Bottom dwellers in the Serie A, Parma and Roma look forward to an early Christmas cracker at the Stadio Olimpico when they come face to face on Sunday.
The Giallorossi’s poor season went from bad to worse last week – before breezing past a midweek Coppa Italia match – meaning that their promoted visitor is now only one point adrift.
Following another bitter defeat the previous Sunday, Rome-based strugglers Roma avoided a cup upset on Wednesday when they hosted fellow top-flight side Sampdoria at the Olimpico for a round of 16 clash.
After collecting only four league points after their 2-0 loss at Como, the capital club quelled any anxiety with a brace from Artem Dovbyk; Tommaso Baldanzi and Eldor Shomurodov rounded off the victory at 4-1.
That means a quarter-final in February against AC Milan, while Roma will be looking to make the knock out stage of the Europa League, but it is the teams performances in Serie A that will be a concern for the newest interim coach Claudio Ranieri.
The Giallorossi have lost 7 of their last 9 league matches – as many losses as in the previous 29 – and they are placed 17th in the standings, only 4 points above the relegation zone as the current mid-season approaches.
With a further six games to be played until the halfway point of the season, eleven points mark the worst ever tally in this stage for the club came from the season of 1973 seventy Samp on Wednesday, Ranieri will be eager to beat yet another of his former collection this weekend.
Giallorossi have failed to defeat Parma in the league on their own soil only twice in the last two decades with 16 wins and 4 draws – thereby a repeat outcome isn’t just unwanted, but simply out of the question for a more and more impatient set of fans.
Parma has lost 61% of their Serie A encounters with Roma thus far, but they did win their most recent encounter at Stadio Tardini in March 2021.
This time, the Emilian team will travel to the capital of Italy after consecutive losses in an attempt to avoid losing three games in a row for the first time since they returned to Calcio's top division.
Even though Simon Sohm scored a brace, Fabio Pecchia's team's chances of surviving were severely damaged last time out as they lost 3-2 at home to another struggling team Hellas Verona.
Verona took advantage of one of the division's most vulnerable defenses to prolong the Serie B champions' run of home games without a clean sheet.
Even goal-shy Roma, who have scored five less goals than the Gialloblu so far, may be confident in their prospects of scoring on Sunday because Parma has faced the most shots this season and only two teams have given up more goals.
Regular starters like Manu Kone and Mile Svilar should be back in the starting lineup this weekend after Claudio Ranieri rotated his team for Roma's Coppa Italia victory against Sampdoria.
Hummels and Bryan Cristante will continue to be sidelined, but the latter has resumed training after missing it in the middle of the week due to muscle fatigue.
Stephan El Shaarawy has contributed to the most Serie A goals for Roma this season (five), despite his inconsistent appearance in the starting lineup. He will compete with Alexis Saelemaekers, Lorenzo Pellegrini, and a number of other players to start in support of Artem Dovbyk, Roma's lone striker.
Ange-Yoan Bonny, who is expected to start up front, will try to snap a four-game goalless run, which is the longest the French forward has had since joining Serie A this season.
