Atalanta vs Bologna prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2023-04-07 14:30.
Sitting in sixth place going into the Easter period after easing past basement club Cremonese 3-1 last weekend, Atalanta have the chance to at least temporarily open up a seven-point gap over Juventus. Their mission to collect a third straight Serie A (SA) victory looks simple on paper, with La Dea entering the round as one of just four teams boasting a league match win rate of over 60% as pre-match favourites (W12, D3, L4).
While any increased cushion inside the European qualification berths may be fleeting, just two failures to score in a positive overall home record this term (W7, D3, L4) surely makes it a mere question of when La Dea break the deadlock. To that, the answer is simply ‘any time’, with only a slight majority (13) of their 24 home league goals coming after the break.
Having seen Bologna start April with a 3-0 victory over Udinese to solidify their top-half status and revive speculation of manager Thiago Motta being poached by bigger clubs, some visiting fans making the trip to Bergamo may secretly harbour belief in witnessing a significant shock. A defeat surely ends Bologna’s interest in the top-six, but a victory would make this season the first since 2008/09 to see both H2Hs won by away sides.
Such revenge for a defeat in January’s reverse fixture (1-2) would close their gap behind La Dea to just five points. However, it should be noted that Bologna have lost all six of their prior away league fixtures against teams in the current top-seven, conceding twice or more in all but the most recent of those games (0-1 vs Roma on January 4).
Players to watch: Marten de Roon has netted Atalanta’s first goal in each of their previous two wins, though his last decisive open-play strike dates back to a 1-0 win over Bologna in March 2018! However, he was outshone in the previous round by Musa Barrow, who had a hand in all three of Bologna’s goals in their most recent victory (G1, A2).
Hot stat: Atalanta have kept a second-half clean sheet in four of their last five SA home wins.