Salernitana vs Roma

Heavily reinforced Roma head to the Stadio Arechi to take on minnows Salernitana in their inaugural 2022/23 Serie A fixture.

Salernitana performed a miracle to avoid relegation in their first Serie A season in 20 years last term as they secured survival despite spending 33 matchdays in the drop zone. Keen to stay away from the relegation territory this term, ‘I Granata’ have landed prolific Norwegian forward Erik Botheim, who scored twice against Roma in last season’s Europa Conference League with Bodo/Glimt. Salernitana’s Serie A record against Roma cannot encourage home fans, as they’ve lost five of their six top-flight H2Hs (W1), including both in 2021/22 by an aggregate score of 6-1. Head coach Nicola has lost each of his three Serie A matchday-one fixtures without seeing his teams on the scoresheet. That sounds troubling as Salernitana have lost both previous competitive home outings ‘to nil.’

In the meantime, after leading Roma to their maiden European success last season, head coach has done extremely well to back his Europa Conference League triumph with several big-name signings. Paulo Dybala, Georginio Wijnaldum and Nemanja Matic have joined ‘I Giallorossi’ this summer as part of the club’s bid to better last season’s fifth-place Serie A finish. Following a 3-0 victory at Torino on their final league travel of 2021/22, Roma could rack up back-to-back Serie A wins on the road for the first time since August 2020. Mourinho’s side won their opening three top-flight matches last season and will be looking to emulate that feat this term to bolster their chances of returning into the top four after a four-year hiatus.