Serie B 22/23: road to Venezia - Como

March 30, 2023

Following the final championship break for international commitments, on Giornata 31 of the 2022/23 Serie B season, Venezia will host Como, in tenth place in the standings, six points ahead of Paolo Vanoli's team.

Previous encounters

Venezia and Como tally 25 fixtures in Serie B and will meet again at the Pier Luigi Penzo Stadium 19 years after their last clash in Sant'Elena, in the 2003/04 season.

Of the nine defeats Venezia have suffered against Como in Serie B, only two have come in home matches: the last was in September 1994 (0-1), with Giampiero Ventura at the helm. Furthermore, in the 12 matches played at home against Como in the cadet league, only once (4-2, in March 1934) did the Veneti concede more than one goal (six clean sheets in the partial).

Stats and trivia

Venezia have drawn four of their last six home games (1W, 1L) in Serie B: as many as the number of games that have ended in a draw in the previous 30 played at the Penzo in the series, under four different coaches (Vanoli, Javorcic, Zanetti and Dionisi). Moreover, the Veneti have not strung three consecutive 'X' signs at home in the competition since April 2019, with Serse Cosmi on the bench.

Como have been on a positive streak for seven matches (3W, 4D) in the league: the visitors have not strung together a higher number of matches without defeat in Serie B since the streak of 10 collected between October and December 2001 (9W, 1D), the season of their last promotion to Serie A.

Seven of Como's eight away draws in this championship have come while Moreno Longo has been on the bench (since the middle of last October): only Pisa have collected as many (seven) in the period; moreover, Como have drawn their last four Serie B away matches and have not recorded a longer series away from home in the competition since October 1983-January 1984.

Como conceded 18 goals (out of the total 36, thus 50%) on set pieces, of which 11 following corners: a negative record in both cases in the current Serie B. No team, on the other hand, has conceded more goals on penalties than Venezia (six, along with Modena and Cagliari) in this championship.

Coaches and formations

Paolo Vanoli and Moreno Longo have never met in their coaching careers: in the first half of the season, it was Primavera coach Andrea Soncin who occupied the Venezia bench on an interim basis, until the arrival of coach Vanoli just one day after the match against Como.

Last season, Moreno Longo reached the considerable milestone of 150 matches as a coach in Serie B: in his career in the division, he has met Venezia on three occasions, recording two wins and a draw.

In the last three matches, coach Longo has adopted the 3-4-1-2 in some of its variations, as has coach Vanoli. The latter has recently employed Denis Cheryshev as a trequartista in this set-up, returning to the preferred 3-5-2 only in the last match against Ascoli.

Scorers

After not having found the back of the net for eight games in a row, Alberto Cerri has scored three goals in the last five league games: only one less than in all of the previous 22 matches in this tournament.

Joel Pohjanpalo has scored 10 goals in this league and since 2006/07 only two Venezia players have done better in a single Serie B season: Mattia Aramu (11 in 2019/20) and Francesco Forte (14 in 2020/21).