Inter Milan vs Juventus
Stadio Giuseppe Meazza is the venue as defending Serie A champions Inter Milan and reigning Coppa Italia holders Juventus go head-to-head in the Supercoppa Italiana showpiece.
Inter Milan pulled off a hard-fought 2-1 home win over Lazio in the build-up to this contest, extending their eye-catching winning run in Serie A to eight matches. Since the start of December, ‘I Nerazzurri’ have won all six domestic fixtures by an aggregate score of 17-1, breaking the deadlock within 30 minutes of play in the last five in a row. Adding to their confidence, Simone Inzaghi’s men have only lost one of their 13 competitive home games this season (W10, D2, L1), courtesy of a 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage. Coming into this encounter, Inter have won seven consecutive home matches, five of which yielded a clean sheet. But it’s worth noting that this will be their first Supercoppa Italiana appearance since 2011.
In the meantime, Juventus showed an exceptional mental fortitude to claim a come-from-behind 4-3 win at Roma last time out despite trailing 3-1 by the 70th minute at the Stadio Olimpico. Now riding on a stunning eight-game unbeaten run in all competitions (W6, D2), Massimiliano Allegri’s side will feel confident of keeping their four-game unbeaten H2H run going (W2, D2). Indeed, since falling to a nightmarish 4-0 defeat at Chelsea in the Champions League group stage, ‘I Bianconeri’ have gone undefeated in their last four competitive road trips (W3, D1), scoring 2+ goals in each victory in that sequence. Particularly impressive in the first half of play, the record-time Italian champions have taken a 1-0 half-time lead in six of their last eight competitive outings. That has, in fact, been the case in three of their previous four away matches.