Three things to look out for in this weekend's football

1 Lazio could be thrown to the Wolves

It has been a bad fortnight for Lazio. Beaten by Sevilla in the Europa League, held by Milan in the home leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final and undone 2-1 at Genoa to slip six points behind fifth-placed Roma in Serie A.

And it’s Roma who lie in wait this weekend as the Italian capital braces itself for the Derby Della Capitale, a match with significant implications in the hunt for Champions League spots.

Roma are many people’s (though not the bookmakers') idea of favourites having taken 20 points out of a possible 24 since losing at Juventus before Christmas.

And Lazio have won only one of the last 12 Rome derbies.

Roma’s pacy starlet Nicolo Zaniolo would, at 19, become the youngest scorer in the derby for 39 years if he can add to the four he has scored in his last seven. He’s 100-30 to score at any time.

2 Brendan Rodgers must tighten up Leicester

Brendan Rodgers, statistically at least, may be one out of one having been appointed Leicester’s new boss 24 hours before they pipped Brighton 2-1, but the reality is the Northern Irishman takes charge of the Foxes for the first time at Watford.

The Rodgers’ effect has seen some money for Leicester, who have lost on their previous two trips to Vicarage Road.

Only one out of the last 18 meetings between these side has ended in a draw.

The first thing Rodgers needs to address is Leicester’s nagging knack of falling behind early. Nineteen times this season City had gone behind first, mostly in the first 15 minutes, and they hadn’t taken a lead in a game since the win at Everton on New Year’s Day.

3 Deja vu for Santiago Solari and Real Madrid

Who else would you rather play three days after being drubbed by Barcelona – than Barcelona?

The fixture list has played a cruel trick on Real Madrid.

It’s El Clasico Part Four and a match which Real have every reason to be wary of in the wake of that embarrassing loss to their bitter rivals in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final on Wednesday.

It means Barca have won 3-0 on each of their last two trips to the Bernabeu, and since losing there in 2008-09 the Catalan giants have played ten Liga matches, lost just twice and rattled up 28 goals in the process.

Understandably, Barca are favourites to heap more pain on beleaguered Santiago Solari.

The Madrid club were always going to suffer minus Cristiano Ronaldo but probably didn’t anticipate Gareth Bale and Isco disappearing off the radar. Solari has, therefore, become over-reliant on flashy teenage frontman Vinicius Junior, who has the skill set of Figo, the pace of Ronaldo, the passion of Raul but, sadly, the shooting boots of Carl Leaburn.

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