Sunday’s Serie A action rounds off at the Allianz Stadium as Juventus entertain out-of-sorts Genoa in a high-stake affair. Both sides are desperate to take points in this game for contrasting reasons following underwhelming spells that threaten to hinder their season plans.
Juventus’ hopes of returning into contention for the coveted Champions League places suffered a massive blow last weekend as they fell to a 1-0 home defeat to Atalanta. Sat ten points adrift of fourth-placed La Dea, over whom they also have a game in hand, the Bianconeri have no margin for error against sub-par opposition.
Indeed, Genoa are having a nightmarish start to the season. They head into proceedings hovering in the drop zone, one point below safety. A 3-0 thumping at the hands of Milan in midweek took the visitors’ winless Serie A streak to 12 matches, as new manager Andriy Shevchenko starts to feel the head only three games into his adventure at Luigi Ferraris.
Juventus vs Genoa Head-to-Head
Juventus have defeated Genoa in each of their last three Serie A meetings by an identical 3-1 scoreline. By extension, the Bianconeri have recorded four top-flight wins over the Grifone over the past two seasons, as many victories as Genoa have against them in their last 35 league encounters (W23, D8, L4).
The Grifone have only won two of their 54 away clashes against Juve. You have to go back to January 1991 to find Genoa’s last Serie A win in Turin, with the Ligurians going winless in their 19 top-flight visits to Juventus since (D4, L15).
To Genoa’s credit, they’ve at least scored in their last three league H2Hs at the Allianz Stadium after failing to find the net in their previous five league games here. However, given their ongoing creativity and conversion problems, they are risking another scoring blank this weekend.
Juventus Form Preview
Juventus returned to winning ways in Serie A in midweek, easing past newly-promoted Salernitana 2-0 on the road to snap a two-game losing run in all competitions. Coming back to the Allianz Stadium, where they’ve blown hot and cold in Serie A this season (W3, D1, L3), may not necessarily be the best news for the record-time Italian champions.
Juventus have alternated between victory and defeat across their last four Serie A home fixtures. Each game won/lost in that period yielded a single-goal margin, while three featured an identical 1-0 scoreline. Indeed, Massimiliano Allegri’s men have struggled in front of goal in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United in the final days of the summer.
The Bianconeri have netted more than once per game only once in their seven Serie A home matches this season, courtesy of a 3-2 win over Sampdoria back in late September. Among the sides that have started the matchday in the upper half of the table, none have scored fewer Serie A goals than Juventus (20) this season.
Genoa Form Preview
Since beating fellow relegation strugglers Cagliari 3-2 on the road in mid-September, Genoa have failed to land the three points in their subsequent 12 Serie A outings (D7, L5). A thoroughly disappointing start to the season threatens the visitors’ top-flight status, and playing away from home won’t help their cause.
They have drawn each of their last three Serie A matches on hostile turf and could make it four consecutive parities in Italy’s top-flight for the first time since 1994. Given their utterly disastrous attacking showings of late, a draw would not be a bad result for the Grifone here.
Since arriving at the helm in mid-November, Shevchenko has overseen his team drawing a blank in each of their three Serie A fixtures. With 17 league goals to their name so far this season, Genoa enter this round as one of just six Serie A sides to have yet to smash a 20-goal barrier. A clear majority (88.24%) of their top-flight goals scored this season have in the second half of play (15/17), suggesting they couldn’t be taken lightly after half-time.
Juventus vs Genoa Predicted Lineups
Juventus (4-2-3-1): Wojciech Szczesny; Juan Cuadrado, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthijs de Ligt, Mattia de Sciglio; Weston McKennie, Manuel Locatelli; Federico Bernardeschi, Paulo Dybala, Dejan Kulusevski; Alvaro Morata.
Genoa (3-5-2): Salvatore Sirigu; Mattia Bani, Johan Vasquez, Zinho Vanheusden; Paolo Ghiglione, Stefano Sturaro, Nicolo Rovella, Milan Badelj, Andrea Cambiaso; Caleb Ekuban, Flavio Bianchi.