With a thrilling matchup on our hands, it's time to take a closer look at the clash between Empoli and Roma. Empoli's got Elia Caprile in goal - a reliable figure between the sticks with a respectable 7.07 rating, but just 12 saves to date. On the other side, Mile Svilar for Roma has a better rating of 7.84, not to mention a whopping 25 saves. Now, isn't that assuring for the Roma faithful?
Moving further afield, Empoli's Nicolò Cambiaghi and Sebastiano Luperto are salient names to watch out for, both with ratings over 7. However, their lack of goals might be a smidgen worrisome for the Empoli fun club.
Roma's side oozes ooze quality. We've got Zeki Çelik and Bryan Cristante both showing off over 7.4 ratings and astronomic passing accuracies. Romelu Lukaku, though stalls on the accuracy, is still managing to put balls in nets. No applause, ladies and gentlemen, please—the stats are making that noise.
Now, in our history lesson for today, Roma has served Empoli two whopping defeats, making Empoli's motivations, well, a little too easy to guess. As for regular season records, Roma flaunts 18 wins, splashing some sass over Empoli's 8 — well, a little friendly rivalry never killed anyone.
As far as recent encounters go, Roma has been inconsistent — shaking hands with both victory and defeat. Empoli hasn't had a song to sing either, with more parting hugs than victory dances.
Crunching these stats, measuring the goalie's gloves, enamored by the players' ratings, moved by historical trends, and giving a wink to the recent form, I dare say this matchup might not regulate to the script written by past glories. In other words, don't put your money on what the history teachers are selling.
Albert’s Prediction: Empoli by 1