By Sam Cook
Verona v AS Roma
17:30 @ Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentedgodi
Verona (16/5) Draw (13/5) AS Roma (4/5)
19th place Verona host Mourinho’s Roma side who would jump into the top 4 with a win tonight. Mourinho’s men had been on a three game winning streak in the league before succumbing to leaders Napoli (won 13 in a row in all comps) 1-0. Goals aren’t a major factor for Roma as they’ve scored the least amongst top half sides (13 in 11 games) although Verona have conceded a league high 1.9 goals per game and have lost each of their last four by a score line of 2-1. I think this is worth a bet at odds of 15/2 but Roma’s stout defence suggests they won’t concede. To cover the 2-1 trend I think using QuinnBets multibet exact score market of Roma to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 at a price of 2/1 is where the smart money lies.
Verona commit the most fouls of any side in the league with 178 across 11, an average of 16.2 and as a result they average 3.2 yellow cards per game and have seen red once as well. Given Roma’s expected dominance in the passing game over 3.5 for Verona at 15/8 looks tempting but when over 2.5 is priced as big as 5/6 I think that’s clearly good value and is a bet for me. Fabio Depaoli will likely have the task of matching up against homegrown Roma star Nicolo Zaniola who has been fouled an average of 2.9 times per game. Zaniolo himself is prone to reacting having been booked twice in his last three league matches, and also sent off for violent conduct in their European game against Betis. The Italian is reminiscent of Wilf Zaha but is very short at only 11/8 compared to Depaoli’s 13/8 price which is a bet for me.
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