Next Saturday, 30th of August 2014, the current Italian champions, Juventus, will travel to Verona to measure forces with Chievo at Stadio Marc'antonio Bentegodi on what will be the opening match of the 2014-15 edition of Serie A.

The departure of Antonio Conte may have left a void difficult to fill at Juventus this season and everyone is certainly waiting to see if his successor, Massimiliano Allegri, has what it takes to replace the man that won three consecutive Serie A titles over the last three campaigns. Antonio Conte, who was recently announced as the Squadra Azzura’s new manager, left a fantastic legacy at Juventus, not only for the trophies he achieved, but for the game style he implemented at the team as well, something that will certainly not be easy to replicate.

The Vecchia Signora’s pre-season was far from impressive and although they have won the majority of the matches they took part in, their performances were nothing spectacular. After being defeated by their rivals AC Milan at Trofeo TIM last Saturday, Juventus overcame another Serie A opponent, Sassuolo, for the tournament’s other match, which took place in the same day.

There are some new faces at Juventus this season, as for example the French left back Patrice Evra, who traded Manchester United for the Serie A champions, Roberto Pereyra, who arrived on loan from Udinese, Luca Marrone, who played at Sassuolo last season, and Álvaro Morata, who arrived from Real Madrid this Summer.

For the opening match against Chievo, the new Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, will not be able to count on the talented Spanish striker Álvaro Morata, who is currently sidelined due to a long term injury.

As for Chievo, they could not have asked for a worst start at the new Serie A campaign than to face the Italian reigning champions. Eugenio Corini’s boys pre-season was fairly unimpressive as they only won two of the six matches they took part in and suffered two heavy defeats at the hands of Atalanta and Marseille. After a fairly modest campaign last season, Chievo’s main goal this term will probably be to avoid being relegated and they will have to rely on the newcomers Máxi López and Valter Birsa to help them achieve such deed.

When both sides went head-to-head at Stadio Marc'antonio Bentegodi last term, Juventus won by 2-1 thanks to an own goal by Bernardini and a goal by Quagliarella. The current Serie A champions are firm favourites to win the next Saturday’s match but the home side might try to exploit Juventus’ managerial change to transform the clash into something positive.

Chievo

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LLLLW

Juventus

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Chievo (4-4-2) - Bardi - Dainelli - Cesar - Sardo - Frey - Radovanovic - Birsa - Hetemaj - Guana - Pellissier - Maxi López

Juventus  (4-4-2) - Buffon - Stephan Lichtsteiner - Bonucci - Ogbonna - Patrice Evra - Andrea Pirlo - Arturo Vidal - Paul Pogba - Claudio Marchisio - Carlos Tevez - Sebastian Giovinco

Prediction

Chievo 1 Juventus 2