Lazio vs Bologna FC Preview 14/08/2022

Lazio vs Bologna FC – 14/08/2022

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The 2022/23 Italian Serie A season begins this weekend and on the 14th of August we have a meeting between Lazio and Bologna.

The game will be played at the Stadio Olimpico and the hosts finished in 5th place last season on 64 points while the visitors finished in 13th place on 46 points.

Lazio finished their preseason with a penalty shootout defeat at the hands of Real Valladolid. The game ended in a 0-0 draw and that result means Lazio have failed to win any of their last 3 friendly fixtures.

There was a 0-0 draw with Qatar and a 4-1 away defeat to Genoa, who were relegated to Serie B last season.

However, Lazio finished last season strongly and were undefeated in their final 4 matches of the campaign.

There were wins over Spezia away and Sampdoria at home plus draws at Juventus and at home with Verona. Lazio came so close to qualifying for the Champions League and will be hoping to go one better this season.

Trends show Lazio haven’t lost in 16 of their last 19 home matches in Serie A. The fans have seen plenty of goal mouth action and both teams have scored in 4 of their last 5 home league games.

Lazio have scored 2 or more goals in 3 of their last 5 home Serie A matches and have scored at least 2 goals in each of their last 4 games, both home and away.

Bologna make the trip to the capital having beat Cosenza 1-0 in their final preseason game. There were mixed results for Bologna in preseason, with wins over Genoa and Cosenza but defeats against Sassuolo, AZ, and Twente.

Bologna were struggling to win games towards the end of last season in Serie A and recorded only 3 wins from their final 13 matches.

They ended the season with a 1-0 win at Genoa but that was their only victory in their 10 most recent away Serie A fixtures. However, Bologna did pick up a point in draws at AC Milan, Juventus, and Roma.

Scoring goals was a bit of problem for Bologna last season and other than the teams who were relegated, only two teams scored fewer goals in Serie A.

Team news and Lazio have no injury or suspension concerns ahead of this game. Several players have joined the club this summer, including Luís Maximiano, Marcos Antônio, Mattia Zaccagni, Nicolò Casale, Alessio Romagnoli, and Mario Gila.

Bologna also start the season with no injured or suspended players. New additions for this season include Michel Aebischer and Lewis Ferguson, the latter of which is an exciting midfielder from Aberdeen.

Lazio will want to aim high this season and finish in the top four. That means they need to win this type of game and must start as favourites to beat Bologna on home turf.

In fact, we expect Lazio to win this match comfortably and keep a clean sheet in the process.