On Saturday 16 April, Juve host Bologna at the Allianz Stadium. The match, which kicks off at 18h30 CEST, is the 150th meeting between the two teams in Serie A. Of the 78 Bianconeri wins over the team from Emilia, 44 have come at home, making it the fixture Bologna have lost more than any other in the top flight.
Last season at the Allianz Stadium, Juventus collected a 2-0 victory - exactly the same scoreline as this season's first meeting, played in the fog at the Dall'Ara in mid-December.
TEAM FOCUS
Although Juventus have scored in the last 11 Serie A matches against Bologna - only between 1957 and 1963 with 13 games have they accumulated a longer scoring streak against the Emilians - scoring against the Rossoblu this season is not a factor to be taken for granted.
Sinisa Mihajlovic's team have collected 11 clean sheets this campaign, compared to five all last season and only two the year before. Not since season 2010/11 have Bologna managed to stop their opponents scoring as often after 31 match days - quite a remarkable turnaround considering that in November 2020, they halted a run of conceding in 41 consecutive matches.
In terms of percentages, Bologna is the team that has scored the most goals from outside the penalty area this campaign, with 21%.
However, it is from corner kicks that their true speciality lies. The Rossoblu have scored an incredible 34% of their goals from attacks that have developed from corners. At the other end of the pitch, they have conceded just once from that specific form of set piece, against Inter in September.
In the Monday night match, the 2-0 defeat of Sampdoria at the Dall’Ara ended a four-match run without scoring. The winning margin could have been greater hadn’t the home side struck the frame of the goal twice, taking the total for the season to 19, a club record.
In fact, no team has hit the woodwork more often than Bologna this season.
PLAYER FOCUS
The player that has hit the goal frame most often for Bologna, and in Serie A in general this campaign, is Marko Arnautovic. The team’s star striker has seen six of his efforts cannon off the woodwork.
That said, with his brace against Sampdora, Arnautovic has now scored all of Bologna's last five league goals. In club history, only one player, Angelo Schiavo in 1933, has been able to score six consecutive goals.
Before Arnautovic, the last Bologna player capable of scoring at least 11 goals in his first Serie A championship with the Emilians was Alberto Gilardino (13 goals in 2012/13).
While the Austrian is enjoying a purple patch, his striking partner is experiencing the opposite. Musa Barrow hasn’t scored in 12 matches, his longest run without finding the net since the 22-game sequence between May 2018 and April 2019.
On his way to collecting the 11 clean sheets, Lukasz Skorupski has made 103 saves - only Empoli’s Guglielmo Vicario (127) and Genoa’s Salvatore Sirigu (109) have made more.
The Bologna shot stopper is one of six goalkeepers who have collected at least 10 clean sheets in Serie A 2021/22. The 30-year-old will always remember the Biaconerni, as it was against Juventus on 11 May 2014, with the shirt of Roma shirt, that he made his Serie A. The following season he was replaced at the Giallorossi by another of those keepers with 10+ clean sheets, Juve's own Wojciech Szczesny.
FRIENDLY RIVALRY
The two Polish goalkeepers, both part of their country's qualification to World Cup in Qatar, will look each other in the eye down the length of the pitch as they resume their rivalry.
Skorupski has the task of stopping a team in Juventus that has scored in each of the last 11 Serie A matches against Bologna, who themselves have scored just four times, and never more than once per match, over that period.
The Bianconeri aim to stay on the positive side of the stats.