Juventus begin their 2022/23 campaign by welcoming Sassuolo at home. The Turin giants have lost domination on the Scudetto in the last two seasons and are desperate to get back on track.
The preseason tour for the Bianconeri finished in an unwanted way with heavy defeats to swallow while Sassuolo also suffered huge disappointment by exiting in the first round of Coppa Italia last weekend.
JUV vs SAS Match Details
Date: Monday, 15th August 2022 / Tuesday, 16th August 2022
Time: 20:45 (CET) / 00:15 (IST)
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Turin
JUV vs SAS Match Previews
The highly anticipated season for Juventus’s course for revival has arrived but the start of it is haunted by injuries to their major performers. At least, the new signings will be on display. The eyes of the fans firmly will be on Argentinian genius Angel Di Maria giving a much-needed boost to the Bianconer’s attack and assisting attacker Dusan Vlahovic to unleash himself fully in his first full season with the club. Filip Kostic and the rumored arrival of Memphis Depay from Barcelona will strengthen up the attack more which needs a creative spark after Paulo Dybala moved on from the club to join Roma. The departure of their captain Giorgio Chellini and Mattias de Ligt has left a void in the backline that potential-based signing of Gleison Bremer should fill. Watching both Milanese club take the share of Scudetto in the last two seasons after all these years of unchallenged dominance was a hard one for Juventus to intake as they failed to withstand Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure last summer by finishing fourth in Serie A, a massive 16 points gap from the top spot. Optimism for the 2022/23 season is that Juventus will do better with the kind of business they have done in the transfer window to be toe to toe with the Milan clubs to go back to their glory days. Despite criticism, Max Allegri has proved in his previous tenure that he can land titles by being pragmatic and not playing attractive football. There were simply not enough goals in the forwards at their disposal in the previous season and Vlahovic didn’t get the service he needed when he arrived. He will have now with the exciting band of attackers coming in. The 4-0 loss to Atletico Madrid in the last preseason game having drawn Barcelona and then a loss to Real Madrid should be a reminder of the work still needed to be done ahead of the new season. However, Juventus are up for the battle to forget preseason results and leave a statement in the opening match against Sassuolo.
The Nerovedi had a big decision this summer window in moving out their star striker Gianluca Scamacca to West Ham in a bid around $43m and bringing in Andrea Pinamonti from Inter and Uruguayan youngster Agustin Alvarez to fill up the void. Sassuolo will be delighted to have captain Domenico Berardi playing another season for them shoving off interests from other clubs and completing the most productive campaign of his career last season. The same enthusiasm cannot be made on another star player Giacomo Raspadori drawing interest from Napoli and also their game one opponent, Juventus. Despite early season woes, manager Alessio Dionisi led the side to an 11th place finish in the first season at the club in which they proved to be a thorn to the big boys producing entertaining football. The objective is now to build on the good work that has been done over the years and better their standings from the previous season. The start of the 2022/23 season was shaky as Sassuolo suffered a defeat in a 3-2 thriller against Serie B team Modena in the first round of Coppa Italia with Berardi involved in a fight with a fan of the opponent team post-match. Even with Scamacca leaving, there are no scoring goals but the defence showed vulnerability again. Sassuolo conceded 66 goals last term making it the worst goal-against tally among the top 15 teams and the third worst defence in the entire division. Even relegated Genoa conceded fewer goals than them and only Cagliari and Venezia let in more goals, both now in Serie B. Dionisi have to find ways to sort it out ahead of the season opener as Juventus themselves have averaged 2.4 goals per game in recent meetings against them. The away record last season has not been great either and considering Bianconeri are unbeaten in nine of the last ten meetings at this ground it will be a tough ask. That being said Sassuolo won the last meeting between the sides in Turin, their only victory here since 2013.
JUV vs SAS Team News
Max Allegri has a host of injuries to be concerned about ahead of their opening game of the season. Juventus won’t have Wojciech Szczesny guarding the post due to a thigh injury so Mattia Perin will take the number one spot. Resigned with the club, Paul Pogba has avoided being a long-term absentee by taking therapy to recover from his old meniscus injury rather than surgery in a view of staying in contention for the World Cup in November. Along with him, Federico Chiesa will also miss out because of his cruciate ligament injury from last season. Striker Moise Kean and Manchester United-linked midfielder Adrien Rabiot are both out through suspension. Three players will make their official debut for Juve with Gleison Bremer arriving from Torino, recently joined Filip Kostic from Frankfurt and the mega signing Angel Di Maria on free from PSG.
For Sassuolo, winger Hamed Traore is unavailable through a foot injury so Emil Konradsen Ceide will continue on the left alongside new striker Agustin Alvarez and club captain Domenico Berardi deciding against a move this summer. New arrival, Andrea Pinamonti will start from the bench. Midfielder Maxime Lopez scored the winner for Sassuolo’s win at Juventus in 2021 in the league but he won’t feature this time out for accumulating too many yellow cards.
JUV vs SAS Predicted Lineups
JUV: Mattia Perin; Danilo, Leonardo Bonucci, Gleison Bremer, De Sciglio; Juan Cuadrado, Denis Zakaria, Manuel Locatelli, Filipe Kostic; Di Maria; Dusan Vlahovic
SAS: Andrea Consigli; Mert Muldur, Martin Erlic, Marco Ferrari, Giorgos Kyriakopoulos; Matheus Henrique, Davide Frattesi, Kristian Thorstvedt; Domenico Berardi, Agustin Alvarez, Emil Ceide
JUV vs SAS Head to head
Juventus were stunned at home in this meeting in Serie A last season when Weston Mckennie’s second-half headed equalizer following a Domenico Berardi opener on the stroke of half-time was cancel out by a dramatic late winner from Maxime Lopez in added time. However, this was only the second time Bianconeri failed to get all three points in this fixture at Turin in nine years after being held to a 2-2 draw in 2019. Sassuolo also suffered their biggest ever defeat in this away trip a year before that draw conceding seven goals without reply. Now at inter Miami in MLS, Gonzalo Higuain scored a second-half hat trick in the game.
JUV vs SAS Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Consigli (9)
DEF: Cuadrado (8.5), Ferrari (8.5), Bremer (9), Kyriakopoulos (8)
MID: Frattesi (9), Locatelli (9), Kostic (9)
FW: Berardi (9.5), Dusan Vlahovic (9.5), Di Maria (9.5),
