Juventus (home)
- Juventus are unbeaten in their last three Serie A games, winning two and drawing one.
- Juve sit fourth with 64 points from their 34 matches, and Verona are 19th with 19 from the same number of games.
- Luciano Spalletti has brought a much more possession-based style to Juventus since his appointment, but also more tactical flexibility, discipline and control than in his last reign at the club.
- Manuel Locatelli gives them a solid anchor in the middle of the park to control the pace of the game and break up the opponents’ play while Federico Chiesa gives them the ability to stretch the game wide and create opportunities with his pace and creativity.
Hellas Verona (away)
- Hellas Verona have lost four and drawn one of their last five Serie A matches.
- Hellas Verona are not a happy sight and that’s especially true on the road where they have won just twice and lost 10 times from 17 games, scoring an average of just 0.65 goals per game and conceding 1.82 per game.
- Ondrej Duda provides the link between defence and attack in transition and from set pieces, but Cyril Ngonge offers the only real directness and unpredictability in the wide areas when they are on the counter-attack.
Key Players
- Manuel Locatelli gives them a solid anchor in the middle of the park to control the pace of the game and break up the opponents’ play.
- Federico Chiesa gives them the ability to stretch the game wide and create opportunities with his pace and creativity.
- Ondrej Duda provides the link between defence and attack in transition and from set pieces.
- Cyril Ngonge offers the only real directness and unpredictability in the wide areas when they are on the counter-attack.
- Kenan Yildiz has been Juve’s top scorer with ten goals in 33 Serie A appearances, but the hosts should not need to rely on him to find the net on Sunday.
- Gift Orban is Verona’s most reliable goalscorer with seven goals in 28 Serie A outings and he will be the team’s best hope of getting on the scoresheet.
Betting Insights
- Juventus are not overwhelming favorites at 1.24, probably because they have only won three of their last five, but Verona’s away performance has been so poor that a home win should be routine.
- Under 2.5 goals is a big price at 2.35 for this game, which will be low-scoring with Juventus in control of the ball for most of the match and Verona setting up to keep things compact and block the spaces.
Prediction
Verona have lost both of their last two away games, but I’m taking the lower odds of Both teams no for the main bet as the hosts should be able to keep a clean sheet.
