Facing Juventus, Bologna wants to erase the precedent of playing at home

Juventus is on a mission to maintain its position in the top four of the Italian Serie A League standings to survive in the Champions League zone. Therefore, Monday’s away match (1/5/2023) against Bologna at the Dall’Ara Stadium, is a mandatory party for the Bianconeri to gain maximum points.

Currently, apart from Serie A leader Napoli (78 points), there are six clubs behind him who are fighting to stay in the top four.

Lazio in second place with 61 points will face tough opponents Inter Milan in seventh position. Inter (54) certainly wants to be like Juventus to enter the top four zone.

Juventus (59) are third, having returned their 15 points in the standings. Then there are fourth place AC Milan and fifth place AS Roma who both collect 57 points, and Atalanta is in sixth place with 55 points.

These six clubs can still shift positions from each other until the end of the season.

Thus only the victory over Bologna is a way for Juventus to continue to survive in the top four, maybe even into the top two.

After being knocked out of the Coppa Italia semifinals by arch-rivals Inter, Juventus’ focus on lifting a trophy this season has remained in the Europa League. But to be in the Champions League, Max Allegri’s troops must at least be able to survive in the top four of the Serie A standings.

Despite losing their last three matches in Serie A, Juventus have a record of not losing against the Rossoblu in 21 league matches.

For 8th-ranked club Bologna (44), this home game is their own mission to avenge their defeat to Juventus. How could it not be, Bologna has always lost its last six home matches against the Turin club.

They therefore want to erase that precedent at a meeting in Dall’Ara early Monday morning. At least Bologna can force the final result to be a draw.

Under the tutelage of coach Thiago Motta, the Rossoblu have navigated their way up to eighth in the table and are well positioned to finish in the top half in June.

Too far from the latter to realistically make the late trip to European qualification, their campaign can still be considered a success if they continue to pick up points in their remaining fixtures, including facing Juve, Roma and Napoli.

Team Condition
After losing to Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg, Max Allegri might make a change in the Dall’Ara duel, bringing Arkadiusz Milik up front and Juan Cuadrado down the right flank.

The second goalkeeper, Mattia Perin, had to make way for Wojciech Szczesny to become the first choice. Meanwhile, club captain Leonardo Bonucci is unlikely to be deployed.

Arkadiusz Milik.

Up front, Dusan Vlahovic’s role may be limited by a sprained ankle and Moise Kean is still out with a muscle problem; therefore, Federico Chiesa, who has scored six goals in eight league appearances against Bologna, along with Angel Di Maria or Matias Soule will support Milik as the lone striker.

Bologna, meanwhile, will have to endure without Marko Arnautovic again, and both Nicola Sansone and Roberto Soriano could be out for the next two weeks.

With Joshua Zirkzee only returning to full training for the latter half of the week, Musa Barrow is likely to represent the front line for the home team, even though he has never scored a goal and provided just one assist in his previous eight Serie A games against Juventus.

Player Estimates
Bologna: Skorupski (GK), Posch, Soumaoro, Lucumi, Lykogiannis, Schouten, Dominguez; Orsolini, Ferguson, Kyriakopoulos, Barrow.

Juventus: Szczesny (GK), Gatti, Bremer, Danilo, Cuadrado, Fagioli, Locatelli, Rabiot, Kostic, Di Maria, Milik.

Chance to Win
Bologna Wins: 27%
Juventus Win: 47%
Drawback: 30%

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