14 April 2017
Previous from Pescara
As only the seventh season in which Juventus and Pescara are both in Serie A, the history books on this fixture are pretty thin.
While Juve have dominated their seven previous meetings in Turin with six wins and a draw, Pescara hold their own in the home games, having beaten the Bianconeri twice and forced a draw. Nonetheless, the Old Lady holds the slight edge with three away victories going into tomorrow’s match.
Despite the fact there have been few fixtures between the two teams, there’s been no shortage of striking scorelines along the way.
Just to give a couple of examples, in May 1993, the ‘Dolphins’ inflicted a 5-1 defeat on Giovanni Trapattoni’s Juve side, who would even take a second-minute lead through Fabrizio Ravanelli, before conceding a quintet of goals to the hosts. A certain Massimiliano Allegri also got on the scoresheet that afternoon from the penalty spot.
Ten seasons later, in November 2012, the Bianconeri went one better, seeing off Pescara 6-1 at the Stadio Adriatico, featuring a hat-trick by Fabio Quagliarella.
Since then, the reigning Serie A champions have triumphed twice in two matches at Juventus Stadium against the league’s bottom club, including a 3-0 victory last November with goals scored by Sami Khedira, Mario Mandzukic and Hernanes.
Current form
With only two wins this season, Pescara prop up the Serie A table on just 14 points, currently nine from safety with only seven matches remaining.
Their solitary home victory came on 19 February – a 5-0 thrashing of Genoa. Indeed, scoring has not been such a problem – the Dolphins have found the net in all of their last six games at the Stadio Adriatico – but at the other end of the pitch, they’ve conceded the most goals of any Serie A side this season (70).
That’s 50 more than Juve have shipped so far in 2016/17, meaning Saturday sees the division’s worst defence take on the division’s best. The Bianconeri have managed eight clean sheets in their last 12 league outings.
Meanwhile, they’ve consistently produced the goods up front too, netting in 33 successive matches (in all competitions) – their longest scoring streak since March 2006.
The main men
As many as thirty-four players have featured for Pescara this season – more than any other Serie A side – but a couple of names stand out from the crowd.
Experienced Ghanaian midfielder, Sulley Muntari, has scored more goals against Juventus than any other – three during his days at Milan.
Up front, meanwhile, there’s a familiar face in the form of Alberto Cerri, on loan from the Bianconeri, who this season has netted his first two strikes in Italy’s top tier.
Two goals against Barcelona on Tuesday and a contract extension Thursday: it’s been quite a week for Paulo Dybala!
La Joya, set to start against Pescara alongside fellow forwards Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic, has had a hand in seven of Juve’s last 14 league goals, scoring three and providing four assists in the process.
