Bournemouth vs Lazio 03/08/19

3 August 2019

Bournemouth will finish their off-season preparations in front of the home fans as they welcome Lazio to the Vitality Stadium for their final pre-season friendly.

Three of four Bournemouth’s friendlies have come against the English lower-league sides, with the Cherries securing two wins across those matches (W2, D1) by scoring three goals apiece and failing to keep a clean sheet on both occasions. Bournemouth’s remaining pre-season clash has seen them suffer a 2-1 loss to Girona, with all three of those goals arriving in the final ten minutes of the game. Eddie Howe has yet to handle his team’s defensive problems that have seen them concede at least one goal in four of their last 18 outings and allow 2+ match goals ten times across the same period. Meanwhile, they’ve been regular on the scoresheet lately, finding the net in six of their previous seven games while bagging over 1.5 match goals four times in the process.

On the other hand, even though they’ve so far faced off three Italian lower-league outfits, the visitors have been impressive in their pre-season (W3), beating their rivals to nil twice while scoring a minimum of four goals across all three of those outings. Although they endured a torrid 2018-19 Serie A campaign, the Biancocelsti will have a chance to battle their way into the Europa League group stage through the playoffs after winning the Coppa Italia trophy thanks to a 2-0 win over Atalanta in the big final. Simone Inzaghi’s men have secured four wins in the final seven games of last season (W4, D1, L2), including the one over Atalanta, with five of those matches producing over 2.5 goals and seeing both teams score.