Lecce aim to complete their dramatic late bid to salvage their Serie A status when they welcome Parma to the Stadio via del Mare on Sunday night (kick-off 20:45).
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Lecce (4-3-2-1): Gabriel; Donati, Lucioni, Meccariello, Calderoni; Majer, Petriccione, Barak; Falco, Farias; Babacar.
Suspended: Paz.
Unavailable: Rossettini, Deiola, Mancosu, Lapadula.
Parma (4-3-3): Sepe; Darmian, Dermaku, Alves, Gagliolo; Grassi, Kurtic, Barilla; Kulusevski, Gervinho, Caprari.
Suspended: Kucka.
Unavailable: Brugman, Scozzarella, Cornelius, Hernani.
KEY STATISTICS
– Lecce and Parma have met 23 times so far in Serie A: the Ducali lead by 12 wins to two with nine draws.
– Parma have scored at least two goals in each of their last three league games against Lecce (W2 D1).
– Lecce have won only once at home in 11 meetings against Parma in Serie A (D5 L5).
– The last 10 games between these two sides in Lecce saw alternating a draw to an away win (the Gialloblu won the last time at the Via del Mare).
– Lecce must win this game to avoid relegation, and hope that Genoa don’t beat Verona.
– Lecce have held the lead in only 11 games this season – a league low.
– 45% of Lecce’s goals (22/49) have been scored from set-piece situations this season – the highest ratio in this Serie A.
– The last 12 games played by Parma in Serie A have seen both teams scoring at least one goal (an average of 3.58 goals per game).
– Dejan Kulusevski has scored 10 goals and made eight assists – the only Parma player to reach double figures for both goals and assists in a single season since Opta started the Serie A data collection in 2004/05 was Sebastian Giovinco in 2011/12.
– Marco Mancosu has scored 14 goals in this campaign – only three players in Lecce’s history had done better in the top flight: Mirko Vucinic (19 in 2004/05), Javier Chevanton (19 in 2003/04) and Cristiano Lucarelli (15 in 1999/2000).
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com