Sampdoria will be hoping to end their losing streak and climb away from the danger zone in Serie A when they welcome Sassuolo to the Luigi Ferraris Stadium.
The hosts have turned to a former manager in an attempt to turn results around, whilst the visitors find themselves in a comfortable mid-table spot following a solid run of form.
Match preview
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Returning boss Marco Giampaolo was unable to halt Sampdoria's losing run when he returned to the helm in the clash at Spezia prior to the international break.
The 54-year-old oversaw his side fall to a narrow 1-0 defeat against a fellow struggler, in what was a tight and nervy relegation battle in Serie A.
Albin Ekdal's sending off for a second yellow card in the second half did not help matters, as I Blucerchiati fell to a fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
As a result of the defeat, which also extended their winless spell to seven games, Sampdoria find themselves down in 16th spot, with only three points now separating them from Cagliari in the relegation zone.
Having only beaten Sunday's opponents once in their last 10 meetings, and with a poor home record actually worse than their form on the road this campaign, Sampdoria could well be dragged further into trouble come the end of the weekend's action.
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Meanwhile, Sassuolo head to the Luigi Ferraris Stadium on the back of just two wins in their last seven games, with one of the two arriving in the Coppa Italia to take Alessio Dionisi's side to the quarter-finals.
Sassuolo's rise towards the European spots has therefore taken a slight hit, but achieving a place in the top six was never likely or expected of Dionisi and his side, despite their best efforts last campaign.
Instead, I Neroverdi occupy 11th place as a result of their 1-1 draw at Torino last time out before the international break, with a nine-point gap between themselves and Roma in sixth, but a healthy 12-point advantage being held over Cagliari in the relegation places.
Therefore, a successful cup run could be the main target for the remainder of the campaign, although being drawn away to Juventus in the next round could force Dionisi to quickly turn his attentions back to a strong finish to the Serie A season anyway.
As well as boasting a strong record against their hosts on Sunday, Sassuolo also go into the clash having lost just twice in their last 12 matches, despite their lack of victories, so there are plenty of reasons for the visitors to be confident of achieving a positive result.
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Team News
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Ekdal's red card for Sampdoria before the break means he will serve his one-match suspension on Sunday, which could present an opportunity for Kristoffer Askildsen, or on-loan Inter Milan midfielder Stefano Sensi, to feature in the centre of the pitch.
The influential Mikkel Damsgaard nears his return from a four-month absence, and the Dane could feature from the bench at the weekend.
Maya Yoshida and the experienced Fabio Quagliarella could also return following hamstring and calf injuries respectively.
As for the visitors, left-back Rogerio will miss out on the trip to Sampdoria following his fifth yellow card of the season at Torino last time out.
Pedro Obiang remains unavailable for the foreseeable future due to his ongoing heart problems, whilst Filip Djuricic remains a doubt due to a hamstring injury.
Hamed Traore is back available though after his national side Ivory Coast were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Falcone; Bereszynski, Ferrari, Magnani, Augello; Thorsby, Sensi, Rincon; Candreva; Gabbiadini, Caputo
Sassuolo possible starting lineup:
Consigli; Toljan, Chiriches, Ferrari, Kyriakopoulos; Frattesi, Lopez, Harroui; Berardi, Scamacca; Raspadori
We say: Sampdoria 1-1 Sassuolo
With Sampdoria having a new manager in place to instil his ideas over the international break, we are predicting for them to pick up a point against Sassuolo on Sunday.
The visitors can play without any pressure and are a difficult team to beat, so we can see the two sides cancelling each other out and finishing level.
Top tip
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 Sassuolo win with a probability of 42.72%. A win for Sampdoria had a probability of 34.06% and a draw had a probability of 23.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sassuolo win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.83%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (6.84%) and 0-2 (5.86%). The likeliest Sampdoria win was 2-1 (7.78%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.31%). The actual scoreline of 4-0 was predicted with a 0.9% likelihood.
