Verona on Saturday, looking to get back on the goal trail after a rare blank last time out. The Argentina international should be joined by ex-Samp striker Gianluca Caprari and Antonin Barak as part of an attacking trident for Igor Tudor's side.
Daniel Bessa and Nikola Kalinic return from suspension, and could both make the bench, but Gianluca Frabotta is among those who are expected to miss out through injury.
Though Darko Lazovic was passed fit to play a part in the second half of Monday's win, Nicolo Casale may still continue on the left flank of a 3-4-2-1 formation.
Sampdoria, meanwhile, have a number of injury concerns ahead of Verona's visit, as Danish starlet Mikkel Damsgaard, Ernesto Torregrossa and Fabio Depaoli are all struggling to recover in time for Saturday's game, while Ronaldo Vieira is again ruled out.
However, Roberto D'Aversa welcomes Adrien Silva back from suspension and hopes to have Maya Yoshida available to feature in the back four, after the defender returned to training following a knee injury sustained on international duty.
Another former Southampton man, Manolo Gabbiadini, is also back in full training and is a candidate to bolster the Samp attack. If considered fit enough, he would replace either Francesco Caputo or Fabio Quagliarella up front at Marassi.
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Audero; Bereszynski, Yoshida, Colley, Augello; Candreva, Thorsby, Silva, Askildsen; Gabbiadini, Caputo
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Montipo; Dawidowicz, Gunter, Ceccherini; Faraoni, Tameze, Veloso, Casale; Caprari, Barak; Simeone
We say: Sampdoria 2-2 Hellas Verona
Ahead of winnable games against Cagliari and Venezia in the coming week, Verona can take a point home with them on Saturday - continuing their growing unbeaten run.
Samp, though, should take a share of the spoils, as their visitors' form is less impressive away from the Bentegodi.
Top tip
Jonathan O'Shea
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 Sampdoria win with a probability of 39.07%. A win for Hellas Verona had a probability of 34.96% and a draw had a probability of 26%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sampdoria win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.57%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.5%) and 2-0 (6.59%). The likeliest Hellas Verona win was 0-1 (8.95%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.33%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 3.9% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sampdoria would win this match.
