Football – Italy – Serie A
Sunday 22nd March 2015 – Kickoff: 1230hrs
Empoli will go into today’s lunchtime Serie A fixture in pretty confident mood as they look to extend their unbeaten run in the Italian top flight to eight matches when they entertain Sassuolo at their Stadio Carlo Castellani ground.
The draw has featured prominently for the hosts as they’ve been involved in five draws from their last seven matches overall, while recent wins against Cesena and Chievo Verona have enabled them to avoid being dragged into the relegation fight that is being fought amongst the teams below them in Serie A.
Empoli’s home record stands at 4-6-4 14/13 and they’ve lost just once in their last nine matches on home turf which was a 2-1 loss to Udinese. Aside from that though, they’ve produced some good results with a 2-1 win over Lazio and draws with Inter Milan and Genoa being the highlights during this solid sequence.
Sassuolo ended a miserable run of four straight defeats last Sunday when they trashed Serie A strugglers Parma 4-1 at home to heap further misery on the basement dwellers. But that was a home match against a beleaguered Parma, and recent defeats to Fiorentina, Napoli, Lazio and Juventus may perhaps give us a better indication to Sassuolo’s real form.
Their away record stands at 3-5-6 16/25 and they’ve gone five away matches without a win with an additional defeat at Cagliari which means they are by no means guaranteed of getting something at Empoli today despite being two league places and two points ahead of their hosts.
Given the recent spate of draws involving Empoli, try to keep the draw on your side as far as possible, so I recommend giving the quarter ball on the hosts who could take this perhaps 2-1.
Pick: Empoli AH-0.25 @ 1.76 Bet Victor
