Serie A Preview: Atalanta vs Juventus – Team News, Line-ups & Prediction | OneFootball

One of the most heavily anticipated fixtures in the Serie A calendar pits Atalanta and Juventus against each other this Tuesday. Gewiss Stadium sets the stage for this mouth-watering top-five six-pointer, with both sides desperately needing three points to fortify their seasonal goals.

It’s been an underwhelming start to the new calendar year for Atalanta. Indeed, Gian Piero Gasperini’s side faltered in their maiden Supercoppa Italiana appearance, losing 2-0 to Inter in their semi-final tie. They must have hoped for a more favorable outcome upon their Serie A return last week.

However, Udinese stood firm at the Bluenergy Stadium, holding Atalanta to a tepid 0-0 draw. La Dea mustered just four shots in arguably their most uneventful performance in the 2024/25 season. As a result, they’ve slipped to third in the Serie A table, with table-topping Napoli opening a five-point gap with a 2-0 home win against Hellas Verona.

Atalanta’s bid to win their first Scudetto is still alive and kicking as they have a game in hand. But visiting Juventus could throw a spanner in the works, even though they’re not having a great time. Like their hosts, Thiago Motta’s team bowed out of the Italian Cup semi-finals and opened the new calendar year with a draw.

That’s become a recurring theme for Juventus this season. Kenan Yildiz’s opener was merely enough for a point in a 1-1 stalemate against Torino in Saturday’s Derby della Mole. This latest share of the spoils landed a hammer blow on Juve’s chances of returning into the title frame, leaving them 14 points below Napoli ahead of this midweek round.

Match Preview

Atalanta

Back-to-back scoring blanks in the build-up to this showdown have raised concerns about Atalanta’s capacity to defy their recent form wobble against Juventus. Gasperini’s charges have failed to get on the scoreboard in three of their last four meetings with the Bianconeri (D2, L2), including a scoreless draw in this corresponding fixture in 2023/24.

There’s no better place to accommodate Atalanta’s return to the win column than the Gewiss Stadium. They’ve only lost one of their nine home outings since September (W7, D1), courtesy of a goal-glutted 3-2 defeat to reigning Champions League holders Real Madrid in early December.

Atalanta have since gone into overdrive in Bergamo, thrashing Cesena and Empoli via an aggregate score of 9-3 to extend their winning home streak against domestic opposition to seven games. Furthermore, they’ve bagged 2+ goals across their last 13 domestic home matches at this stadium.

Juventus

Juventus could inflict Atalanta’s 76th head-to-head defeat and, in turn, contribute to their rivals’ unwanted piece of history. Whether they’re capable of achieving this task remains debatable. The abovementioned draw against Torino was their 12th in 19 Serie A outings this season (W7), making them the unrivaled ‘stalemate specialists.’

Perhaps the only positive from that abysmal piece of statistics is that they remain the only team in Italy’s top flight yet to taste defeat this season. However, that’s hardly a consolation for the Juventus faithful now that their title hopes are nearly dead in the water.

Anything other than an epic winning streak in the second half of the season would likely condemn Juventus to another year without the Scudetto. The Bianconeri can still draw heart from being the only Italian team to go unbeaten in every competitive away match this season (W5, D7).

On another positive note, they’ve opened the scoring in four of their last five away league contests. Yet, that holds little significance, considering they only emerged victorious twice (D3).

Team News

In addition to long-term absentee Gianluca Scamacca, Atalanta will be without Odilon Kossounou and probably Berat Djimsiti. The latter suffered a head injury against Udinese and could sit this clash out. Encouragingly, Mateo Retegui could regain his place in the starting XI after returning to training last week.

On the other hand, Juventus cannot call upon Arkadiusz Milik, Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal, Francisco Conceicao, and Dusan Vlahovic. Vlahovic’s absence will likely force Motta to deploy Nicolas Gonzalez as a ‘false nine,’ which failed to pay dividends in the Turin derby last weekend.

Atalanta vs Juventus Potential Starting Line-ups

Atalanta (3-4-1-2): Carnesecchi; Scalvini, Hien, Kolasinac; Bellanova, De Roon, Ederson, Zappacosta; Pasalic; Lookman, De Ketelaere.

Juventus (4-2-3-1): Di Gregorio; Savona, Kalulu, Gatti, McKennie; Locatelli, Thuram; Yildiz, Koopmeiners, Weah; Gonzalez.

Atalanta vs Juventus Prediction

Neither team would benefit much from a draw. However, Juventus’ proclivities under Motta are too tempting to be overlooked, making us believe another share of the spoils could be on the menu.