Surprisingly, Napoli have won more points on the road than on Stadio San Paolo where the fans always create a volcanic atmosphere, but at least the last two home games were successful as they defeated Parma (2-0) and they have demolish Parma (4-1). The goals galore continued with the spectacular 3-3 away draw to Utrecht in the Europa League on midweek. No fresh injuries for the hosts, while Paolo Cannavaro, Andrea Dossena and Christian Maggio, all rested in Utrecht, will return to the starting XI.
Winning streak
Palermo defeated Roma on last round (3-1), their third consecutive Serie A victory, and now they sit on fifth place, just behind today`s opponents. Palermo also played in the Europa League midweek, but while Napoli still have a chance of progressing to the knockout phase, Delio Rossi`s side is out of the competition after a 2-2 home draw with Sparta Prague. Bacinovic will miss out with a ban, while Abel Hernandez is still out injured, but there is still firepower in the Sicilians` attack with Fabrizio Miccoli, Pastore and Ilicic.
All eyes on Cavani
Only one point separates these teams, so we can expect a very balanced game. Napoli have been pretty unstable at home this season (3W, 1D, 2L), while the guests also mixed great away performances as in the wins against Juventus or Fiorentina with poor displays as against Brescia, Udine or Milan. Palermo will also have to fight against the tradition, as their only victory at Stadio San Paolo in Serie A is a 2-1 win on 1951!, while on the last decade they draw three times and lost the other three games. Though, I will stay clear of the 1×2 market and suggest a bet on Edinson Cavani, Napoli`s hitman, who will face his former club for the first time since his summer departure. Cavani is the team’s top scorer with 7 Serie A goals and he hit his best form, as he scored 3 goals in the last 2 home games, while he also bagged a hat-trick in Utrecht on midweek. Palermo`s president statement, Zamparini, is the best description for Cavani`s killer instinct: “He is an exceptional player and always scores; I just hope he doesn’t score against us”.
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Prediction:
Tip: Cavani – Anytime goalscorer
Odd: 2.70
Bookie: Unibet
CSKA cruised so far in Group F, winning all their games with the same result (3-0) and comfortably sitting top of the table, 5 points ahead of Sparta Prague. Coach Slutski managed to move over Krasic’s departure and the team is looking better and better. Players like Doumbia, Love, Necid, Dzagoev, Oliseh or Honda could create havoc in any defense so Slutski will have a “hard time” in choosing his starters. With a win today, they are mathematically qualified for the next round.
Not quite interested
Palermo, like most of the Italian teams during the past season, are treating Europa League like a secondary competition. They aren’t very interested in it and this is obvious even from looking at the standings, them gathering only 3 points so far. Bacinovic and Ilic are not allowed to play in EL while star player Pastore was red carded two weeks ago and he will serve a suspension. Club’s president Zamparini already indicated to coach Delio Rossi that he should use some players who played less games so far, in order to buil their fitness and save the big guns for the important league game against Genoa.
Home win
Two weeks ago, CSKA got an easy win in Palermo, 3-0 after also missing a penalty at 0-0. Palermo players didn’t look motivated at all and I expect them to suffer now in Moscow, never mind the team Delio Rossi will decide to field. The odds for the home win are quite low but realistic considering the difference in value and, more important, the difference in motivation.
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Prediction:
Tip: 1
Odd: 1.67
Bookie: Eurobet
Finally Udinese caught their good form with 2 victories in a row. Argentinian forward Denis is back from long term injury. With him Udinese offence will be much stronger while he is parner of Di Natale and behind these two players Sanchez.
Guidolin`s team will play offencive against Palermo.
Udinese is missing defenders Basta and Domizzi.
League is more important
Palermo played against CSKA Moscow on midweek in Sicily and lost 0-3 at home. We can say Palermo don`t take European league that much serious. They wants to finish Serie A in top 4 for UCL.
Palermo offence is working as a machine even without Miccoli. Pastore , Ilicic is showing huge performance.
