Roma vs Juventus – Betting Tips and Serie A Preview

Although Roma could be set to improve upon last season’s sixth position in the final Serie A table, they appear to be in no position to challenge for the title this team unless they seal victory on Sunday evening. Ten points behind co-leaders Inter Milan and Juventus prior to the weekend fixtures, the Roman team now host the latter team having beaten the Old Lady 2-0 in this respective fixture back in May. However, Juve had already sealed the league title at the time of that game, and the current situation is far different with Inter providing a stubborn challenge to their supremacy in Italian football. Both teams need a victory from this match but which will prevail?

There were signs of Roma embarking upon a strong performance for the second part of the season when earning thirteen points from their last five Serie A games of 2019. At least three goals were scored in four victories although they were denied by Inter Milan in a goalless stalemate. Yet the Roman team started the New Year with a disappointing 2-0 home defeat by Torino to register just a third league defeat of the season and a second at Stadio Olimpico. It seems evident that Roma are equally capable of producing decent displays but also the occasional poor effort, and lack the consistency of their visitors.

Juventus began 2020 by hammering Cagliari 4-0 on home soil with Cristiano Ronaldo claiming a hat-trick. The Old Lady had ended the old year by losing 3-1 in the Italian Super Cup against Lazio, a team which also inflicted their only Serie A defeat of the season via the same scoreline earlier in December. Juve will hope that the Roman duo do not become their bogey teams this season and will, therefore, hope to seal a fourth successive league victory when visiting Rome. The current champions netted at least twice when winning those three previous matches.

Team News

Davide Zappacosta (knee ligaments) and Deved Eugene Bouah (knee ligaments) will be sidelined at Roma and are likely to be joined by Justin Kluivert (thigh). There is some hope that Javier Pastore (hip) and Bryan Cristante (groin) will be both available.

Sami Khedira (knee) and Giorgio Chiellini (knee ligaments) will be unavailable for Juventus while Rodrigo Bentancur is serving a two-game suspension.

Prediction

Despite their recent dominance in Serie A, it is worth noting that Juventus won just two league games at Roma during the previous decade, and achieved their last victory back in May 2014. There is no doubting that Juve will be determined to collect another win from this encounter, but Roma are expected to be equally primed to avoid a second successive home defeat, something which has not happened since January 2018. However, Juventus have won six of nine league games on their travels this term and therefore a good bet may be for Juventus to win priced at 6/5 with Bet365.

A second pick is for a Winning margin of One Goal for Juventus offered at 3/1 by Bet365. In five of their six league victories on the road this season, Juve have won by either a 1-0 or 2-1 scoreline with their 3-1 victory at Atalanta being the exception. A glance at the form of Roma for this season also shows that since their opening weekend 3-3 draw with Genoa, they have conceded no more than two goals per competitive match and only Torino and Atalanta have prevented them from netting on home turf. This could be a close but winning game for Juventus.