Chievo at the Juventus Stadium on Saturday evening in round three of Serie A, with both sides heading into the fixture on the back of polar opposite starts to the new campaign.
To the surprise of many the Bianconeri sit in 17th position, with the Turin giants suffering back-to-back defeats against Udinese 1-0 at home on the opening day, and last time out, a 2-1 away loss to title rivals Roma.
The Flying Donkeys on the other hand could not have dreamed of a better start to their season, as they sit pretty at the top of Serie A after beating Empoli 3-1 at away on the opening day, and followed that up in round two by trashing Lazio 4-1 at the Stadio Bentegodi with Alberto Paloschi bagging a brace for the home team.
Juve will be hoping history is on their side as they look to continue their dominance over Saturday’s opponents, after doing the double over Rolando Maran’s men last season. The Bianconeri won 1-0 away on the opening day of the 2014/2015 season and followed that up with a 2-0 victory in January with second half goals from Paul Pogba and Stephan Lichtsteiner.
Those two victories for the Bianconeri continued a run of six straight wins in a row against this weekend’s visitors, and you have to go back five and a half years since the Gialloblu took all three points from Juve. On that occasion Chievo won 1-0 at the Stadio Bentegodi, in January 2010, with Gennaro Sardo netting the winner in the first half.
The overall record since 2001 between the sides doesn’t make good reading for the team from Verona, with the Old Lady coming out on top with 17 wins, six draws and that solitary loss in 24 meetings being the only blip since the turn of the century for Juve.
New Juventus signings Alex Sandro and Hernanes are expected to make their home debut for the Bianconeri, who have a near full strength squad to pick from with just Sami Khedira and Kwadwo Asamoah ruled out through injury. Rubinho and Patrice Evra are suspended.
Serbian international Ivan Radovanovic is Chievo’s only major absentee through injury. Dario Dainelli is expected to take the place of Alessandro Gamberini in defence in the only change expected from the team that defeated Lazio in round two.
Form Guide: Juventus (L-L), Cheivo (W-W)
Expected Starting XI’s
Juventus: Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Sturaro, Marchisio, Pogba; Hernanes; Mandzukic, Dybala.
Chievo: Bizzarri; Gobbi, Dainelli, Cesar, Frey; Hetemaj, Rigoni, Birsa, Castro; Paloschi, Meggiorini.
