Udinese vs Juventus - The Final Countdown For Revalidating Serie A Title

Next Monday, Juventus will travel to Udine to face Udinese at Stadio Friuli for round 33 of Serie A on what promises to be a very tight clash for the Italian current champions.

Juventus lost to Napoli at San Paolo two weeks ago thus conceding their second defeat in 32 Serie A matches so far. The Vecchia Signora managed to bounce back (just when some pundits predicted they were starting to lose some focus) last week against Livorno. Juventus won the match 2-0 with two almost consecutive goals from the powerful Spanish forward Fernando Llorente.

Despite the fact of Udinese being a clearly inconsistent team, the clash against the Bianconeri  will certainly not be easy for the current Italian champions. Back in November, when both sides measured forces at Juventus Stadium, the home side only managed to grab a narrow 1-0 win with a goal from Fernando Llorente in the dying moments of the match.

For their travel to Udine, Juventus boss - Antonio Conte - will not be able to count on the Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal and he is not yet certain if the Argentinean forward Carlos Tevez will be 100% fit for the match.

The home side, Udinese, are far from being enjoying a positive season and although they are safe from relegation, the team will not be able to take part on UEFA International competitions next season. After being defeated by Roma on round 28, Giampaolo Pozzo’s side went on a three-match run without being defeated before sucumbing at the hands of Fiorentina last week.

Udinese’s season has been marked by inconsistency, specially away from home, where they have only won three matches so far.

The Bianconeri keep relying on their captain’s ability to overcome their shortage of goals. The team’s legendary striker (Antonio Conte) has already scored eleven goals this season, but he will not be able to help his side on the match against the Italian champions because of a knee injury. In fact, Di Natale, will probably miss the rest of the season because of the extent of his injury.

Apart from Di Natale, Giampaolo Pozzo will probably also not be to count on the Cameroonian forward Leo Beleck and on the Italian midfielder Giampiero Pinzi, both sidelined due to injury.

Despite the fact of being a very complicated match for Juventus, the Vecchia Signora will have everything in their favour to beat a fragilized Udinese side from losing their captain.

Udinese

Stats: W-11 L-16 D-5

Recent Form - LWDWL

Juventus

Stats: W-27 L-2 D-3

Recent Form - WWWLW

Possible Line-ups

Udinese (4-5-1) - Scuffet - Widmer - Danilo - Bubnjic - G. Silva - Heurtaux - Allan - Badu - Bruno Fernandes - Roberto Pereyra - Luis Muriel

Juventus (3-5-2)-  Buffon - Bonucci - Chiellini - Cáceres - Pirlo - Pogba - Isla - Lichtsteiner  - Marchisio - Giovinco - Llorente

Prediction: Udinese 1 Juventus 2