Palermo vs Catania

Palermo are home to open up week 33 in Serie A against Catania in a battle of clubs coming off of wins last week, and they will be looking to make it two straight at the Stadio Renzo Barbera following their big win over Juventus last week. Catania are also coming off of a big win at home and win look to extend their unbeaten run on the road.

Palermo come into this contest in 12^th place of Serie A with 39 points on the season. They sit just behind 11^th place SS Lazio and 2 points ahead of 13^th place Siena. Last week Palermo won a very exciting match at home over Juventus by a score of 3-2 with top scorer Amauri having a big match. The win snapped what had been a very bad stretch for the side managed by Colantuono as they had lost 4 straight games. This week the squad will be missing Capuano and Simplicio to injury while Cassani is out suspended. On a positive note Palermo will have both the aforementioned Amauri and Miccoli in the first eleven this week.

Catania held serve at home over Napoli in week 32 by a score of 3-0 at the Stadio Angelo Massimino. Catania are now in 15^th place of the league table with 32 points for the season. This leaves them 2 points back of 14^th place Torino and 2 points up on 16^th place Parma. It was the club’s first victory under new manager Walter Zenga and they looked extremely good in the process. The win also snapped a 4 match winless run which had seen them score just 2 goals over that stretch. This week Morimoto will be the only confirmed absence as it looks as though Colucci will be available off of the bench. Catania are set to go with a 4-4-2 featuring Mascara and Spinesi in attack.

Catania will be hard pressed to repeat their performance of a week ago when they visit Palermo. While the appointment of Zenga was uplifting in the short run, this is still the same Catania outfit who have failed to win a single road match in 16 matches. Meanwhile, despite their less than ideal league position, Palermo have won 7 of 16 games at home to go with 6 draws. Look for Palermo to pull it out.

Prediction: Palermo (1-0)