Inter Milan host Juventus at San Siro for this Serie A round 9 battle between two very traditional big Italian teams. I must go against Juventus again here! Let's take a closer look...

I have written many times before that Juventus most certainly are not the great club they were for decades and neither do they have the squad to dominate matches - not even against pretty mediocre opponents in this league. Hence Allegri's often pretty defensive strategy is in a way quite understandable. Juventus' odds seem to be continiously affected by the substantial number of Scudettos (Serie A trophies) they won during their long history and perhaps by the Champions League final they eventually lost to Real Madrid though -  some five years ago. We must not under-estimate the meaning of losing Cristiano Ronaldo after last season. It is a major loss for the them because in numerous matches he was pretty the only truly dangerous offensive weapon the Junetus had. Chiesa is surely a young and very promising striker but sometimes pretty inconsistent and perhaps over-valued at the moment and would need more help from Morata and other offensive players. In the past a couple of years Juventus have not really succeed in the Champions League even with Ronaldo and last season were ousted by not a that great club Porto after pretty balanced two matches. They only very narrowly made it to this years Champions League where they hammered a very weak Malmö and took an extremely undeserved 1-0 win over Chelsea about a month ago. In the Serie A they are not even close to the top of the table and have not really deserved anything better. They currently sit at 7th place with 14 points an a goal difference of 12:00. Yes, hey have taken a few win lately in this league too but have not played particularly well. I have, in fact, lowered their power rating as the season has progressed. Last Sunday I posted a pick on Roma +0.5 goals when they face Juventus in Turin and the pick had a very good chance of winning despite eventually being narrowly lost as the hosts took another not really deserved 1-0 win. Roma even missed a penalty and had 53% ball possession and created slightly more in expected goals.. Earlier this weak Juventus defeated a pretty mediocre team Zenit from Russia away from home in the Champions League - of course 1-0 again! The match was overall pretty balanced.

Inter, on the other hand have played a lot better than Juventus despite the visitors having a better record from the latest matches. Let's not be fooled by this! Inter are in third place in the standings and are a serious championship candidate. They have great fans and are clear favorites in this match at home. Earlier this week they easily swept past Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League 3-1 but the numbers could have been a lot bigger.. They had close to 70% ball possession and almost 30 scoring attempts. Sheriff of course are not a big team by European standards but did beat Real Madrid a few weeks ago  - in Spain!