Palermo will miss Miccoli and play maker Liverani who are injured and defender Bovo (suspended.)
Another high scoring game by Palermo
Both teams will be on the field to get 3 points. Palermo`s defence is showing bad performance but coach Rossi is happy with performance of his offensive players. Palermo don`t have scoring problems and will try to use their main weapon against Udinese to get point(s) as they did against Fiorentina away.
Di Natale – Denis – Sanchez trio will give troubles to Palermo`s weak defence. After 2 wins Udinese will be greedy for 3rd one.
I am expecting both teams to score here and see at least more than 2 goals.
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Prediction:
Tip: Over 2.5
Odd: 1.95
Bookie: Pinnacle
Palermo has surprised all a few days ago in the league game against Juventus in Turin, when they defeated them by 3:1. I think that finally brought in some cheerful mood to Palermo. The experience, the quality and the aggressiveness doesn’t lack in this squad so I really don’t know what was wrong with them at the very beginning. I think they will record a new win now in the match against yet another side that started the season horribly. My opinion is that they are a lot better even though only one place separates them in the standings, but we should note that it’s still early in the season and some sides need a bit longer or shorter to warm up and start playing well as a team.
Bad away
Lecce has 2 defeats in a row on the road, first one against Milan and the second against Cesena. Lecce entered Serie A as the first-placed side in the Serie B last year but they’re not acting like a team that wants to remain in the elite league in the next season as well. Both Bari and Cesena started out a lot better so it’s time for them to start playing but I am not sure they will succeed in that in this match already. They’re an interesting side with a few solid players, but as a team they’re much weaker than the most of Serie A teams. I believe the most they can hope for is 1 point here but we’ll see.
Interesting
This match should be a very interesting one. We should figure out whether the game and a win in Turin was finally a step ahead towards the better form and winning path for Palermo or not. Lecce is welcome as they’re in bad shape so the hosts should take an advantage of it and beat them and get moving towards the mid-table for a start. My advice is a HW, possibly by 2 or more. Good luck!
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Prediction:
Tip: 1 AH (-1)
Odd: 2.01
Bookie: Pinnacle
As always, Juventus has some very interesting and crazy results. In the first 3 rounds of Serie A, they have 4 points, firstly recording a surprising loss to Bari in the opener, then drawing 3:3 with Sampdoria, and doing the same in Europa League against Polish Lech, finally to demolish Udinese on the road by scoring 4 goals. It is interesting that they had different goalscorers in each match, and their new acquisition Milos Krasic proved to be very helpful with the assists. A positive thing is that most of their players is in good form, so I think Juve’s coach shouldn’t be too worried at the moment.
Have to do better
They started this season out poorly. They barely managed to enter Europa League where they unfortunately lost to Sparta Prague in the first round. In the last round of Serie A, despite the starting lead, they managed to loss to the current European and Italian champs, which is also not in some great form – Inter. They are a decent squad with a few very good individuals such are captain Miccoli or very experienced Liverani. Zipriani won’t give up and Palermo, despite facing a much stronger opponent in this road match, will surely be going for the win and looking for their chance in each attack.
We`ll see everything
Juventus is definitely a better team in this clash even though they also have their moments which are sometimes totally hard to explain, such is the one against Lech in EL. My advice here is the over 2.5 for some quite decent odds. Good luck!
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Prediction:
Tip: Over 2.5
Odd: 1.80
Bookie: Stan James
Palermo have only one point after two rounds. In first round Palermo played goalless draw with Cagliari, while in second lost from Brescia. Furthermore, Palermo lost 3-2 from Sparta Praha in the first game of UEFA Europa League on Thursday. It is clear the atmosphere in the club isn`t on desired level. Another bad news is fact that two players are injured – Goian and Pinilla will be sidelined.
