Atalanta vs Empoli 16/04/19

16 April 2019

The Champions League promotion fighters and the Serie A relegation battlers go head-to-head as Atalanta welcome Empoli to the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.

An impressive run of form that has seen the hosts won four of their last six Serie A fixtures (W4, D2) has rocketed them to sixth place, as they currently trail fourth-placed AC Milan by three points. Notably, all of those four triumphs have seen Atalanta scored over 1.5 goals per match, with Gian Piero Gasperini’s men bagging 3+ match goals on three occasions across those games. Surprisingly, La Dea have secured more points on the road this season (27 of 52) and have also scored more goals away from home (35 of 64). Although the Bergamo-based outfit lost four SA home clashes this campaign, three of those failures have arrived against teams from the upper half of the table. Interestingly, all seven of Atalanta’s previous SA home clashes have featured goals on both ends, with six of them producing 3+ match goals.

Meanwhile, the relegation-threatened visitors have endured mixed fortunes in their last five SA outings (W3, L2) and are currently sitting 18th with a three-point deficit to the league safety. By far the worst traveling side, Gli Azzurri are one of only two teams that have yet to wrap up all three points away from home (D4, L11) having lost five of their previous SA road clashes. What’s more, just one team has shipped more goals than Empoli (34) this term, with Aurelio Andreazzoli’s players failing to keep a clean sheet in 14 of 15 SA away games. Another potential worry for the traveling fans is that Empoli’s struggling in the final third saw them failed to find the back of the net on three of their last five SA road trips.