BENEVENTO

League position: 15th
Head coach: Filippo Inzaghi
Serie A top-scorer: Gianluca Caprari (5)

RECENT FORM

Benevento: L D L D D
Roma: W W L W W

Benevento are in need of arresting their current Serie A slide that has seen them drop from a place in the top-half at the turn of the year to 15th following a run of six games without victory (D3, L3).

In fact, Inzaghi’s team have just one win in 2021 (W1, D3, L4) and have collected just two wins and 10 points from 11 home outings in the league.

There have been no such problems for Roma on home soil and they remain the only unbeaten side there in the top-flight, but the Giallorossi rank just 12th when it comes to away days (W4, D1, L5), albeit they have played - alongside Napoli - the fewest number of away games.

But they travel south having picked up a dominant Europa League victory away to Braga in Portugal on Thursday, which means Paulo Fonseca's side have won four of their last five matches in all competitions.

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Gianluca Caprari

A Romanista who worked his way through the Roma academy, Caprari graduated from the Giallorossi's Primavera to make his professional debut for the club as a 17-year-old in the Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk in March, 2011.

Caprari went on to make a total of seven appearances for Roma before moves to Pescara, Inter Milan, and Sampdoria - who loaned him to Benevento at the start of the 2020-21 campaign.

Caprari has gone on to score five Serie A goals so far this term, including a looping, deflected effort in the reverse that gave Gli Stregoni the lead.

He and fellow former Roma man Iago Falque have tended to operate from the flanks for Benevento and both will be key to any attacking threat Inzaghi’s team are able to make.

MATCH STATS

Roma have won all three of the previous Serie A meetings with Benevento, and the Giallorossi have scored 14 times across those fixtures.

That makes them the highest top-flight scorers against Benevento in history, and Roma have scored at least four times in each one of those victories over this weekend’s hosts.

Roma are currently enjoying the longest ever Serie A winning streak over newly-promoted sides (26), while, also on the line this weekend, is their record for scoring in the most consecutive matches over such opposition (53).

Just one of Benevento’s six wins have been bagged facing a team in the top-half - the 1-0 win on Matchday 3 over then-eighth Bologna who now reside in 12th - while Roma are the only side in Europe’s top-five leagues that still boast a 100 percent record over sides in the bottom-half of the table with a perfect 11 wins from 11.

PLAYER STATS

• Borja Mayoral made his Serie A debut in the reverse fixture and the Spaniard has scored four of his six league goals for the Giallorossi against newly-promoted sides, including two braces.
  
• Jordan Veretout - who scored from the spot when these sides last met - has nine top-flight goals already in 2020-21 and could become only the second French midfielder in history to register 10 in a single Serie A season; the other being Michel Platini, who hit double figures on four separate occasions.
  
• Pedro scored his first and second goals in a Roma shirt against Udinese and Benevento in back-to-back MD 3 and 4 outings, and could do the double-double over those two sides having also found the back of the net in the win over Udinese last time out.
  
• Caprari has only scored more times in Serie A against Sampdoria (4) than his old team from the capital (3).

WHAT THEY SAID

“We have built a lot and for a newly promoted side on this pitch, it’s very good.”

- Benevento coach, Filippo Inzaghi