Old Lady To Give Milan A Good Clip

Traditionally one of the biggest fixtures in the Italian football calendar, Juventus and AC Milan have gone in opposite directions over recent years. Can the visitors get back on track here?

Form
With only one league defeat all season, and having drawn two and won five of their fixtures since returning from the winter break, Juventus look to be going from strength to strength as they head towards the business end of the season. Despite being held to a scoreless draw away to Udinese last weekend the Bianconeri have now kept clean sheets in each of their last four games, and scored 16 in the five prior to those dropped points in Udine, and now enjoy a seven point gap between themselves and Roma in second.

Carlos Tevez is Serie A’s top scorer this season with 13 goals, while French midfielder Paul Pogba has now scored in four of the last five league games, and the first goal in three of those.

A 3-1 win over bottom club Parma last weekend may have papered over the cracks for the time being for Milan, but three defeats in a row prior to that result against a side 11 points from safety and in complete disarray on and off the pitch will have fooled few. Filippo Inzaghi’s side are still in the top half of the table, somehow, but caught in the no-mans land of being 10 points from third and 11 points ahead of the relegation zone with more than half of the season gone. That win last weekend was actually their first in Serie A since mid-December and they’ve won just twice on the road all season.

Jeremy Menez now sits just one goal behind Tevez in the race to be Capocannoniere this season on 12 goals, a remarkable achievement given his side’s woeful performances, with the French forward adding a brace to his tally last weekend.

Team News
Arturo Vidal is still out for Juventus as the Chilean continues his recovery from a knee problem, as he joins Kwado Asamoah, Romulo and Alessandro Matri on the sidelines for the champions. Tevez is expected to recover from a knock in time to take part.

Philippe Mexes is still suspended for Milan after his sending off against Lazio, while Inzaghi also has an extensive injury list to contend with too as Ricardo Montolivio, Giacomo Bonaventura, Stephan El Shaarawy, Daniele Bonera, Mattia De Sciglio and Cristian Zapata are all out.

Head to Head

Juve have won each of their last five encounters with Milan, and have kept clean sheets in three of the last four, including at the San Siro last September when Tevez grabbed the only goal of the game.

Milan have won only two of the past 12 meetings with their last away win in this fixture coming in March 2011, meaning they’ve yet to claim a victory at Juventus Stadium.

Recommended Bets
Having dropped only four points on their own patch all season, while scoring the most goals at home and conceding the fewest in Serie A it seems beyond obvious to say Juventus should win again here against a pretty awful Milan side. At 4/11 more value can be found elsewhere though, so the 21/20 on a Juve win to nil looks well worth investment, while the 6/5 for a home win with over 2.5 goals in the game could also be backed with confidence.