Juventus vs Torino

Juventus return home to host Torino in the Turin derby as week 25 gets underway in Serie A. Juve are coming off of a crushing loss in week 24 when they lost away to the lowly Reggina in a match that delivered a devastating blow to their title chances. Torino come into this contest after drawing at home to Parma in what may have very well been the most exciting match of the round.

La vecchia signora come into this contest in 3^rd place of Serie A with 47 points for the season. They are 4 points back of 2^nd place Roma and 6 points ahead of AC Milan after losing ground to both of them following their loss away to Reggina by a score of 2-1 at the Stadio Oreste Granillo. It was a most unexpected loss given that Claudio Ranieri’s side were on a 14 match unbeaten run heading into the match and Reggina were in the relegation zone. However, Juve were at less than 100% strength as top scorer David Trezeguet missed the match. The good news this week is that the French international will once again be available. Out injured for this match are Andrade, Marchionni and Iaquinta, while Zanetti is out suspended.

Torino came up with a spectacular second half effort in their match at home to Parma and erased a 1-4 deficit to pull off a 4-4 draw. The draw extends Toro’s current unbeaten run to 4 matches and they now sit in 12^th place of the league table with 26 points. They are 4 points back of Napoli and just ahead of Lazio on goal difference. This week the side managed by Francesco Novellino will continue to have a number of injury concerns as Rubin, Fontana, Oguro, Dellafiore, and Bjelanovic have all been ruled out.

While on paper this match should be easy for Juve the two sides come into this contest in opposite frames of mind. Juve suffered a stinging defeat and Torino pulled off an exhilarating come back. Now that they meet in a derby match- anything can happen though Juve will have the boost of Trezeguet returning to the starting eleven.

Prediction: Draw (1-1)