Juventus host Sassuolo on Friday evening looking to exert some pressure on Napoli ahead of the weekend’s fixtures. With the game being brought forward because of the Bianconeri’s Champions League commitments, it offers them a chance to lay out their stall before any of their rivals are in action.
The Bianconeri’s poor start to the season has been washed away under the relentless weight of victories, and though their winning run was recently broken at 15, the unbeaten record has extended to 18.
It was the Neroverdi, indeed, who were the last team to defeat Massimiliano Allegri’s side in Serie A with Nicola Sansone’s strike clinching their only victory to date against the Turin side.
While not on the same streak as their hosts Sassuolo will enter the game on a positive run of their own, being unbeaten in five games and having won their last three.
This will be just the sixth meeting of the two, with Juventus having won three of the previous meetings, including both those at the Juventus Stadium. The Neroverde have yet to register an away goal against Juventus. Should they fail to do so before the 68th minute of Friday’s match Gianluigi Buffon will set a club record for unbeaten minutes in goal, passing the current mark of 903 held by Dino Zoff.
The all-time Serie A record is 936 minutes, meaning that if he keeps a 17th clean sheet of the season he will be just three shy of Sebastiano Rossi’s record going into next weekend’s Derby della Mole.
The defence in front of Buffon will be without Giorgio Chiellini, who is set to miss another week, with the Andrea Barzagli set to continue his run in central defence. Former Neroverde striker Simone Zaza will likely be on the bench against his former club.
Eusebio Di Francesco will have some reshuffling to do, with Gregoire Defrel set to miss out through suspension and Diego Falcinelli due to deputise. He will also likely be unable to call upon Karim Laribi, Simone Missiroli and Paolo Cannavaro through injury.
Form Guide
Juventus (W-W-D-W-W), Sassuolo (D-D-W-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Juventus: Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Evra; Cuadrado, Khedira, Marchisio, Pogba; Dybala, Mandzukic.
Sassuolo: Consigli; Vrsaljko, Antei, Acerbi, Peluso; Biondini, Magnanelli, Duncan; Berardi, Falcinelli, Sansone.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com