Monday afternoon features action from the Italian second tier and a high profile clash between 2nd placed Lecce and 5th placed Pisa at the Stadio Comunale Via del Mare with a precious three points up for grabs in this Serie B encounter.
Lecce occupy the second of the two automatic promotion spots in the Italian second tier but only hold a slender one point lead over 3rd placed Monza heading into this top table clash.
Having lost 1-0 away at Reggina on the weekend, Lecce will be eager to return to winning ways here.
Prior to this defeat, Lecce had put together a solid nine-match unbeaten run in Serie B which consisted of five wins and four draws; the wins were collected against Monza, Ascoli, Frosinone, Ternana and SPAL, while picking up points in draws with Perugia, Brescia, Cosenza and Parma.
The bigger picture shows Lecce have suffered just two defeats out of their last 18 matches overall, while losing just once on home soil throughout the whole of this season’s Serie B campaign.
Onto Pisa, and the visitors recorded a 3-1 home win over Como on the weekend which put an end to a three-match sequence without a win in the domestic second tier which included a heavy 5-1 defeat away from home at Benevento followed by two draws on the trot.
Stalemates with Brescia and Perugia have at least seen the visitors pick up points in recent times.
However, with just six wins out of their last 17 matches overall in Serie B, a run that also includes seven draws, the prospects of an away win here does seem slim.
Four of these six victories were achieved on home soil at their Arena Garibaldi, while picking up just two wins on the road.
The visitors have lost two of their last three games on their travels in recent weeks having incurred losses at 7th placed Ascoli and 4th placed Benevento and they have only managed to register just two wins out of their last eight outings on the road.
Pisa have kept just two clean sheets in these last seven away games whilst also failing to score in three of these seven games as well, so they may be happy to settle for a point here in what could be a closely fought tussle.