Juventus will host Hellas Verona knowing a win would help them to top spot in the Serie A. Juve’s victory over AC Milan last week put them within striking distance of both second-city teams, who play on Sunday. A third consecutive victory would see them take the top spot.
Preview (Juventus vs. Hellas Verona)
Even though they worked hard for it—as manager Max Allegri’s angry touchline antics would attest. Juventus reduced the gap to the top spot in the Serie A rankings last week, with a valuable 1-0 victory. Following Milan’s first-half 10-man substitution, Juventus first struggled to penetrate the strong home defense. However, Manuel Locatelli’s long-range deflected effort eventually found the back of the net. It marks the exact seven years since the former Milan midfielder scored the game-winning goal. Locatelli sobbed as he celebrated his winner after 50 league games without a goal. Now, one-third of his Serie A goals have come from sources other than the opposition area.
Allegri maintains that his team is not in the running for the Scudetto after two miserable seasons. They have already defeated Lazio and Milan, these objections are not really credible. Only Nice of Ligue 1 has a better continuous record in Europe’s top five divisions than Juventus. They have not surrendered a goal in almost 360 minutes in both of their most recent home league games.
The Bianconeri have scored in each of the last 20 encounters between the two teams and have won their last three league games against Verona while maintaining a clean sheet in each. These results come before Saturday’s assignment. In fact, they have even greater control over the Gialloblu at home. The deck is undoubtedly stacked against Verona this weekend. They have lost all 32 of their away games against Juventus in the Italian top division. It includes 27 defeats.
Team News
Apart from Paul Pogba and Nicolo Fagioli, who is suspended, Juventus also has the injured Brazilian combo, Danilo and Alex Sandro, while Mattia De Sciglio is not scheduled to return until 2024. First-choice attackers Federico Chiesa and Dusan Vlahovic started the match on the bench. The latter may be prepared to take Arkadiusz Milik’s spot up front on Saturday. At San Siro, highly-regarded Dutch defender Dean Huijsen made his debut as a substitute. Daniele Rugani ought to stay Danilo’s backup in the Bianconeri back three. With Rugani starting for Juventus since the beginning of the previous campaign, the team has won 75% of league games while giving up just one goal in eight games.
The only injuries that Verona has to worry about are those of Juan Cabal and fellow defender Isak Hien, who will both be evaluated closer to kickoff. Darko Lazovic became one of just two players to score in five consecutive top-flight seasons for Verona, and the first since 1988, after finding the net against Napoli last time out. Only Belgian forward Cyril Ngonge has scored more than once for the Gialloblu in Serie A this season.
Either Federico Bonazzoli, who has experience playing for both of Juventus’ key rivals, Inter and Torino, or Milan Djuric should spearhead the attacking action for the visitors as a lone striker. Juventus are ready for another victory over goal-averse Verona after they began to keep clean sheets, just like they did during several successful periods last season. Despite years of trying, the visitors have never experienced success at the Allianz Stadium, so they should anticipate leaving empty-handed once more.
Juventus 2 – 0 Hellas Verona
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