Bologna vs Sassuolo prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2022-11-11 19:45.
Bologna manager Thiago Motta has answered his critics of late, after a three-game winning run lifted his men up to mid-table going into their final week of domestic action before the World Cup. But a 6-1 thrashing at his old club Inter Milan in midweek provided a reality check, while all but assuring his charges of a bottom-half placing during the upcoming break.
Chastening though Wednesday’s loss was, Bologna’s Serie A (SA) home form since the start of September suggests that the Rossoblu can immediately return to winning ways (W3, D2, L1) in this match. It is primarily for this reason that Bologna will kick off as narrow favourites, and with just one draw across their last seven H2Hs vs Sassuolo, there could well be a winner.
Yet, recent H2H history instead rules in favour of Sassuolo, who’ve won on their last three visits to the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara. They’re also level on points with their hosts after a 1-1 draw with Roma in midweek, but that result was preceded by four defeats in five which has piled the pressure on manager Alessio Dionisi just 16 months after taking the helm.
Dionisi will likely need to choose his pre-match words extremely well to continue Sassuolo’s good H2H run here. Any failure to do so could lead to a false start – and likely a first run of four straight SA away defeats for Sassuolo in the same season since the spring of 2015, given that they’ve equalised just once across the last nine times an opposing host has taken a lead!
Players to watch: Assisting the consolation strike against Inter, Riccardo Orsolini has also scored between the 61st-75th minute in two of Bologna’s last three games. Recently back from injury, Sassuolo’s Domenico Berardi did likewise in last season’s corresponding H2H, scoring what remains his last decisive goal on hostile turf.
Hot stat: The visiting side on the day has kept a first-half clean sheet in four of the last five H2Hs.