Sampdoria play host to Spezia on Friday night with both clubs occupying a place just above the Serie A relegation zone.
At a time when the home side are without a victory in four games, Spezia are one spot higher in 16th position on the back of their win over Salernitana.
Match preview
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Having gone four matches without defeat earlier in the season, Sampdoria looked on course for an enjoyable campaign under Roberto D'Aversa.
However, collecting just one point and conceding 13 goals during their next quartet of fixtures has put a different spin on matters, Sampdoria now down in 17th position.
With Napoli and Juventus coming during that recent run, the club's supporters may be willing to have some patience, but they would have shared D'Aversa's disappointment with the 3-1 defeat at Cagliari.
Aside from next week's meeting with Atalanta BC, I Blucerchiati have a more favourable schedule in front of them with four of their next six games being staged at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Nevertheless, nothing will improve unless they find a solution to their issues in defence with no clean sheets being kept at their home ground.
From Spezia's perspective, a meeting with their next opponents will feel like the ideal opportunity to move clear of the bottom three.
The comeback success over Salernitana have breathed new life into their season having previously shipped nine times in defeats to Juventus, AC Milan and Hellas Verona.
Thiago Motta will not get carried away by that last result, especially given the importance of gaining more points from their next four games with a top-seven club nowhere in sight.
Like their hosts, clean sheets have not been forthcoming, and that should make for an entertaining encounter on Friday night.
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Team News
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Sampdoria will have to make do without Morten Thorsby after the midfielder picked up his fifth yellow card of the season last time out.
Albin Ekdal is most likely to earn a recall to the team, while Francesco Caputo will be confident of another opportunity after impressing as a substitute versus Cagliari.
Mikkel Damsgaard missed that game with a thigh injury and will continue to be assessed this week.
Barring any late fitness issues, Motta may be prepared to stick with the side which edged out Salernitana.
Despite coming off the substitutes' bench to provide the assist for the winner, 19-year-old winger Suf Podgoreanu is likely to stay among the replacements.
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Audero; Bereszynski, Yoshida, Colley, Augello; Candreva, Ekdal, Silva, Askildsen; Caputo, Quagliarella
Spezia possible starting lineup:
Provedel; Ferrer, Hristov, Nikolaou, Gyasi; Kovalenko, Maggiore; Strelec, Salcedo, Antiste; Nzola
We say: Sampdoria 2-1 Spezia
Despite Spezia sitting higher in the table, you have to take into consideration where their wins have come from. With that in mind, we are backing the home team to edge this contest by the odd goal in three, moving them clear of the relegation zone.
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 Sampdoria win with a probability of 49.27%. A win for Spezia had a probability of 26.03% and a draw had a probability of 24.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sampdoria win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.57%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.5%) and 2-0 (8.57%). The likeliest Spezia win was 0-1 (7.23%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.72%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sampdoria would win this match.
