Bologna are aiming to continue their unbeaten form when they take on Lazio at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara in Serie A action on Friday night.

The Rossoblu are looking for their first Serie A win against Lazio since October 2021. The Biancocelesti have outscored the Rossoblu 6-1 during their four-game unbeaten streak in all competitions, winning three of the meetings, including a 1-0 home victory in the Coppa Italia last-16 last season. .

Bologna and Lazio played out a goalless draw in the sides' most recent meeting in March as Bologna managed to end Lazio's three-game winning streak over them.

However, Bologna have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 home matches against Lazio and are unbeaten in the last four.

Bologna are unbeaten since the opening Serie A weekend, when they suffered a 2-0 home loss to AC Milan. Thus, they remain unbeaten in 10 matches in all competitions (winning four of them) and have proven to be a tough nut to crack, especially in their matches with Juventus (1-1), Napoli (0-0), and Inter Milan (2-2) earlier this season.

The Rossoblu played out a 1-1 draw in their last Serie A match against Sassuolo at the MAPEI Stadium - Città del Tricolore, extending their unbeaten streak in Serie A to nine matches (3-6-0).

Having joined Bologna last September, Thiago Motta guided the club to their best finish (9^th place) in Serie A in over a decade. They last finished in ninth place in 2011-12, which to date remains their best Serie A position since the 7^th place in 2001-02.

Thiago Motta is the successor of the late Sinisa Mihajlovic, who was dismissed from Bologna on 6 September 2022 after a poor start to the Serie A campaign.

Bologna registered another positive result when eliminating Hellas Verona from the Coppa Italia in midweek, thanks to goals from Nikola Moro and Sydney van Hooijdonk. However, none of them is expected to start against Lazio.  

Indeed, Motta made a considerable number of changes for Bologna's 2-0 home win over Hellas Verona in the Coppa Italia round of 32 on Tuesday evening.

Experienced defender Adama Soumaoro is a long-term absentee for Bologna, while fellow centre-back Jhon Lucumí is also recovering from a thigh problem.

Kevin Bonifazi made his first start of the season at Sassuolo last week and the 27-year-old will hope to get another start alongside summer signing Riccardo Calafiori at centre-back.

Lorenzo De Silvestri was substituted at the break of Bologna's draw at Sassuolo last weekend and the 35-year-old Roman could miss the game against his boyhood club. If the veteran is not ready to play on Friday, Austria international Stefan Posch, who recently recovered from a hamstring muscle injury, should continue at right-back.

The Biancocelesti head to Emilia-Romagna looking to pick up three points and further maintain their good form in Serie A in recent weeks.

Lazio returned to winning ways with a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Fiorentina in the Serie A on Monday night. It was a much-needed win following a 3-1 Champions League loss at Feyenoord last week. 

Maurizio Sarri's men were outplayed at De Kuip and will be looking to perform much better when they take on the Dutch champions in the reverse leg next week.

Having won their last three Serie A games, Lazio travel to face Bologna on Friday night before an eventful week that will see them facing Feyenoord in the Champions League as well as arch rivals Roma in the first Derby della Capitale of the season on November 12.

All in all, Lazio have won four of their last five matches in all competitions but the poor performance in Rotterdam had left a bitter taste for everyone. Yet, the Biancocelesti have quite an opportunity to welcome the November international break in high spirits.

With three goals each, Luis Alberto and Ciro Immobile are Lazio's leading goalscorers and the latter will be pushing for a start here. Summer signing Taty Castellanos started the last couple of games, but with Immobile returning to full fitness, the experienced Italian forward could get his first start in Serie A since the 2-0 win over Torino on September 27.

Nicolo Rovella started against Fiorentina on Monday but the Italy U21 midfielder could make way for Danilo Cataldi in the middle of the park.  

Elsewhere, Nicolò Casale picked up an adductor injury and the centre-back will be sidelined for the next couple of weeks, so Patric is set to continue alongside Alessio Romagnoli.

Manuel Lazzari and Elseid Hysaj are competing for the right-back spot, with the former starting the last two Serie A matches, but the experienced Albanian international will hope to get the nod on Friday.

Le Aquile are eager to claim their first win at Bologna since December 2018, when Simone Inzaghi's Lazio beat Filippo Inzaghi's Bologna 2-0.

Maurizio Sarri’s side have put together three consecutive Serie A victories, but Thiago Motta has stated that: "We do not fear Lazio, but we certainly respect them".

Bologna have earned a reputation of draw specialists this season, especially against major clubs. With that said, it is difficult to see a clear favorite in this Friday night showdown and we won't be surprised if both sides share the spoils at the Renato Dall'Ara on Friday evening.