Juventus will welcome Sampdoria to Turin on Sunday night knowing that a victory would see them win the Serie A title for a ninth year in a row.
The Old Lady passed up the chance to secure the trophy on Thursday as they lost at Udinese, but Maurizio Sarri's side will be confident of getting the job done on home soil this weekend.
Match preview
© Reuters
Juve were well on course to secure the title with three games left when they took a first-half lead against Udinese on Thursday night courtesy of goal from Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt.
The home side turned the game around in the second period, though, ultimately securing all three points courtesy of a 92nd-minute winner, meaning that the title race is still, mathematically at least, alive.
Second-placed Atalanta BC will have the chance to cut the gap to three points when they face AC Milan on Friday night, but Juve have a superior head-to-head record, meaning that a victory in this game would leave them at least six points clear of Atalanta with two games left.
Inter Milan and Lazio are also not out of the argument at this stage, and both teams will be looking to overcome Genoa and Hellas Verona respectively before Juve take to the field on Sunday night.
There is no question that the Old Lady have had their problems this season, but they are closing in on another Scudetto, cementing themselves once again as the powerhouse in Italian football.
© Reuters
Sampdoria, meanwhile, will enter the match in impressive form, having won five of their last seven league matches to ease any relegation fears that they might have had last month.
Three straight losses in their three games immediately after the lockdown period had put them in trouble, but Claudio Ranieri's side have been in excellent form since the start of July.
A total of 41 points from 35 matches has left them in 14th position in the table, nine points clear of the relegation zone and actually only two points off the top half of the division.
La Samp have lost 10 of their 17 away league games this season, though, and are heading for a Juve side that have the best home record in Serie A with 15 wins and two draws from 17 matches.
Juventus Serie A form: WLDDWL
Sampdoria Serie A form: WLWWWL
Team News
© Reuters
Juve were without experienced defender Leonardo Bonucci against Udinese through suspension, but the Italian is available for this match and should slot back in alongside De Ligt.
There could also be a change at right-back with Juan Cuadrado potentially replacing Danilo, while Blaise Matuidi is in line to replace Aaron Ramsey in the middle of the park.
Giorgio Chiellini, Mattia De Sciglio and Sami Khedira are all still definitely on the sidelines for the Old Lady, while Gonzalo Higuain will face a late fitness test on a leg injury.
As for Sampdoria, Omar Colley and Ronaldo Vieira are both suspended due to the yellow cards that the pair picked up in the 2-1 home defeat to Genoa on Wednesday night.
Albin Ekdal and Felice D'Amico both injured, meanwhile, with the former picking up an ankle injury last time out which is likely to rule him out for the remainder of the season.
Fabio Quagliarella started on the bench against Genoa but is expected to return to the XI here, while Ekdal's absence could see Fabio Depaoli handed a spot in the middle of the park.
Juventus possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Cuadrado, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro; Matuidi, Bentancur, Rabiot; Bernardeschi, Dybala, Ronaldo
Sampdoria possible starting lineup:
Audero; Bereszynski, Yoshida, Chabot, Augello; Jankto, Depaoli, Thorsby, Linetty; Gabbiadini, Quagliarella
We say: Juventus 2-0 Sampdoria
Juve will be determined to return to winning ways following the disappointment of the Udinese result, and we are finding it incredibly difficult to back against the home side here. We fancy Sarri's side to pick up the three points that they need to secure a ninth straight Serie A title.
Matt Law
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 73.15%. A draw had a probability of 15.9% and a win for Sampdoria had a probability of 10.95%.
The most likely scoreline for a Juventus win was 2-0 with a probability of 10.51%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.3%) and 3-0 (8.89%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.33%), while for a Sampdoria win it was 1-2 (3.24%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with a 10.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-0 win for Juventus in this match.
