Next Monday, 3rd of November 2014, a super confident Lazio will entertain Cagliari at the emblematic Stadio Olimpico for round ten of the Italian Serie A, for a match where the home side will certainly look to extend their current good moment, thus maintaining the third place of the league table and keeping their closest opponents, AC Milan and Sampdoria, at bay.

Last Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Verona put an end to a four 100% victorious consecutive match run for the capital city club but it was probably not enough to pinch Lazio’s confidence and high motivation levels. After a fairly unconvincing season start, during which the Aquile lost three of their first four matches, Stefano Pioli’s boys started a fantastic streak of matches, winning four out of five clashes. Their amazing recovery started with a solid 4-0 win at Palermo and, along the way, they clinched another excellent result by knocking out Fiorentina at Artemio Franchi two weeks ago.

Early in the season, supporters and pundits started to question the work of their new manager, Stefano Pioli, who replaced Edoardo Reja last Summer, but slowly, the former Bologna’s boss is managing to pass his ideas to the players and currently it is already blatantly obvious that Lazio have a fluid game flow and they appear to be fairly consistent.

For next Monday’s match against Cagliari, Stefano Pioli will not be able to rely on the contribution of the Belgian defender Luis Pedro Cavanda, who was sent off against Verona in the middle of the week, and he is not yet certain if Cana, Cataldi and Mauri will recover in time for the clash with the Sardinia island’s team.

As for Cagliari, they are also going through a sort of recovery period after their fairly bumpy season start, during which they conceded three defeats in their first four campaign matches. Last Wednesday, the Sardinian team entertained the former European champions, AC Milan, at the Stadio Sant’Elia, and probably still motivated by the previous match’s rampant 4-0 win at Empoli, they forced the Rossoneri side to a draw.

Cagliari’s new boss, Zdenek Zeman, had his neck on the line when the Sardi stunned Inter Milan at San Siro by 4-1, a result that was probably the click the team needed to find the right path.

Despite Cagliari’s recent improvements, Lazio are firm favourites for next Monday’s match, as the visitors probably don’t have what is necessary to snatch the three points at such a complicated venue as the Stadio Olimpico.

Lazio

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - DWWWW

Cagliari

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWDLW

Possible Line-ups

Lazio (4-3-3) - Marchetti - Pereirinha - Ciani - de Vrij - Radu - Onazi - Biglia - Parolo - Candreva - Lulic - Djordjevic

Cagliari (4-3-3) - Cragno - Balzano - Ceppitelli - Rossettini - Avelar - Ekdal - Conti - Crisetig - Cossu - Sau - Ibarbo

Prediction

Lazio 2 Cagliari 0