Bologna vs Juventus

Bologna and Juventus are set to face off at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in a mid-table Serie A clash.

Bologna have suffered a dip in form in the build-up to this fixture, going from back-to-back Serie A victories to two consecutive defeats despite scoring on both occasions. Tucked in mid-table comforts ahead of the kick-off, ‘I Rossoblu’ will be looking to improve their indifferent home league form that has seen them alternate between winning and losing across their last six Serie A fixtures at Dall’Ara (W3, L3). Conceding first could prove detrimental to Bologna’s hopes of staging an upset here, given that they’ve lost eight of nine Serie A games when falling behind this season (W1, L8). Moreover, Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men are going up against the odds here, having lost each of their last ten top-flight encounters against Juventus while drawing a blank six times in the process.

In the meantime, Juventus turned a 1-0 HT lead into an underwhelming 1-1 draw at newly-promoted Venezia last time out, seeing their two-game winning Serie A streak go out of the window. With fourth-placed Napoli already eight points ahead, ‘I Bianconeri’ can ill-afford another slip-up here. However, a return of just two triumphs from their last five Serie A away matches (D2, L1) suggests Massimiliano Allegri’s side will have to work their socks off to grind out a positive result here. But the record-time Serie A champions can draw confidence from their noticeable defensive improvement. They’ve kept four clean sheets across their last six Serie A fixtures, as many shutouts as they had in their previous 29 in the competition. Yet, goals have been in short supply for Juve this season, with Allegri’s team netting a measly average of 1.35 goals per league game thus far.