We noticed we did a lot of pick of the weekend with Tottenham facing of a big Premier League team. So this week we let Tottenham Liverpool slide by and go for another interesting match: AS Roma – Juventus. The Serie A might not be as known as the Premier League to many, so we have some interesting insights and predictions for you!
There is something interesting going on in the serie A that makes you might want to keep an eye on this competition. For the first time in ten years, Juventus isn’t dominating. They are sharing the first place with Inter, that has scored more goals and had pick less balls from the net. This is quite remarkable, since the team has strikers such as Christiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala and world-class defenders such as Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgo Chiellini and Mathijs de Ligt.
Sarri was signed to get this unbelievable talented team the Champions League Trophy, but half way in the season it’s not even certain whether they will emerge as national champions. Turin is shaking, Milan is shining with confidence (half of Milan, at least) and Rome… Rome is coming. It’s two teams are 3rd and fourth, and AS Roma winning sunday in Stadio Olimpico could mean Lazio will pass Juventus as well.
Juventus struggles
AS Roma did not have the best general rehearsal since they lost their last match in Stadio Olimpico against Torino, the other team from Turin. In short, these are two teams not in their best form. The odds are just slightly in favour of Juventus, which tells us a lot about how much confidence bookmakers have in Juventus. Out of their last 5 encounters, AS Roma has won two. Just as Juventus. One encounter ended up in a draw. In total, Juventus has one 23, Roma 11 and 16 ended up in a draw.
Juventus has two weak spots. First is the lack of creativity in the midfield. In the first half of the season, the entire midfield selection has just scored four goals. That is even less than the Juventus defence. The second weak spot is that Sarri is really stubborn. As a Chelsea goalie formulated it last year: ‘everybody knows exactly what we are gonna do when we enter the pitch.’ This coach tends to ignore results when making decisions.
There are rumours of Christian Eriksen leaving Tottenham Hotspurs for Juventus. If that happens, you could bet on Juventus winning either the Serie A or even the Champions League. For this weekend though, Juventus winning against AS Roma is far from a sure thing.
