Juventus v Udinese
Football: Seria A
Venue: Juventus stadiom, Turin
Saturday 28th January – Kickoff time: 20:45 GMT+1

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Juventus (1st W-11 D-8 L-0)

Juventus booked a place into the Coppa Italia semis as they managed to eliminate AS Roma on Wednesday, winning the match with 3-0.

It was Emanuele Giaccherini who scored early on, followed by a superb Del Piero finish, while a second-half red card for Erik Lamela and a late Simon Kjaer own goal eventually secured the hosts victory.

Conte’s man will have to improve on their previous home performance if they want to maintain their one point advantage on AC Milan. Cagliari managed to take a point here, Juventus registering their third home draw, but they still remain unbeatable this season.

Conte will probably be without Vucinic, but he’s hoping to have at least Marchisio and Pepe back, both beind doubtful. Alessandro Del Piero will be the one replacing Vucinic.

Probable Juventus line-up :
Buffon
Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Chiellini, Ceglie
Vidal, Pirlo, Giaccherini
Del Piero, Matri, Estegarribia

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Udinese (3rd W-11 D-5 L-3)

Udinese is quite affected by the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations, midfielders Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu leaving the club in order to help Ghana win the competition, while central defender Mehdi Benatia joined Morocco’s national team.

Giampiero Pinzi is also out with an injury, while Isla is not sure to make it, so Udinese will lose a lot of consistency in the midfield and we may not see many useful balls heading towards Di Natale this time.

While dominant at their home games, Udinese has not done so well this season on the road, only winning two goals and having a negative goal balance. They also lost their previous away match to Genoa after taking the lead early on.

Juventus are actually the only side to have won a point away at Udinese in this campaign. However, last season Udinese collected all three points from the away clash against Juventus.

Probable Udinese line-up :
Handanovic
Ferronetti, Danilo, Domizzi, Pasquale
Basta, Isla, Fernandes, Armero
Floro Flores
Di Natale

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The Betting Verdict

As I said, Udinese won in Turin last season making a nice comeback, Alexis Sanchez scoring a late winner with a great finish. However, Juventus were having a poor season then, while Udinese no longer has Alexis, so the situation is quite different now.

If they had their full squad available, I would have considered taking Udinese here on handicap, but Pinzi, Isla and Armero are key players in Guidolin’s system, so I have to imagine that they won’t play at their best. Still, having Di Natale and Flores in front Udinese is always likely to score, but I expect Juventus to dominate the match.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Juventus 2-1 Udinese

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Juventus to win at 1.67 Ladbrokes
Confidence: 8/10

Try Both teams to score at 2.10 Bet365
Confidence: 7/10