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

Roma take on Parma this Sunday at the Stadio Olimpico, looking to immediately continue their winning ways following the international break.

Here’s how the rest of Matchday 8 looks in Serie A this weekend…

SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER

Crotone v Lazio
Ezio Scida, 15:00 CET

The hosts are struggling to come to terms with life in the top-flight, with their 0-0 draw at Torino before the international break only their second point of the season. They will be hoping for a first win of the season on Saturday, despite the absence of the suspended Sebastiano Luperto.

The visitors to the Ezio Scida will be buoyed by the likely return to action of Ciro Immobile, Lucas Leiva and Thomas Strakosha from coronavirus, but Sergej Milinkovic-Savic misses out after testing positive on international duty.

Spezia v Atalanta
Orogel Stadium, 18:00 CET

In their Serie A debut, Spezia have certainly made for entertaining viewing with at least two goals in every one of their games so far and their 3-0 victory at Benevento last time out - where M'Bala Nzola scored his first goals for the club - were a filip heading into the internationals.

Atalanta have been the league’s premier entertainers under Gian Piero Gasperini - only Sassuolo can match La Dea’s 18 goals so far this season - but they have concerns at the back having shipped 14 already and are without Mattia Caldara, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Jose Luis Palomino, Cristiano Piccini and Marten de Roon.

Juventus v Cagliari
Allianz Stadium, 20:45 CET

The reigning champions are still unbeaten in the league this season but they have drawn more matches (four) than they have won (three) in Serie A and will need a defensive reshuffle for this one with both Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini injured on international duty.

Cagliari have won three of their last four to move within three points of Juve thanks largely to the most potent front-two in the league - Joao Pedro and Giovanni Simeone - who have both scored five Serie A goals this season, with Pedro scoring in each of their last five matches.

SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER

Fiorentina v Benevento
Artemio Franchi, 12:30 CET

The past fortnight without football will have allowed Fiorentina to refocus having gone two games without victory - both matches saw them fire blanks - as the club brought Cesare Prandelli back to replace Beppe Iachini, and they will be hoping for that new coach bounce on Sunday afternoon.

Benevento will have also welcomed the break after the 5-2 defeat at the hands of Roma kicked off their current four-game losing streak and coach Filippo Inzaghi is also in need of some jump leads.

Hellas Verona v Sassuolo
Marcantonio Bentegodi, 15:00 CEST

Verona have lost just once so far this season and are unbeaten in their last four (W1, D3) to leave them eighth in the table to surprise many this term and despite a long injury list that saw Pawel Dawidowicz add his name to in the 2-2 draw at league leaders AC Milan on Matchday 7.

While the home side have caught many off guard, it is the visitors who are truly the standout surprise package in the early going of this campaign as they’ve rocketed into second-place and a win in Verona would move Roberto De Zerbi’s side top for the time being at the very least.

Inter Milan v Torino
Giuseppe Meazza, 15:00 CET

Two league draws on the spin mean Inter have won just one of their last five in Serie A and one of their last eight in all competitions but they will take encouragement from last season’s double over Toro.

Those defeats will sit at the back of Torino minds, especially after a sequence of four games without a win (D2, L2) and they will once again look to captain/talisman/top-scorer Andrea Belotti to arrest their poor run of form by adding to his six league goals.

Roma v Parma
Stadio Olimpico, 58:00 CET

The Giallorossi are a side that wouldn’t have wanted the international break to come after chalking up four wins from their last five in Serie A - a run that has seen the free-scoring front-three of Edin Dzeko, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pedro clicking in devastating fashion, although captain Dzeko likely misses out due to quarantine this time.

Parma haven’t had quite the same feeling recently and, although they are unbeaten in three, they have drawn each of those games, are four without victory and could drop into the relegation places if results don’t go their way this weekend.

Sampdoria v Bologna
Luigi Ferraris, 15:00 CEST

Defeat to Cagliari on MD7 will have hurt Claudio Ranieri’s men who slid back to 10th place as a result and they will have to make do without suspended pair Tommaso Augello and Lorenzo Tonelli for the visit of Bologna.

Bologna have been all or nothing so far in 2020-21 - winning twice and losing five times - and have won their last three against La Samp, which will encourage Bologna coach Sinisa Mihajlovic (whose autobiography has been making the headlines this week).

Udinese v Genoa
Stadio Friuli, 18:00 CET

Remarkably, of the 104 Serie A players to have tested positive for coronavirus none have been Udinese players, but that has not stopped the club from struggling to just one win from their first seven matchdays with only winless Crotone between them and bottom spot.

As for Genoa, they have been hardest hit by coronavirus with 18 positive tests in their squad and they find themselves filling the final relegation spot - a single point ahead of Udinese - going into what already looks like a relegation six-pointer so early in the campaign.

Napoli v AC Milan
San Paolo, 20:45 CET

Tiemoue Bakayoko was back in training this week to boost Napoli’s hopes of leapfrogging Milan with victory at the San Paolo on Sunday night, but record-signing Victor Osimhen is set to miss out, while Amir Rrahmani picked up an injury with Kosovo this week to slightly dampen the positivity around Bakayoko’s return.

One of just three unbeaten sides left, Milan have done all the early front-running but draws to both Roma and Verona in the past three weeks have allowed the chasing pack to close the gap - and the absence of Rafael Leao through injury will be keenly felt.