Juventus vs Atalanta

Stadio Dino Manuzzi in Cesena plays host to an all-Serie A pre-season encounter between Juventus and Atalanta.

Juventus’ road to recovery following a nightmarish 2022/23 campaign, where they failed to make it out of the Champions League group stages and missed out on a European finish in Serie A, has been on the right trajectory. Despite only signing Timothy Weah this summer, ‘I Bianconeri’ have overcome Real Madrid and AC Milan in their only pre-season friendlies, netting 2+ goals on both occasions. In stark contrast to their free-scoring summer form, Massimiliano Allegri’s men couldn’t score more than once in their final four competitive outings of 2022/23 (W1, L3). But they should still be confident about maintaining their momentum against Atalanta after cruising to a 3-1 win in their last exhibition duel in 2021.

Meanwhile, despite losing Jeremie Boga and Rasmus Hojlund in the summer, Gian Piero Gasperini’s new-look Atalanta can still upset any opposition. The acquisition of Mitchel Bakker, El Bilal Toure, and Gianluca Scamacca should keep Atalanta’s free-flowing attack working like a fine Swiss watch. For the sake of argument, except for a thumping 4-1 loss to Union Berlin last week, ‘La Dea’ have netted 3+ goals in all five remaining pre-season friendlies. Although it’s hard to expect the Bergamo outfit to keep their scoring record at such a high frequency against a defensively-stubborn Juventus side, they’ll feel optimistic about troubling the scoreboard, having failed to hit the net only once in their last 13 H2Hs!