Sampdoria vs Juventus

High-flying Juvents take a trip to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to encounter lowly Sampdoria in what could be a season-defining Serie A game for the visitors.

Sampdoria look to have failed to learn their lesson following last season’s dismal 15th-place finish, performing poorly in the transfer window to lay the foundation for another scary league campaign. Marco Giampaolo’s side started the season with an underwhelming 2-0 home defeat to Atalanta, making it two successive Serie A matches without scoring, last season included. It’s been six years since ‘La Samp’ last failed to score in three top-flight outings in a row, with Vincenzo Montella’s head rolling on the back of his side’s three-match goal drought back in 2016. Signs are ominous for Giampaolo, as his men have lost their last six Serie A meetings with Juventus, three of them without scoring. On top of that, five of those six defeats came by multi-goal margins.

On the other hand, Juventus got the new Serie A season off to a flying start as summer signing Angel Di Maria and star striker Dusan Vlahovic gave them an overwhelming 3-0 home triumph over Sassuolo. After finishing fourth across the two previous top-flight seasons, ‘I Bianconeri’ have seemingly grown tired of lagging behind AC Milan and Inter Milan. Massimiliano Allegri’s lads have won their last three league visits to Sampdoria, suggesting they may rack up victories in the two opening Serie A rounds for the ninth time in 12 seasons. If you’re looking for an omen, the last eight times they’ve won their first two league matches of a new top-flight season, they then lifted the Scudetto. However, it’s worth mentioning that Juventus lost their final two away league games at the tail-end of the 2021/22 campaign, conceding precisely twice on each occasion.