Newly-promoted Benevento head into their third game of the Serie A campaign as they host Bologna - a perennial mid-table side in recent seasons - on Sunday.
Bologna have bounced between 10th and 15th since arriving in the Italian top flight in 2015 and Benevento will look to follow in their footsteps after their woeful Serie A debut in 2017-18.
Match preview
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Benevento boss Filippo Inzaghi faces the side he left in 2019 after just one season in charge before taking his current job.
His side have started as well as they could have expected, beating Sampdoria 3-2 in their opening game before falling 5-2 to Inter Milan last time out.
It is certainly an improvement on their last start to a Serie A campaign - which happened to be the first in the club's history - when Benevento lost their first 14 league games in a row - the worst start to a season ever in any of Europe's top five leagues.
The club look much better-equipped to compete at the top level this time around and will fancy they have a reasonable chance of survival - particularly if they can beat Bologna on Sunday.
Bologna have had a similar start to their league season, losing 2-0 to AC Milan before besting Parma 4-1 at home.
The club, under the guidance of Sinisa Mihajlovic once again, improved on their points total from 2018-19, but finished two places lower.
Bologna have established themselves in Serie A since their return to the top flight and the last two seasons represent a step forward for the club, extricating themselves from any talk of relegation to finish comfortably mid-table.
They are still some way off competing for European places, but will be aiming for another comfortable campaign and may fancy their chances against a newly-promoted side.
Benevento Serie A form: WL
Bologna Serie A form: LW
Team News
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Benevento head coach Inzaghi has a few injury issues to deal with ahead of Bologna's visit on Sunday.
Vice-captain Nicolas Viola is out with a knee injury and won't be back until later this month.
In addition, Oliver Kragl, Andres Tello and Federico Barba are all doubts and Inzaghi must wait to see if any will be available.
Bologna boss Mihajlovic, on the other hand, has no injury issues to deal with.
He is able to select from his complete pool of players, with no suspensions to contend with either.
Benevento possible starting lineup:
Montipo; Maggio, Glik, Caldirola, Letizia; Ionita, Schiattarella, Dabo; Insigne, Moncini, Caprari
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; De Silvestri, Danilo, Tomiyasu, Hickey; Poli, Schouten; Olsen, Soriano, Barrow; Palacio
We say: Benevento 2-3 Bologna
Benevento have given a decent account of themselves so far since their promotion but Bologna's experience could help them to edge what could be a close contest.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home/Away:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Benevento win with a probability of 46.7%. A win for Bologna had a probability of 28.74% and a draw had a probability of 24.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Benevento win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.53%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.35%) and 2-0 (7.7%). The likeliest Bologna win was 0-1 (7.17%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.58%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Benevento in this match.
