Chievo vs Juventus – Serie A – Preview

Posted on January 30, 2016 by Sreya

Chievo host Juventus in an early Serie A kick-off on 31st January, Sunday at Bentegodi with the defending champions aiming to close the gap on league leaders Napoli. After a disastrous start to the season, the Old Lady has recovered spectacularly, winning a string of matches and now sit on second position in the Serie A standings with forty five points from twenty one matches.

Juventus’ opponents tomorrow, Chievo are on the tenth position with only seven wins and have remained winless in their last two matches.

Team News

Mariano Izco, Alessandro Gamberini, Riccardo Meggiorini and Perparim Hetemaj are sidelined through injuries for Chievo while Simone Pepe has been listed as a doubt. Bostjan Cesar is suspended. Also, Alberto Paloschi is moving to Swansea and has been ruled out of the game.

Roberto Pereyra, Mario Lemina, Mario Mandzukic and Kwadwo Asamoah are confirmed absentees for Juventus with injuries. Patrice Evra will serve out a suspension.

Chievo Possible Starting Lineup: Albano Bizzarri, Fabrizio Cacciatore, Dario Dainelli, Nicolas Spolli, Massimo Gobbi, Lucas Castro, Ivan Radovanovic, Giampiero Pinzi, Valter Birsa, Sergio Pellissier, Roberto Inglese.

Juventus Possible Starting Lineup: Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Stephan Lichsteiner, Paul Pogba, Sami Khedira, Claudio Marchisio, Alex Sandro, Alvaro Morata, Paulo Dybala.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, the previous six encounters between these two clubs have resulted in five wins for Juventus and only a solitary draw. Juventus have not only won their last eleven Serie A matches, but have also scored a minimum of two goals in their previous six away games.

With Juventus being undefeated against Chievo in last eleven matches in all competitions, the Turin-based club will start as favorites. Jvuentus are expected to win, with 2-0 being the most probable scoreline.

“We’re back to playing in a way that you would expect to see from a Juventus team and we always believed that we would turn things around. That said, even we were not expecting to go on such a great winning streak.

At the end of the day, the most important thing beyond any records is that we have recaptured that ruthless mentality that has made this club what it is.

Sunday’s game against Chievo won’t be easy and we will need to be at our very best to return with all three points. Let’s not forget that we are still only second in the table. From now on, any side that puts a good run together will automatically put themselves in the Scudetto picture.”

– Andrea Barzagli, Juventus.