Italian Serie A News, Results, Analysis and Features on Football Soccer

Matthew Coccoluto On March - 15 - 2013

Five Things Juventini Can Look for This Weekend

Juventus take on Bologna on Saturday, learn who their opponent in the Champions League on Friday, and are always a discussion in the media. Here are five things to expect from Juventus on the weekend.

Conte to field a near best XI
With no midweek action, Antonio Conte will most likely start the best eleven players Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal, and Andrea Pirlo will start in the midfielder with Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, and Giorgio Chiellini in the back, and Kwadwo Asamoah and Stephan Lichtsteiner will play on the wings. Although Asamoah hasn’t been the best player on the wing lately, Federico Peluso has, Conte will want to get his confidence back.

Striking combo is still unpredictable, even though it should be Quagliarella and Matri
Fabio Quagliarella and Alessandro Matri paired up extremely well in the match against Celtic. They moved around the field together with a lot of energy and both found the back of the net. They also brought on a lot of energy and looked generally better than Mirko Vucinic and Sebastian Giovinco when they came in against Catania. That being said, its still very likely that Vucinic or Giovinco starts while one of the two sits (most likely Quaglia).

Pirlo will be the best player on the pitch
That sounds like a very obvious prediction, as he typically is the best player on the pitch, but after the Catania match Pirlo will look to rebound. Pirlo is held to a higher standard so for him to give the ball away as much as he did last week, it should be expected that this match is a chance for atonement. A full week with no midweek match should see the top Pirlo come out.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic rumors will get more attention then racism concerns
Last week, Juventus were fined a meager 4,000 Euros by the FIGC because of fans’ comments towards AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli. This is not the first instance of racial comments from fans and unless the club intervenes, it will continue. Since the FIGC set such a small amount as the fine, it will most likely be overlooked by many in the media while the recent rumors of Ibrahimovic joining the team seem to be highly talked about. It was first reported after Pavel Nedved came out and voiced his opinion on the Swede saying he admired the player. Then quotes from Conte started surfacing saying he would like Ibra to join Juve. Although some of these quotes seem to be taken out of context and it is unlikely that the Swede joins, with his age and history with the club, it has nonetheless received more attention than the racism issues.

Juve will face either Dortmund or Madrid in Champions League
This is purely based off what I feel will happen but with the draw happening on Friday, but I think it will be one of these two teams. Juventus have some very historic matches against both teams, and with the current form of all three clubs it could make for another historic match-up.

Matthew Coccoluto

Originally from Boston now in LA. I work in production but football is my passion. I bleed black and white. Proud member of the Juventus Fan Club of Southern California. Forza Juve, Sempre Sara.

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