Overview
After a period of not being very successful as coach of the Italian national team, Gennaro Gattuso started his reign at Lazio with a defeat in the first round of the Coppa Italia.
The home defeat to Mantova immediately caused the new Biancocelesti coach to face much criticism. However, Lazio quickly regained their rhythm of play when traveling to the Stadio Dall'Ara stadium.
Newcomer Davide Frattesi scored right in his Serie A debut, while Lazio maintained the advantage in the last 30 minutes to win 3 important points against Bologna.
However, if he wants to improve his ninth place last season, Gattuso will have to solve Lazio's home field performance problem. This is not a simple task when the wave of fan boycotts often makes the Olimpico stadium deserted.
Lazio only won 8 out of 19 home matches last season, a record that contributed to their failure to qualify for European cups. However, the capital team has won their first home match in 4 out of the last 5 seasons.
Lazio is also having a superior head-to-head record against Genoa when winning all 6 recent encounters, with a total score of 13-2.
Genoa once stood before the opportunity to end this series of matches in the last time the two teams met in February. However, they conceded a 2-3 defeat because of a penalty taken by Danilo Cataldi in the 90+10 minute.
Genoa has opposite results in the first 2 matches of the new season. Grifone easily defeated Ascoli in the Coppa Italia before returning home to welcome Napoli in the opening round of Serie A.
Head-to-head history continues to not favor Genoa. They have only won one of their last 26 encounters with Lazio in the league. That record has not improved when Daniele De Rossi's team lost to Napoli 0-2 at home, with both goals appearing in the last 10 minutes.
In his first full season leading Genoa, Daniele De Rossi aims to help this team avoid relegation battle again. The Italian coach certainly wants to win all 3 points in the away match this weekend.
Not only does De Rossi have more motivation when facing Lazio, Genoa also needs to improve their away record after only winning 4 victories on their opponent's field last season.
Personnel situation
In order to fill the gap in the attack after the departure of two veteran strikers Taty Castellanos and Ciro Immobile, Lazio has recruited Andrea Pinamonti from Sassuolo. Previously, this striker had twice played for Genoa on loan.
Petar Ratkov and Tijjani Noslin are also possible options, but Boulaye Dia started in both of Lazio's first 2 matches of the season.
Genoa has also just strengthened their attack by recruiting Milutin Osmajic from Preston North End. The Montenegrin international may compete for a starting spot with Lorenzo Colombo.
Two other new signings, Elias Havel and Hamed Traore, are currently undergoing injury treatment. However, De Rossi still has a large part of the force in a healthy state and ready to play.
Expected lineup:
Mandas, Lazzari, Doekhi, Provstgaard, Pedraza, Frattesi, Rovella, Taylor, Isaksen, Dia, Zaccagni.
Bijlow, Marcandalli, Ostigard, Vasquez, Norton-Cuffy, Frendrup, Sow, Ellertsson, Baldanzi, Vitinha, Colombo.
The match between Lazio and Genoa takes place at 1:45 am on August 31 (Vietnam time).
