Empoli vs Lazio

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For their last game before Christmas, Lazio will travel to Tuscany on Friday to play Empoli in Serie A at the Stadio Carlo Castellani.

With Lazio in the bottom half and the hosts in the relegation zone, both teams are having a difficult season opener.

Even though Empoli is currently only one point away from safety, they are still in the bottom three under their second permanent management of the year.

Going into 2024, the Azzurri will want to be among the teams above the dotted line, with the bottom five appearing to be cut adrift.

After taking over after a crushing defeat at Roma in gameweek four, new manager Aurelio Andreazzolli has overseen a minor uptick in performance, as all 12 points have been earned under his direction.

Even though Empoli defeated both Fiorentina and Napoli on the road, their performance has declined once more, and they are currently in the bottom three.

They have only managed two points out of a possible twelve in their past four games, which is surprising considering they did not face any of the major players during that stretch of games. They were fortunate to escape with draws against Sassuolo and Torino.

Empoli has scored the fewest goals in the league (10), with three of those goals coming in that most recent loss to Sassuolo. Therefore, goals have been a major issue.

With only five points from eight games at the Carlo Castellani, Empoli has the worst home record in Serie A as a result of a number of factors, including that particular outcome.

It might be difficult for them to turn things around against Lazio, as they have lost seven of their previous nine meetings with the Biancocelesti and failed to win any of them.

Lazio, though, hasn't done much to indicate that they ought to be overwhelming favorites in this match.

With the midway point of the season approaching, last season's winners League qualifiers find themselves in the bottom half of the standings, with only winners Napoli having had a more disappointing season than Lazio thus far.

Lazio is far behind the other five clubs in the fierce competition for fourth place right now, and manager Maurizio Sarri's first-ever home loss to Inter Milan last weekend continued a terrible run of form.

Gaining an early lead was always going to be expensive, as Lazio lost once more after falling behind, as they have yet to salvage a point from a defeat, following Adam Marusic's dreadful backpass that allowed Lautaro Martinez to score the game's first goal.

The visitors' away performance has also been lacking; in their previous five road games, they have only picked up one point, and those excursions have included visits to the current bottom two teams, Hellas Verona and Salernitana.

Lazio's ability to go to the Champions League knockout stages this season and their draw on Monday against German champions Bayern Munich has been a consolation prize.

An other encouraging fact for the Lazio supporters to consider ahead of this matchup is that manager Sarri has won all nine of his encounters with his former employers.