Match Preview
Genoa will look to boost their survival chances when they host Sassuolo at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in the Serie A on Sunday.
Genoa Match Form
Il Grifone once again find themselves in a relegation battle, after finishing 17th last season. They are currently last in the league table, with 11 points from 17 games. SPAL are a point ahead of them while Brescia are a further 2 points ahead.
Davide Nicola’s men are 4 points away from safety with both Lecce and Sampdoria on 15 points at the moment. If the Liguria club want to stay up, they will have to start accumulating points quickly.
Embed from Getty ImagesLosing 4-0 to league leaders Inter Milan in their last game definitely would not have helped. However, Nicola will look to the new year for a fresh start and his side will aim for nothing less than 3 points from this game.
Sassuolo Match Form
US Sassuolo are relatively comfortable in the league at the moment, sitting in 13th place. While this is two rungs lower than where they finished last season, the Neroverdi have picked up 19 points from 17 games.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile they are level on points with Verona and 2 points behind Milan and Torino, more importantly, Roberto De Zerbi’s men are 5 points clear of safety at this stage of the season.
The Italian gaffer would like to keep it that way and a trip to bottom-placed Genoa offers his side the perfect chance to pick up 3 points, especially after losing 2-1 to Napoli in their last match before the winter break.
Team News
In terms of team news, Christian Kouame is ruled out for the hosts with a long-term injury. Further, Stefano Sturaro, Riccardo Saponara, Cristian Zapata and Lukas Lerager are all doubts for the game.
Meanwhile, De Zerbi has just 2 injury doubts in the form of Gregoire Defrel and Vlad Chiriches, with the rest of the squad fit and available.
Head to Head & Genoa vs Sassuolo Prediction
Looking at head-to-head, the 12 games between the two have resulted in 4 and 5 wins for Genoa and Sassuolo respectively. The last 5 meetings are similarly split with the Neroverdi picking up 2 wins compared to their opponent’s one.
However, the last 4 meetings on this ground have seen Genoa win twice and draw once, giving the team a little more confidence. Nevertheless, Il Grifone are winless in their last 5 league games.
Sassuolo’s form is not great either with just one win their last 5 in the Serie A. Thus, the teams are pretty close in terms of recent history and form but are separated by their league positions.
In the end, both teams can be expected to find the back of the net and share the spoils at the end of 90 minutes.
Predicted Lineup
Genoa Predicted XI: Radu; Ghiglione, Biraschi, Romero, Criscito; Cassata, Radovanovic, Jagiello; Schone; Pandev, Pinamonti
Sassuolo Predicted XI: Pegolo; Muldur, Marlon, Peluso; Kyriakopoulos; Obiang, Locatelli; Boga, Duncan, Traore; Caputo
