Lazio vs Roma

Stadio Olimpico is the venue as eternal Serie A rivals Lazio and Roma face each other in 180th competitive Derby della Capitale.

After suffering an underwhelming Europa Conference League elimination at the hands of AZ Alkmaar, Lazio will be desperate to remedy their continental blunder by solidifying their position in the Serie A top-four race. Though last weekend’s 0-0 draw at Bologna halted their eye-catching three-match winning league streak, Maurizio Sarri’s men commence this round in third, two points clear of Roma. Encouragingly for ‘I Bianconcelesti’ fans, Sarri’s lads are unbeaten in their last five Serie A derbies on home turf (W3, D2) and could register their first top-flight double over Roma for the first time since 2011/12 after winning the reverse fixture 1-0. Adding to Lazio’s confidence, they’ve gone unbeaten in nine of their last ten league outings (W5, D4), recording six clean sheets in that span.

In the meantime, Roma defended a 2-0 first-leg lead at Real Sociedad in midweek Europa League action (0-0) to reach the competition’s quarter-finals and bounce back from last weekend’s disappointing 4-3 home loss to Sassuolo. Even though they’ll be only nominal visitors in this clash, it’s worth mentioning that Jose Mourinho’s men have won just once in their seven competitive away matches in 2023 (D3, L3) and are winless in the last five on the trot. Consistency has been a genuine issue for ‘I Giallorossi’ this calendar year, as witnessed by the fact none of their last eight games have seen the same outcome repeated twice in a row (W4, D1, L3). And considering they’ve failed to get on the scoresheet in two of their last three away outings, things don’t look promising from Roma’s perspective.