Juventus visit lowly Genoa on Sunday in buoyant mood as the Serie A champions continue their pursuit of runaway leaders AC Milan after a morale-raising Camp Nou triumph in midweek.
The hosts, meanwhile, are still languishing in the relegation zone following another sluggish start, with rumours circulating about the immediate future of luckless manager Rolando Maran.
Match preview
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Juventus effectively reversed their home defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, comprehensively taking care of the Catalan giants in a 3-0 win that saw them seal first place in Group G.
In the league though, Juve - so domestically dominant over the past decade - are in fourth place, six points behind leaders Milan due to a frustrating propensity for drawing games against supposedly inferior opposition.
To date, the 2020-21 Serie A season has brought both five wins and five draws for Andrea Pirlo's unbeaten side, though they did manage to close out last weekend's Derby della Mole with city rivals Torino.
Late strikes from Weston McKennie - who scored again, quite spectacularly, in Barcelona - and Leonardo Bonucci helped them overcome an early deficit in a game they controlled throughout.
Juventus may be one of five sides yet to taste defeat in the top five European leagues this season - along with Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg - but are now in need of nothing but maximum points from encounters such as Sunday's.
Pirlo's defence is - together with Verona's - the most watertight in the league, but their 'goals for' column is only fourth best in Serie A. Essentially, they have struggled to finish teams off when Cristiano Ronaldo has been absent or not scored, but winning an appeal regarding Alvaro Morata's suspension this week should help matters for the trip to Genoa.
The Old Lady's hosts have lost each of their last four home league games - following their most recent Marassi defeat at the hands of Parma - and they have never suffered a longer such streak in their lengthy Serie A history.
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A former manager - albeit briefly - of the Grifone, Thiago Motta is reported to be one of several candidates for the Genoa job if Rolando Maran is ultimately relieved of his duties as a result of their terrible start.
The ex-PSG star replaced Aurelio Andreazzoli in October 2019 but won only one of his nine games in charge of the Rossoblu, as he was sacked before the year was out - with Genoa sitting bottom of the Serie A table. Therefore, it would be a curious choice by a club which has lurched from incompetence to calamity and back again several times in recent years.
Genoa drew away at a mediocre Fiorentina side on Monday evening to leave them with just six points after ten games and a place in the relegation zone. After soaking up pressure throughout, a late goal by substitute Marko Pjaca was heartbreakingly equalised by an even later Nikola Milenkovic scrambled strike in the 98th minute.
Forwards Eldor Shomurodov, Goran Pandev and Mattia Destro have all underperformed or been underemployed this term by a coach who has persisted with a conservative approach - rarely utilising more than two of his creative talents at one time.
After this mismatched encounter with Juventus, Maran - if still in post - must then prepare his troops for the intimidating visit of Milan, before closing out the year with eminently more winnable games against Benevento and Spezia.
Even at this stage, one of few sources of inspiration will be that, despite equalling their worst Serie A start in the three-points-for-a-win era, in the 2017-18 season they closed the campaign in 12th place after recording an identical points haul from 10 games.
So Maran will be praying for another Genoese miracle on Sunday, but even that might not prove enough.
Genoa Serie A form: DLLLLD
Genoa form (all competitions): LLLLLD
Juventus Serie A form: DWDWDW
Juventus form (all competitions): WWDWWW
Team News
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Juventus third-choice goalkeeper Carlo Pinsoglio is suspended due to receiving a red card while celebrating their late winner against Torino and Gianluigi Buffon returned from Barcelona with a calf injury, so Wojciech Szczesny definitely starts.
Alvaro Morata is eligible to play as he won an appeal against his ban for verbally abusing a match official, however centre-backs Giorgio Chiellini and Merih Demiral remain out of action with thigh injuries.
Davide Biraschi, Cristian Zapata, on-loan Davide Zappacosta, skipper Domenico Criscito, and midfielder Francesco Cassata are all unavailable for Genoa.
Experienced goalkeepers Mattia Perin and Federico Marchetti are doubtful too and will be assessed ahead of kickoff. Therefore, Alberto Paleari should start again behind Rolando Maran's back three in a cautious 3-5-2 formation.
Genoa possible starting lineup:
Paleari; Bani, Goldaniga, Masiello; Ghiglione, Sturaro, Badelj, Lerager, Pellegrini; Scamacca, Shomurodov
Juventus possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; De Ligt, Bonucci, Danilo; Cuadrado, Bentancur, Rabiot, Chiesa; Kulusevski; Morata, Ronaldo
We say: Genoa 0-2 Juventus
Rock-bottom confidence and apparently little direction under coach Rolando Maran mean that his team's task in keeping out Juve's cast of stars is virtually unachievable.
Andrea Pirlo can use this opportunity to build some winning momentum behind his side's Scudetto challenge and regain the ruthless focus which had been missing from the opening weeks of their campaign.
Top betting tip
Jonathan O'Shea
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Juventus win with a probability of 69.48%. A draw had a probability of 17.7% and a win for Genoa had a probability of 12.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Juventus win was 0-2 with a probability of 10.78%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.66%) and 0-1 (9.25%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.28%), while for a Genoa win it was 2-1 (3.71%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 7.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Juventus would win this match.
