Third-placed Juventus seek to place pressure on the league-leading Milan clubs on Saturday night, as the defending Serie A champions take on Hellas Verona at Stadio Bentegodi.
Playing a day ahead of their Scudetto rivals and still with a game in hand, Andrea Pirlo's side will meet a well-oiled unit, as the Gialloblu have won each of their last three home games to sit comfortably inside the top half of the table.
Match preview
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It was back to business as usual for Juventus last time out, following a challenging fortnight, as the Bianconeri continued their quest for a tenth successive title with a regulation 3-0 home win over hapless bottom side Crotone.
Their expected success brought at least a little relief for the stumbling Turin giants, who had been out-fought and out-thought in losses to both Napoli and Porto, after going out of the Coppa Italia to old rivals Inter.
Top-scoring talisman Cristiano Ronaldo erased a run of only one goal from his last five league starts against the Calabrian minnows, with yet another brace during the first half last Monday. Adding Crotone to the long list of top-flight teams he has now scored against, the Portuguese superstar has netted more than once in seven separate Serie A games this season - more than any other player in the top five European leagues.
Juve's ageless striker has now scored three in as many league appearances, having failed to find the net in his three previous outings - a relative drought by his own sky-high standards. Ronaldo's double strike saw him break clear at the top of the hotly-contested Capocannoniere charts too, ahead of Romelu Lukaku and Ciro Immobile on 18 goals.
Though the pressure on coach Andrea Pirlo's shoulders remains intense, his side's most recent win of an inconsistent period took full advantage of Roma's draw in Benevento to rise to third place in the standings and focuses faltering Milan in their crosshairs - with the once-distant Rossoneri now only four points ahead and having played a game more.
Furthermore, Juve have now kept a clean sheet in four of their last five league games (as many as in their previous 27) and are set to come up against the statistically weakest attack in the top half of the table this weekend.
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Despite the gulf in stature between the two clubs, Verona have won four points from their last two matches against this week's visitors, having lost each of their previous three encounters. In fact, the Scaligeri could go unbeaten in three consecutive games versus Juventus for the first time since the 1980s on Saturday evening.
The first meeting this term ended 1-1, after goals from Andrea Favilli and Dejan Kulusevski, in the opening head-to-head between highly-rated Hellas tactician Ivan Juric and Juve's managerial rookie Pirlo.
Juric's men come into the re-match on the back of a 2-2 draw with in-form Genoa, having been within a hair's breadth of sealing a second successive victory until Milan Badelj's powerful stoppage-time equaliser for the Grifone. A hugely entertaining affair, played out at high intensity by both teams, ended with the spoils shared despite Genoa being down to ten men for the final quarter-of-an-hour after they had used all their substitutions and then suffered an injury.
Afterwards, the Gialloblu's demanding coach refused to blame his winter signing Kevin Lasagna - who has been ineffective in front of goal for two clubs now this season - for failing to wrap up the game, given two gilt-edged chances which the former Udinese man somehow spurned. Nonetheless, it was symptomatic of Verona's achilles heel this season, as they have yet to settle on a centre-forward fit to improve their underwhelming strike-rate.
However, the Venetian side have built their relative success upon a disciplined back line that have conceded far fewer than most, with only league leaders Inter, Napoli and Juve keeping things tighter this term.
Certainly, this Saturday, that rearguard resilience will be needed up against top-quality opposition who have benefited from a rare midweek rest.
Hellas Verona Serie A form: LWLLWD
Juventus Serie A form: LWWWLW
Juventus form (all competitions): WWDLLW
Team News
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Despite his failings in front of goal, Kevin Lasagna is likely to feature again for Ivan Juric's home side as experienced Croatian striker Nikola Kalinic remains an injury doubt.
Midfielder Ebrima Colley will not return until April due to a knee problem, while Kevin Ruegg, Federico Ceccherini and Pawel Dawidowicz are all expected to be sidelined too.
Key man Federico Dimarco returns from suspension for Verona though, so will come in for fellow defender Mert Cetin, who struggled against Genoa, while Miguel Veloso is fit to contend for a recall in central midfield.
The deepening defensive emergency at Juventus continues, as mainstays Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Juan Cuadrado will miss out due to injury and full-back Danilo must serve a suspension.
Therefore, teenage centre-back Radu Dragusin could be called upon by Andrea Pirlo to start alongside remaining options Merih Demiral, Matthijs de Ligt and Alex Sandro. Alternatively, Federico Chiesa and Gianluca Frabotta could be used as wing-backs in a 3-5-2.
Wojciech Szczesny will return at Gianluigi Buffon's expense in the Bianconeri goal, while Dejan Kulusevski should continue to support Cristiano Ronaldo up front, as Paulo Dybala remains injured and Alvaro Morata is suffering from an intestinal illness.
Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:
Silvestri; Magnani, Gunter, Dimarco; Faraoni, Tameze, Ilic, Lazovic; Barak, Zaccagni; Lasagna
Juventus possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Demiral, Dragusin, De Ligt, Sandro; Chiesa, Bentancur, Rabiot, McKennie; Kulusevski, Ronaldo
We say: Hellas Verona 1-2 Juventus
Two particularly tight defences come together at the Bentegodi, though the champions' back line is in disarray due to numerous injuries.
Though Verona were perhaps fortunate to come away with a draw against a dominant Juventus side in the first game last October, they pose a tough proposition on home turf and can push Juve all the way before succumbing to the Old Lady's greater individual quality in the end.
Top tip
Jonathan O'Shea
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 63.38%. A draw had a probability of 19.2% and a win for Hellas Verona had a probability of 17.46%.
The most likely scoreline for a Juventus win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.73%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (8.71%) and 0-1 (7.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.55%), while for a Hellas Verona win it was 2-1 (4.78%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 8.6% likelihood.
