Saturday, 31 August 2013

Serie A 2013/14 - 31st August

Part of the joy of Serie A is the never ending reel of ‘big games’ that brighten up the schedule, and Juventus v Lazio is one of those many games with a long and colourful history that’s always worth looking forward to. Both sides started their seasons with wins last week, Juve edging out previous bogey team Sampdoria despite some edgy moments and tricky conditions on their travels, while Lazio survived a second half scare to beat off Udinese at home after throttling the game in the first 45.

The two sides met last in pre season, with Juventus dismantling Lazio 4-0 in the Italian supercup, a particularly recent result that is likely to have an effect on the betting in this particular encounter. However while it showed the gap between the two sides, several key Juventus figures have spoken of the need to be wary of a fired up side that will be looking for revenge, although it is a side shorn of, amongst others, influential captain Stefano Mauri - Lorik Cana, Felipe Anderson, and Emiliano Alfaro just some of the names unavailable for selection here.


Draws have been a common result in this fixture in the past, and Federico Marchetti starred in helping last season’s fixture here become the 18th scoreless affair between the two sides. While it’s impossible to see such a result repeating itself again with Juventus’s addition of Carlos Tevez giving them an attacking spearhead to be proud of after some less than successful strikers leading the line, this could be a more restrained scoreline than the Supercup, and the 1 and 2-0 home scores make more appeal than the Juventus to win to nil option, with the back three fancied to keep all comers at bay.

Elsewhere, Rafa Bentiez’s Napoli have their first match on the road of their campaign and they can make it two from two with a win over Chievo. Napoli were impressive on the opening day when thrashing Bologna and were the secnd best side on the road last season, but we’ll stop short of backing them on the basis that they’ve beaten Chievo just once in the last five attempts.


Advice

1 pt 1-0 Juventus (6/1 Ladbrokes)


1 pt 2-0 Juventus (6/1 Ladbrokes)

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