Ahead of Juventus’ final pre-season friendly against Atalanta on Saturday, let’s check out the latest team news and predicted line ups.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus play host to Atalanta in Turin for their final pre-season friendly.
The Bianconeri have won two of their three friendlies (L1) so far, although they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy last weekend. So a win on Saturday would be welcome as Serie A begins next weekend.
Atalanta, on the other hand, cruised to a 7-1 win over Serie B club Alessandria last time out. It was La Dea’s second win in four pre-season friendlies (D1 L1). They’ll now hope to make a statement by winning on Juventus’ own turf.
Juventus Team News & XI
Paulo Dybala has made Massimiliano Allegri’s 24-man squad for the club’s final friendly. The Argentine attacker has recovered from muscle problems and hopes to get some valuable game time on Saturday.
Of course, Ronaldo is in the team as the five-time Ballon d’Or winner works his way back to full fitness.
Midfielders Arthur Melo and Adrien Rabiot are both out due to injuries.
Predicted Line-up (4-3-3)
Atalanta Team News & XI
Right-back Hans Hateboer is the only guaranteed player set to miss the friendly against Juventus due to injury.
As things stand, Atalanta have released no further updates on their squad for the trip to Turin.
Predicted Line-up (3-4-3)
What does Allegri have to say?
The Juventus boss wants to use the friendly to assess each player’s fitness levels ahead of next weekend’s Serie A opener at Udinese.
“I want to see where the fitness levels are across the team,” he told JTV. “It’s a big test for us and needs to be a good exercise, then from Tuesday morning we need to start focusing on the season itself and be ready because there are three points on the line against Udinese.”
The last time these two clubs met ended in a 2-1 win for Juventus in the Coppa Italia final in May. Dejan Kulusevski and Federico Chiesa scored for the Old Lady.
On their opponents, Allegri said: “Atalanta are an established team and Gian Piero Gasperini is showing himself to be a great coach. They are a physical side, they play good football and have done well in Europe too, so they’ll be one of the eight sides challenging for the title.
“There are 38 games and you need consistency to win. It’s important to start with the desire to win and the aim of being one of the challengers.”
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