Serie A, Sunday, DEC 15, 18:00 CET
Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia
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The Match Pack: Salernitana preview, form guide, stats and more


With Roma travelling to newly promoted Salernitana on Sunday (kick-off: 20:45 CET), we have all the pre-match preamble you need as Jose Mourinho’s side go in search of a fourth straight competitive win.

SALERNITANA

League position: 14th
Head coach: Fabrizio Castori
Top-scorer: Federico Bonazzoli (3)


RECENT FORM

Salernitana: W W L W L
Roma: L W W W W

Salernitana made a lively start to life back in Serie A on Matchday 1 - twice taking the lead but ultimately succumbing 3-2 to Bologna.

Castori will have been encouraged by that performance and there were plenty of positives to take into their first home league game of the campaign and while experienced defender Stefan Strandberg (suspension) and Milan Djuric will be missed, club captain Francesco Di Tacchio should return in midfield.

Safe passage to the group stages of the Europa Conference League was secured on Thursday with a comfortable 3-0 win over Trabzonspor that wrapped a 5-1 victory over the two playoff’s two legs.

It means Mourinho’s men have won three out of three so far in 2021-22 and they will be confident of making it four from four, with no new injury concerns for the trip to Salerno, although Nicolo Zaniolo misses out through suspension.


Possible Salernitana line-up

(3-5-1-1)

Belec; Jaroszynski, Bogdan, Gyomber; Kechrida, Capezzi, Di Tacchio, M. Coulibaly, Ruggeri; Obi; Bonazzoli


DANGER MAN
Federico Bonazzoli

At just 24, Bonazzoli is on the sixth loan assignment of his Sampdoria career so far and it already looks as if 2021-22 could be his breakout season.

Bonazzoli has scored in each of Salernitana’s two competitive fixtures to date, bagging twice in the Coppa Italia win over Reggina and also finding the back of the net in the defeat to Bologna.

The 6’0” former Inter Milan striker has previously been likened to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Christian Vieri and his three goals this season are already as many as he scored over the entire course of 2020-21, which he spent on-loan at Torino.

It’s encouraging form and Bonazzoli will now shoulder even more responsibility with Djuric injured and fellow summer loanee, Simy, building match fitness.

MATCH STATS

These two have met eight times in the top flight, with Roma winning six times and drawing once. Salernitana have picked up one victory in this fixture, which came in the last meeting between the two - a 2-1 defeat for the Giallorossi in January 1999, at the Arechi Stadium.

Roma are unbeaten in their last 36 games against newly promoted sides in Serie A (W31 D5); a record only Juventus (39 wins) can better in the history of the competition.

Aiding that sequence has been the fact Roma have scored in 55 of their last 56 such matches against newly promoted teams, scoring 136 goals in this time and failing to score only in the 0-0 against Benevento in February 2021.

Those records bode well for Roma as they look to end a run of seven league games without a win (D2, L5), which is their longest such streat without picking up three points on the road since May 2000 (11).

PLAYER STATS

  • Mourinho has the chance to become just the third Roma coach to win both of his opening two Serie A games since 2000, after Claudio Ranieri did so in 2009-10 and Rudi Garcia also opened up with a pair of victories in 2013-14.
  • Henrikh Mkhitaryan (23 goals) and Jordan Veretout (18) make up two of Serie A's three highest scoring midfielders from the past three seasons.
  • Mkhitaryan has also found the net in each of his last five Serie A matches and only one midfielder has scored in six consecutive top-flight games since the introduction of three points for a win: Erik Lamela, who did so for Roma in 2012.
  • Joel Obi has played 351 minutes of football against Roma without finding the back of the net - the longest drought of his career in Serie A.

WHAT THEY SAID

“It’s hard to accept this defeat, we were naive. We took the lead twice and we made two mistakes that we should not do. I am sorry, we didn’t deserve to lose.

“You must always be focused in Serie A, you can’t concede from inside the box with such tall players. We played well and conceded little.”

- Salernitana coach Fabrizio Castori after defeat to Bologna