Lazio vs Juventus – Serie A – Preview

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Sreya

The Scudetto defending champions Juventus will travel to Rome to face Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico in a Serie A fixture on 4th December, Friday. While Juventus have recovered from their disastrous start to the campaign with four consecutive victories in the last four domestic games, Lazio are going through a poor patch of form – winning only once in their last six league fixtures.

Juventus sit on the 5th position in league standings with 24 points while Lazio are in 10th place with 19 points.

Team News

Stefan de Vrij, Ogenyi Onazi and Senad Lulic will miss the game for the home side. Paul Pogba, Roberto Pereyra, Hernanes and Sami Khedira will all be unavailable for the visitors during the trip to Rome. While Pogba is suspended, the rest are injured. Mario Lemina is also a doubt. Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado are once again expected to start on the substitute’s bench.

Lazio Possible Starting Lineup: Federico Marchetti, Dusan Basta, Santiago Gentiletti, Mauricio, Stefan Radu, Antonio Candreva, Marco Parolo, Lucas Biglia, Felipe Anderson, Miroslav Klose, Alessandro Matri.

Juventus Possible Starting Lineup: Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Stefan Lichsteiner, Kwadwo Asamoah, Claudio Marchisio, Stefano Sturaro, Alex Sandro, Mario Mandzukic, Paulo Dybala.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“The results are painful right now, but the performances in recent games are not. In this situation a coach has to work, motivate and choose the best way to get out of it. I believe in our work as a team. There’s a lot of disappointment, the results are negative and the table proves it, but we certainly want to emerge from this delicate moment.”

– Stefano Pioli, Lazio.

“We have not achieved anything yet. It’s true that we’ve won four in a row but our journey has only just began. Thinking otherwise could cause our level of intensity to drop and that must not be allowed to happen.

We must focus on small goals and the first of those is reaching fourth place. Our overall objective must be to win a certain number of points by the end of the season.”

– Massimilano Allegri, Juventus.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, Lazio have not won any of its previous five encounters with Juventus, the Old Lady winning five of those. Juventus have kept a clean sheet in five of their last sevenaway matches against Lazio in all competitions. Juventus are undefeated in their last 8 matches against Lazio in all competitions.

On current form, Massimilano Allegri’s side are likely to beat Stefano Piolo’s Lazio by a comfortable 3-1 margin.