Next Sunday, 25th of January 2015, the super Sampdoria of Sinisa Mihajlovic will entertain the rejuvenated Palermo at Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa for round 20 of Serie A, on a match that will surely be one of the most entertaining of the weekend between two of the most impressive teams of the Italian football at the current moment.

After a narrow home win against the relegation-threatened Empoli two weeks ago, Sampdoria managed to win again on their visit to Ennio Tardini, where they overcame an unrecognizable Parma by 2-0. Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men continue to impress and, thanks to their last weekend’s win, they turned into the first Sampdoria team ever to have reached the 33 points after only 19 matches. Although the match against Parma was far from easy, especially during the first-half, Sampdoria were always the best team and both goals ended up by arriving after the break, the first one thanks to the Argentinean striker Bergessio and the second one 15 minutes later by the hand of the talented Italian midfielder Roberto Soriano.

Sampdoria are currently in the fourth place of the Serie A table (after changing places with Lazio this weekend) with the same 33 points of Napoli that occupy the third place.

Samp’s next match, however, will definitely not be an easy one as they will face a team that has only been defeated once since last November. For that particular clash, Mihajlovic will not be able to rely on the contribution from Djamel Mesbah, who is currently playing for his National Team, Algeria, on the Africa Cup of Nations.

As for Palermo, after being defeated by Fiorentina two weeks ago, they’ve failed to secure the three points once again last weekend. The Sicilian team managed, nevertheless, to force the powerful AS Roma to their second consecutive draw in two weeks after putting up a quality display against the capital city team last Saturday. An early goal from the usual suspect, Paulo Dybala, offered Palermo the lead but the Sicilian team weren’t able to sustain the Lupi’s attacking game and ended by conceding the equalizer after the break.

Their upcoming match at Luigi Ferraris will certainly not be easy, but they will surely want to extend their good moment and inflict Sampdoria their third defeat of the season.

It is hard to name any favourite for the next Sunday’s match, although, given their outstanding path so far this season, it is fair to offer Sampdoria a slight favouritism for that big clash.

Sampdoria

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WWLDD

Palermo

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DLWDW

Possible Line-ups

Sampdoria (4-3-1-2) - Viviano - De Silvestri - Silvestre - Romagnoli - Regini - Obiang - Palombo - Duncan - Soriano - Eder - Bergessio

Palermo (3-4-2-1) - Sorrentino - Vitiello - Gonzalez - Andelkovic - Morganella - Rigoni - Barreto - Lazaar - Maresca - Vazquez - Dybala

Prediction

Sampdoria 2 Palermo 1