Cagliari vs Juventus

Relegation-threatened Cagliari and Champions League hopefuls Juventus are set to trade tackles in a high-stakes Serie A clash at the Sardegna Arena.

Cagliari will be desperate to bounce back from a disheartening 5-1 defeat at Udinese last time out as part of their bid to secure Serie A survival. However, the ‘Sardinians’ come into this weekend having lost their last four league matches in a row and are three points clear of the relegation zone only because the teams from the drop zone all lost on the previous matchday. Cagliari’s hopes of pulling off an upset here are rather slim, though, considering that they’ve lost nine of their last ten top-flight H2Hs as hosts, conceding 3+ goals five times in this run. Walter Mazzarri’s men can ill-afford to let Juventus shoot from a distance, as they’ve shipped a league-high 12 goals from outside the box during this Serie A campaign.

As for Juventus, a heartbreaking 1-0 home loss to arch-rivals Inter Milan last time out may have effectively ruled Massimiliano Allegri’s side out of the Scudetto race. Before slumping to Inter, ‘I Bianconeri’ had gone unbeaten in 16 Serie A games, including four victories on the bounce preceding last weekend’s heartache. However, the record-time Italian champions are unbeaten in their last nine league fixtures on hostile turf (W6, D3), while they’ve scored precisely three goals apiece in the most recent two. Despite Allegri’s well-documented tactical prowess, seven of Juventus’ ten Serie A goals conceded in the second half of the season have come from set-piece plays. With just one clean sheet from their last five Serie A road trips, the visitors may not stay immune to Cagliari’s attempts to score in a third consecutive top-flight H2H on Sardinia.

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