AS Roma vs Atalanta prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2022-09-17 16:00.
José Mourinho stated that Roma “were too passive in the first half” after they needed three second-half goals against ten-man HJK to win 3-0 in the Europa League on Thursday. He was clearly irked that his side failed to score before half-time for the fifth time across their last seven games. But despite that, this is Roma’s best six-game start (W4, D1, L1) to a top-flight season since 2017/18 and that could be made even better by going into the international break inside the top-four, should they win here.
Such a result would mean three consecutive league wins over Atalanta for the first time since October 2011, after Roma won their last two which includes a 1-0 result here last season. With both their home league wins coming to-nil this campaign, another defensive masterclass could therefore land Roma three consecutive SA home wins for the first time since May 2019.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini could see his side spend the international break top of the table with a win, but he will have to break his personal poor league record against Mourinho-managed teams (D2, L4). That run saw his teams fail to score in five games but the visitors should be quietly confident of ending that given they’ve scored in each game this SA campaign (W4, D2) and have never done better at this stage of a top-flight season in terms of both points (14) or goals conceded (three).
It’s also been pretty much a perfect start to their away season with Atalanta winning each of their last three SA road trips to-nil. They have an extra incentive to land a fourth straight away SA clean sheet too as that's something they’ve not managed since November 2016!
Players to watch: Paulo Dybala has been involved in five of Roma’s last six SA goals (G3, A2) and he netted their opener in Europe during midweek. Equally effective for Atalanta has been Teun Koopmeiners, who’s contributed to five of their last seven league goals (G4, A1).
Hot stat: The away team on the day has led at half-time in ten of the last 12 SA H2Hs.