Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round Two

Atalanta: Duvan Zapata and José Palomino should be good to go after COVID, but they might be initially limited. Cristiano Piccini will be held out as he works on his fitness level. Aleksey Miranchuk (thigh strain) is unlikely to be back before the international break. Pierluigi Gollini (partial ACL tear) and Matteo Pessina (patellar dislocation) are expected to return in November. Berat Djimsiti and Cristian Romero are suspended. Josip Ilicic remains out indefinitely as he recovers from mental health issues, but at least he is practicing. 

Benevento: Nicolas Viola is out as he had a torn meniscus removed and will be sidelined for a couple of months. Oliver Kragl (neck) and Andres Tello have been ruled for minor ailments, Federico Barba because of lack of fitness.  Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round One

Bologna: Gary Medel is suspended and is also recovering from a grade one strain in the semimembranosus muscle on the right thigh, therefore he could miss week two as well.

Cagliari: Luca Ceppitelli, Filip Bradaric and Kiril Despodov are quarantining after catching COVID-19 in late August. Gaston Pereiro suffered a fifth metatarsal fracture in the right foot about two weeks ago and he has a 45-day timetable. Alessandro Deiola is recovering from a clean-up surgery on the right knee he had during his time at Lecce. Continue reading

Serie A Best Fantasy XI – Round 35

Pietro Terracciano (7 points): he got the nod in the previous round due to a process of elimination, instead he fully deserved against Inter, stopping the opponents multiple times with great saves and a little help coming from the woodwork and putting together a man-of-the-man performance.

Bruno Peres (8 points): not one but two goals for the Brazilian fullback, who is loving life in a very offensive role in Roma’s newly-hatched scheme and punished SPAL on two occasions with deep cuts in the box and sharp finishes. He is looking like his old Torino self. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Preview – Round 34

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Verona: after a consistent stretch with a pure striker up front, Ivan Juric went back to a false-nine, Valerio Verre in this case, against Roma, but the results were not that great, with the second half push coming on the heels of the subs. The returns from injury of Fabio Borini, Eddie Salcedo and Valentin Eysseric will allow the coach to go that route more often, especially against top teams, although Samuel Di Carmine has been decently effective (three goals in the last six games). Mattia Pessina scored again and he has separated himself from their slew of attacking midfielders, while Mattia Zaccagni picked up the assist. Darko Lazovic has been their most consistent player.

Suggested picks: Pessina, Lazovic, Borini. Continue reading

Serie A Team of the Week – Roma

Just only truly commanding performance out of the reduced slate of games over the weekend and it belong to Roma, which needed to quash a lot of doubts surrounding them after a three-game losing streak and did it in the best possible way, by deep-sixing an in-form opponent such as Lecce.

Paulo Fonseca trotted out Bruno Peres at right back, with Cengiz Under, picked over Carles Perez and Justin Kluivert, in front of him on that flank, while Lorenzo Pellegrini returned at no.10 with Bryan Cristante back in the XI and Aleksandar Kolarov, after ceding some playing time to Leonardo Spinazzola, manned the left defensive flank. Continue reading

Serie A Weekly News Recap

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The transfer market formally opened this week and so a flurry of moves were made official. Gianluigi Buffon joined PSG; Inter signed Stefan De Vrij and Kwadwo Asamoah on free transfers and acquired Lautaro Martinez from Racing; Milan brought in Pepe Reina, Ivan Strinic and Alen Halilovic without paying anything.

Napoli announced the arrivals of Alex Meret and Orestis Karnezis from Udinese and Fabian Ruiz from Real Betis, for whom they paid around €30M. Sampdoria have bought Jakub Jankto from Udinese, who totalled nine goals and 12 assists over the last two seasons with the Zebrette. Continue reading

Roma’s summer plans start to take shape

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Despite two vitally important matches remaining in Roma’s 2017-2018 campaign, the plans regarding the club’s transfer market for the summer are starting to take shape.

While there’s no doubt Roma’s sole focus is on their two remaining fixtures against Juve and Sassuolo as the club try to confirm their place in next season’s Champions League Continue reading

Serie A Game of the Week – Round 32: Lazio vs Roma

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The two most anticipated matches of the last Serie A round, Milan-Napoli and Lazio-Roma, failed to deliver in the terms of scoring, but they were still vibrant and certainly did not lack action. The Derby of the Italian Capital was a little more hard-fought.

The two sides arrived at the game in a completely different mood after the European efforts: Roma trampled Barcelona in an historical upset and gained access to the Champions League semi-finals, while Lazio wasted away a good lead with a five-minutes black-out against Red Bulls Salzburg, squandering a qualification that was within reach. They were tied in third place in the standings, one point above Inter.

Continue reading

Bruno Peres’ strong week provides a positive for Roma

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Despite being a largely peripheral figure for AS Roma this campaign, acting predominantly as a back up to starting right-back, Alessandro Florenzi, it’s been positive to see Bruno Peres put in two excellent shifts in a row.

A heavily derided figure by many of the Giallorossi faithful since joining last season, the Brazilian’s upturn in form against Barcelona, in Roma’s Champions League quarter-final clash, and against Fiorentina, saw him arguably be his team’s best player in both fixtures. Continue reading