Chievo vs Juventus: Classic Encounter, Pre-Season Form, Team News, Prediction & More
The Serie A season gets underway this weekend with defending champions Juventus beginning their title defence with a trip to Chievo.
Sunday evening will see one of the greatest players of his generation make his highly anticipated Serie A debut, with Cristiano Ronaldo set to start for the Bianconeri in the season opener.
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As for Chievo, they'll be hoping to avoid another relegation battle this season after finishing just five points above the drop zone last campaign.
Here's a look at what we can expect for Juventus' clash with Chievo on Saturday.
Classic Encounter
Chievo 0-4 Juventus (January 2016)
In a night to forget to Chievo fans, Juventus asserted their dominance in what proved to be a thrashing.
Two first half goals for striker Alvaro Morata gave the visitors a 2-0 lead at the break, before Juventus secured the three points with a goal from full back Alex Sandro on the hour mark.
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After assisting Sandro for their third goal, Paul Pogba managed to get himself on the scoresheet just five minutes later, wrapping up the scoring and handing Juventus a very comfortable win on away soil.
The win took Juventus above Napoli into first place in Serie A with the Bianconeri eventually going on to win the league title by a nine point margin.
As for Chievo, the loss meant they stayed in tenth position. Thankfully, the loss didn't have a major effect on their season with La Gialloblu going on to finish ninth.
Pre Season Form
Whilst pre-season games count for nothing when the domestic season starts, it can give us an indication how prepared a team are heading into the new season. After winning their opening two friendlies, Chievo then lost their final two friendlies - 2-0 against league rivals Napoli and 5-0 against Bundesliga side Hoffenheim - which may have dealt their confidence a blow.
They were however able to salvage a 1-0 win over Pescara in the third round of the Coppa Italia last weekend to end their losing run and will head into Saturday's clash coming off the back of a victory.
As for their opponents, they won three of their four pre-season friendlies with their only defeat coming against European champions Real Madrid.Team News
The hosts were without central defender Federico Barba for their cup win over Pescara and it looks as though the Italian is set to miss the Serie A season opener as he continues to recover from a knee injury.
With their full squad back from World Cup duties, Juventus will be hoping to have a clean bill of players to select for their opening game after what proved to be a productive pre-season campaign for Massimiliano Allegri's side.
Other than that, it looks as though Lorenzo D'Anna will have a full squad to select from this weekend.
Prediction
Juventus have dominated Italian football for the last seven years and having only strengthened further over the summer by bringing in the man who has won four out of the last five Ballon d'Or awards in Ronaldo, we should expect no different this season.
As for Juventus, they recently played an in-house friendly against their Under-23 side - in which the senior side won 8-0 - with the only absentees being Mattia De Sciglio and Leonardo Spinazzola, who both continue to work on their own personalised training regimes to get back to full fitness.
Apart from those two injuries, it looks as though rather than struggling to find players to pick from, Allegri will have the opposite problem of having too much choice to pick from with a whole host of talent available at his disposal. Summer signings Ronaldo, Emre Can, Leonardo Bonucci and Joao Cancelo are all in line to start this weekend
Allegri will want his side to start the season how they mean to go on with no room for complacency, and whilst Chievo are no pushovers by any means Juve will make light work of them this weekend with a comfortable win. Having won all of their previous six meetings, Juve will make it seven consecutive victories.
Prediction: Chievo 0-4 Juventus
