Juventus vs Sampdoria: If Turin wins, they’ll have to sweat for it

The first Sunday match of the Italian Serie A will take place in Turin where Juventus hosts Sampdoria at the Allianz Stadium. The Genoese were defeated by Napoli in the previous round. Will they be able to make up for the loss in a match against Juventus that hasn’t rolled into the season yet? There are several betting options to consider.

The Bianconeri are woefully short of their points in the new championship. It’s enough to recall that in only one match, against Empoli, Juve failed to score first out of five. However, Massimiliano Allegri's team managed to get their first win only in round 5, when they beat Spezia away.

The match in La Spezia was not easy for the Turin side either. Juventus opened the scoring in the first half, courtesy of Moise Kean. But, again, Juve traditionally conceded. Not just one, but two goals by the 49th minute. Fortunately for them, current Spezia is not so strong. Having pulled themselves together, Allegri's side easily scored twice and kept the winning score (3-2). Is the curse broken? At least the Bianconeri should now have more confidence in their own abilities.

Perhaps the match of the previous round should have ended in a win for Napoli, but clearly not with a score of 4-0. Sampdoria also created a few chances but still failed to score. The Neapolitans, on the other hand, scored absolutely everything that went in the direction of the goal. Well, after Udinese, who also lost to Napoli 0-4, the Blucerchiati became a victim of Luciano Spalletti's inexplicable magic. Let's see how long the charms of the former Zenit, Inter, and Roma coach will keep enveloping Napoli's opponents.

As for Sampdoria, Thursday's loss was Roberto D'Aversa's second defeat of the season. So far the team has won only one game in five rounds. Having shown not the worst performance, Sampdoria, with only 5 points, is 13th in the standings.

• Juventus: Arthur, Kaio Jorge, Hans Nicolussi, Giorgio Chiellini are out.
• Sampdoria: Manolo Gabbiadini is out. Valerio Verre, Ronaldo Vieira, Mohamed Ihattaren are questionable.

Juventus has a four-match winning streak against Sampdoria.

Sampdoria didn't deserve thrashing in the previous round. Napoli, of course, was stronger, but not that much stronger. Roberto D'Aversa's team will surely do everything they can to make up for it in Turin. Fortunately, Juventus, despite having improved from match to match, does not seem unbeatable. Sampdoria might not win, but if they lose, it won’t be by more than 1 goal.

Prediction: Sampdoria will give Juventus a hard time.

Betting options:

• Handicap Sampdoria (+1.5) for 1.83;
• Handicap Sampdoria (+1.0) for 2.57;
• Both Teams To Score for 1.79.