Roma vs Lazio – Betting Tips & Serie A Preview

It has not been a good week for Roma and Lazio ahead of this Rome derby with both teams eliminated from the Coppa Italia by Juventus and Napoli respectively. The accumulation of Serie A points and qualifying for next season’s Champions League now becomes the priority as these teams currently reside in third and fourth position in the league table. In the case of Lazio, earning three points from this game could allow them to move into second place depending on Inter Milan’s result, but Roma will hope to close the gap on their city rivals as they seek to recover from an indifferent start to 2020.

It was probably no surprise that Roma were beaten 3-1 at Juventus in their midweek Coppa Italia quarter-final tie given the strength of their formidable hosts. It was the second time this year that the Old Lady had overcome the Roman team, but the hosts will be concerned about conceding eight goals already during 2020 and registering just two clean sheets since the beginning of December. Just one win registered on home territory during the same time period will also be a worry and they have lost both matches played at their home venue earlier this month.

For Lazio, their Coppa Italia defeat at Napoli was a real setback after winning the trophy last season, and after claiming eleven successive victories in domestic action. Those wins included home successes against both Napoli and Juventus in Serie A action, and they had beaten Sampdoria 5-1 in a weekend league fixture. With their potent attacking unit, Lazio have been unbeaten in league matches since late August, but they have failed to beat three of the other current six top-six teams this season and only recently beat sixth-placed Cagliari when scoring two very late goals in a 2-1 victory.

Team News

Nicolo Zaniolo (knee ligaments), Javier Pastore (hip) and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (thigh) are injury concerns for Roma with Davide Zappacosta (knee ligaments) and Deved Eugene Bouah (knee ligaments) also likely to be sidelined.

Adam Marusic (thigh), Luis Alberto (muscle strain) and Ricardo Kishna (knee) are unlikely to be available for Lazio while Danilo Cataldi (calf) is also doubtful. Tiago Casasola is suspended for this match.

Prediction

Lazio had been one of the teams to fear in Italian football prior to that cup-tie with Napoli but their long winning sequence came to an abrupt end with defeat in that game. That loss could have affected confidence within the camp while Roma had won two successive competitive matches prior to their midweek defeat by Juventus. Both teams will now wish to avoid another damaging loss especially with the hosts looking over their shoulder at fifth-placed Atalanta in the league table. Therefore, a good bet may be for this game to be a repeat of their Draw earlier this season priced at 13/5 with Bet365.

A second pick is for Ciro Immobile to score anytime offered at 4/5 by Bet365. Before that cup loss at Napoli, Immobile had netted in all competitive games for Lazio this year which includes several converted penalties. The former Borussia Dortmund striker was also denied a goal in midweek when his effort was disallowed, and he also missed a penalty when slipping at the vital moment. Having been a regular goal-scorer in his four seasons at Lazio, the Italian now leads the Serie A scoring charts this term with 23 league goals and he will be playing against a vulnerable defence on Sunday.