Serie A | Gameweek 15

Dec 8, 2024 at 2pm UK

Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi

Hellas Veronavs.Empoli

Match preview

After suffering a 5-0 thumping by Inter Milan a few days earlier, Verona slipped to perhaps a more significant loss last time out, going down 1-0 to likely relegation rivals Cagliari.

It was always going to be tough against the Scudetto holders, but losing in Sardinia meant they were overtaken in the standings by a direct competitor for Serie A survival.

Verona have one of the leakiest back lines in Europe's top five leagues. They've conceded at least one goal in each of their last 11 top-flight fixtures, at a troubling average of 2.7 per game.

Although they've lost their last three matches, the bottom half of the table is so congested that Verona were the first team to lose 10 of their first 14 matches without sitting inside the drop zone since Serie A returned to 20 teams in 2004.

The results this weekend could see that tricky situation change, though. Coach Paolo Zanetti will be feeling the heat when he welcomes his former club to the Bentegodi.

Empoli haven't won any of their last six league games against Verona. They lost both meetings last term. This weekend, they're visiting a venue where they last tasted top-flight success some nine years ago.

Not only do they have a poor recent record against them, but the Azzurri are also not doing much better than their struggling hosts, who they lead by four points in the tightly-packed standings.

After losing 3-0 to AC Milan last week, Roberto D'Aversa's team has only won one of their last nine league matches. That was against promoted strugglers Como in November, after they'd had two wins and two draws.

Thanks to a surprisingly strong start to the season, a club that was almost demoted last year is still in mid-table. Events in the middle of the week will have definitely boosted morale.

Beating Tuscan rivals Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia edition of the Derby dell'Arno on Wednesday saw Empoli through to the quarter-finals. After letting a lead slip, Sebastiano Esposito grabbed a late equaliser, before the Azzurri prevailed on penalties.

Recent Performance

Hellas Verona Serie A form:LLWLLL

Empoli Serie A form:DLWDDL

Empoli form (all competitions):LWDDLW

Team News

Verona will be without some key players this weekend. Juan Cruz, Ondrej Duda and Dani Silva, and Martin Frese will all be out due to injury. Diego Coppola will also miss out as he's serving a one-match ban for accumulated bookings.

It looks like Pawel Dawidowicz might be back in the starting lineup, but young Daniele Ghilardi is another contender.

Meanwhile, Empoli still have a lot of players out, including Szymon Zurkowski, Tyronne Ebuehi, Saba Sazonov, Nicolas Haas and Jacopo Fazzini. Mattia De Sciglio and Alberto Grassi are both doubtful for the game.

After resting a few key players for his team's midweek cup win – while giving promising goalkeeper Jacopo Seghetti and Swedish winger Emmanuel Ekong a chance to show what they can do – Roberto D'Aversa should go back to a more familiar XI on Sunday.

Lorenzo Colombo is set to return up front. Last year at the Bentegodi, he scored the only top-flight brace of his career against Verona. What's more, 82% of his Serie A goals have come away from home.

Possible starting lineup

Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:

Montipo; Tchatchoua, Ghilardi, Magnani, Bradaric; Serdar, Belahyane; Suslov, Kastanos, Lazovic; Tengstedt

Empoli possible starting lineup:

Vasquez; Goglichidze, Ismajli, Viti; Gyasi, Anjorin, Henderson, Maleh, Pezzella; Colombo, Pellegri