Salernitana and Venezia play their game in hand on Thursday as the two relegation strugglers face off in a hugely important clash at the bottom of the Serie A table.
With four games remaining to save their season, Venezia find themselves bottom of the standings – three points behind second-bottom Genoa and six points from safety.
As for Salernitana, they occupy eighteenth place – four points clear of Venezia and two points behind seventeenth-place Cagliari. A win on Thursday would take them out of the drop zone.
Salernitana made a terrible start to the season, losing 14 of their opening 18 games. Worse still, they only managed to pick up two wins during that period.
An 11-game winless run – five draws and six losses – between January and April saw them cement last place in the table. But they have turned things around since then.
Salernitana head into Thursday’s clash on a four-game unbeaten streak. After beating Sampdoria, Udinese and Fiorentina, they held Atalanta to a 1-1 draw last time out.
Thanks to a run of just one defeat in their last six Serie A home games, they have given themselves a fighting chance of avoiding the drop.
On the flip side, Venezia have lost each of their last nine league games – scoring a measly four goals along the way.
When you look at the bigger picture, they have only managed to win one of their previous 21 Serie A outings – recording four draws and 16 defeats in the process.
To make matters worse, Venezia are the lowest scorers in the division. Having netted just 28 goals in 24 games, it’s no wonder they are rooted to the foot of the table.
It is also worth noting that Venezia have failed to keep a clean sheet since all the way back on November 21.
Head-to-head: Salernitana claimed a 2-1 victory over Venezia in the reverse fixture back in October, coming from behind to claim all three points.
That means Salernitana have won each of their previous four meetings with Venezia, scoring exactly two goals on every occasion.
Team news: Star player Franck Ribery looks set to be absent for Salernitana due to muscle fatigue. Mamadou Coulibaly, Joel Obi and Luca Ranieri are also injured.
Venezia also have four injury doubts for Thursday’s showdown – Luca Lezzerini, Sergio Romero, Tyronne Ebuehi and Marco Modolo.
Salernitana started the season terribly but have turned things around recently. By contrast, Venezia can’t seem to stop losing.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that Salernitana will edge out Venezia on Thursday – keeping a clean sheet en route to victory.