Juventus aim to start 2020 as they mean to go on when they welcome Rolando Maran’s in-form Cagliari to Turin on Monday afternoon at 15.00.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
Juventus (4-3-1-2): Szczesny; Cuadrado, Bonucci, de Ligt, Alex Sandro; Rabiot, Pjanic, Matuidi; Dybala; Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuain.
Suspended: Bentancur.
Unavailable: Chiellini, Khedira.
Cagliari (4-3-1-2): Rafael; Faragò, Cacciatore, Klavan, Pellegrini; Nandez, Cigarini, Rog; Nainggolan; Joao Pedro, Simeone.
Suspended: Pisacane.
Unavailable: Cragno, Castro, Pavoletti, Birsa.
KEY STATISTICS
– Cagliari’s last Serie A win against Juventus came back in November 2009: since then, they have suffered 14 defeats and played out three draws against them.
– Cagliari have only won two of their 38 away matches against Juventus in Serie A (D14 L22), most recently in January 2009 under Massimiliano Allegri.
– Juventus remained unbeaten at home in Serie A in 2019 (W13 D4), one of only three sides in the top five European leagues to do so along with Liverpool and Barcelona.
– Juventus are unbeaten in their last 29 Serie A home matches (W24 D5), and could avoid defeat in 30 in a row for the first time since September 2017.
– Juventus have kept a clean sheet in just five league games so far this season; they last kept as few clean sheets at this stage of the competition back in 2010/11.
– Cagliari have found the net in each of their last 10 Serie A away games: only once before have they scored in more successive matches on the road in the competition (13 between 1993 and 1994).
– Juventus have conceded just 0.8 Serie A goals per game on average since 2010; no side has conceded fewer on average in a single decade in the competition (excluding 1929).
– Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in each of his last four league games, and could find the net in five in a row for the first time for Juventus in Serie A.
– Leonardo Bonucci played 28,648 league minutes in the 2010s; only Lionel Messi (28,846) played more among outfield players in the top five European leagues in the decade.
– Cagliari midfielder Radja Nainggolan is one of only three players to have both scored and assisted in every Serie A campaign of the 2010s (alongside Josip Ilicic and Rodrigo Palacio). He has had a hand in three goals in his last four Serie A games against Juventus (two goals, one assist).
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com