Serie A Round 24 concludes with a bang, as Lazio go head to head with AC Milan in a highly-anticipated match scheduled for Monday night. Both sides are keen to grab much-needed three points and even more needed morale boost in a delicate moment of the season.

Three in a row?

Lazio bounced back from back-to-back defeats to Juventus and Chievo respectively with consecutive wins over Inter and Pescara during the week. Trip to Pescara turned out to be a regular goal glut as Lazio recorded a whopping 6-2 win over lowly Italian side to kick their spirits up ahead of the big game against Milan. Marco Parolo impressed on the occasion as the Italian midfielder bagged as many as four goals for his side, with Keira and Immobile completing the goal scorer list. Biancocelesti are currently sitting in fourth place in the standings, five points behind Napoli in third and the forthcoming match is a great test to their top four ambitions. Lazio lost only one of hteir last five home meetings with Rossoneri and will be looking to keep the positive trend going.

Hosts’ hopes of winning the game will be boosted by the fact Lazio are without major selection worries as all first-team choices are fit to feature. Christiano Lombardi is the only one who could miss the following match as the Italian forward is struggling with knee injury.

Is the slump over?

It is hard to explain what is going on with one of the biggest surprises in the first part of the Serie A season. Vincenzo Montella’s men were flying high all the way until mid-January when their fortunes turned around to bite them in the back with four consecutive defeats in the Serie A and Coppa Italia. The poor patch is seemingly over as Rossoneri managed to get back to winning ways during the week at Bologna thanks to a 1-0 win. Montella’s men struggled once more and will have Pasalic to thank for his 90-th minute winner on an assist from January signing Deulofeu, who made a brilliant run into the box to provide a crucial pass to his teammate. Having failed to beat Lazio on four occasions, Milan will want to repeat the outcome from their last visit to Stadio Olimpico back in 2015, when they emerged victorious on a 1-0 triumph.

Montella is having a long injury list to account for as Antonelli, Bonaventura, De Sciglio and Montolivo all remain unavailable through respective injuries.

Verdict

Meetings between two of Italy’s biggest team often gain plenty of attention and we expect the same this time as well. Both sets of fans will be keen to see their team win and claim a huge morale-boost that could prove vital to kick-start the season for both sides. We expect an openly-contested affair to be honest.

Top Pick: Both teams to score – yes   1.75 (3/4) @Bet365

Alternative Pick 1: Over 2.5 goals   1.85 (17/20) @BetVictor

Alternative Pick 2: Lazio   1.83 (5/6) @StanJames