Needing to shrug off the disappointment of losing the Coppa Italia final last time out, Juve head to Bologna on Monday night, and in desperate need to halt their post-corona below-par form against a well-drilled opposition.
Serie A 2019/2020
Date: Monday June, 22
Kick-off: 20:45
Venue: Stadio Renato Dall’Ara
Juventus have had a rather poor return to office in the past couple of games, and will now turn attentions to defending their Serie A crown after the drab affair last time out saw them eventual lose the Italian cup on penalties to Napoli.
The 0-0 draw after normal regulation time in Rome was the second they have strung together in less than a week of return to competitive action, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. again having to rue a plethora of missed chances.
Thankfully, The Old Lady have won 12 of their last 13 Serie A games against Bologna drawing the other and even keeping a clean sheet eight times in this period — a stat which puts them in good stead on Monday night.
Bologna, on the other hand will be hard hit by a number of absences for this one, and despite sitting in a very respectable mid-table (10th) at this stage of the season, Sinisa Mihajlović and his wards are most likely to struggle up against their illustrious rivals.
They failed to win any of their last three games (losing twice) before the suspension of football and to make matters worse, they have lost 13 of their last 14 league games against teams in the top two spots at the start of the matchday. Clearly, the odds are very much stacked against them.
Team news
Bologna
Jerdy Schouten, Federico Santander and Mattia Bani are all suspended, leaving Mihajlovic with a very depleted squad for selection.
Skov Olsen is unavailable on account of injury but Mitchell Dijks is back from his long-term layoff and is set to play a role.
Juventus
Maurizio Sarri will not count on the services of Alex Sandro and Sami Khedira who are not available for selection due to injuries.
Head to Head
In 44 competitive meetings between the two sides, Juventus have accrued 32 wins and drawn ten times. Bologna have a paltry two wins to their name since they played their first game against Juve in November1990.
Team form
Bologna last five competitive games: WWLDL
Juventus last five competitive games:WLWDD
Betting tips
Juve will approach this game with the fury of a wounded lion, and will want to swiftly put behind the loss to Napoli with a very good performance here. Ronaldo was particularly culpable for passing up a lot of goalscoring chances in their last couple of games, but expect him and the likes of Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa to up their ante here. Back an away win for Sarri’s men for odds of 3/5 here.
Bologna have conceded a goal in each of their last 21 Serie A games. In their history they have never conceded in 22 successive games in the top flight. Time to throw away the history books however, as its difficult to see how they negotiate this one without Juve breaching them. A 1-3 win for the visitors (12/1) or a 0-3 (14/1) take appeal on the Correct Score markets, and these scorelines provides the great value tips to choose from here, should either of them emerge.
