Juventus vs Empoli Prediction: Comfortable progression to semis for holders

Coppa Italia holders Juventus should ease into the semi-finals with a home victory over Empoli on Wednesday evening (20:00, Premier Sports 1). The Turin giants will expect to stay on course for a record-extending 16th Coppa Italia crown with a comfortable success over the Serie A strugglers, who beat Fiorentina on penalties in the previous round but approach the tie in dire form, with four straight defeats leaving them in the relegation zone.

The winners will face Bologna in a two-legged semi in April, and ahead of this midweek meeting, you can check out my Juventus vs Empoli predictions below.

Team News

Juve have plenty of injury problems to contend with, especially in defence, as Andrea Cambiaso, Nicolo Savona and Renato Veiga have been ruled out recently, joining Bremer, Juan Cabal and Pierre Kalulu in the treatment room.

Midfielder Douglas Luiz is a major doubt for the hosts after being forced off with a hip injury in the weekend win over Cagliari.

Football Odds

Empoli will give late fitness tests to Mattia Viti and Ardian Ismajli after they both made a welcome return to training this week.

However, Tino Anjorin, Jacopo Fazzini, Ola Solbakken, Tyronne Ebuehi and Saba Sazonov are all still on the sidelines.

Luca Marianucci is available for the visitors, though, after serving a two-match suspension.

Juventus vs Empoli Odds

Unsurprisingly, Juventus are 2/9 to win in the match result market, with a draw at 90 minutes 4/1, while Empoli are 10/1, or a 9.1% chance, to stun the holders and knock them out in normal time.

Both teams to score is available at 11/8, over 2.5 total goals is 8/11 and over 3.5 goals in the night is a 2/1 chance.

Juve striker Dusan Vlahovic is favourite at 3/1 to open the scoring, closely followed by team-mate Randal Kolo Muani at 100/30.

Juventus to win to nil @ 4/5

Juve have won five of their last six games in all competitions, although their only setback in that spell was a painful one as they lost 3-1 at PSV Eindhoven in the second leg of their Champions League play-off to be dumped out of Europe.

With Thiago Motta’s side trailing leaders Inter Milan by eight points in Serie A, the Coppa Italia looks to be their best chance of securing silverware this season.

A dominant display from the home side is expected then as they go up against opponents who are in the relegation scrap and have lost their last four matches.

Empoli have failed to score in their last three outings, losing 2-0 and 5-0 at home to AC Milan and Atalanta, while also being on the end of a 3-0 result at Udinese away, and they look set to draw another blank in defeat in midweek.

The last time the two teams met was at the start of February when Juve scored four second-half goals to win 4-1 at home in Serie A and this should end up being a similarly convincing outcome in Juve’s favour, but this time Motta’s men should keep a clean sheet as well.

The Old Lady have recorded successive shutouts in the league, beating both Inter and Cagliari 1-0, while they were 4-0 winners at home over Cagliari in the previous round of this competition.

Randal Kolo Muani to score anytime @ 21/20

Kolo Muani made an instant impact after joining Juve on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in January, scoring five goals in his first three appearances, including two in the 4-1 league win over Empoli on February 2.

The striker has failed to find the back of the net in his last four games, but this looks like the perfect chance for him to end his mini-drought against opponents who have conceded 15 times in their last five matches.

Offers

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