Juventus heads to AS Roma on Sunday; the visitors come in sitting in second place in the Serie A table, tied with Inter Milan in points but trailing by six in goal differential. Roma is in fourth place in the standings but sits ten points back; Lazio has passed Roma and moved into third thanks to a nice winning streak, while Roma has only won three of their last five. Roma lost at home to Torino, the ninth-place team in Serie A (and 11 points behind them in the standings) in their last match, while Juventus has won three in a row, including a 4-0 tattooing of Cagliari back on Monday. If Italian soccer is part of your sports betting for the coming weekend, take a look at this clash between two of the key contenders in Serie A.
AS Roma vs Juventus 2020 Serie A Odds & Game Prediction
THAT pure ⚪️⚫️ passion!
Remember in which season @chiellini headed home at the Olimpico? ⚽️ #RomaJuve pic.twitter.com/l0kdFnx2KX — JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) 10 de enero de 2020
- When: Sunday, January 12, 2020, 2:45 pm ET
- Where: Stadio Olimpico, Rome
- TV: ESPN+
- Radio: None
- Live Stream: fuboTV
- Soccer Odds: Juventus +125 / Draw +265 / AS Roma +215
Why should you bet on Juventus?
Juventus (and especially Cristian Ronaldo) put on a clinic for visiting Cagliari last week. The match went into the locker room as a scoreless draw at halftime, but Juventus’ halftime adjustments paid off in spades, as Ronaldo came out of the locker room and scored just four minutes in. In the 67th minute, he converted a shot from the spot, and then Gonzalo Higuain added an insurance goal in the 81st minute. Ronaldo added insult to injury when he completed the hat trick just one minute later, giving the game its final score.
The score itself was not the only metric showing Juventus’ dominance. They outshot Caligari 20-8 (10-1 on target), possessing for 65 percent of the game. Cagliari was sharp with their passing, completing 85 percent of their attempts, but Juventus was even more surgical, completing 91 percent. The game was fairly physical, with 24 combined fouls, but what Caligari saw in the second half was an instructional guide in ball movement, precision passing — and finishing scoring chances. Cagliari is not a team swirling around the drain of relegation; they are in sixth in Serie A, just six points back of Roma.
Why should you put your money on Roma?
Roma hosted Torino last Sunday and fell, 2-0, at home in a discouraging trend for a team that considers itself a player in Serie A. Andrea Belotti scored in injury time at the end of the first half for the visitors and then converted from the spot in the 86th minute to complete the brace and add a bit of insurance for the win. The fact that Roma could not find the back of the net even once shows the considerable frustration that they felt in a physical match.
Roma outshot Torino, 31-12 (7-6 on target). They possessed for 59 percent of the game and completed 81 percent of their passes. Their pressure was considerable, as they forced 14 corners, but Torino played a physical game, committing 23 fouls, and Roma lost composure, committing 11 of their own fouls and drawing five yellow cards (to just two for the visitors). While Roma’s passing accuracy was high, their number of passes (443) was somewhat low for what one would expect with a team with that time of possession. Many of Roma’s shots were from distance as the team could not break down Torino’s back line. If you like Roma here, you see them collecting themselves and putting together more discipline both up front and in the back.
Final Score Prediction
Roma has more talent than they have shown over the past few weeks, but talent only goes so far when it comes to producing wins, especially against the league’s top talent. I see Roma putting up a better effort than they did against Torino, but with Juventus coming to town, effort won’t matter much without execution. I predict a final score of Juventus 2, Roma 0.
