Serie A Matchday 6: Who plays who, when and where?

With Roma hosting Fiorentina on Sunday evening - as Paulo Fonseca’s men looking to stretch their unbeaten Serie A run to five matches - here’s how the remainder of Matchday 6 looks in Italy this weekend…

SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER

Crotone v Atalanta
Ezio Scida, 15:00 CET

It’s safe to say Crotone are struggling so far this season, with four defeats and a draw - albeit against champions Juventus - from their first five league games, while they were unceremoniously dumped out of the Coppa Italia on penalties to second-tier SPAL on Wednesday.

La Dea might not have quite the same worries as their bottom-placed hosts, but they have lost their last two in the league - after winning their first three in Serie A - while only Crotone (15) and Benevento (14) have conceded more than them (12).

Inter Milan v Parma
Giuseppe Meazza, 18:00 CET

A 2-0 win over Genoa eased some of the hurt from the derby defeat to Milan, but Inter drew a blank at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday as they continue to struggle with injuries, although Milan Skriniar is back in the country and could make their squad.

Former Inter man Yann Karamoh’s brace helped Parma to a much-needed 3-1 victory over Pescara in the cup on Wednesday; only the second win of the season for Fabio Liverani’s men, whose own injury list dwarves Inter’s as they make the trip without 10 first team players, but Parma should take solace from the fact they are three unbeaten away to this weekend’s hosts.

Bologna v Cagliari
Renato Dall’ara, 20:45 CET

A sole 4-1 win over Parma is all Bologna have to show for their season so far and have lost their last three, but the 2-0 cup win at home to Reggina takes the side to nine goals scored from their three matches at the Renato Dall’ara this season.

Cagliari have hardly been goal-shy either, with 11 goals coming in their back-to-back league wins over Torino (3-2) and Crotone (4-2) that take them into Matchday 6, with front-two Giovanni Simeone and Joao Pedro scoring in both games.

SUNDAY 1 NOVEMBER

Udinese v AC Milan
Stadio Friuli, 12:30 CET

The hosts have lost just one of the last four at home to the Rossoneri - including a 1-0 win in this fixture last season - and they will need to channel that form following four losses out of five in Serie A; a record that leaves them in the relegation places at the start of the weekend.

Milan dropped league points for the first time this season as Roma held them at the Giuseppe Meazza on Monday, but they romped past Sparta Prague 3-0 in the Europa League three days later and bar the Giallorossi’s intervention, they’ve looked good for their money at the top of Serie A.

Spezia v Juventus
Orogel Stadium, 15:00 CET

Consecutive 2-2 draws have seen Spezia taste both the highs and lows of Serie A football over the past fortnight, as they came from 2-0 down to grab a late point with Fiorentina on MD4, before throwing away a 2-0 lead of their own against Parma a week later.

This will be an historic first Serie A meeting between the two, but Juve have never beaten Spezia in six attempts and the reigning champions lost to the Aquilotti 3-2 the last time they met as Serie B clubs back in 2007 - an ominous sign for Andrea Pirlo’s team, who are two without a win in the league but welcome back Cristiano Ronaldo after a bout of coronavirus.

Torino v Lazio
Olimpico Grande Torino, 15:00 CET

With just one point from four games, Torino scraped past Lecce in extra-time in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday, but they remain winless in nine Serie A games (D4 L5); their longest barren run in the top-flight since going 11 games without a win in January 2008.

As for Lazio, they drew at Club Brugge in Europe the same night Torino beat Lecce to continue their inconsistent start to the season. Rome's other team are sweating over the health and fitness of up to 12 players, including Ciro Immobile Luis Alberto, Manuel Lazzari and Djavan Anderson - who all missed the trip to Brugge in midweek, reportedly due to coronavirus.

Napoli v Sassuolo
San Paolo, 18:00 CET

It’s safe to say Napoli enjoy taking on this weekend’s visitors to the San Paolo as they have lost just one of the 14 matches between these two (W8, D5) in the league and have never lost at home to the Neroverdi (P7, W5, D2).

But this is a Sassuolo side spearheaded by red-hot Francesco Caputo, who has scored five goals in his last four matches, firing Roberto De Zerbi’s side to 15 goals over that quartet of games as they’ve moved into third-place - level on points with their hosts.

Roma v Fiorentina
Stadio Olimpico, 18:00 CET

The Giallorossi won last season’s fixture 2-1 at the Olimpico - with Jordan Veretout scoring both against his former club - a result that forms part of their current seven-game unbeaten run at home in all competitions (W4, D3). Sunday night could see Chris Smalling play his first Serie A match since rejoining the club after he came through an hour of the 0-0 draw with CSKA Sofia on Thursday.

La Viola sit just a point behind Roma going into Matchday 6 and backed up the 3-2 win over Udinese that ended a three-match spell without a league victory with comfortable passage in the cup this week, but they are once again expected to be without injured captain German Pezzella.

Sampdoria v Genoa
Luigi Ferraris, 20:45 CEST

La Samp have well and truly hit their straps under former Roma coach Claudio Ranieri this season and go into the Derby della Lanterna on the back of four straight wins in all competitions, with all eyes on captain Fabio Quagliarella who has scored in each of his last four Serie A games.

As for the “visitors” at the ground both teams share, Genoa snuck past third-tier Catanzaro in the week to progress to round four of the Coppa Italia - their first win since beating newly-promoted Crotone on Matchday 1.

MONDAY 2 NOVEMBER

Verona’s fine start to 2020-21 continued last time out with a 1-1 draw at Juve and they have lost just once in the league thus far, but will again be missing Marco Benassi, Andrea Danzi and Koray Gunter, although Mert Cetin has an outside chance of returning from injury.

The Stregoni were knocked out of the cup this week to make it three defeats on the spin for Benevento, but they should be encouraged by the fact they've scored in each of their last five Serie A matches and they could make it six in a row for the first time in their history on Monday night.