TipResumen

INTRODUCTION
SPAL managed to avoid relegation last season and now they will travel to face Pippo Inzaghi’s
Bologna in a difficult derby clash on Sunday evening. Both sides are expected to battle against relegation this season but Bologna will be keen to get into one of the places that will
enable them to play European football.
Since this is a local derby and they are separated by just 50 km apart in the Emilia-Romagna
region, there will be no love lost between the two sides.

BOLOGNA
It is quite hard to know which Bologna side will turn up for this match here as so much has
changed over the last few months. Roberto Donadoni has left as their head coach and they
have brought in ex-Milan and Venezia boss Inzaghi as their new head coach.
Meanwhile, Mattia Destro is no longer in favour while 36-year-old Rodrigo Palacio is now the
preferred option in attack together with Diego Falcinelli. Also Paraguay international Federico
Santander is hoping to start this match so he will be hoping to impress in training before the
actual day on Sunday. Other then that, new signing Mitchell Dijks has impressed in training
and pre-season games so he will start on the left wing, while Polish goalkeeper Lukasz
Skorupski will start in goal.

SPAL
Leonardo Semplici should be given credits as he managed to steer them away from relegation
last season. He took them to their first promotion in 50 years and then keeping them in Serie
A for another season after that. His reward was a contract extension and also an improved
squad.
The new players that have arrived into the team are the likes of Atalanta centre-forward
Andrea Petagna and winger Mohamed Fares from Verona. Mirko Valdifiori and defender Kevin
Bonifazi are the players to come from Torino quite late, so they are not likely to start this
match this weekend.

PAST MEETINGS
The last time they met was in 2016 and Empoli won by 2-0 at home. Away from home,
Cagliari won by 3-2. They have never drawn before when Empoli hosted.