Sassuolo vs Genk: Preview and Prediction

Sassuolo vs Genk
UEFA Europa League
Date: Thursday 8th December, 2016
Kick-off: 18:00 UK
Venue: MAPEI Stadium –Citta del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia.

Sassuolo opened the season in both Serie A and Europa League in a tremendous fashion, but their form slowly started to drop as the time passed by. However, the optimism can be noticed after the last weekend’s comfortable home win over Empoli when Sassuolo finally ended their negative streak of nine consecutive matches in all competitions without a single victory.

Prior to the mentioned win, the team led by Eusebio Di Francesco took a huge point at San Paolo playing a 1-1 draw with Napoli. However, Di Francesco is still without his best players as Domenico Berardi, Matteo Politano and Davide Biondini are still sidelined and will be out for the match with Genk. The game with the Belgians does not have any significance for Sassuolo since they have already lost all hopes for qualifying to the knockout phase of the competition.

Genk have already secured the qualification to the last 32 round, but they have the chance to catch the first position with the potential victory in Regio Emillia. However, if we are to judge by their current form, it is not a likeable scenario, since Genk have lost back-to-back matches in First Division A to Oostende and Lokeren. Especially painful was the loss to Oostende when Marco Bizot had to pull out the ball from the net as many as six times.

Sassuolo vs Genk: Head-to-Head Stats

Genk have won the first match between the two teams back in September with 3 – 1 at Luminus Arena. Nikolaos Karelis, Leon Bailey and Thomas Buffel were on target for the Belgians, while Matteo Politano scored the only goal for Sassuolo to set the final score.

Sassuolo vs Genk: Prediction

With all the absences in Sassuolo’s squad, the odds of 3/4 offered by the bookmakers on Genk not to lose the match seem to represent quite a decent value. Alternatively, you can go with Over 2.5 goals since both teams have been struggling a lot defensively since the very start of the season.