Juventus vs Empoli prediction: ITALY: Serie A betting tips on match 2024-01-26 17:00.
After an arduous pursuit of previous leaders Inter Milan, it’s Juventus who enter this matchday on the Serie A summit after cruising to a 3-0 victory over Lecce – their seventh successive win in all competitions. The Bianconeri have played a game more than Inter, who were engaged in Supercoppa Italiana duties, but as Juve kick-off first this weekend, they can temporarily grow their cushion to four points by beating Empoli here.
Victory over Lecce was Massimiliano Allegri’s 300th in Serie A, making him just the third manager in the league’s history to reach that milestone. It was also a joint-division high 12th clean sheet for Juventus, and they’ll certainly be confident of adding to that tally considering that they’ve won six of the last seven Serie A H2Hs on home soil without conceding (L1).
The appointment of survival specialist Davide Nicola proved immediately beneficial for Empoli, as a 3-0 victory over Monza brought them to within two points of safety pre-round. Nicola believes his charges are “adapting rapidly” after registering their first league victory since November, but as they’ve not won back-to-back matches in Serie A since May, there’s plenty of work still to do.
The underdog tag is unlikely to faze the Azzurri either, who’ve emerged with clean sheet victories from away matches at Fiorentina and Napoli already this season, while they stunned Allegri on his second bow as Juve boss back in 2021 on this ground. They’ll need to keep their shooting boots firmly fastened however, as a joint-league low six away league goals scored lays bare a problem that Nicola needs to solve.
Players to watch: Dušan Vlahović is on fire after netting five goals across Juventus’ last three league matches, with three arriving in or after the 59th minute. On a similarly impressive run is Szymon Żurkowski, who has four goals in his two matches for Empoli after arriving from Spezia, including a hat-trick last time out.
Hot stat: Empoli have failed to score in a league-high 12 matches.