Football fans from the city of Turin will be given a proper football treat at the very beginning of 2018 with Juventus and Torino ready to lock horns in a highly-anticipated Derby della Mole in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals. It will be the first match for both Turin teams in the new year and a chance to warm up for the second part of the Serie A season.

Juventus looking for fifth straight victory

Bianconeri finished the year with a compelling 3-1 victory at Verona which allowed Max Allegri’s men to keep pace behind Napoli at the Serie A summit. Blaise Matuidi opened the scoring after only six minutes whereas it was Paulo Dybala who scored a four-minute brace in the second half to bring his team a comfortable victory.

The Argentine scored 14 goals in the league to date, whereas he also helped Juventus reach Coppa Italia quarterfinals with a goal in their 2-0 triumph over Genoa back in December. Higuain added the second one to seal Juventus’ passage to the next round that will being a much more of a challenge in the city derby against Torino. Bianconeri head into the Wednesday fixture having won five of their last six clashes with Torino and will keep their hopes high for the forthcoming clash despite the fact Max Allegri will probably use this match to rest some of his first-team stars.

Paulo Dybala is exactly the player who is expected to be kept out of the squad with Mario Mandzukic expected to deputise. Douglas Costa and Bernardeschi are expected to start upfront as well in a 4-3-3 formation for the hosts.

Toothless Torino

Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men have been struggling for form over the past couple of weeks. The Bulls are coming off from back-to-back stalemates against Spal and Genoa, respectively, and now face the biggest challenge of them all at the start of the new year.

Last season’s sensation Andrea Belotti missed most of October with a knee injury and only has four goals in 15 Serie A appearances this season, compared to 26 netted last term. The out-of-form striker is yet to rediscover his scoring touch and help his side improve the goalscoring exploits. Despite their relatively inconsistent stretch of form, Torino head into the Juventus clash in high spirits knowing they reached this stage of the Coppa Italia after eliminating AS Roma 2-1 in the previous round. Another tough test is in line for El Toro who are yet to win at Juventus in any of their last 12 visits to local rivals.

The situation is not perfect when it comes to team news with Sinisa Mihajlovic unable to call upon Belotti, who picked up a distortive trauma to his left knee in training last week. Ansaldi, Ljajic and Lyanco will also be unavailable. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic is expected to return in goal for the Cup clash.

Verdict

Juventus head into the Coppa Italia clash in fantastic form, having won all of their last four matches. Torino are not in the best place at the moment with Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men struggling with consistency as well as with a poor record when it comes to head-to-head record against their more illustrious neighbours.

Top pick: Both teams to score – no   1.78 (31/40) @BetVictor

Alternative pick 1: Half-Time/Full-Time Juventus   2.10 (11/10) @Coral

Alternative pick 2: Juventus to win both halves   3.25 (9/4) @188bet