Juventus vs Spezia

High-flying Juventus will be looking to keep their faint hopes of landing the Serie A title alive when they take on bottom-half Spezia at the Allianz Stadium.

Juventus are one step away from reaching the Coppa Italia final following an all-important 1-0 first-leg win at Fiorentina in midweek, taking their unbeaten run in all competitions to a staggering 19 games (W12, D7 – 90mins only). Furthermore, ‘I Bianconeri’ haven’t lost any of their last 13 Serie A matches (W8, D5) since a narrow 1-0 home defeat to Atalanta in November, last going 14 consecutive top-flight fixtures without losing in December 2019. Another success is seemingly on the cards for the home side, who have won all three previous Serie A meetings with Spezia by an aggregate score of 10-3, netting 3+ goals on each occasion. Scoring first could pave the wave for another victory, with Juventus winning seven of their nine Serie A home games in which they opened the scoring this season (D2).

Meanwhile, Spezia’s impressive run of four Serie A games without losing (W3, D1) between January and early February now looks like a remote memory, with the visitors losing their last three league matches in a row, each by a single-goal margin. Another reverse in Turin, where they failed to score in both previous Serie A visits, would see Spezia lose four consecutive Serie A fixtures for the first time in their history. ‘I Aquilotti’ could draw inspiration from going unbeaten in four successive away league fixtures (W3, D1) before falling to a 2-1 defeat to Bologna in their most recent Serie A travel. Moreover, Thiago Motta’s men could prove a menace early on, having netted nine (60%) of their 15 away league goals this season in the first half of play.