Serie A leaders Inter Milan and an in-form Napoli outfit are among the teams to watch out for on an action-packed Saturday in Serie A.
Inter resume their Serie A title campaign in a powerful position, six points clear of AC Milan with a game in hand on their city rivals.
The Rossoneri have the chance to halve that deficit, at least for a few hours, when they host Sampdoria in the 11:30 kick-off – the first of ten fixtures in the Italian top-flight on Saturday.
Gattuso’s Men Should Shut Out Visitors
Milan are rated 8/15 favourites to beat Sampdoria, but they have faltered in the race for the Scudetto recently, losing 1-0 to Napoli in their last home game.
The men from Naples followed up that victory at San Siro with a 2-0 win at Roma, with club legend Dries Mertens scored twice in the first half.
Gennaro Gattuso’s men are right in the mix for a top-four spot and they start the weekend in fifth place, just two points behind Atalanta and Juventus.
Napoli have won eight of their last 12 league games, including a 1-0 win over Juve and a 6-0 rout of Fiorentina, and they are 4/19 to pick up another three points at home to bottom club Crotone.
Having been knocked out of the Coppa Italia and the Europa League, I Partenopei will be fully focused on the league and they are an appealing price at 20/27 to win to nil.
Crotone, 12/1 shots, have picked up just two points from 14 away games this season, scoring only 12 times, and they could be out of their depth in Naples.
Progressive Genoa Can Take Mid-Table Spoils
Genoa won only one of their first 13 matches this season, but a solid run of form since the turn of the year has dragged them up to mid-table security.
They are two points ahead of visitors Fiorentina, their opponents in a 14:00 kick-off, and look a big price at 9/4 to beat an inconsistent Viola unit.
Genoa’s only defeats in their last 12 Serie A matches have come away to leaders Inter and Roma and they are unbeaten in eight at home.
Fiorentina, who saw coach Cesare Prandelli quit recently, are 29/20 to end that run, but they needed an injury-time goal from Nikola Milenkovic to earn a draw in December’s reverse fixture and Genoa have improved significantly since then.
Leaders Set For Entertaining Victory At Bologna
Saturday’s schedule saves the best until last with Juventus 10/21 for a derby win at Torino at 17:00 before impressive leaders Inter head to Bologna at 19:45.
Inter have won their last eight league games and are 5/12 to extend that winning streak against their 25/4 hosts.
The Nerazzurri have had to work hard for their last three wins, beating lowly Parma 2-1 and Napoli 1-0 before Lautaro Martinez scored an 85th-minute winner to see off Torino 2-1 last time out.
However, they can expect a more open contest at Bologna, who followed up a 3-1 defeat at Napoli with entertaining wins over Sampdoria (3-1) and Crotone (3-2).
Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side start the weekend in 11th place and have scored in 12 of their 15 games against teams in the top ten.
They lost 3-1 at Inter in December and backing the leaders to win and both teams to score looks a decent bet at 8/5 again.
*All odds correct at time of writing