Benitez on fire
Inter show big weaknesses in the start of the season, specially on road. Inter played 0:0 with Bologna and 2:2 with Twente in UEFA Champions League. Even the only victory against Udinese at home wasn`t something special. Inter managed to win after penalty shot (in fact Eto`o missed the penalty first, but scored right after that). Coach Rafa Benitez is without four important players – Thiago Motta, Stankovic, Chivu and Pandev are all injured. In situation like this, I think Inter can`t win.
Both coaches should be satisfied with draw
Both coaches should be satisfied with draw here. Palermo is playing at home, but the opponent is actual champion and actual Champions League winner. On other side this is a very hard game for Inter, even Inter with Mourinho played draw last season here. It is interesting that Inter never won twice against Palermo in the last six season. I think it won`t happened even now. Inter failed to win in two official visits this season, against Bologna in Serie A and against Twente in UEFA Champions League. I don`t think Inter can win on Sicily too. The draw will satisfied both sides, specially if we know that both Palermo and Inter had hard European games this midweek.
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Prediction:
Tip: X
Odd: 3.36
Bookie: Pinnacle
Palermo in red-hot form
Palermo started to season earlier with UEFA games, also had a good pre-season. Palermo will miss their captain and striker Miccoli but even without him Palermo will not have scoring problems. New transfer Maccarone and Hernandez linked well. Behind them Argentinian young star Pastore will be big trouble for Cagliari`s “poor“ defence.Palermo is the one of the best home teams of Serie A.
No Allegri,Big Question Mark
Cagliari showed impressive performance last season. They were playing great offencive football. Seems like Bisoli will continue with Allegri`s system. Cagliari offence looked great on pre-season games but I cannot say same things for their defence. Cagliari will miss Ragatzu who is suspended and Conti is doubtful before Sicily away.I can say Cagliari again will be one of the best away or most dangerous teams of Serie A.
Goals in Barbera
Everybody is expecting an easy home win by Palermo. I would agree but first round open for suprises. (Roma-Cesena yesterday for example.) and if we say Cagliari is a classy team with their fast counter attack players. I chose totals because odds on Palermo is too low. I am expecting to Palermo win over Cagliari but Palermo`s defence not as solid as last season after Kjaer`s leave. Even from Maribor they have conceeded 3 goals. After Allegri,its hard to change Cagliari`s system. They have too many quality offencive players but with this squad its almost impossible to play defencive. Cagliari will try to find a fast goal against Sicilians and will try to keep score or will try to hit more with their deadly counter attacks. Cagliari defence is really showed terrible performance on pre-season games. Even if Cagliari won`t score here,Palermo is able to score 3 alone. 
I am going with totals here, my call is 3-1.
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Prediction:
Tip: Over 2.5
Odd: 1.98
Bookie: Pinnacle
Palermo was very close to take the 4th spot in Serie A last season but they had to settle for Europa League qualifiers, where they defeated Maribor to pass into the group stages. Coach Delio Rossi’s team will enter the new season weakened as their midfielders Simplicio and Bresciano have left the club as free agents, while Kjaer and Lanzafame got sold to Wolfsburg and Juventus respectively. Palermo, however, can hope for another successful season as their striker Miccoli stayed in the club while Pastore has matured as a player and will surely be of great use as well as the newcomer from Siena, Massimo Maccarone. Last season, the Sicilians were undefeated at home, and a win against Cagliari would be a perfect way to start the new season.
Modest ambitions
Cagliari had a very turbulent last season in Serie A. The Sardinia side ended at the 16th place, with 9 points over the relegation teams, while this season their goal is to achieve something similar and comfortably avoid Serie B again. Cagliari played very bad on the road last season and in the first 11 matches, they recorded only one win in the league. Cagliari also changed a few players during the summer transfer window, and in the first round they won’t be able to count on injured Agostini and suspended Regatzu.
The hosts are better
The Sicilian-Sardinian derby should end with a home win, as Palermo won their previous 3 mutual clashes played there. Cagliari is traditionally starting the season a bit worse and later wakes up, so something similar is expected here as well. Good luck!
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Prediction:
Tip: 1 AH (-0.5)
Odd: 1.76
Bookie: Pinnacle
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