Palermo vs Novara
Football: Seria A
Venue: Stadio Barbera, Palermo
Sunday 29th January – Kickoff time: 15:00 GMT+1

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Palermo (9th W-7 D-3 L-9)

Palermo needed the victory against Genoa more than ever, having registered 6 games without a victory prior to that. Fabrizio Miccoli inspired the Sicilians to a superb victory, despite Genoa took an early lead.

The 32 years old contributed to four of Palermo’s five goals, taking his team on the third position of the home table, with seven victories and two defeats.

Palermo is one of the three teams from Seria A yet to win a game on the road, which is probably why they won’t finish on a European spot at the end of the season, but they remain a competitive side.

Abel Hernandez has been ruled out due to an injury, while striker Pinilla signed with Cagliari recently. New signing, goalkeeper Viviano will probably be included in the first 11.

Probable Palermo line-up :
Viviano
Pisano, Silvestre, Mantovani, Balzaretti
Migliaccio, Donati, Barreto
Ilicic
Miccoli, Budan

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Novara (20th W-2 D-6 L-11)

Novara squeezed a point in the reverse fixture, which was played a month ago, recovering from a two-goal deficit in what could have been Palermo’s first away victory of the season.

We are just halfway through the season, but it seems like Novara just can’t put up a fight and they’ll most likely relegate after just one season spent in the first league.

Novara is coming after three consecutive defeats, in which they’ve conceded nine goals, three in each game. One of them was against Cesena, an important match as they are also fighting to avoid relegation, but Novara didn’t stood a chance, going down 3-0 in the first half.

Marianini, Ludi, Pinari and Centurioni are all injured, but central back Paci is back available and he’ll try to limit the damage, as Novara already conceded 38 goals this season, more than any other team from the league.

Probable Novara line-up :
Ujkani
Rinaudo, Paci, Dellafiore
Morganella, Jensen, Rigoni, Radovanovic, Gemiti
Caracciolo, Mascara

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The Betting Verdict

It looks like the new signings haven’t improved anything in Novara’s game, they might need to accommodate, but the time is not on their side, so they are probably going to continue losing games until the end of the season.

Their hosts on the other hand have showed great offensive strength against Genoa, scoring an impressive number of goals which was probably facilitated by the fact the opposition struggled with a lot of absences in defense.

I expect Palermo to take advantage of the fact that the game is played at Stadio Renzo Barbera and also use Novara’s desperation for points in their favor.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Palermo 2-0 Novara

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Palermo to win at 1.57 at Ladbrokes
Confidence: 8/10