Separated by just one point in the Serie A standings, on Tuesday evening Juventus and city rivals Torino play out the 156th Derby della Mole in Italy's top flight.
Juve's dramatic points deduction sees their lead over Il Toro down to the slimmest of margins, but recent results suggest they can still finish 'best of the rest' behind the league's distant top six and target some cup success.
Match preview
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Setting themselves up perfectly for the latest Turin derby - in which their old foes sit unusually and uncomfortably close at this stage of the season - Juventus have won five of their last six games for the concession of just one breakaway goal.
A scintillating counter-attack by Nantes brought about that single strike for their opponents since the 2-0 defeat to Monza last month, but Max Allegri's men recovered from that setback in the first leg of the teams' Europa League playoff to win 3-0 on Thursday and reach the last 16.
Back in top form since achieving World Cup glory, Angel Di Maria demonstrated his mastery once again in midweek, adding a hat-trick of goals against Nantes to a treble of assists in the Bianconeri's Champions League fixture versus Maccabi Haifa earlier this season.
While their hosts were down to 10 men for much of the match and were therefore vulnerable, Juve clinically finished off the job, and not only are they through to the Coppa Italia semi-finals, but a rare chance of European silverware also glints on the horizon.
Having been docked 15 points in the league due to financial indiscretions, though, they occupy an unfamiliar mid-table slot in Serie A, but a 2-0 win at Spezia in their most recent domestic contest saw Allegri's defence extend a superb record in 2022-23.
Only Barcelona (16) have achieved more wins without conceding than Juventus (14) across the top 10 European leagues this season, and the Bianconeri have won with an accompanying clean sheet in 11 of their last 14 league matches - including each of the last three.
Furthermore, Juve's record ahead of Tuesday night's all-Turin tussle reads strongly in their favour: they are unbeaten in the last 17 derbies, with some 13 wins being racked up in the process.
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As a measure of their submissiveness in the Derby della Mole, Torino's last league win away to Juventus came as far back as April 1995, and since then there have been 11 losses in 16 subsequent attempts.
Even October's reverse fixture ended in a 1-0 home reverse due to Dusan Vlahovic's second-half goal, but Ivan Juric's recent revolution has at least begun to close a yawning chasm between the clubs by stemming the tide of defeats.
Two draws in the last four meetings have occurred since Juventus fell from their perch at the top of Calcio's pecking order and Il Toro have established themselves as top-half contenders, and now the sides are split by just a point in the standings - albeit thanks to Juve's off-field misdemeanours.
The Granata are among several sides - including their nearest neighbours - aiming to claim 'best of the rest' status behind Serie A's clear top six, and they will be determined to recover from a run of one win from five league and cup games to leapfrog Juventus with a victory on Tuesday.
Held 2-2 by rock-bottom Cremonese last time out, when they fell behind after taking the lead and were only bailed out by Wilfried Singo's 79th-minute strike, Torino will rarely have such a chance to finish as Turin's top dogs again, so the stakes are particularly high when they take the short trip to the Allianz Stadium.
Team News
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After both returned to the Juventus lineup in midweek, Wojciech Szczesny and ex-Torino defender Bremer will resume Serie A duty in the derby - the latter is back from a domestic ban in time to face his former club.
Paul Pogba is included in the squad too, following his long injury layoff, but Manuel Locatelli must now serve a suspension and Arkadiusz Milik is also unavailable.
Angel Di Maria should start in support of Dusan Vlahovic up front, and is Juve's most productive player in 2023: alongside his European exploits, Di Maria has created 20 chances, scored three goals and laid on two assists in Serie A since the start of January.
Meanwhile, Vlahovic netted the only goal in the reverse fixture, and only three Juventus forwards have managed to score in both Turin derbies of any season since 1994: Gianluca Vialli (1995-96), Gonzalo Higuain (2016-17) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2018-19).
The only player in the Torino squad to have scored against Juventus in Serie A is centre-forward Antonio Sanabria, who has five league goals this season and could now match his personal best (six in both 2021-22 and 2019-20).
He starts at the apex of Ivan Juric's favoured 3-4-2-1 formation, and in the absence of Nikola Vlasic - who joins Valentino Lazaro, David Zima and Pietro Pellegri on the treatment table - Aleksei Miranchuk and Yann Karamoh should feature behind the Paraguyan.
Samuele Ricci is close to recovering fully from injury and hopes to make the bench, but with Ronaldo Vieira out for the next few weeks, fellow January signing Ivan Ilic may start in midfield. Ola Aina misses out due to suspension, so Wilfried Singo's winning goal last week is set to earn the Ivorian a place on the right flank.
Juventus possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Danilo, Bremer, Sandro; Cuadrado, Fagioli, Paredes, Rabiot, Kostic; Di Maria; Vlahovic
Torino possible starting lineup:
Milinkovic-Savic; Djidji, Schuurs, Buongiorno; Singo, Ilic, Adopo, Rodriguez; Miranchuk, Karamoh; Sanabria
We say: Juventus 1-0 Torino
Juventus certainly know how to keep things tight at the back, while their city rivals are far from prolific up front. Having also lost only one of their last 33 matches against Torino in the top flight - and none since April 2015 - the Old Lady should reign supreme in Turin once again.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Jonathan O'Shea
