Juventus and Milan will meet at Juventus Stadium in Turin in a battle of two teams that had slow starts to Serie A, but are clearly on the rise.
Juventus are slowly rising from their disappointing start to the season with four wins in their last six games while drawing one and losing one as well. They are now at the seventh spot in the league table, nine points behind current league leader Fiorentina and only two behind their next opponent, Milan.
Meanwhile, Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side is also on the rise as they had been unbeaten in their last five matches since October 4. The Rossoneri saw their three-match winning run halted in a goalless result against Atalanta last time out and they sit one place and two points clear of Juve.
Defender Martin Caceres is sidelined for Juventus, while Gianluigi Buffon and Stephan Lichsteiner picked up muscular injuries this week while representing Italy and Switzerland, respectively, and are doubtful to start. Should Buffon fail to recover, Norberto Neto would play between the posts. Croatian forward Mario Mandzukic is set to miss the encounter after sustaining the injury.
The visitors are without injured forward Mario Balotelli, who underwent surgery this week to fix a groin problem and will be sidelined until the new year, and goalkeeper Diego Lopez.
Head to Head:
Out of 179 matches played between the two sides, 67 have gone in the way of Juventus, while Milan have won 50. In their last meeting in February, Juventus handled Milan’s side rather easily, with a 3-1 victory on their way to Scudetto, with goals of Tevez, Bonucci and Morata.
Match facts:
- These two sides have met 160 times in Serie A: the Bianconeri lead by 58 wins to 48, with 54 draws.
- Juventus have won five Serie A clashes in a row against AC Milan for the second time in their history (first time between 1980 and 1984) – they have never enjoyed six consecutive wins so far.
- These two teams have not drawn in Serie A at Juventus’ ground since 2006: six wins for Juventus and two for AC Milan.
- Juve have won their last two Serie A games – they have not managed three wins in a row since last April.
- The Bianconeri are on a run of three consecutive home wins – they had taken only two points from their first three home games in the league this season.
- AC Milan are unbeaten in five games (3W, 2D) – the last time they stayed unbeaten in six matches in a row was in October 2014 (2W, 4D).
- Juventus have conceded the joint-most goals from outside the box in Serie A this season – they shipped only four last season.
- Juventus have attempted the most shots (168, excluding blocked) in Serie A this term, recording the fourth worst conversion rate (9.5%) – only three teams have done worse.
Possible lineups:
Juventus: Neto; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Bonucci, Evra; Khedira, Marchisio, Pogba; Cuadrado, Dybala, Morata.
AC Milan: Donnarumma; De Sciglio, Mexes, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Kucka, Montolivo, Poli; Cerci, Bacca, Niang.
