Weekend Serie A Betting Tips: Three Best Bets from Matchday 21

Only seven games on the Serie A docket this weekend but our Italian Football Daniele Fisichella is back with his three Best Bets ahead of the games for Matchday 21...

It’s a reduced Serie A card this weekend due to the Supercoppa Italiana taking place in Saudi Arabia. Juventus could take advantage of Inter’s match being postponed and become the new leaders if they beat Lecce on Sunday night.

But first Roma will begging their post-Mourinho era, AC Milan will hope to continue their unbeaten run and Empoli’s new manager faces an almost impossible task.

• All eyes on Daniele De Rossi
• Can AC Milan still challenge for the Scudetto?
• A miracle-worker to Empoli’s rescue

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

The dust hasn’t yet settled in the capital after Jose Mourinho’s dismissal but Roma and his new manager, club legend Daniele De Rossi, are in desperate need of a win. Roma suffered their seventh league defeat on Sunday against AC Milan. The Giallorossi have eight points less in the table compared to a year ago and are out of the Coppa Italia.

Since December, they’ve only won four out of 10 games. The long list of injured players and the tough run of fixtures, where Roma have faced seven of the top 8 teams in Italy in the last month, can only represent a partial excuse.

Luckily for De Rossi Roma will face lower-table oppositions in the next three games. Starting with Verona whose results have dramatically improved lately (two wins in the last four) but who’ve sold this month the majority of their best players in order to make up for a shortfall in their finances.

Can they keep climbing up the table without their top goal-scorer Ngonge (six goals) who’ll join Napoli, as well as Hein, Terracciano, Faraoni, Hongla and Doig?

Roma have always scored in their last 24 games at the Olimpico and will be boosted by the return of Paulo Dybala (37 goals involvement in 54 games and 17 goals scored in front of his crowd) from injury.

It’s going to be tense, emotional but ultimately a win for the home side. I’d go for Roma to get three points and over 1.5 Goals which pays 5/6 via the #PickYourPunt tool.

Udinese vs AC Milan (Saturday, time: 19:45)

A high scoring game should be on the card as the Rossoneri, who are unbeaten in the last five Serie A games, travel to Udine.

The Friulani have only collected two wins so far this season (both to nil, against AC Milan and Bologna), but have looked sharp in their last game in Firenze, where they scored twice on the break and forced many saves from Fiorentina’s goalkeeper Terracciano.

Curiously Udinese is the team that has drawn more games this season (12) in Europe’s top five leagues, but it’s unlikely they’ll manage to keep a clean sheet against Serie A’s second best attack (38 goals scored).

Four of Milan's last seven Serie A matches featured over 3.5 goals and Udinese’s home recent home games have been a goal fest too: 2-1 loss to Lazio, a 3-0 win over Bologna and 2-2 and 3-3 draws.

However too often this season, especially away from home, AC Milan have been guilty of taking the foot off the pedal and struggled to control games.

In fact, they’ve only kept three away clean sheets as six of their last six away games have ended with four or more goals.

But it’s unlikely Stefano Pioli’s men will lose back-to-back games against Udinese, therefore backing the Over 2.5 Goals at 4/5 seems a smart option.

Empoli vs Monza (Sunday, time: 14:00)

In the week Mourinho lost his job, Empoli’s third managerial change of the season went, obviously, under the radar.

Aurelio Andreazzoli paid the price for the recent poor form of the Tuscan side who haven’t won a game since October and have the worse attacking record in Serie A (only 11 goals scored).

In a desperate attempt to save the season, Empoli hired Davide Nicola hoping he’ll live up to his fame of miracle worker. In fact, Nicola managed to save Salernitana in 2021 as he came on board on matchday 24 to take on what it looked like a mission impossible.

Salernitana rediscovered their fighting spirit under Nicola (who also achieved salvations with Crotone in 2017 and Torino in 2020) who thanks to eight draws and two wins in 15 games kept the Ippocampi up.

Given the lack of Empoli goal-scorers it is likely the new manager will go back to the basics and try, at first, to avoid home defeats.

Empoli have failed to keep a clean sheet in 17 of their last 20 home games, but equally Monza have started shipping more goals lately. Raffaele Palladino’s side have only won one of the last five games and kept only two clean sheets in the last 12 matches.

There’ll still be without Michele Di Gregorio, who’s top for saves in Serie A, and, after an underwhelming performance against Inter, might struggle again this weekend.

I fancy a double chance for Empoli (win or draw) and Over 1.5 Goals: you can get the odds up to EVS courtesy of our #PickYourPunt tool.

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