The teams

The reigning Serie A champions, Juventus FC take on Hellas Verona FC in an important Saturday evening clash. Juve have not had the best start to their 2019/2020 campaign thus far. After drawing 0-0 against ACF Fiorentina and playing out a 2-2 draw in their UEFA Champions League match away to Atletico Madrid it is clear they are struggling a little to find their form from last season. 

New manager Maurizio Sarri is surely implementing a new system and characteristics to this Juventus squad but they must start pulling out results if they want to reclaim the Scudetto again this season. Currently sitting third in the Serie A standings behind Bologna FC and Inter Milan FC, the Bianconeri must start finding their defensive form and goal-scoring touch as soon as possible if they want to win Serie A once again. 

Hellas Verona, who are currently sitting 11th in Serie A with a 1-1-1 record certainly have their work cut out for them against a very tough opponent. With that being said, even after receiving a red card in their last match against AC Milan, they played very well and were very unfortunate to lose the game in the end. 

Saturday's matchup against the giants from Turin will prove an even tougher task and if Juve are able to play to their potential Verona will have a very tough time pulling out a result. 

Potential line ups

Juventus (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczesny; Juan Cuadrado, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthijs de Ligt, Danilo; Emre Can, Rodrigo Bentancur, Adrien Rabiot; Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Federico Bernardeschi

Hellas Verona (3-4-1-2): Marco Silvestri; Amir Rrahmani, Marash Kumbulla, Koray Gunter; Davide Faraoni, Sofyan Amrabat, Miguel Veloso, Darko Lazovic; Valerio Verre; Gennaro Tutino, Mattia Zaccagni 

Injuries

Juve look to be without injured captain Giorgio Chiellini, full-back Mattia De Sciglio, winger Douglas Costa, goalkeeper Mattia Perin and winger Marko PjacaMario Mandzukic looks to miss out as well, not because of injury but because it looks like he is close to leaving Juventus.

Verona looks to be missing injured veteran centre-back Salvatore Bocchetti, midfielder Daniel BessaEmmanuel Badu and the suspended Mariusz Stepinski.

Who to look for

Undoubtedly this Juventus team is filled with talent but a few key players to keep an eye on would be the young centre-back Matthijs de Ligt, superstar Cristiano Ronaldo who will be looking for a bounce-back game and assuming he gets some playing time, Federico Bernardeschi who needs to show his skill a little more consistently or else he might find himself without any playing time. Also, keep a lookout for Paulo Dybala to potentially make a rare start under Sarri. The skilled attacker needs more playing time to prove to Sarri that he can bring a different offensive element to this team. 

On the Verona side look to Valerio Verre who was all over the pitch in their last match against Milan and he also created a few good scoring opportunities. Also, Darko Lazovic was very important to the Verona attack coming from the left flank and lastly, the skilful midfielder Sofyan Amrabat was lively at both ends of the pitch against Milan last weekend.    

Match breakdown 

Football fans are well aware of what Juventus have done in the past and what they are capable of again this year but they have yet to be convincing on the pitch thus far. No doubt Mr Sarri is hoping his team can find their way against this hardworking but beatable Hellas Verona side.    

With that said, Verona did pose a threat to AC Milan last weekend. They created a few decent scoring opportunities which would have tied up the match and it would not be surprising if they give Juve a scare or two this weekend also. 

However, if Juve are able to find their scoring form and move the ball fluidly they should come out of this one with a much-needed win. 

The clash between Juventus and Hellas Verona will take place at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday at 5:00 p.m (GMT+1). 

 

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