A new-look Juventus side take a trip to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to take on out-of-sorts Sampdoria in an exciting Serie A fixture. Tomorrow’s clash in Genoa will drop the curtain on matchday two, as did Juve’s 3-0 thumping of Sassuolo last Monday.
Sampdoria experienced an underwhelming 15th-place finish last season. Tipped for another season-long fight in the bottom half of the table, La Samp started the new league season with a 2-0 home defeat to Atalanta. Marque summer signing Filip Djuricic, who made Marco Giampaolo’s starting line-up on the opening weekend, will be looking for a more vivid performance this time out.
Djuricic’s compatriot Dusan Vlahovic, on the other hand, enjoyed a stellar start to the season with Juventus. The talismanic striker scored on either side of halftime as Massimiliano Allegri’s team put Sassuolo to the sword to pain their season opening with flying colours. Summer addition Angel Di Maria chipped in with a goal and an assist in the abovementioned wallopping of the Neroverdi.
Match Preview
Sampdoria
Underperforming Sampdoria are staring down the barrel of back-to-back home Serie A defeats ‘to nil’ for the first time since May 2015. The hosts’ uneventful showing against Atalanta, combined with their dismal recent record against Juventus, suggests Giampaolo’s men could have a long evening on Monday.
Sampdoria have not only lost their last six Serie A matches against Juventus. They succumbed to multi-goal margins five times during that six-game span while failing to find the net in three. Another potential loss here would see La Samp set an unwanted piece of history, having never lost seven successive league meetings with Juve in their history.
Including a 3-0 defeat at Inter on the final day of last season, Sampdoria have drawn a blank in consecutive Serie A outings. The last time they failed to score in three league fixtures in a row was in May 2016, as Vincenzo Montella was sacked on the back of it. So the signs are ominous for Giampaolo.
Juventus
Juventus have seemingly grown tired of lagging behind Milan and Inter following consecutive fourth-place Serie A placings. The high-profile acquisitions of Gleison Bremer, Di Maria, and Paul Pogba have helped the Bianconeri send a message to other Scudetto competitors that they’re back in the race.
Beating Sampdoria could set the tone for another triumphant Serie A season. Indeed, Juventus have won their opening two matches of a new top-flight campaign in eight of the last 12 seasons, lifting the title on each occasion. The prospect appears bright and the Bianconeri will aim to wrap it up with style, knowing their two previous visits to Sampdoria yielded two-goal margin wins.
But it’s worth noting that Juventus capped off the sub-standard 2021/22 season with a pair of defeats on hostile turf, conceding precisely twice on each occasion. In fact, you’d have to go to January and a goalless draw with Milan at San Siro for Juve’s last clean sheet in an away Serie A fixture, showing this may not be a walk in the park after all.
Team News
Sampdoria boss Giampaolo will be without right-back Andrea Conti, who’s on the sidelines nursing injury. The hosts are still examining Simone Trimboli’s fitness status, but they will have an otherwise fully-fit squad for Monday’s encounter.
As for Juventus, Federico Chiesa, Wojciech Szczesny, Paul Pogba, and Kaio Jorge are ruled out with injuries. Di Maria’s availability is still up in the air after the Argentine winger picked up a knock against Sassuolo, handing Allegri a sizeable headache ahead of this trip.
Sampdoria vs Juventus Potential Line-ups
Sampdoria (4-1-4-1): Emil Audero, Bartosz Bereszynski, Jeison Murillo, Omar Colley, Tommaso Augello, Ronaldo Vieira, Valerio Verre, Abdelhamid Sabiri, Tomas Rincon, Filip Duricic, Francesco Caputo.
Juventus (4-4-2): Mattia Perin, Mattia De Sciglio, Federico Gatti, Gleison Bremer, Filip Kostic, Juan Cuadrado, Denis Zakaria, Manuel Locatelli, Weston McKennie, Moise Kean, Dusan Vlahovic.