Serie A Preview: Juventus v Lazio

Juventus will hope for a repeat of their Supercoppa Italiana triumph when they host Lazio in Serie A on Saturday.

Antonio Conte’s side ran out 4-0 winners over the Rome club in Italian football’s traditional curtain-raiser between the league winners and Coppa Italia holders earlier in the month thanks to goals from Paul Pogba, Giorgio Chiellini, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Carlos Tevez.

However, Italy international Chiellini has warned his team-mates that result is by no means a guarantee of another victory this time around.

“Honestly I don’t think the gap between the two sides is as big as that scoreline might have made it seem,” the defender told Sky Sport Italia.

“We were good at striking for the jugular and making the most of our opportunities, but Lazio are a great side… they will be out to show people what they’re made of and get revenge against us on Saturday.”

Striker Tevez has settled into life in Turin quickly after his close-season switch from Manchester City, and grabbed a crucial winner for the champions in their top-flight opener at Sampdoria last week.

Vladimir Petkovic’s men will head to Juventus Stadium in high spirits though, as they got over their Suppercopa Italiana disappointment by defeating Udinese 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico in their first game of the new campaign.

Brazilian playmaker Hernanes and Italian midfielder Antonio Candreva were on the scoresheet for Lazio, who managed to frustrate Juventus on their last Serie A visit to Turin by coming away with a 0-0 draw last November.

Claudio Marchisio is the only player unavailable to Conte as he continues to recover from a knee problem, but Lorik Cana is likely be fit for the visitors after limping out of the Udinese game with a muscular complaint.

Club doctor Stefano Lovati told Lazio Style Radio: “We feared something serious but tests have confirmed that there is no serious lesion.

“He is at about 80 per cent so could be available for the weekend.”