Hellas Verona vs Torino

February 6, 2015
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Last year’s rivals for Europa League positions currently sit in the middle of the standings, but while Verona are pretty inconsistent at the moment, Torino appear to be playing their best football of the season. And with both sides happy to take quite a few risks, we should see a highly entertaining encounter at Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi.

Verona still safe

Hellas Verona were one of the main surprise packages in last year’s Serie A, having not only impressed the fans with their attack-minded football, but also narrowly missed out on Europa League berth. The Gialloblu haven’t been as impressive this term, mostly due to injuries to star players that prevented the team from finding any sort of consistency. As a result, Verona have produced some promising performances against Italy’s top sides, but the results are no longer as good as last term. The team have been going through a rough patch of late, losing four of last seven matches in all competitions, with ten goals conceded in two matches against Juventus enough to suggest the back line is not exactly on top of their game. With the likes of Luca Toni, Javier Saviola and Nico Lopez vying for places in attack, the Gialloblu remain a danger for opposition defenders, and with the team sitting mere six points above the relegation zone, they have no choice but to try and defeat in-form Torino on Saturday evening.

Emil Hallfredsson is back in contention, but Mounir Obbadi, Jacopo Sala and Guillermo Daniel Rodriguez miss out through injury.

Three wins in a row

Departures of Alessio Cerci and Ciro Immobile left big shoes to fill at Torino, and the club management only succeeded in signing Fabio Quagliarella in the summer. As a result, Granata largely struggled up front in the first part of the season, with defender Kamil Gilk their top scorer for a while, but things have finally started to improve on that front. The addition of Maxi Lopez took a lot of pressure of Quagliarella’s shoulders, and while the Argentine scored on his debut, his attacking partner bagged four goals in three matches playing alongside Lopez. There are no doubts that Torino are now much more dangerous up front, having scored 9 goals in last 3 matches after notching mere 13 in first 18 games, and the players’ confidence is very high after three straight wins. It was the 5-1 triumph over high-flying Sampdoria that acted as a major confidence boost and Granata will now fancy their chances against struggling Verona. There is still plenty of time left for Torino to revive their bid for Europa League positions and they clearly arrive at Bentegodi in great spirits.

Important defender Nikola Maksimovic is rated doubtful, while midfielder Alessandro Gazzi is suspended after picking up his eighth yellow card.

Verdict

Verona may not be on top of their game at the moment, but they are looking to play an open game and definitely have quality to score a goal or two in this match. Meanwhile, Torino have been outstanding of late and having bagged nine goals in last three matches, they have got to be considered favourites to extend their winning run.

Top pick: Over 2.5 goals   2.15 (23/20) @ Coral

Alternative pick 1: Both teams to score   1.91 (10/11) @ William Hill

Alternative pick 2: Torino Draw no bet   1.80 (4/5) @ SkyBet

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