Roma vs Atalanta

A coveted Serie A top-four finish will be on the line when sixth-placed Roma take on fifth-placed Atalanta at the Stadio Olimpico this weekend.

Tammy Abraham’s 99th-minute spot-kick handed Roma a hard-earned 1-0 win away to Spezia last time out, halting their run of three Serie A draws while extending their unbeaten league streak to six (W3, D3). Now riding on their longest undefeated run under Jose Mourinho’s stewardship, ‘I Giallorossi’ have set their sights on completing their first Serie A double over Atalanta since 2012/13. But before brushing them aside with an overwhelming 4-1 victory in the reverse fixture in Bergamo, Roma had gone seven consecutive top-flight H2Hs without winning (D3, L4). What’s more, Roma have won none of their last seven Serie A home matches against this opposition (D4, L3). That doesn’t sound encouraging, and neither does the fact that their four Serie A clean sheets since the start of December have all come against sides currently fighting for survival.

In the meantime, Atalanta made light work of relegation-battling Sampdoria last time out, cruising to a landslide 4-0 victory to snap a five-game winless Serie A streak (D3, L2). However, Atalanta’s lacklustre away form has seen them pick up just one win from their last four Serie A travels (D2, L1), drawing a blank in each failed attempt to land three points in that sequence. After recording back-to-back scoring blanks in their last two league trips to Lazio and Fiorentina, ‘La Dea’ stare at the prospect of going three successive Serie A away games without scoring for the first time since November 2015. Despite their recent scoring woes, Gian Piero Gasperini’s men still boast an impressive average of 2.0 goals scored per Serie A trip this season, while they’ve only lost once in their 13 such fixtures so far (W9, D3).