Bologna and Sassuolo will both be looking to build on their recent wins in Serie A when the two clubs lock horns at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara on Wednesday evening.
Bologna stunned Inter Milan to take all three points with a 2-1 win at the weekend, while Sassuolo enjoyed a thrilling 4-2 victory over Lecce last time out.
Match preview
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Bologna fans surely would not have been expecting much from their side when they travelled to a high-flying Inter Milan team, especially with the visitors 1-0 down and one man down after the hour mark.
However, Bologna managed to produce a remarkable turnaround as second-half goals from 18-year-old Musa Juwara and 21-year-old Musa Barrow condemned Inter to a 2-1 defeat on home soil and stretched Bologna's unbeaten run to three matches.
Sinisa Mihajlovic's men are in with an outside chance of breaking into the European places as they sit ninth on 41 points, seven behind sixth-placed Napoli with eight games of the season left to go.
However, Bologna still have testing fixtures against AC Milan, Napoli and Atalanta to contend with in the next couple of weeks, but their confidence ought to be sky high following their memorable win against Inter.
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Meanwhile, Sassuolo are enjoying a decent spell of their own and recorded their second victory in succession over relegation-threatened Lecce on Saturday.
Roberto De Zerbi's men have now only suffered one loss since the Italian top flight returned to action, and the mid-tablers have notched up at least three goals in their last four league outings.
Indeed, two 3-3 draws with Inter and Hellas Verona respectively was followed up by a 3-1 win over Fiorentina before their triumph over Lecce, and with a total of 55 goals during the 2019-20 campaign, Sassuolo are the fifth-highest scorers in the top flight.
Only the top four sides can boast more strikes than I Neroverdi this term, and with regards to individual standings, the prolific trio of Francesco Caputo, Domenico Berardi and Jeremie Boga have all hit double figures for the campaign.
The visitors currently sit just one point behind Bologna as they occupy 10th spot, and if there is a winner on Wednesday, the victors will temporarily move up to eighth before Hellas Verona take to the pitch against Inter on Thursday.
Two goals from Caputo either side of a Boga strike gave Sassuolo a 3-1 win over Bologna when the sides last met back in November.
Bologna Serie A form: DLLWDW
Sassuolo Serie A form: WLDDWW
Team News
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Roberto Soriano is suspended for Bologna owing to his red card against Inter, and the 29-year-old will join the injured Andrea Poli, Federico Santander and Andreas Skov Olsen on the sidelines.
Ibrahima Mbaye is also struggling with a muscular problem and is unlikely to feature for the visit of Sassuolo.
As far as Sassuolo are concerned, Filip Djuricic will serve a one-match suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season last time out.
Pedro Obiang is on the treatment table with a thigh strain, and Filippo Romagna is out for the season following surgery on his knee.
Bologna possible starting lineup:
Skorupski; Tomiyasu, Danilo, Bani, Dijks; Dominguez, Medel, Schouten; Orsolini, Barrow, Sansone
Sassuolo possible starting lineup:
Consigli; Muldur, Santos, Ferrari, Kyriakopoulos; Locatelli, Bourabia; Berardi, Defrel, Boga; Caputo
We say: Bologna 2-2 Sassuolo
Both clubs should be brimming with confidence right now and that energy should transfer onto the pitch, with plenty of attacking talent to admire on both ends. Sassuolo's front three always guarantees goals but Bologna will feel capable of beating anyone after their victory at Inter, so we are expecting the sides to play out a four-goal thriller and walk away with a point apiece.
Data 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 Bologna win with a probability of 45.52%. A win for Sassuolo had a probability of 29.76% and a draw had a probability of 24.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bologna win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.41%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.25%) and 2-0 (7.47%). The likeliest Sassuolo win was 0-1 (7.34%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.65%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.2% likelihood.
