With Roma and Lazio meeting in the first Derby della Capitale of the season on Sunday (kick-off: 18:00 CEST), we have all the pre-match preamble you need as Jose Mourinho tastes the Rome derby for the first time as a coach.

LAZIO

League position: 7th
Head coach: Maurizio Sarri
Top-scorer: Ciro Immobile (6)

RECENT FORM

Lazio: W L L D D
Roma: W W W L W

Since back-to-back wins opened the campaign for the capital’s other club, Sarri’s side haven’t tasted victory in four outings since.

Defeats to AC Milan in the league and Galatasaray in Europe have been followed by top-flight draws with Cagliari and Torino, the latter of which was rescued by Immobile’s last gasp penalty last time out.

The Giallorossi, meanwhile, have lost just once in eight games under Mourinho this term and earned all three points in midweek thanks to Tammy Abraham’s strike in the 1-0 win over Udinese.

It’s been a solid start to life under Mourinho, who now takes charge of a Derby della Capitale for the first time, albeit without in-form midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini after he was sent off for two bookings on Thursday night.

Possible Lazio line-up

(4-3-3)

Reina; Lazzari, Felipe, Acerbi, Hysaj; Alberto, Leiva, Milinkovic-Savic; Anderson, Immobile, Moro

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Ciro Immobile

Italy striker Immobile has scored in all but one of his team’s league fixtures this season, bagging six goals in five Serie A appearances.

That includes a hat-trick in the 6-1 dismissal of Spezia on Matchday 2, while the only game Immobile failed to find the back of the net was the loss to Milan.

Immobile has scored seven times in 15 games against the Giallorossi but has been on the scoresheet just once in the last four derbies.

The bulk of the nominal Stadio Olimpico hosts’ attacking menace will come from their captain, who has been their go-to-man ever since joining the club in 2016.

MATCH STATS

Sunday’s fixture will be the 155th Serie A meeting between these two sides.

Roma hold the historical advantage in the derby thanks to 55 Giallorossi victories, 60 draws, and 39 defeats across their top-flight games.

The most recent Derby della Capitale - back in May - was won by Roma, who bagged a 2-0 victory. A second successive win, with a clean sheet, would be the first time the Giallorossi have managed such a feat since the 2010-11 season.

Lazio come into this game having drawn their last two matches. The last time they drew three games in succession in Serie A was back in December 2018.

PLAYER STATS

• All five of the top scorers in league derbies are Roma players: Francesco Totti (11), Dino Da Costa (9), Marco Delvecchio (9), Rodolfo Volk (7), and Vincenzo Montella (7).
  
• Abraham's winner in midweek was his third as a Roma player and second in Serie A since joining the club in the summer. He also has two top-flight assists to his name, a number only bettered by three other players in the division.
  
• On average, Bryan Cristante (11, 646km) runs more than any other player in the league after five rounds of matches in 2021-22.
  
• Jordan Veretout's one Serie A hat-trick came against Lazio, back in April 2018 when the French international was a Fiorentina player. He has scored more goals against Lazio in Italy than any other club except his old side (four goals in five games since joining Roma).

WHAT THEY SAID

“Results are coming, we want to propose a different style of football to the one that Lazio have seen over the last four or five years. The lads are enjoying themselves, but it takes time to see what we do in training translate into what we all see on the pitch.”

- Lazio assistant coach, Giovanni Martusciello