Serie A: AS Roma vs Atalanta Preview, Odds, Prediction

AS Roma and Atalanta open Thursday in Serie A with these two sides clashing at Olimpic Stadium in Rome. If there is a game that promises goals and excitement, it should be this one. Both teams play open-minded and offensive football and like to attack even in the moments when the result is on their side. Atalanta plays well in recent times and comes to the Italian capital following a big win over Juventus. Meanwhile, Roma lost to Torino but is pushing well in the Europa League, where they reached the semifinals.

Preview

AS Roma (+260) is four points behind the local rivals Lazio who is sitting sixth, in the last place that leads to the Europa League. Also, Il Lupi has a game more, which complicates their situation when discussing some improvement in the Serie A standings.

That is why Paulo Fonseca’s focus is on the Europa League trophy, where Roma faces Manchester United in the semifinals. If they win the title here, the Champions League ticket comes in the same package.

Four of their last five games saw both teams scoring, but when looking only at the home games, apart from the previous one with Ajax, four before that were with both teams not to score.

Atalanta (-110) defeated Juventus this weekend, 1-0, making a giant step towards one of the top four places, and jumping over the Old Lady against whom La Dea now holds a slight advantage.

This team is still the no.1 attack in the league, with 72 goals scored in 31 matches, and it appears that Gasperini’s crew reached the full speed in the best possible moment for them.

La Dea won five Serie A matches in a row, scoring twice in each of them but vs. Juventus. During that stretch, the total goal difference was 12-5, and three games saw over 2.5 goals and both sides to net.

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Roma has several injured players, some of them for a long time. Nevertheless, Diawara, El Shaarawy, Kumbull, a Smalling, Zainiolo, and the Spanish international Pedro are unavailable. Spinazzola is questionable.

On the other side, the only ineligible player is Hans Hateboer, who has issues with his foot.

Head to Head Games

Atalanta rolled over Roma in the first game, winning 4-1. It was the fifth time in the past six head-to-head games that both teams score, and the same games went above 2.5 scores. La Dea has three straight wins and is without a loss against this rival in six contests since 2017.

Prediction

Roma has no pressure because their only chance to do something notable is through the Europa League, not Serie A. That will see the hosts playing more offensive-minded with players who didn’t have that many opportunities to show their worth. On the other side, Atalanta comes to collect all three points, which will be their approach. La Dea is going to attack and be aggressive, and that’s why we predict goals in Thursday’s event. Over 2.5 with both teams netting at least once is the ultimate suggestion. The odds are -140.