The home side are currently ninth in Serie A after a solid start to the season, but they are looking to bounce back from two consecutive defeats. Those losses though came away at Roma and AC Milan and a return to home comforts should see the Rosanero get back to winning ways.

Devis Mangia’s men have won both of their league matches at the Stadio Renzo Barbera, scoring five and conceeding just two in the process. Thursday’s opponents will head to Palermo with just one point from their opening five games and low in confidence.

The Giallorossi were leading 3-0 at half-time in their previous game at home to Milan, but crashed to a 4-3 defeat. Prior to that game, Lecce had scored just one goal in their opening four matches.

Suggested Bet – Palermo to win @ 8/15

Espanyol v Real Betis (7pm)

The teams currently seventh and eighth in La Liga meet at Estadi Cornella-El Prat, with nothing to seperate the two sides.

Espanyol are one place below their opponents but only by one goal and are going into Thursday’s game off the back of two impressive wins.

The Barcelona-based outfit picked up 1-0 away wins at Rayo Vallecano and Racing Santander and look to be on the up.

Betis, in contrast, have lost their last four games and have scored just one goal and conceeded eight in that spell.

Suggested Bet – Espanyol to win 2-0 @ 9/1

Athletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (9pm)

These two teams look pretty evenly matched, with Bilbao struggling at home and Atletico poor away from Madrid. One point seperates 11th-placed Bilbao and ninth-placed Atletico and it could remain that way after Thursday’s meeting.

Bilbao have won just one of their four home matches, a 3-1 success over Osasuna, but are unbeaten in their last four games.

Meanwhile, Atletico, expected to challenge for a place in Europe, have yet to lose at home this term but have collected just one point from three away matches.

Suggest Bet – Draw @ 23/10

Want £200 Free? Click here to visit Bet365 and claim your free money.

Although Inter Milan and AS Roma are both in the race to lift this season’s Scudetto they are both likely to win comfortably at home on Sunday. The match that carries the most significance for the winners on Sunday will be the clash between 4th placed Sampdoria and 5th placed Palermo.

The winner of this match will only have to win their final game of the season to be guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League and with the millions of pounds of revenue it generates it will be a great achievement for either of these two clubs.

Sampdoria striker Giampaolo Pazzini has described the clash as more of a “final” than a league game.

Pazzini said: “It will be ‘the game’, a real final. We have a little advantage thanks to the two extra points in the table, but if we were to play for a draw we would make a bad impression.

“For this reason we will go to Palermo and try and win.”
Sampdoria has won every one of their last 5 games and is the form team in Serie A at the moment.

Palermo boast one of the leagues best strikers in Fabrizio Miccoli who is the third highest scorer in Serie A with Sampdoria’s Giampaolo Pazzini being 4th.

The two sides are very evenly matched and a very tight affair should be expected on Sunday. There may well be only a couple of goals in it so the under 2.5 market at 1.90 looks a good bet.

Sampdoria have shown how good they are with a recent win away to league chasing Roma and they will be able to wrap up fourth place this Sunday as well. Back a 1-0 win for Sampdoria at 8.00 with PartyBets.com.

Related posts:

1. Roma face tough Sampdoria Serie A Title Test
2. Can Inter Milan win Coppa D’italia, Serie A + Champions League treble?
3. Genoa Close Gap on Sampdoria with 3-0 Win

ToteSport bookmaker will give you £60 in Free Bets. Click here to check them out.