Weekend Serie A Betting Tips: Three doubles to consider

Our Serie A expert Daniele Fisichella has been riding a hot streak recently with five of the seven tips he's put up in the past week being winners.

He's back with his usual look at the Serie A games this weekend and has picked out three doubles as his Best Italian Football tips of the week...

With eight teams in the space of only eight points, the race to play in Europe next season is wide open in Serie A. Last year’s champions Napoli are 14 points behind Inter while AC Milan seem to be all but out the title race after last week’s defeat in Bergamo. So can Bologna finish the weekend in the top four?

• An opportunity for Napoli to make ground
• Toro’s on the rampage
• Will the student surpass the master?

Napoli vs Cagliari (Saturday, 17:00)

Against Juventus it came the fifth defeat of the campaign for Napoli who, this time last year, were considered one of the best teams in Europe.

Lately the Azzurri have had a difficult run of fixtures and have also been a touch unlucky.

But at least they managed to beat fairly comfortably Braga in midweek and qualify to the Champions League knockout stages.

Their 2-0, thanks to an own goal and another one from African Ballon d’Or winner Victor Oshimen, was their first victory on home turf since the end of September and only their fifth clean sheet of the campaign. Can Walter Mazzarri’s side go on a run of successes until new year?

Cagliari are out of the bottom three after a dramatic win against Sassuolo on Monday which once against showed their untemable spirit. But the Sardinians are currently the worse away side in Serie A, with no wins and only four goals scored.

Napoli have been below par for too long, and it’s time for them to produce a strong performance at Fuorigrotta. I’d back them to win combined with Oshimen anytime goalscorer, which comes out as a 4/5 play on the #PickYourPunt feature.

Torino vs Empoli (Saturday, 19:45)

With just one defeat in the last five Serie A games Torino have slightly improved their position, but now it’s time for Ivan Juric’s men to put their foot down and get closer to the the seventh spot.

In the summer the team was strenghtened, with the arrivals of Duvan Zapata (three goals so far), Raoul Bellanova and Adrian Tameze, with the clear intent to improve the two 10th place finishes achieved in the previous scampaigns.

The Granata have a not too tough calendar until mid-February as, during this period, they won’t face any of the top-four teams and will play six home games.

And it’s actually the domestic form that they need to improve as they only scored seven times at the Stadio Olimpico.

Empoli are young side that are struggling to repeat last year’s achievement.

They’ve got Serie A’s worse attack (10 goals, and no Ciccio Caputo for this game as he picked up an injury on Monday) and second worse defence (27 conceded, life is hard withouth Guglielmo Vicario...).

In fairness they’ve only lost one of their last four away games, but I believe Torino would be too strong for them. Let’s go for a fairly comfortable victory with over 1.5 goals scored by Torino, once more this double is available via the #PickYourPunt feature and is priced up at 10/11.

Bologna vs Roma (Sunday, 17:00)

Serie A’s surprise package, Bologna, are not in the top-4 race by coincidence. They’re a financially sound club who in the last couple of years, since the arrival of former Atalanta sporting director Giovanni Sartori, have signed and developed talented young players. All under the smart and coragious management of Thiago Motta.

In fact the former Inter and PSG midfielder has quickly transformed Bologna into a side that is not afraid to attack against anybody but also know how to control games.

The numbers testify their transformation: they’re seventh for possession and have Italy’s third best defence, having lost only two games (against AC Milan and Fiorentina).

In the last twelve months Bologna have taken points from all Serie A’s top teams, especially at the Renato Dall’Ara. Given Roma’s key absentees (Dybala, due to an injury that will keep him out until 2024 and Lukaku who’s suspended) they could have a real opportunity to end the weekend in a Champions League spot.

Roma are not in a bad run (unbeaten in five games in all competitions) but have only won against Cagliari and Sassuolo away from home.

Will Thiago Motta have the better of his former coach Mourinho? You could back the home side to get at least a draw on the Double Chance market in a low scoring game, going for Under 2.5. This double is a 10/11 play using the #PickYourPunt feature on the market page.

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