Coppa Italia – Last16 – Crisis clubs
By David, BettingExpert.com | Published
With both teams struggling in the league in recent matches there are serious doubts as to which one of them will be taking this one seriously. The two need a victory but perhaps they will be postponing that plan for the weekend.
Palermo – Siena
There is the big derby coming on for Palermo next Sunday. They have fared pretty badly at Catania’s Massimino recently, winning only the first match there since the series of Serie A meetings started a few seasons ago.
Mangia has, as of course predicted, come under the fire of club owner Zamparini. The attitude of the team away from home is in fact too different from that shown at the Barbera. A problem the manager is yet to address and which the team keeps carrying along for a very long time now.
It will be good to be back home for this game but the club does not really like the idea of going further in the cup at the expense of the hot Sicilian derby. Catania are doing better at the moment and as things are it looks like the Rosanero will be struggling this weekend. Mangia has therefore comprehensibly rested the big players and will definitely not be risking Hernandez or Zahavi, still convalescent from their respective injuries and touch and go for the derby. There will be space for the reserves and thus more chances of seeing Palermo’s backline reproduce some of the embarrassing moments they often treat us to. Tzorvas will be back in goal and Cetto in defence. Very difficult to predict a clean sheet for the home side this way.
On the other hand we will have to consider Siena’s commitment to the competition. Palermo can at least look at the table and smile at the sixth place they occupy. Sannino worries about the single point collected in the last five games which has meant that they slipped down the pecking order to just two points above the relegation zone.
In their last match against Genoa they proved they are one of the weaker sides in the division giving a lifeline to opposite manager Malesani despite playing at home. Chances were few and the clearest was squandered by young striker Destro just a few metres from Frey.
For this match Sannino has called up a reserve squad and will therefore be limiting fatigue ahead of the visit to the San Siro to play Milan. How these players react is something which can only be speculated upon but in such difficult times for the team I suppose fringe players will be eager to show what they have got in order to come into the manager’s plans should he diced to shuffle his pack in future Serie A games.
Verdict: X
Both teams would like to pick up some momentum in the league, especially Siena, so this is not a priority. Odds on a draw contain value but also an Over 2.5 looks good given the many reserve players on the pitch and the consequent tactical indiscipline which this can lead to.
14.12.2011, 01:19 CET
Note for Henrik: It looks like comments in preview section, and if I have noticed well in some other sections are not shown in BE community feed. There are some injury news in comments under this preview and it is hard to follow them if they don't appear in the feed. In my opinion it happens just for the comments with less than some limit you have in number of the words. Not sure about that, but guess.
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13.12.2011, 22:53 CET
Too many reserves. Entertaining game that went Over.