Juventus vs Chievo Predictions

Can champions Juventus extend their unbeaten run in Serie A through to 2019? It’s 23 games since they last lost in the league, and the Old Lady have a favourable start to the New Year. They host bottom of the league Chievo, marking Juve out as huge favourites as they look to maintain their dominant position in Italy. The hosts got 2019 underway with a 2-0 success over Bologna last weekend in the Coppa Italia. This year is promising to be a good one for Juve, who are chasing a treble. Will that push continue here?

The hosts added more silverware in midweek, as they edged out AC Milan 1-0 in Jeddah to win the Italian Super Cup. They are hoping for three more titles this year, which would emulate Inter’s 2010 campaign. There’s barely a gap in this squad, and this looks to be their year to add European glory to their succession of leagues and cups in Italy. If all of that momentum came to an end against the side currently bottom of Serie A, it would be a major shock to the system in Italian football.

We don’t expect Chievo to prove to be a real threat, we can’t even see them putting up the fight they had in the first meeting. Juve won that one 3-2, but Chievo have struggled since then. They’ve got just eight points, only picking up their first win of the season in their final match of 2018. The Gialloblu have scored six times and picked up four points on the road in Serie A this season, now they head to the side with the league’s best home record, after winning 90% of their matches here in the first half of the season.

Really, the big question is how will Juve win? Despite their quality and attacking talent, Juve are still not a side who go out to blitz teams. They always keep things tight, while they’ve conceded just five goals at home in the league this term. The champions have a clean sheet in 53% of their league games, and we expect them to hold off a Chievo side who have failed to score in almost half of their trips.

Chievo have conceded 1.84 goals per game, while Juve have come just short of averaging two goals per game at home. That remains a strong tally from Juve, but only 20% of their home games have seen over 3.5 goals. They are yet to score more than three times in the league this term, while they’re unlikely to concede here. With that in mind, our pick is Juve to win with fewer than four goals to be scored.