Overview
There are only 3 points separating the three teams competing for next season's Champions League spot in Serie A, with 9 rounds left in the season - Juventus, Roma and Como.
Napoli, the reigning Serie A champion, is also returning strongly, threatening to squeeze into the European cup group, putting pressure on Juventus to maintain their position and avoid financial losses if they miss the top 4.
Last week, Bianconeri defeated Udinese thanks to a goal in the first half by newcomer Jeremie Boga, while Como surpassed Roma, thereby narrowing the gap with Juventus to only one point.
Returning to their home field, coach Luciano Spalletti's team aims for a third consecutive victory when hosting Sassuolo - an opponent rated lower.
Juventus is having a favorable head-to-head record when winning both of their last two encounters with Sassuolo, scoring 6 goals and not conceding a goal. In the first leg in January, they also won 3-0 convincingly.
Personally, Spalletti is approaching a memorable milestone. He is currently ranked fourth in the list of coaches who have won the most matches in Serie A history, and only needs one more victory to reach the milestone of 300 wins after 579 matches in charge.
On the opposite side, Sassuolo does not have much historical advantage. In four victories against Juventus in Serie A, they have only won once in Turin.
This team has also never kept a clean sheet at Allianz in the last 11 away games, averaging 2.7 goals conceded per game - not very positive statistics before this away trip.
Sassuolo's current form is also a big question mark for coach Fabio Grosso. After losing to Lazio due to a late goal, they continued to lose to Bologna in the Emilia derby, thereby falling to 10th place.
Notably, Sassuolo has not drawn in the last 11 matches in Serie A, showing a clear instability. However, they are still maintaining a safe mid-table position and are almost certain to stay in the league.
After returning to Serie A last season, Grosso's team is exceeding expectations. However, defeating Juventus for the fifth time in history will still be a huge challenge.
Personnel situation
Juventus is only missing Emil Holm due to injury, while the striker duo Dusan Vlahovic and Arkadiusz Milik have both returned to the squad after many months of being out of action.
However, both have not yet reached their best physical condition to start. Therefore, Jonathan David - a name being pursued by many big teams - is likely to lead the attack, or Kenan Yildiz will continue to be used in the role of false 9s.
With an assist for Jeremie Boga's goal against Udinese, David has reached the milestone of 10 goals and 10 assists in all competitions this season, including the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. This is an impressive achievement that helps him become an important factor in Juventus' attack.
On the other side, Domenico Berardi is expected to join Armand Lauriente and Andrea Pinamonti to form Sassuolo's familiar attacking trio. This trio has scored a total of 18 goals in Serie A this season.
The away team's defense will be commanded by former Juventus player Tarik Muharemovic, playing in front of goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.
Sassuolo is still missing a number of personnel due to injury, including Alieu Fadera, Daniel Boloca and Fali Cande, of which Cande is on long-term leave.
Expected lineup:
Juventus: Perin, Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso, Thuram, Locatelli, Conceicao, McKennie, Boga, Yildiz.
Sassuolo: Muric, Walukiewicz, Muharemovic, Idzes, Garcia, Kone, Matic, Thorstvedt, Berardi, Pinamonti, Lauriente.
The match between Juventus and Sassuolo takes place at 2:45 a.m. March 22 (Vietnam time).
