Juventusvs.Cagliari

Having moved within touching distance of top spot in Italy, Juve then emerged victorious in a five-goal thriller against RB Leipzig; meanwhile, Cagliari recently secured their first league win of the season.

Match preview

Demonstrating their resilience under the regime of head coach Thiago Motta, Juventus clawed their way back from 2-1 down with 10 men to secure maximum points in their second Champions League fixture, with star striker Dusan Vlahovic rising to the challenge by providing two crucial goals.

The Bianconeri overturned RB Leipzig on German soil, despite Bremer suffering a serious knee injury within the first few minutes and goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio being sent off with half an hour left to play.

Against the odds, a superb strike from Vlahovic pulled the visitors level, before substitute Sergio Conceicao embarked on a solo run and fired home a late winner.

Juve had previously beaten Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven 3-1, and those Champions League goals remain the only ones conceded by their disciplined defence across all competitions - though they will now be missing Bremer for the rest of the campaign.

Only Bayern Munich have faced fewer shots on average throughout Europe's top five leagues, while the Turin giants have conceded fewer shots on target (an average of 1.3 per game) than any other side.

Including last week's 3-0 win over Genoa, Motta's men have kept a clean sheet in each of their first six Serie A matches, setting a new record for Italy's most successful club: only three teams have managed shut-outs in all of their first seven, and none since the great AC Milan team of 1993-94.

As Juve have won their last seven league meetings with Cagliari on home turf - keeping five clean sheets in the process - they will expect to continue in that vein on Sunday and sign off for the international break in style.

In all, Cagliari have lost no fewer than 12 of their last 14 top-flight matches versus Juventus, conceding two goals in each of the last four.

Davide Nicola's side will travel north on this occasion having finally got off the mark with an overdue league victory, following Monday's dramatic 3-2 win at Parma, secured by goals from Nadir Zortea, Razvan Marin and match-winner Roberto Piccoli.

The latter's late strike at Stadio Tardini lifted Cagliari off the foot of the table and up to 16th place, with five points on the board so far.

That modest tally is still better than both of the Rossoblu's last two Serie A seasons, when they had only collected two points at this stage of proceedings - on the first occasion they were ultimately relegated; last term they narrowly avoided the drop.

In addition to getting the better of likely survival rivals Parma, the Sardinian side also ended September by progressing in the Coppa Italia, and their opponents in the last 16 will be none other than Juventus.

Juventus Serie A form:

W

W

D

D

D

W

Juventus form (all competitions):

D

D

W

D

W

W

Cagliari Serie A form:

D

D

L

L

L

W

Cagliari form (all competitions):

D

L

L

L

W

W

Team News

Midweek medical tests confirmed that Juventus defender Bremer sustained an ACL injury during the Bianconeri's Champions League win over Leipzig, so the Brazil international will now be sidelined for several months.

Federico Gatti is therefore set to partner Pierre Kalulu in the hosts' back four, while Wednesday's match-winner Sergio Conceicao could replace Nico Gonzalez, who also limped off injured last time out.

Furthermore, Arkadiusz Milik has opted to undergo surgery on a longstanding knee problem, but Tim Weah could be back in the squad after an ankle injury.

With no other like-for-like options, Dusan Vlahovic is set to start again, as he meets his favourite opponents: the Serbian striker has scored six goals in nine league appearances against Cagliari, including two direct free kicks.

Meanwhile, the visitors will be without Mateusz Wieteska once again, while forward duo Leonardo Pavoletti and Gianluca Lapadula are both major doubts.

Roberto Piccoli and Zito Luvumbo could therefore continue up front, with support from either Nicolas Viola or Gianluca Gaetano.

Juventus possible starting lineup:

Di Gregorio; Danilo, Kalulu, Gatti, Cambiaso; Locatelli, McKennie; Conceicao, Koopmeiners, Yildiz; Vlahovic

Cagliari possible starting lineup:

Scuffet; Zappa, Mina, Luperto, Obert; Makoumbou, Marin; Zortea, Gaetano, Luvumbo; Piccoli

We say: Juventus 2-0 Cagliari

Given Cagliari's lack of bite - and their dismal record against Juve in Turin - the hosts should continue their remarkable clean-sheet streak for another 90 minutes.

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