Fansided

Lazio to host champions-elect Juve as Ronaldo aims for Golden Boot

By Matt Addison

ALLIANZ STADIUM, TORINO, ITALY - 2019/01/21: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC despairs during the Serie A football match between Juventus Fc and Ac Chievo Verona.Juventus Fc wins 3-0 over Ac Chievo Verona. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ALLIANZ STADIUM, TORINO, ITALY - 2019/01/21: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC despairs during the Serie A football match between Juventus Fc and Ac Chievo Verona.Juventus Fc wins 3-0 over Ac Chievo Verona. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Serie A leaders Juventus travel to sixth-placed Lazio on Sunday evening on matchday 21.

Europa League-chasing Lazio are set to host champions-elect Juventus on Sunday in Serie A.

Lazio lost 2-1 away at Napoli last weekend, and after the Juve game face Inter in what is a tricky run of fixtures for Simone Inzaghi’s side.

Juve, meanwhile, are cruising at the top of the table, having dropped just four points all season. They comfortably saw off Chievo Verona, 3-0, on Monday.

Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the joint-top scorer in Italy, level on 14 goals with Duvan Zapata of Atalanta and Fabio Quagliarella of Sampdoria, and one ahead of AC Milan-linked Krysztof Piatek.

Ronaldo will be looking for more goals to put himself at the forefront of the race for the Serie A Golden Boot in his debut season, not least because he missed a penalty last week against Chievo.

Key battles

It will be the task of Stefan Radu and Bastos to control Ronaldo, with Luiz Felipe out with a thigh injury sustained against Napoli and Francesco Acerbi suspended having been sent off in the same game.

Paulo Dybala, Douglas Costa and Federico Bernardeschi will also provide Juve’s attacking menace.

In midfield, an intriguing battle is in store between Lucas Leiva, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Luis Alberto for Lazio, and Emre Can, Blaise Matuidi and Rodrigo Bentancur for Juve.

Lazio’s trio are likely to outnumber Juve’s men — with one of Can, Matuidi or Bentancur starting from the bench — but there is no lack of quality on either side.

Ciro Immobile, who has 11 goals and two assists so far in Serie A this season, will be Lazio’s main goal threat, which Daniele Rugani and Giorgio Chiellini must be in command of.

Previous meetings

Juve have only lost three of their last 25 matches against Lazio, with the hosts’ last victory over0 the champions in October 2017.

Earlier this season, Juve won 2-0 at the Allianz Arena, while last season this fixture finished 0-1 to Max Allegri’s team.

Lazio could do with the points in the race for the top four, and a win would certainly be helpful with that.

If Napoli beat Milan on Saturday night, Lazio could be heading into the game in the knowledge that a victory would take them above Gennaro Gattuso’s side.

Roma, just a point ahead of Lazio, also face a tough game this weekend, away against Atalanta.

Lazio, though, can only focus on themselves, and with Ronaldo and Juve coming to town, face the toughest test of all the rivals fighting for European places.

Home/Soccer