Lazio aim to keep their club record unbeaten run in Serie A going and pile more pressure on at the top when they travel to Genoa for Sunday’s early kick-off.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Genoa (3-5-2): Perin; Biraschi, Soumaoro, Masiello; Ankersen, Behrami, Cassata, Jagiello, Criscito; Pinamonti, Sanabria.
Suspended: Sturaro
Unavailable: Lerager, Ghiglione, Romero, Schone, Radovanovic.
Lazio (3-5-2): Strakosha; Patric, Acerbi, Radu; Lazzari, Milinkovic-Savic, Lucas, Luis Alberto, Jony; Immobile, Correa.
Suspended: Luiz Felipe
Unavailable: Lulic.
KEY STATISTICS
– Since Simone Inzaghi became Lazio coach (April 2016), the Biancocelesti have won four of their seven Serie A games against Genoa (D1 L2), scoring an average of 2.6 goals per game.
– Considering the games played only in the second part of the season, Genoa have gone unbeaten against Lazio since 2012, a run in which they have gained six wins and two draws.
– Genoa have scored more goals against Lazio than they have versus any other side in the top flight: 138 in 99 previous games in the competition.
– Genoa have won each of their last two league games and could win three games in a row in Serie A for the first time since February 2018, a run that began with a win against Lazio.
– Lazio are experiencing their best season in Serie A, with 56 points in the first 24 games: they are the sixth different team to collect as many points in the competition, after Inter, Juventus, Milan, Napoli and Roma.
– Genoa have gained 11 points in seven games under Davide Nicola, only six teams have done better in this period – it’s the same points total that the Rossoblù had gained in their previous 17 Serie A games this season (a league-low in this period).
– Lazio have conceded just five goals in the second half of the season so far, a record in the top five European leagues in 2019/20.
– Since he left Lazio having scored 48 goals in 159 Serie A appearances for them, Genoa’s Goran Pandev has scored five goals in the league against the Biancocelesti, against no team has he scored more.
– Ciro Immobile (26) needs to score one goal to equal the record for most goals scored after the first 25 Serie A games of a season (27), which belongs to Antonio Angelillo in 1958/59. Since his arrival at Lazio, he has scored 93 goals, fewer than only Lionel Messi (121) and Robert Lewandowski (104) in the top five European leagues.
– Immobile has reached double figures for penalty goals in this Serie A campaign: he is only one penalty goal away from reaching the record in a single Serie A season (in the three points for a win era), when Roberto Baggio bagged 11 goals from the spot in 1997/98.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com