This season’s first Derby d’Italia between record-time Italian champions Juventus and second-most successful Inter will cap off Sunday’s Serie A action. A mouth-watering contest at the Allianz Stadium will see the two sides battling it out to stay relevant in the top-six race following sub-par starts.
Injury-hit Juventus fielded an understrength squad but still left a good impression in an evenly-contested 2-1 home defeat to star-studded Paris Saint-Germain in midweek Champions League action. After bowing out of Europe’s elite club competition, Massimiliano Allegri’s team will continue their continental journey in the Europa League playoff knockout round.
There’s no time to moan about their first Champions League group-stage elimination since 2013/14, as they have ground to cover on the current Serie A top four. Juventus’ mini-revival, featuring three consecutive league wins ‘to nil,’ has propelled them back into contention for a top-four finish.
Only three points keep them away from a coveted fourth spot. With the current owners of the final Champions League place Roma taking on Lazio, Juventus will fancy their chances of closing the gap by the end of the weekend. Yet beating their visitors won’t be plain sailing by any stretch of the imagination.
Inter fell agonizingly short of arch-rivals Milan in last season’s Scudetto race and hoped to do one better this term. However, Simone Inzaghi’s men have blown hot and cold in the opening 12 Serie A rounds (W8, L4) and are already eight points off the title pace.
But with table-topping Napoli heading to Atalanta, there’s hope for the Inter faithful the Nerazzurri can reduce the gap come Sunday evening. Despite a 2-0 defeat at Bayern Munich in the final Champions League group-stage round in midweek, Inzaghi’s men have locked down a place in the knockouts, leaving Barcelona in their wake.
That’s a massive confidence boost for Inter after the Bavarians knocked them down from a five seven-game unbeaten streak in all competitions (W6, D1). Back to Serie A, where they’ve won their last four matches by an aggregate score of 11-4, the visitors have every reason to be enthusiastic ahead of this blockbuster fixture.
Match Preview
Juventus
Juventus could record four straight Serie A clean sheets for the first time since December 2018, when they incidentally won six successive league matches without conceding. Given the strength of their upcoming opponents, that looks far-fetched, yet there’s a legitimate reason for belief.
Despite experiencing an utterly underwhelming Serie A start, Juventus boast the best defensive record in the Italian top flight, having conceded just seven goals thus far. Indeed, Allegri’s lads have pulled off a league-high seven shutouts across the inaugural 12 rounds. That’s probably the only bright spot in an otherwise nightmarish campaign for the Turin outfit.
With marquee striker Dusan Vlahovic on the verge of returning to the fold after a short-term injury, Juventus will be confident about addressing their scoring woes. Following a 1-0 loss in this corresponding fixture last season, they could draw a blank in back-to-back league encounters against Inter for the first time since 2010.
Inter
Inter brushed relegation-battling Sampdoria aside with an overwhelming 3-0 home triumph last weekend, making it four Serie A wins in a row for the first time since the tail-end of last season. However, Inzaghi’s men have been far from impressive on their domestic travels this term.
A mixed bag of performances has seen Inter win three of their six away league matches in 2022/23 and lose the other three. Since traveling fans cannot know which version of their side they’ll get in Turin, they’ll put their fate in Inzaghi’s hands to do what he does best – beat Juventus.
Since making his managerial debut in April 2016 as an inexperienced coach in charge of Lazio, Inzaghi has beaten Juventus seven times in 18 competitive H2Hs (D2, L9). That makes him the coach to have defeated the Bianconeri on most occasions in that period.
Juventus vs Inter Potential Line-ups
Juventus (3-5-2): Wojciech Szczesny; Danilo, Leonardo Bonucci, Gleison Bremer; Juan Cuadrado, Nicolo Fagioli, Manuel Locatelli, Adrien Rabiot, Filip Kostic; Dusan Vlahovic, Arkadiusz Milik.
Inter (3-5-2): Andre Onana; Milan Skriniar, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolo Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Federico Dimarco; Lautaro Martinez, Edin Dzeko.