Juventus X Sampdoria: Coppa Italia RD Of 16 Preview

On Thursday evening, Juventus face Sampdoria in the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia. The game that will be played at the Allianz Stadium at 21:00 (Italian time), gonna be the first game of the season in this competition for the bianconeri, which has the mission to defend the trophy. According to the latest reports, the manager Massimiliano Allegri will carry out a rotation, aiming for the starters to have full physical conditions for the game against Milan. Therefore, it is likely that Juventus will have a line-up with many players that still hadn’t much minutes this season.

The opponent

Clearly La Vecchia Signora is the favorite against Sampdoria. This is because, in addition to the natural favoritism for the quality of the squad, Sampdoria is not in a good moment, and has just announced the resignation of Roberto D’aversa, who has been replaced by Marco Giampaolo. However, it’s always important to remember that it’s a knockout game, so, the Juventus, regardless who will play, need to keep a good attitude during the 90′ ​​min.

Absences

Confirmed:

Juventus – Chiesa(injury), De Ligt(suspension), Bonucci(injury) Chiellini (recovery for next match), Allegri (suspension)

Sampdoria – Colley(AFCON), Yoshida(injury) Damsgaard(injury), Verre (injury)

Doubts:

Juventus – No doubts

Sampdoria  – No doubts

Tactical Duel

Without doubts, this is a very difficult game to predict tactically. This is because Juventus will play with many players who haven’t had many minutes in the season, in addition to the absence of Allegri, which makes Marco Landucci responsible for substitutions during the game.

On the Sampdoria side, it is very difficult to imagine that Marco Giampaolo will make radical changes to the team with only 2 training sessions, especially because Sampdoria has a squad that allows for a clear identity: waiting for the opponent to attack to carry out counterattacks seeking to attack free spaces. In the midfield, it’s necessary pay attention to the characteristics of the Sampdoria midfielders. This is because Sampdoria uses a 4-2-3-1, where the two players in front of the defense have a more physical characteristics, meaning an intense marking in this area of ​​the field. In this way it will be very important that Juventus prioritize technical midfielders who are able to get out of pressure situations and manage to keep the possession for longer, in my opinion this would be a perfect game for Arthur-Locatelli partnership.

History and stats

•Juventus is the team that has won the most Coppa Italia in all the history with 14 trophies

• Allegri, alongside Roverto Mancini and Sven Gohan Eriksson, is the manager with  most Coppa Italia in all the history with 4 trophies

• Juventus played 136 games against Sampdoria, with 72 wins, 37 draws and 27 loses

• In Coppa Italia the teams have faced 9 times, with 8 wins for Juventus and 1 for Sampdoria

• Marco Giampaolo played 15 games against Juventus, with 2 wins and 13 loses

• Massimiliano Allegri has faced Marco Giampaolo in 13 games, with 8 wins, 1 draw and 4 loses.

Probable XI

Juventus: Perin, De Sciglio, Danilo, Rugani, Pellegrini, Locatelli, Arthur, Rabiot, Cuadrado, Morata, Kulusevski(4-4-2)

Sampdoria:  Falcone; Conti, Magnani, Murru; Bereszynski, Thorsby, Rincon, Askildsen, Augello; Caputo; Torregrossa (4-2-3-1)