Atalanta vs Juventus preview

September 29, 2017
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Just few years back the trip to Bergamo wouldn’t be considered a big deal for Italian giants Juventus, but now this is one of the most difficult away games in the campaign.

Having continued the rich vein of form into the new season, Atalanta will be looking to claim another major scalp at their Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.

Atalanta have come a long way in the last few years, building a squad capable of mixing it up with the best of them in Serie A and everybody agrees their fifth-place finish last term was well deserved.

Orobici then managed to keep virtually entire squad together, while adding few more bodies to cope with the busy schedule, and they have so far did pretty well in both Serie A and Europa League.

Atlanta enjoyed a great start to their European campaign, hammering Everton 3-0 before playing out a 1-1 draw with Lyon on the road.

Meanwhile, they could only take eight points from six league games, but still managed to recover well from opening defeats to AS Roma and Napoli.

The squad rotation policy has worked just fine over the last few weeks, although chances are Gian Piero Gasperini will field his strongest side against Juventus.

Rafael Toloi and Joao Schmidt are likely to miss out, but Josip Ilicic should be recalled to the starting line-up after recovering from injury.

Probable starting line-up (3-4-2-1): Berisha – Masiello, Caldara, Palomino – Hateboer, De Roon, Freuler, Spinazzola – Ilicic, Gomez – Petagna.

Juventus have enjoyed another strong start to the season, but for the first time in quite a while, they’ve got two more clubs breathing down their necks.

The Bianconeri have won each of their 6 Serie A games this term, and while they did well to defeat Genoa and Sassuolo on the road, they will have bigger fish to fry on Sunday.

Juventus won last three games without conceding, but all of those were played in Turin, and their back line could find it hard to contain the likes of Gomez, Petagna and Ilicic.

The Bianconeri have been made 1.80 (4/5) favourites to win this clash, but, to be perfectly honest, we see no value in those odds.

Juventus head coach Max Allegri faces serious selection problems as Miralem Pjanic, Benedikt Howedes, Mattia De Sciglio, Claudio Marchisio and Marko Pjaca are all unavailable.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Buffon – Lichtsteiner, Rugani, Chiellini, Alex Sandro – Khedira, Matuidi – Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic – Higuain.

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