Bologna win streak on the horizon?
Sunday’s comfortable win in Parma provides the perfect platform for an underperforming Bologna side to kick on in the second half of the Serie A season. The impressive 3-0 victory will have stopped the more negative fans looking over their shoulders with the squad looking good to challenge for a top half finish, and improve on last term’s 12th position. Newly promoted Benevento on the other hand are on the slide and look the most likely to get sucked into the relegation battle, without a win in their last five. The Red and Blues come in as strong favourites, but in the talents of Musa Barrow, Riccardo Orsolini and superb young gun Takehiro Tomiyasu, there is value to be found.
Process
The key to Bologna picking up is in their defensive process, they have a solid mid table attack which will find a way to breach the opposition consistently, hopefully they can build on their clean sheet in Parma. They rank 11th in attack scoring 28 from 27 expected goals compared to 14th, running exactly in line with expected goals, conceded in 35 from 35.0.
The visitors’ data all points towards a side placed precariously above the drop conversation however Benevento are eight points clear of Cagliari in 18th with Fiorentina, Spezia and Torino sandwiched in between, they have given themselves a great chance to maintain topflight status for another season. The Sorcerers have underperformed defensively, but I would not expect them to contain Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men, they have conceded 41 goals from chances equating to just 35.4 expected goals. Trending as predicted, scoring 24 from 24.3 expected, if Cagliari and Torino can mobilise, I would expect Benevento’s scrap to persist until the final few games of the campaign.
Goals?
Not an angle I will be taking up, but I see value in combining an over 1.5 goals selection with an outright play if you want to get the punt above evens.
- Bologna have scored in seven of 10.
- Bologna have conceded in seven of 10.
- Bologna have seen both teams score in five of 10.
- Bologna have seen over 2.5 goals in five of 10.
- Benevento have scored in eight of 10.
- Benevento have conceded in eight of 10.
- Benevento have seen both teams score in six of 10.
- Benevento have seen over 2.5 goals in five of 10, including five of their last six.
Good vibes about Bologna at the moment, on their day they can test any side in this division and Benevento are on the slide.
Post bet chat Marcus's Tips:
Frustrating, Bologna won the expected goals battle comfortably and led for a long time but ultimately could not get the win. 1-1.