Palermo vs Lecce - Italian Serie A

Palermo vs Lecce
Serie A 2011/2012, 9 round
Date : 27 October, 2011
Stadium : Stadio Renzo Barbera, Palermo

The Italian Serie A 2011-12 season hasn’t exactly gotten off to a flying start for either Lecce Football Club or Palermo, but the two teams meet up on Thursday in a great clash that will help sort out the Italian Serie A table. This clash from the Renzo Barbera.

Palermo has to be happy to be back at home, where it has three victories to start the season. One of those wins, the victory against Internazionale, has to be considered a fantastic victory. Over the course of the last two weeks though, the team has taken on both AS Roma and AC Milan on the road, and very expectedly, the team was beaten on aggregate 4-0 in those two fixtures.

Manager Devis Mangia is one of the youngest coaches in Italian soccer, but if he can figure out how to get his Rosanero back into competition for a spot in one of the European competitions next year, it will be a huge triumph, and perhaps the team won’t be needing a more permanent successor to its axed manager from last year after all.

Last year, Palermo took 11 victories at home in the 19 league matches to put it in eighth position on the Italy Serie A table, and we tend to think that it will have to hold serve once again at home to be able to stay at least in the top part of the pack with teams like Roma, Juve, Lazio, and the likes. Finding some more offense will be key as well, as no one on the squad has more than three strikes so far on the season.

Lecce just barely avoided the drop into Serie B last year, and we have to wonder whether it will be able to survive for a second straight season. Right now, it appears as though the answer to that question is no. Likely relegation candidates, Atalanta, Novara, and Chievo Verona are all in front of Lecce in the Italian Serie A table, and the team only has one victory to show for its work in seven fixtures thus far on the season.

Surprisingly, four of the team’s five defeats have come at home, and its better results have been on the road. Lecce scored a 2-0 with at Bologna in its first road match of the year, but since that point, it has drawn at Genoa and lost at Siena without scoring a goal in either duel.

The offense woke up on Sunday against AC Milan, but in the end, a 3-0 lead just wasn’t enough to stop Kevin Prince Boateng and AC Milan from posting four goals in the second half without response to steal not just one, but all three of the points.

Head to Head :
Last Meeting : 06/02/2011, Lecce 2 - 4 Palermo
Wins Palermo : 5
Wins Lecce : 3
Draws : 2

Recent Performance :
Palermo - W/D/W/L/L
Lecce - L/L/L/D/L

Possible Line-Ups :
Palermo : Alexandros Tzorvas - Matías Silvestre, Edgar Barreto, Giulio Migliaccio, Francesco Della, Federico Balzaretti, Eros Pisano, Afriyie Acquah, Josip Ilicic, Eran Zahavi, Mauricio Ricardo.
Lecce : Massimiliano Benassi - Nenad Tomovic, Andrea Esposito, Djamel Mesbah, Massimo Oddo, Christian Obodo, Carlos Grossmüller, Rodney Strasser, Guillermo Gonzalo, Juan Cuadrado, Daniele Corvia.

Betting Tip / Prediction :
As expected, Palermo is the heavy full goal favorite at home against Lecce. We just don’t see how the visitors are mustering up enough energy after the dreadful second half against Milan to be able to put up all that much of a fight in this one.
Our predictions Palermo is Win