Juventus will be desperate to return to winning ways in Serie A when they welcome high-flying Atalanta BC to the Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
The Old Lady suffered a 4-2 defeat at AC Milan on Tuesday night, but Atalanta made it nine Serie A victories in a row with a 2-0 success over Sampdoria 24 hours later.
Match preview
© Reuters
Juve are very much in control of their own destiny in Italy's top flight, currently sitting seven points clear of second-placed Lazio and nine clear of third-placed Atalanta, with all three on 31 matches.
It would have to be some collapse from Maurizio Sarri's side not to win the title from this position, but they will enter this weekend's clash off the back of a 4-2 defeat at AC Milan on Tuesday night.
Adrien Rabiot and Cristiano Ronaldo sent Juve into a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but Milan scored four times in the final 30 minutes to pick up a huge three points at San Siro.
The Turin giants have not been without their problems this season, but they have won 14 of their 15 home Serie A matches during the 2019-20 campaign, remaining unbeaten in the process.
Two of the team's next three games are against Atalanta and Lazio, though, and defeats in both would certainly open the door and make for a potentially fascinating conclusion to the 2019-20 Serie A campaign.
© Reuters
Atalanta, meanwhile, are absolutely flying at the moment, winning each of their last 11 matches in all competitions, including their last nine in Italy's top flight.
Gian Piero Gasperini's side finished third in Serie A last season, but they will certainly have their eyes on second at this stage and could even challenge for the title if they beat Juve on Saturday night.
The Banshees have not actually lost in the league since January 20, while they are comfortably the leading goalscorers in Serie A this term with 85, which is 20 more than Juve in the same amount of matches.
Atalanta are also in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, having impressively overcome Valencia earlier this year, meaning that it could be a famous season for the club.
Their immediate focus will be on Serie A, though, and they have only lost two of their last six league games against Juve, picking up a 1-1 draw in the corresponding game during the 2018-19 campaign.
Juventus Serie A form: WWWWWL
Atalanta Serie A form: WWWWWW
Team News
© Reuters
Juve were without two key players in the shape of Paulo Dybala and Matthijs de Ligt against Milan through suspension, but the pair will be available to return to the starting XI this weekend.
Sami Khedira, Mattia De Sciglio and Merih Demiral remain on the sidelines through injury, but Alex Sandro returned from a knee problem off the bench against Milan and could now start.
Dybala, De Ligt and Sandro should all return, but it is otherwise expected to be the side that started at San Siro, with Rabiot again getting the nod over Blaise Matuidi and Aaron Ramsey in midfield.
As for Atalanta, central defender Jose Luis Palomino is back from suspension after missing out against Sampdoria, meaning that Gasperini has a full squad to choose from for this match.
Josip Ilicic made his return from an ankle injury against Sampdoria and should start again here, while Marten de Roon is likely to return in the middle of the park.
The fact that Luis Muriel, who has scored 17 league goals this season, started on the bench on Wednesday suggests that he will get the nod over Duvan Zapata at centre-forward for this game.
Juventus possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Cuadrado, De Ligt, Bonucci, Sandro; Rabiot, Pjanic, Bentancur; Ronaldo, Dybala, Bernardeschi
Atalanta possible starting lineup:
Gollini; Palomino, Caldara, Toloi; Gosens, Freuler, De Roon, Hateboer; Gomez, Muriel, Ilicic
We say: Juventus 1-1 Atalanta
Juve will be determined to return to winning ways, but it is difficult to back against an Atalanta side that are flying as they continue to put wins on the board. The two sides played out a 1-1 draw in the corresponding match last season, and we fancy the same scoreline on Saturday night.
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 49.62%. A win for Atalanta BC had a probability of 28.2% and a draw had a probability of 22.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Juventus win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.32%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.92%) and 2-0 (6.64%). The likeliest Atalanta BC win was 1-2 (6.82%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.71%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 6.5% likelihood.
