MY ACCOUNT
Two teams with eyes on the Scudetto but concerns over their key men meet in Turin, where all the focus will be on returning hero Paulo Dybala.
The Argentine striker was a legend for Juventus, joining as a 21-year-old and staying for seven years to claim five Serie A and four Coppa Italia titles as well as reaching a Champions League final.
But as Dybala returns for the first time to the Allianz Stadium and he will be looking to prove a point to a boardroom who he felt pushed him out of the club he loved.
With his new manager, Jose Mourinho, also rarely far from the centre of any drama, it could make for an emotionally charged evening in the north-west of Italy.
Team news
Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri is without several key figures.
Summer signing Angel Di Maria shone on the opening day as Juventus sealed a 3-0 victory over Sassuolo, both scoring and assisting, but the Argentine winger had to go off before full-time with an adductor tear and misses out this weekend.
Federico Chiesa has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation after picking up an anterior cruciate ligament injury in January and could be absent for another couple of months.
Midfielder Arthur is expected be out until October following ankle surgery and youngsters Kaio Jorge and Marley Ake will be in the treatment room for a similar length of time.
Allegri has also confirmed that Leonardo Bonucci will again miss out, but Wojciech Szczesny could return in goal and loan signing Arkadiusz Milik should be available to join the squad.
Mourinho will be without a key duo, with loan signing Georginio Wijnaldum breaking his leg in training and playmaker Nicolo Zaniolo dislocating a shoulder against Cremonese last Monday.
Zaniolo expects to return within three weeks but there are fears that Wijnaldum could miss the World Cup.
The stats
Juventus have won each of their last three meetings with Roma, securing a 4-3 win in the Italian capital last term and winning their last two Turin encounters – 1-0 last season and 2-0 in 2020-21.
Losing both meetings with Juve was part of a trend of underperformance in the biggest games for sixth-placed Roma last term as they also lost home and away to AC Milan and Inter, and failed to win either meeting with third-placed Napoli.
As well as taking just two points from eight games against the top four, Roma lost away at fifth-placed Lazio and at Fiorentina.
And they were surprisingly porous in those matches, conceding 17 goals in eight meetings with the top four, shipping three away at Lazio and losing 2-0 at Fiorentina.
Indeed, Roma kept only one clean sheet in 13 trips to teams who finished outside the bottom six and while they have kicked off 2022-23 with a pair of 1-0 wins, those victories came against Salernitana and Cremonese, who are both among the relegation favourites.
Prediction
Despite claiming three wins and a draw from their opening four league matches between them, both Juventus and Roma have made underwhelming starts to the new campaign.
There are understandable reasons for that with Juventus reshaping the squad over the summer and both teams suffering several injuries either in pre-season or the first outings of 2022-23.
However, while a limp display in a 0-0 draw at Sampdoria last week will be a concern for Allegri, the Juventus manager had the edge over Mourinho last season – as did most of the other top managers in Serie A.
Dybala returning does muddy the waters somewhat as the Argentine will be fired up against his former employers and has the quality to hurt Juventus.
But, Juve have better cover for their injured stars than Roma and Allegri should once again be able to get the better of his Portuguese counterpart in what could be a chaotic, high-scoring encounter.
