Hellas Verona vs Empoli Preview: Team News & Prediction

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After a second successive season in which Hellas Verona started brightly, they have once again fallen away quite badly as they now prepare to face an Empoli side that sit firmly in the middle-of-the-table in Serie A.

Kick-off date/time: Sunday 8th December, 2024: UK – 2:00pm / US ET – 9:00am / US PT – 6:00am

How to watch on TV: UK – Not televised / US – Select matches will be televised on CBS Sports so it is worth checking their schedule

How to watch online: UK – OneFootball / US – Paramount+

Hellas Verona Preview: Losing Verona

With a 1-0 loss to Cagliari at Sardegna Arena in Sardinia last weekend thanks a 75th minute strike from Roberto Piccoli, Hellas Verona have now suffered ten defeats in their 14 Serie A matches so far this season with only newly-promoted and bottom-of-the-table Venezia having lost as many and nobody losing more often than that.

Former Empoli boss Paolo Zanetti remains in charge at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium but the pressure is growing after they won two of their opening three matches, including a 3-0 hammering of league leaders Napoli at the Bentegodi on the opening day of the campaign back in August.

Empoli Preview: Improved Empoli

After narrowly escaping the drop on the final day of last season under Davide Nicola after the sackings of both Aurelio Andreazzoli and Paolo Zanetti, Empoli were much-improved at the start of this season following the appointment of former Lecce coach Roberto D’Aversa and they do remain inside the top-half ahead of this weekend’s round of fixtures.

The Florence-based club come into this one on the back of a dramatic defeat of Fiorentina via a penalty shootout at the Artemio Franchi in the Round of 16 of the Coppa Italia in a Florence derby in midweek. That followed on from a fairly average run of form in Serie A which continued with a 3-0 hammering at the hands of AC Milan at San Siro last weekend.

Hellas Verona Team News: Finding a spark

As Verona desperately tried to find a spark to make them more consistent and get out of their losing habits, the hosts are dealing with a few injury and suspension issues.

Former Norwich City midfielder Ondrej Duda is an injury doubt due to a thigh issue, whilst defender Diego Coppola will be missing through suspension for this week.

Predicted XI (4-4-2): Montipo; Tchatchoua, Magnani, Daniliuc, Bradaric; Suslov, Belahyane, Serdar, Lazovic; Dailon Livramento, Tengstedt

Unavailable: Coppola (Suspended), Frese (Injured), Juan Manuel Cruz (Injured)

Questionable: Duda (Injured)

Empoli Team News: Several issues

Empoli are dealing with several injury concerns for this weekend with long-term absentees Saba Sazonov and Tyronne Ebuehi joined on the sidelined by a few others.

Key man Szymon Zurkowski remains unavailable for the visitors with former Chelsea midfielder Tino Anjorin also a doubt alongside former Juventus defender Mattia De Sciglio.

Predicted XI (3-4-2-1): Devis Vasquez; Viti, Ismajli, Pezzella; Sambia, Belardinelli, Henderson, Cacace; Solbakken, Ekong; Esposito

Unavailable: Ebuehi (Injured), Sazonov (Injured), Haas (Injured), Zurkowski (Injured)

Questionable: De Sciglio (Injured), Fazzini (Injured), Grassi (Injured), Anjorin (Injured)

Hellas Verona vs Empoli Prediction

Hellas Verona begin the match day sitting outside of the bottom three and the relegation places but there will actually be a concern that that is flattering to the hosts given their awful form in the last couple of months. They face an Empoli side that may well be fatigued after playing 120 minutes in the cup in midweek so that could mean we don’t necessarily get an entertaining encounter for the neutral at the Bentegodi this weekend.

Hellas Verona vs Empoli Tip: Under 2.5 goals