Empoli vs AS Roma prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2025-03-08 17:00.
[p]Empoli’s situation is not quite desperate just yet, but it will be in the weeks to come if they fail to arrest a 12-match winless league run that has dropped them into the relegation zone (D3, L9). Although the visit of Roma may seem a daunting one, Empoli have actually won the last two Serie A H2Hs, but having earned a smaller proportion of their total Serie A points this season in home games than any other side (36%), making that a hat-trick seems a tall order.[/p]
[p]The Azzurri have lost five of their last six at home in the league (D1), and most of the blame for those shortcomings can be placed on a misfiring frontline which has scored a Serie A-low five home goals this term. That’s an outright low across Europe’s traditional big-five leagues too, while only two sides in Serie A history have netted fewer goals after 13 home games in a single season.[/p]
[p]Roma are showing few signs of slowing down at the moment after their 2-1 midweek victory against Athletic Club in the UEFA Europa League stretched their winning run in all competitions to five matches. The last four of those all came at home, but the Giallorossi have displayed some strong travelling form of late too, stringing together three successive away league wins. [/p]
[p]The last two of those came with a clean sheet, with Roma last keeping three successive away league clean sheets in October 2019. Another shutout would be a nice bonus for boss Claudio Ranieri, but his primary focus will be on securing the three points needed to keep pace with their fellow European chasers, and six wins from nine managerial H2Hs against Empoli suggests he’s good value to help Roma find them (D2, L1). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Empoli’s Lorenzo Colombo has been involved in seven goals in Serie A this season (G5, A2) – never before has he amassed eight direct goal contributions in a single top-flight campaign. Roma’s Artem Dovbyk needs one goal to become just the third Roma player to score 10+ goals in his debut Serie A campaign since 2000.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Empoli have only scored multiple goals in one of their last 16 Serie A home games, though that was in last season’s corresponding fixture![/p]
[p][i]Written by Chris Wilson[/i][/p]