Weekend Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from Serie A for Matchday 31

You can't win 'em all and that was very much the case for Daniele Fisichella in his Best Bets column from Matchday 30 over the Easter Weekend as our Italian Football expert went 0 for 3.

Matchday 31 however offers a clean slate and a chance to get back on the profitable side of the ledger, so check out for Weekend Football Betting Tips from across Serie A...

Roma vs Lazio inaugurates the “Month of the Derbies” as the Turin and Milan ones will follow in the coming weeks the big game in Italy’s Capital.

Will it be the usual cagey game this Saturday? Or can we hope for more emotions thanks to two new managers, De Rossi and Tudor, in the Eternal City?

In the meantime, Inter are counting the days that separate them from the Scudetto and Bologna’s dream to play in the Champions League looks, week by week, much more like reality.

• A grudge affair?
• Goals guaranteed
• An unlikely giant-killer on the road to the Scudetto

Roma vs Lazio (Saturday, time: 17:00)

The Giallorossi haven’t won this fixture for a long time. Four matches, in fact, three of which they lost and where they always failed to score.

New manager Daniele De Rossi, who’s only been defeated in one Serie A game so far, will want to leave his mark, as he did many times during his playing career, in the most important match of the year in the Capital.

Unlike they did under Mourinho (who only won one out of six derbies with Roma), the hosts will play on the front foot to trouble Lazio’s defence that looks far less secure than last year.

Likewise, Igor Tudor, whose first two games in charge of the Biancoazzurri have been fairly positive, will ask his men to repeat the energetic and positive approach they had in the game at the Olimpico against the Bianconeri.

Roma have scored in front of their home crowd for the past 31 games in all competitions, whereas Lazio have got only Italy’s 10th best attack.

Although defence isn’t the main strength of either of these sides (Roma average one goal conceded per game at the Olimpico, whereas Lazio have only kept 10 league clean sheets), Under 2.5 Goals (4/6) seems the most logical option.

But given the low odds, why not going for Roma to take the lead at 4/5 instead? The Giallorossi have opened the scoring at home in 11 out of 15 games this season.

Frosinone vs Bologna (Sunday, time: 11:30)

The visitors’ fantastic season continues as thanks to a 3-0 win against Salernitana, Thiago Motta’s men have surpassed last year’s points tally.

Bologna have won eight of the last nine games and since February only leaders Inter have achieved more points (25) than the Felsinei (24).

Lately Bologna have also started scoring more goals, in fact six of their last 10 matches have produced at least three goals and this fixture seems perfect to continue the trend.

Despite having won the last three away games (against Lazio, Atalanta and Empoli) the Rossoblu still have a negative goal difference (-1) on the road due to a stuttering start of the campaign, when they won none of their first seven away games.

Frosinone (61 goals conceded, on average more than two per game) have got Italy’s second-worst defence after Salernitana, but are currently outside of the relegation zone in virtue of their goal difference.

In fact the newly-promoted Ciociari have scored 38 times in total, 25 of which in front of their crowd, better than what AC Milan and Juventus have achieved so far at home.

Eusebio Di Francesco’s side has only kept two clean sheets this season and six of their last seven games have ended with both teams on the scoresheet. I’m backing the Over 2.5 Goals at 5/6.

Udinese vs Inter (Monday, time: 19:45)

Having put aside the disappointment of the elimination from the Champions League, Inter are marching on towards the title.

The Neroazzuri only need 11 more points to win their 20th Scudetto, whereas the Friulani might have to fight till the very end to avoid being relegated.

Thanks to their 2-0 success over Empoli on Monday, Inter have become only the second team in Serie A history to have always scored for 30 consecutive league matches.

If the Neroazzurri win all the remaining eight matches, they’ll beat Antonio Conte’s Juventus record points in Serie A of 102, in 2013/2014.

The visitors are also chasing the record of most clean sheets in Italy’s top flight: they’d only need two more in order to equal Juventus 2010/2011 and Lazio’s last season numbers.

Udinese have been extremely poor at home: they’ve just won one game and scored only twice in the past four matches at the ‘Stadio Friuli’.

Weirdly, the Friulani have only beaten top sides so far (AC Milan, Juventus, Bologna and Lazio), and did not concede in three of these four games.

However, Simone Inzaghi’s men have only lost one (3-1 against Napoli in May 2023) of their last 20 games on the road, and this season have obtained the three points, without conceding, in nine occasions, including against sides fighting to avoid the drop like Cagliari, Empoli, Salernitana and Lecce.

Inter have scored in the first half in 11 of their 14 away games during this campaign, whereas Udinese have conceded before the break in five of their last six domestic matches.

An early lead for Inter might settle the game, and there are good odds (23/20) for Match Result Inter and Under 3.5 Goals.

You can check out all of Daniele's Serie A Betting Tips here each week along with those of our other Italian Football writers...