Hellas Verona vs Atalanta 18/07/20

18 July 2020

Hellas Verona and Atalanta go head-to-head at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi in a potentially high-scoring Serie A affair. All four of their previous top-flight H2Hs have produced over 2.5 goals, which has been true in eight of Verona’s last nine league home outings.

After failing to pick up a win in four Serie A games (D2, L2), Verona’s hopes of securing Europa League qualification look pretty slim, as they enter the round nine points behind sixth-placed Napoli. A lackadaisical defending has seen Verona fail to keep a clean sheet in their last nine league fixtures, conceding over 1.5 goals on seven of those occasions. However, despite conceding at least one goal in six of their seven Serie A home matches this calendar year, Ivan Juric’s men have avoided defeat in all but one of such clashes (W4, D1, L1). In turn, four of Verona’s five wins in the top-flight home H2Hs in the 21st century have seen the ‘Mastiffs’ fail to keep a clean sheet.

Meanwhile, the visitors have been the most impressive Italian side since the resumption in football in June (W7, D1), netting an average of 2.87 goals across eight Serie A fixtures post restart. Additionally, ‘La Dea’ remain the only team in Italy’s top-flight to smash a 40-goal barrier on the road (43), having scored over 1.5 goals in 12 of 16 Serie A trips this season (75%). Quick out of the blocks, Gian Piero Gasperini’s players have bagged a league-high 18 first-half goals away from home this campaign, averaging 1.12 goals scored before the break. Yet, a late action should not be excluded considering ten of Atalanta’s 16 Serie A away clashes have featured at least one goal inside the final 15 minutes of play.