The Derby d’Italia takes centre stage in Serie A this weekend, with arch-rivals Inter Milan and Juventus locking horns at the San Siro on Sunday night.
Following Juventus’ 15-point deduction, Max Allegri’s side find themselves seventh in the table – 10 points outside the Champions League spots.
Meanwhile, second-placed Inter Milan hold a 12-point lead over Juventus, with table-topping Napoli sitting 18 points clear at the summit.
Inter Milan booked their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 aggregate victory over FC Porto in midweek, playing out a goalless draw in Portugal.
That said, Inter’s Serie A form has not been great in recent weeks, as they have lost two of their previous three league outings.
After suffering a 1-0 defeat to Bologna, Inter claimed a 2-0 victory over Lecce before returning to losing ways with a shock 2-1 defeat to Spezia last weekend.
It is worth noting, however, that Inter have won each of their past three home league games, so they will fancy their chances of frustrating Juventus.
As for Juve, they punched their ticket to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win against DC Freiburg on Thursday, advancing thanks to a 3-0 aggregate victory.
The Old Lady extended their winning streak to three games in the process, and they have also won nine of their previous 11 outings across all competitions.
Juventus have only lost five of their 26 Serie A matches this season, suffering three defeats fewer than Inter, who have recorded just two draws to Juve’s five.
It is also worth pointing out that Juventus have conceded eight goals fewer than Inter, giving them the third-best defensive record in the division.
Head-to-head: Inter Milan have only managed to win one of their last eight games against Juventus across all competitions.
Given that seven of the previous 10 meetings between Inter and Juve have produced under 2.5 goals, a low-scoring clash is on the cards this weekend.
Team news: Inter Milan will be without the injured duo of Alessandro Bastoni (thigh) and Robin Gosens (muscle) for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Juventus’ injury list contains Leonardo Bonucci, Paul Pogba, Alex Sandro, Arkadiusz Milik and Kaio Jorge.
When you couple Inter’s recent Serie A struggles with Juve’s impressive recent record in this fixture, all the signs point towards an away victory here.
Forebet predicts that Juventus will score over 1.5 goals and keep a clean sheet en route to dispatching Inter Milan.