The final game to be played on Sunday evening in Serie A is between Roma and Juventus. This is a mouth-watering match as the team in 4th place takes on the team who begin the weekend leading at the top of the table.
Roma have 35 points to their name and will hope to close the gap on city rivals Lazio with a win. Juventus have 45 points put remain level with Inter Milan and know they cannot afford to drop points in this game if they want to guarantee their place at the top come the end of the weekend fixtures.
Roma enter this game having suffered a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Torino last time out. Prior to the short winter break, Roma defeated Fiorentina 4-1 away from home so the fact they did not back up that result with victory over Torino was very disappointing. However, that is their only defeat in their last 6 league matches.
Home form shows 4 straight victories prior to the defeat against Torino with the wins coming over AC Milan, Napoli, Brescia and SPAL. Roma have scored 2 or more goals in 7 of their last 10 Serie A games and at least 3 goals in 4 of their 6 most recent games in Serie A. Both teams have scored in 4 of their last 6 home league games.
Juventus come into this match having recorded a comfortable 4-0 home win over Cagliari on the 6th of January. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hattrick in that game and will keen to follow that up with more goals in this important match. It was a good win for Juventus who were coming back from a 3-1 defeat against Lazio in the Super Cup.
Amazing feeling to kick off 2020 with a hat-trick and a victory!⚽⚽⚽💪🏽#finoallafine #forzajuve pic.twitter.com/M8XD1ZQrhl— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) January 6, 2020
Amazing feeling to kick off 2020 with a hat-trick and a victory!⚽⚽⚽💪🏽#finoallafine #forzajuve pic.twitter.com/M8XD1ZQrhl
Form in Serie A shows Juventus have won each of their last 3 games and in addition to the victory over Cagliari they have defeated Udinese 3-1 at home and Sampdoria 2-1 away. Trends show Juventus have lost only one of their last 9 away Serie A matches which came at Lazio in the beginning of December.
Both teams have scored in 5 of their last 6 away league games and Juventus will be hoping to keep more clean sheets on the road as the season develops.
Team news and Roma are definitely without the injured Davide Zappacosta. They also have doubts over the fitness of Javier Pastore, Bryan Cristante, Devid Eugene Bouah and Justin Kluivert.
Juventus travel to Rome without the suspended midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. Central defender Giorgio Chiellini and midfielder Sami Khedira both have long term injuries and will miss the game.
This is arguably the biggest match of the weekend in Italy. Roma have lost only one of their last 8 most recent home games against Juventus but it could be about to become two in 9. Expect to see the home team to find the back of the net but for the defending champions to come away with a narrow win as they begin to crank up their title bid.