Football – Italy -Serie A
Sunday 19th April 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Empoli will be looking forward to returning to their Stadio Carlo Castellani for this afternoon’s clash with Parma following back-to-back away defeats at Juventus and Lazio.
They lost those games 2-0 and 4-0 respectively, but to put the results in context, they were against the top two sides currently in Serie A while today, they pit their wits against a rock-bottom and beleaguered Parma side who are fresh from defeat at Genoa in midweek.
Empoli’s home form has been pretty steady in recent weeks as they’ve chalked up three wins from their last four on home turf with wins over Cesena, Chievo Verona and Sassuolo along with holding 9th placed Genoa to a 1-1 draw. Their overall home record stands at 5-6-4 17/14 and they’ve kept seven clean sheets so far at home this term.
Parma went down 2-0 at Genoa in midweek and this result has left them bottom of Serie A with just 16 points to their name, but more importantly, they’re now a massive 13 points adrift of Atalanta and safety.
Despite recent impressive back-to-back home wins over Udinese and Juventus, they still remain to struggle on the road in the Italian top flight and this is reflected by failing to win i their last twelve away matches (which includes 10 defeats by the way).
As a result, Parma’s away record stands at a woeful 1-2-10 10/31 which includes firing seven blanks up front, while keeping just one clean sheet away from home all season so far. Drilling down a bit deeper and you’ll find they’ve conceded 2 goals or more on 9 occasions (out of a total of 13 away matches).
My pick for this match is therefore Empoli who I expect to get the job done with perhaps a 1-0 score line here.
Pick: Empoli straight win @ 1.67 Paddy Power
