Sassuolo head into Wednesday's encounter with Genoa looking to end a four-match winless streak in Serie A.
Meanwhile, Genoa make the trip to the Mapei Stadium knowing that three points will ensure that they are playing top-flight football next season.
Match preview
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Having previously put together an eight-match unbeaten streak, the 2-0 defeat to Napoli has now extended Sassuolo's winless run to four matches.
Remarkably, Roberto De Zerbi's team had four goals disallowed through VAR, something which should be taken into consideration when making a judgment on the result.
Nevertheless, I Neroverdi will be disappointed that they have not been able to wrap up a minimum of eighth position ahead of welcoming Genoa to their home ground.
A drop-off in form and an injury for highly-regarded Jeremie Boga has played its part, although Francesco Caputo remains just one goal short of reaching 20 for the season.
While one more win may prove enough to safeguard eighth spot for Sassuolo, another victory for Genoa would mathematically secure their top-flight status for another 10 months.
To their credit, recording nine points from a possible 15 has been required to create some distance between themselves and Lecce, who need wins over Udinese and Parma to have any chance of remaining in the division.
Nevertheless, Davide Nicola will not want to rely on other results, instead demanding that his side hit back from suffering a 3-0 reverse at the hands of Inter Milan.
Having fought hard to gain late wins over Lecce and Sampdoria, succumbing so tamely to the inconsistent top-four outfit would have disappointed Nicola, who will feel like he has done more than enough to be given a chance next season with seven triumphs and five draws coming from 20 matches.
Sassuolo Serie A form: WWDDLL
Genoa Serie A form: LWLWWL
Team News
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Lasse Schone will almost certainly be brought back into Genoa's midfield after beginning the defeat to Inter on the substitutes' bench.
Goran Pandev may also come into the team as a replacement for Andrea Favilli in attack.
Sassuolo will be able to call upon midfielder Mehdi Bourabia after being sidelined for the setback at Napoli due to a ban.
Having missed the last game with a muscular injury, Boga may be deemed fit enough to be named among the replacements.
Giacomo Raspadori is an alternative to Filip Djuricic in a creative role behind Caputo.
Sassuolo possible starting lineup:
Consigli; Muldur, Santos, Ferrari, Rogerio; Bourabia, Locatelli; Berardi, Djuricic, Traore; Caputo
Genoa possible starting lineup:
Perin; Goldaniga, Romero, Zapata; Ankersen, Behrami, Schone, Jagiello, Criscito; Pinamonti, Pandev
We say: Sassuolo 2-1 Genoa
Despite their contrasting fortunes this season, this has the makings of being a closely-fought battle. However, we feel that Sassuolo will just about have enough to see off opponents who may be torn between trying to gain a point and pushing for all three.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sassuolo win with a probability of 45.86%. A win for Genoa had a probability of 31.65% and a draw had a probability of 22.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sassuolo win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.98%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.45%) and 2-0 (5.96%). The likeliest Genoa win was 1-2 (7.32%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.72%). The actual scoreline of 5-0 was predicted with a 0.6% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sassuolo would win this match.
