Juventus vs. Sampdoria 9/20/20 Serie A Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Juventus is hosting Sampdoria at Allianz Stadium in round 1 in the Italian Serie A.

Juventus has won the Serie A title last season, barely, with 83 points, just 1 point ahead of Inter. With 76 scored goals, Juventus was the fifth-best offensive team in Serie A last season, while their defense was the third-best in Serie A. Juventus was playing in the Champions League as well, and they were facing Lyon in the quarterfinals. Juventus has lost in the first leg 1-0, while winning the second leg 2-1, but since Lyon scored an away goal, Juventus was knocked out. Juventus has played only 1 friendly game in the preseason, and they have won that game 5-0. De Sciglio, De Ligt, Dybala, and Bernardeschi are all injured, and they will miss the start of the season. Juventus has signed Arthur from Barcelona in the offseason, and McKennie from Schalke. Pjanic was sold to Barcelona, Can went to Borussia Dortmund, Muratore was sold to Atalanta, while Matuidi and Higuain left for Inter Miami in MLS. Pjaca was loaned to Genoa. Juventus is also starting this season with a new head coach, and Italian legend Andrea Pirlo. He was a fantastic player, but he is still an inexperienced coach. Juventus is trying hard to win the Champions League, and it nearly cost them the Serie A title last season, and while Juventus is one of the best teams in Serie A, I don’t think they will win the title this season because Inter, Milan, Lazio, and Atalanta have all improved greatly.

Sampdoria was good after the restart last season, and even though they didn’t win any of their last 4 games last season, Sampdoria has stayed in Serie A. with 42 points, Sampdoria has ended the season in 15th place. Sampdoria is in good form at the moment, and they have 2 wins and 1 draw in the preseason. During this stretch, Sampdoria has scored 8 goals, while conceding only 2 goals. Felice D’Amico is the only injured player for Sampdoria as of right now. The most notable departure from Sampdoria is Linetty who left for Torino, and Caprari who left for Benevento. Damsgaard is the biggest signing for Sampdoria, and he arrived from Midtjylland, while Tonelli arrived from Napoli. Sampdoria is continuing with the same head coach, Claudio Ranieri, and he did a good job last season. I think that Sampdoria improved with those signings in the offseason, and I see them securing their Serie A status easier than last season, but I still don’t see Sampdoria anywhere near the Europa League. The middle of the standings is their maximum in my opinion.

When playing at home, Juventus has not lost to Sampdoria in their last 7 games, while Sampdoria has not in their last 4 away games. Juventus is the better team, and they are the title holders. There are some injuries in Juventus, but with Ronaldo in the lineup, there will be no shortage of the attacking options in Juventus. I will stick with Juventus at home on their first game of the season.