H2H: Lazio Roma vs Zenit St. Petersburg – Prediction (Champions League

H2H: Lazio v Zenit – Comparison.

Ciro Immobile opened the scoring for Lazio in their weekend game, and in the only UCL game he played this campaign. Aleksandr Erokhin scored the match opener for Zenit in the reverse H2H, his first in UCL competition proper. Zenit have only won once away from home against Italian opponents in UEFA competitions (W1, D1, L3) with all three defeats seeing them lose ‘to nil’.

Lazio Insights.

After a slow start to the season (W1, D1, L2), Lazio are unbeaten in their last seven competitive matches (W4, D3) scoring 2+ goals in each win. Additionally, Lazio are unbeaten in their opening three UEFA Champions League (UCL) group matches (W1, D2) for the first time since 1999/00 when they went on to win the group unbeaten. Never beaten by a Russian club in UEFA competitions (W1, D4), Lazio have won their only UCL home game of the campaign (3-1) and are unbeaten in four of their five competitive home games this season (W2, D2, L1). All five returned goals at both ends, with Lazio conceding exactly once in the last four matches.

Zenit Insights.

Goals at both ends has been the template for Zenit St. Petersburg too, occurring in three of their last four competitive games (W2, D2) and in two of their three UCL games of the campaign (D1, L2). Nevertheless, slow starts have been a theme, with two goalless first-halves in Zenit’s three UCL games and three of five UCL ‘goals against’ arriving beyond the 80th minute. Including a 2-0 loss in their lone away game this campaign, Zenit have failed to win any of their last six away games in the UCL proper (D1, L5) conceding 2+ goals in four losses. Nonetheless, Zenit remain poster boys for strong first-halves, returning HT clean sheets in five matches, although they conceded the match opener on four occasions in those six matches.