Roma vs Lazio 27/01/20

27 January 2020

Roma and Lazio come face-to-face in the 174th competitive Derby della Capitale at the Stadio Olimpico this weekend, with both sides looking to bounce back after suffering defeats in their respective midweek’s Coppa Italia matches.

The ‘hosts’ have endured mixed fortunes in their five competitive matches in the new calendar year (W2, L3), with four of those results (win/loss) in that period seeing the winners on the day prevail by a two-goal margin. Although they headed into the winter break on a run of seven straight home games without a loss (W4, D3), the ‘Giallorossi’ have struggled to build on that in 2020, losing both of their home fixtures since the turn of the new year. But, four wins in their last six top-flight home H2Hs with Lazio (D1, L1) indicate Roma could return to winning ways here, especially considering they’ve netted over 1.5 goals in all but one of those clashes. It will be vital for Paulo Fonseca’s men to avoid shipping the opener here, as they’ve returned just one point from four SA home fixtures where they conceded the first goal to the upper-half-of-the-table rival.

Although they come into this meeting after losing 1-0 to Napoli in midweek’s Coppa Italia showdown, the ‘visitors’ are still enjoying an impressive SA form. Indeed, they’ve won all 11 of their last league matches, with eight of their triumphs during that 11-game run seeing Lazio fail to shut out their opponents. Curiously, all five of Lazio’s previous SA away wins have arrived via the identical 2-1 scoreline, with two of them witnessing the ‘Biancocelesti’ come from behind the seal three points. Also, Simone Inzaghi’s players have shipped just ten SA away goals so far this season, but eight of them have come in the first half. Interestingly, while they start their away fixtures slowly (0 goals inside the first 15 minutes of play in 9 SA trips), Lazio have been lethal in the closing stages, finding the net at least once on five such occasions already.