Liverpool will look to continue their excellent start to the season with a Champions League home contest against Bologna. The hosts are backed to beat the Italians by the Opta supercomputer, but can they back that up? Look ahead with our Liverpool vs Bologna prediction and preview.
Liverpool vs Bologna Stats: The Key Insights
- Liverpool won 74.8% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000 pre-match simulations for this match.
- Mohamed Salah could become the first Liverpool player to score in five consecutive home games in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League.
- Liverpool have lost three of their last five home games against Italian sides (W2).
Liverpool are aiming to make it two wins from two in their UEFA Champions League campaign on Wednesday when they host Bologna at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s side were impressive in their first outing in the competition this season, also against Serie A opposition, recovering from a goal down to comprehensively outplay Milan at the San Siro. Goals from centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté saw the Reds overturn Christian Pulisic’s early strike, before Dominik Szoboszlai added a third midway through the second half.
Liverpool had 11 shots on target in Milan, in what was their first Champions League match under Slot. It’s the most shots on target a Premier League side has had in their first match under a new manager in the competition since Man City under Pep Guardiola in September 2016 (also 11).
They will be confident of adding another three points to their UCL league-phase haul, such has been their recent European dominance at home. Liverpool have won each of their last 10 group/league stage games at Anfield in major European competitions, scoring 2+ goals in their last nine in a row.
They welcome Bologna, who are making their Champions League debut this season. Despite attempting 17 shots on Matchday 1 against Shakhtar Donetsk, Vincenzo Italiano’s side could not find a way through and had to settle for a 0-0 draw. It could have been a lot worse, too, had Lukasz Skorupski not saved a fourth-minute penalty from Heorhii Sudakov.
That was one of just four shots that Shakhtar had in the game and, as the shot map from the match shows, it was a contest lacking in real quality.
Bologna are unbeaten in their last four league games in Serie A, although they have won just one of those – a 2-1 victory at Monza. Three draws in their last four games have seen them creep up to 13th. Their weekend’s exploits saw them almost beat Atalanta with 10 men, before Lazar Samardzic fired in a late equaliser.
Liverpool, meanwhile, moved to the top of the Premier League table with a 2-1 win at Wolves on Saturday. Goals from Konaté – his first in the Premier League – and a penalty from Mohamed Salah either side of Rayan Aït-Nouri’s equaliser were enough to secure the win.
Liverpool sit one point clear of both City and Arsenal on 15 points, with five wins and one loss from their first six Premier League games under Slot.
Liverpool vs Bologna Head-to-Head
Liverpool and Bologna have never previously faced off before, while Bologna will be the Reds’ 10th different Italian opponent in European competition, after Internazionale, Juventus, Roma, Genoa, Milan, Fiorentina, Napoli, Udinese and Atalanta.
Bologna have faced three English sides previously in all European competitions, most recently Fulham in the 2002 Intertoto Cup. Their last in a major European competition came against Leeds United in the 1966-67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, losing via a coin toss after a 1-1 aggregate draw over two legs.
Liverpool vs Bologna Prediction
The Opta supercomputer considers Liverpool to be very comfortable favourites for this match, with the Reds winning 74.8% of its 10,000 pre-match simulations.
That leaves Bologna with a rare win in 10.4% of simulations, while the draw occurred 14.8% of the time.
Liverpool vs Bologna Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Liverpool vs Bologna Squads
Liverpool: Alisson Becker, Caoimhín Kelleher, Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Kostas Tsimikas, Andrew Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley, Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez, Mohamed Salah, Federico Chiesa, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota.
Head Coach: Arne Slot
Bologna: Lukasz Skorupski, Nicola Bagnolini, Federico Ravaglia, Emil Holm, Stefan Posch, Martin Erlic, Nicolo Casale. Tommaso Corazza. Charalampos Lykogiannis. Jhon Lucumí. Lorenzo De Silvestri. Sam Beukema. Juan Miranda, Nikola Moro, Remo Freuler, Oussama El Azzouzi, Tommaso Pobega, Lewis Ferguson, Michel Aebischer, Giovanni Fabbian, Kacper Urbanski, Riccardo Orsolini, Santiago Castro, Jesper Karlsson, Dan Ndoye, Samuel Iling-Junior, Jens Odgaard, Thijs Dallinga, Nicolò Cambiaghi, Benjamín Domínguez
Head coach: Vincenzo Italiano
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