Udinese vs Juventus

Udinese face a stern challenge at home in Round 22 as they will take on a Juventus outfit who are unbeaten in their last 12 matches. The friuliani were beaten on the road week ago while Juve come in off of a tough draw at home.

Udinese’s last match saw them lost out to Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo by a score 3-1. With the loss the side managed by Marino have fallen to 6^th place in the Serie A league table with 33 points on the present campaign. They are even on points with 5^th place AC Milan and sit just behind them on goal difference. Udinese’s winless run has now reached 3 consecutive matches during which they have scored just 1 goal. There will be a number of players missing this week due to both injury and suspension. De Martino, Pinzi, Asamoah, Obodo and Mesto are all out, while Pepe and Felipe are out suspended. Coda is expected to come in to the back line along with Lokovic and the Colombian Zapata. Floro Flores will come on for Pepe in attack.

Juve were extremely frustrated last week as they failed to take the points at home to last place Cagliari and were held to a 1-1 draw. Coupled with Roma’s loss at Siena, the bianconeri could have gained ground on the second place squad. Instead, Claudio Ranieri’s club remain in 3^rd place with 41 points. They are 4 points ahead of 4^th place Fiorentina and 4 points back of AS Roma. On the injury front, Andrade, Marchionni and Vanstrattan have been ruled out, while Stendardo is suspended. The good news is that top keeper Buffon is expected to return to the starting eleven from his long absence due to injury.

These are two evenly match clubs for the most part, but Juventus seem to have the edge this week in terms of fitness and availability of players. Playing with a 3 man back line away to Juve certainly seems risky especially with Trezeguet leading the league in scoring with 15 goals.

Prediction: Juventus (1-0)