Roma vs Juventus Prediction: Tight game expected in Rome

The Sunday night clash from Serie A sees two of the biggest sides in Italy face-off with both sides looking good for European competition next season and the Champions League is firmly in focus.

That is for next season though and our Italian Football expert makes his Roma vs Juventus predictions for us at Betfred Insights as part of his big match preview...

The Giallorossi need a miracle to qualify for the Europa League final and their tough run of fixtures continues with this clash against the ‘Old Lady’.

On Thursday Roma put up a valiant performance against Bayer Leverkusen but in the end the superior quality, in all areas of the pitch, of the German champions emerged.

The hosts are ruing the missed chances with Romelu Lukaku and Tammy Abraham that could have given them a glimmer of hope for the return match next week.

Instead, it was the second home defeat in a row at the ‘Stadio Olimpico’ for Roma who, against Xabi Alonso’s side, remained scoreless for the first time in the last 34 home games.

Daniele De Rossi’s men have to switch their focus to the league as their recent results, only two wins in the last five, have shortened to two points their lead on Atalanta, who still have a game in hand.

Despite the recent setbacks, the consensus in Italy’s capital is that De Rossi has done a magnificent job by revitalising a team that, in the last period under José Mourinho, seemed to have lost its drive.

Since the change on the bench, the Giallorossi have travelled two times quicker than Juventus.

In fact, in the last 14 games, they’ve collected 30 points compared to Juve’s 16, scoring almost twice the amount of goals (29 vs 15) of Massimiliano Allegri’s side.

Juve are indeed going through a very complicated moment. Only seven days ago they were defeated in Rome by Lazio but managed to book their place for the Coppa Italia semi-final.

Finally winning a trophy after four seasons might probably be not enough to save the Bianconeri’s campaign, as Allegri’s future remains under a cloud.

The visitors are winless in the last four games in all competitions but have only scored six times in the last eight matches.

Despite not having played in Europe, Italy’s most titled club has one less point in the table compared to last season and has too often produced drab performances.

Two aspects, that by themselves, justify the criticisms and the urge for a change of direction in the summer

Team News:

Paulo Dybala might be rested and Baldanzi should form the attacking trio with Lukaku and El Shaarawy. Paredes will be the playmaker, captain Lorenzo Pellegrini might be replaced by Bove. Llorente will play at centre back, the full-backs will be Angelino and Celik, who missed the Europa League game due to suspension.

Federico Chiesa will return up front alongside Dusan Vlahovic. Locatelli wil play in front of the back-three with McKennie and Rabiot either side of him. Cambiaso and Kostic will be the wing-backs, but Weah and Iling-Junior are also in contention for a start. As usual Bremer, Gatti and Danilo will play in front of Szczesny's goal. Alex Sandro might be not available due to injury.

Roma vs Juventus Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Roma vs Juventus market page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

The visitors, third in Serie A and six points ahead of Roma, are slightly favourite (13/8) to win on Sunday.

The Bianconeri have obtained a success in four of the last six games against Roma keeping three clean sheets, including in the reverse fixture which they won by the odd goal.

Allegri’s men are winless on the road since 21 January (3-0 against Lecce) and three consecutive Serie A draws (against Torino, Cagliari and AC Milan) seem to have once again extinguished their hopes.

The Bianconeri haven’t drawn four matches on the spin since March 2012 whereas the hosts haven’t repeated the same result for two weeks in a row in the last eight league games (four wins, three draws, one defeat).

A victory for the Giallorossi pays 9/5 but De Rossi’s men hold an awful record against top sides in Serie A this season.

In fact they’ve lost all the seven games they’ve played so far against teams in the top four positions.

Roma have only won one of the last seven meetings against Juventus (last season 1-0, thanks to Gianluca Mancini’s goal) as the odds for the draw are, as always, high (21/10).

All the last three matches between these two sides have produced less than three goals and five of Juve’s last six league encounters have ended with Under 2.5 Goals (odds 8/15).

Both teams have scored in Roma's last three Serie A games and the over 2.5 Goals offers a good return (11/8).

First Half Draw @ 19/20

Roma have a mountain to climb if they want to knock out of the Europa League the unbeaten German champions of Bayer Leverkusen.

Games such as a European semi-final take a lot of physical and mental energy out of every team, and Roma’s good home record might be dented by their midweek fatigue.

The Giallorossi looked leggy in the first half against Napoli last Sunday but will take on a very risks-adverse Juventus.

The Bianconeri have only Serie A’s sixth-best away attack (24 goals) as only 41% of their encounters overall have produced more than two goals.

Roma Or Draw, Roma Over 3.5 Corners and Under 3.5 Goals @ 6/4 via #PickYourPunt

Last Saturday, Juventus’ performance against AC Milan, especially in the second half, was decent (Juve’s xG: 1.77). But Juventus have remained scoreless in the first half on 21 occasions this season, and they’ve taken the lead away from home only eight times.

The Bianconeri have scored more than two goals away from home only in two occasions. The hosts have much more at stake till the end of the season and will play on the attack. Games of this magnitude in Serie A, and moreover at the end of the season, are rarely spectacular. This season, only seven out of 14 Roma home matches have produced more than three goals and the hosts average 4.29 corners per game.

You can check out all of Daniele's Serie A Betting Tips here each week along with those of our other Italian Football writers...