Having come so close to a monumental Champions League win over Bayern Munich during mid-week, Juventus face another tough test in their quest for league glory as they head to their nearest rivals Torino hoping to make it three Derby della Molle wins in a row.
So close but yet so far
Juventus produced a wonderful performance for seventy minutes against Bayern, effectively quenching the Bavarian's attack whilst at the same time pressing and probing with the clever runs of Alvaro Morata and Juan Cuadrado to give their opponents plenty of scares. Sadly, as more and more chances went begging, with Morata the main culprit, the inevitability of the Bayern fightback came as a killer blow and eventually they had too much. On loan Juventus player Kinglsey Coman getting the killer fourth goal only added insult to an already injured Old Lady.
However, having been widely praised for the manner and spirit of their performances over the two legs versus Bayern, Juventus' thoughts turn back to league duty, with the team sitting a mere four points above of second place Napoli. Without a Serie A defeat since October, the scintilating form has propelled Juventus from the bottom half of the table, via stuggling rivals Inter Milan and Roma, to the top of the tree.
The win which sparked their revival happened to come against their rivals, with Cuadrado scoring in injury time to hand Juve a dramatic win and since then they have only failed to take maximum points in one Serie A match.
At the same time Torino have only one four Serie A matches, with their last win coming US Palermo on February the 14th, their poor record seeing them tumbling down towards the relegation zone.
Immobile looks to get past Buffon
However, it is well known that in a derby match anything can happen, with Torino proving such with a 2-1 win in the equivalent fixture between the two teams last April. On that day, Fabio Quagliarella proved the hero, as he scored the winner. These days, the Torino attack is more reliant upon the explosive speed of Circo Immobile, the Italian in his second spell with the club. On the back of two goals in last weekend's defeat to Genoa, he will be hoping to keep his good form going.
But to do that, he will need to somehow find a way past a Juventus defence which hasn't conceded in ten Serie A matches, a record which saw the legendary Gigi Buffon become the record holder for consecutive clean sheets in Italy.
Injury news
Juventus will continue to be without key players Giorgio Chiellini, Paulo Dybala and Claudio Marchisio.
Torino are almost fully fit but still remain without full back Danilo Avelar.