Juventus vs Empoli

Juventus will be looking to get things rolling in Serie A this season when they take on promoted Empoli as overwhelming favorites at the Allianz Stadium.

Massimilano Allegri’s second managerial debut at Juventus saw his side was a 2-0 HT lead to draw 2-2 with Udinese on the opening weekend. Cristiano Ronaldo, who saw his last-gasp winner disallowed by the VAR intervention, is increasingly heading towards a sensation switch to Manchester City, which is likely to reflect on Juve’s on-field results. After conceding 2+ goals in a seasonal opener for only the third time over the past three decades, ‘I Bianconeri’ will be desperate to post their first Serie A clean sheet after 15 matches – a third-worst such run in their top-flight history. The record-time Serie A champions have failed to win any of their first two games of a new top-flight campaign only twice in 51 such seasons, last doing so in 2015/16.

In the meantime, Empoli ended on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline against Lazio on Matchday 1 despite breaking the deadlock only four minutes into their returning Serie A season. Empoli will hope that football does not follow the script, considering that the last four Serie A campaigns they started with a loss, they went on to lose the subsequent fixture. Adding to a sizeable list of problems, ‘Gli Azzurri’ have never defeated Juventus in an away Serie A H2H, losing 11 of their 12 such encounters (D1) while drawing a blank nine times in the process. Yet, Empoli can hardly do worse than in their last Serie A stint, when they managed just a single triumph from 19 top-flight road trips (D5, L13).