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ITALY: Serie A

Date: 09-01-22 

Time: 6:30 PM 

Venue: Stadio Olimpico (Rome)

Ordinarily this gargantuan Serie A (SA) clash between Roma and Juventus – two giants of Italian and European football – would have a significant bearing on the title race. How the mighty have fallen though, as Roma sit 14 points off the pace in SA ahead of the round whilst another home defeat could make José Mourinho look not so special

The first goal in this clash could prove particularly crucial, as Roma are yet to lose a SA home game this season in which they’ve taken the lead (W6, D1) whilst they’ve only won once from behind in SA all season (L8). That said, two of Mourinho’s four historical managerial wins against Juventus (D1, L3) came despite falling a goal behind!

With 36 Scudettos to their name, Juventus’ league position of fifth ahead of this round remains substandard, and dealing with the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo has hit them hard. The visitors’ goalscoring remains a problem as their paltry total of 28 SA goals through 20 games this season is the lowest ratio (1.4 per match) of any side in SA’s top-half ahead of the round and also the club’s lowest such tally since 1999/2000 (26).

There have been flickers of improvement of late though, as Juventus remain unbeaten across six SA outings (W4, D2). They’re also still notoriously fast starters on the road, opening the scoring in eight of their ten SA away outings this season, six of which came before the 30th minute – while only Napoli (three) have conceded less first-half SA away goals than Juventus (four) this campaign.

Players to watch: Roma’s Stephan El Shaarawy has faced only Lazio more often in his career than Juventus, but he hasn’t found the net against them since 2016/17. Moise Kean decided the reverse fixture with the winner in a 1-0 Juventus victory; all four of his goals this season have been match openers.

Recent Stats:

  • AS Roma’s form in last 5 matches: LDWWW.
  • Juventus’ form in last 5 matches: DWWDW.

PREDICTION: Draw/Away