AS Roma vs Juventus 13/01/20

13 January 2020

Juventus travel to the Stadio Olimpico to take on an AS Roma side they’ve failed to beat in each of their previous five Serie A (SA) away head-to-head encounters (D2, L3).

Rocked by a shock 2-0 home defeat to Torino, Roma will face a daunting prospect of beating Juventus for the second time in a row for the first time since the turn of the millennium. The Giallorossi came off better when the two sides locked horns at this venue last season, which was their lone success in their past four SA H2Hs with the reigning holders (D1, L2). Importantly, none of those clashes has seen both teams score, with each of them featuring under 2.5 goals. But, except for the above loss to Torino, Paulo Fonseca’s men have been impressive at home lately, putting together four consecutive top-flight wins before drawing a blank at home for the first time since late September. Curiously, lapses in concentration in the final stages of the game have seen Roma find the net in the last 15 minutes of home play in just one of nine SA matches at this venue.

Meanwhile, the visitors have bounced back after a dismal 3-1 away loss to Lazio in some style, securing three straight SA triumphs to put pressure on Inter at the summit. Each of those three successes has seen Juventus open the scoring and add at least one more goal in the subsequent 28 minutes. Although the Turin giants have won six of nine SA away fixtures this season(D2, L1), five of those victories have come via a narrow one-goal margin, with three of them ending with the identical 2-1 score. Also, Maurizio Sarri’s men tend to break their rivals fast, scoring the opening goal in six road trips so far, but failing to capitalize on that lead on two occasions (D1, L1).