AS Roma vs Juventus – Serie A – Preview

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Sreya

AS Roma host Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico as the Serie A champions look to bounce back after their loss against Udinese on the opening day of the 2015/16 season. Roma played out a 1-1 draw at Hellas Verona in their first game of the season. The Giallorossi are aiming to win their first title since 2000/01 season and will try to take the challenge to the Bianconeri for the Scudetto this season.

Team News

Roma will welcome back Maicon into the starting line-up, which will allow Alessandro Florenzi to play in a more advance position, supporting Edin Dzeko and Mohammad Salah in creating chances. Rudi Garcia is expected to start Lucas Digne, who has completed a transfer from Paris Saint-Germain. As a result, Vasilis Torosidis will drop onto the bench. Roma will also be without the injured Kevin Strootman and Antonio Rudiger.

Juventus have long-term injury concerns in Kwadwo Asamoah and Sami Khedira. Claudio Marchisio is also ruled out due to a thigh injury. Alvaro Morata is set to return to the starting lineup after the centre forward missed the match against Udinese. Alex Sandro could make his debut for the Italian club, having completed a transfer from Porto FC earlier this week. Juan Cuadrado may feature in the matchday squad, although it is unlikely the new loan signing will play significant minutes this weekend.

Roma Possible Starting XI: Wojcieh Szczesny, Maicon, Leandro Kastan, Kostas Malonas, Lucas Digne, Radja Rainggolan, Daniel de Rossi, Miralem Pjanic, Alessandro Florenzi, Edin Dzeko, Mohammad Salah.

Juventus Possible Starting XI: Gianlucci Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Stefan Lichsteiner, Stefan Sturaro, Paul Pogba, Roberto Peyera, Patrice Evra, Alvaro Morata, Mario Mandzukic.

Thoughts From Enemy Camps

“Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done but it will be a great game, as we always expect. We’re stronger with our fans’ support. If we work together, we’ll have a great chance.”

– Rudi Garcia, AS Roma Manager.

“I’m ready for Roma. I’m sure the game against Roma will be difficult. I’m feeling better every day, more confident and more in tune with the team.”

– Alex Sandro, Juventus Midfielder.

Contributor’s Pick

Roma are the biggest competitors of Juventus in Italy, especially with the downhill slide of both Milan clubs. Rudi Garcia has a talented squad at his disposal and should extract the best out of them. According to Head-2-Head statistics, Roma has lost 45% of its matches against Juventus. It should be a closely contested affair between both clubs and the result is likely to be a scoring draw, with 2-2 the most probable scoreline.