Champions Juventus aim to make it 19 straight Serie A fixtures without defeat against Cagliari when they travel to Sardinia on Wednesday night (kick-off 21:45).
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Cagliari (3-5-2): Cragno; Ceppitelli, Klavan, Pisacane; Mattiello, Faragó, Ladinetti, Ionita, Lykogiannis; Simeone, Joao Pedro.
Suspended: Nandez.
Unavailable: Oliva, Nainggolan, Pellegrini, Rog, Pavoletti.
Juventus (4-3-3): Buffon; Cuadrado, Rugani, Bonucci, Sandro; Ramsey, Bentancur, Matuidi; Bernardeschi, Higuain, Ronaldo.
Suspended: Rabiot.
Unavailable: Danilo, De Sciglio. Dybala, Khedira, Douglas Costa, Chiellini, De Ligt.
KEY STATISTICS
– Cagliari have only beaten Juventus 11 times in their 77 previous meetings, losing 40 times and playing out 26 draws so far.
– Juventus are unbeaten in their last 18 Serie A games against Cagliari (W15 D3).
– Cagliari have hosted Juve 38 times in Sardinia, winning nine times and sharing 12 draws (L17).
– Juventus were the only side capable of beating Cagliari in each of their eight league games played in Sardinia since 2010/11.
– Over the past eight seasons, Juventus have never lost a game in the round after winning the Scudetto (W6 D2).
– Only SPAL (two) have collected fewer points than Cagliari (four) since start of July in Serie A.
– Juventus have collected 810 points over the last nine Serie A campaigns (an average of exactly 90 per season) – only Barcelona (815) have managed better across Europe’s top five leagues in the same period.
– Giovanni Simeone’s first Serie A brace was in November 2016 against Juventus when he was at Genoa.
– Cristiano Ronaldo has scored only one hat-trick in Serie A so far – that came in the reverse fixture against Cagliari back in January (4-0 for the Old Lady).
– Juventus forward Gonzalo Higuaín has scored in seven of his nine appearances against Cagliari in Serie A, bagging eight goals in the process.
