EMPOLI (4-2-3-1): Guglielmo Vicario; Petar Stojanovic, Ardian Ismajli, Sebastiano Luperto, Riccardo Marchizza; Nicolas Haas, Samuele Ricci; Filippo Bandinelli, Nedim Bajrami, Leonardo Mancuso; Patrick Cutrone.
JUVENTUS (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczesny; Juan Cuadrado, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthjis De Ligt, Alex Sandro; Rodrigo Bentancur, Danilo, Adrien Rabiot; Federico Chiesa, Paulo Dybala, Weston McKennie.
Despite returning to training last week, Empoli defender Fabiano Parisi will not feature in the back four today, but is edging closer to his return from a broken leg. Newly arrived Andrea Pinamonti bolsters the visitors’ attacking options after signing a loan deal from Inter, but must make do with a place on the bench, as Patrick Cutrone is joined by last term’s top scorer Leonardo Mancuso up front.
Though Ronaldo is, of course, now departed, Juventus have Adrien Rabiot available after injury and Weston McKennie is back from suspension – and both will start today. Brazilian midfielder Arthur remains sidelined – alongside Aaron Ramsey, who picked up another injury last week – while new signing Manuel Locatelli must wait for a first start after his brief cameo in Udine.
As a measure of the visitors’ task today, Juventus have a 79% win percentage against Empoli – emerging victorious from 19 of their last 24 encounters and winning 11 of their 12 home games against the Tuscan side. In fact, the Bianconeri didn’t concede a single goal on nine of those occasions!
Serie B champions Empoli, meanwhile, went down to a 3-1 defeat at home to Lazio on the opening day – handing new coach Aurelio Andreazzoli his first competitive defeat after a Coppa Italia win started his reign earlier this month.
A frenetic finale to their first fixture of the 2021-22 campaign saw Juventus leave Udine with only a point last weekend, as they threw away a two-goal advantage to draw 2-2. An 83rd-minute equaliser brought Udinese level before Cristiano Ronaldo appeared from the bench to seemingly head in a trademark winner, only to be denied by the VAR – his final act in a Juve shirt.
After stumbling to a draw on the opening day – and then losing their star striker during a whirlwind week – Juventus are under pressure to pick up their first Serie A victory today, against promoted Empoli.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Serie A fixture between Juventus and Empoli from the Allianz Stadium in Turin!
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