Juventus - Sampdoria
Stadio Delle Alpi
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Juventus will surpass the greatest ever start to a Scudetto campaign if they can beat Sampdoria on Wednesday and record an unbelievable nine wins from nine games. After Sunday’s 3-0 victory at Lecce confidence is high at the Delle Alpi, but Sampdoria, currently lying in eighth place, will not be an easy team to beat. They have scored more goals than Juve this season, but do face defensive problems and have leaked a massive 13 strikes so far.
Juventus are still without new signing Patrick Vieira, Jonathan Zebina, Alessandro Birindelli and goalkeeper Gigi Buffon. There are also doubts over the latter’s replacement, seeing as Christian Abbiati limped out of the 3-0 win on Sunday with a knee problem. Antonio Chimenti is ready to step in between the sticks if needed.
Boss Fabio Capello is expected to rotate his side again after the likes of Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet started on the bench, while Giorgio Chiellini and Adrian Mutu were handed rare starts. Trez may begin in attack alongside Alex Del Piero, seeing as Zlatan Ibrahimovic could be saved for the Milan trip on Saturday.
Sampdoria struggled to defend their early lead against Siena at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in their last match, conceding three goals. Coach Walter Novellino will be relying heavily on leading striker Emiliano Bonazzoli to add to his tally of seven Serie A goals, especially as Francesco Flachi is suspended.
However, Doria were one of the few teams to beat Juventus last term, winning 1-0 at the Delle Alpi. Even if Juventus have historically been the more successful in this fixture, winning seven of the last 10 encounters, compared with just last season’s triumph for the team from Genoa.
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Juventus (probable): Abbiati; Blasi, Kovac, F. Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Camoranesi, Emerson, Giannichedda, Nedved; Trezeguet, Del Piero
Sampdoria (probable): Antonioli; Castellini, Falcone, Pavan, Tonetto; Diana, Volpi, Dalla Bona, Gasbarroni; Bonazzoli, Borriello
Ref: To folllow