Preview: Juventus vs Hellas Verona - prediction, team news, lineups

Hoping to keep their nose in front as Serie A's top-four fight nears its finale, Juventus will host lowly Hellas Verona on Sunday evening.

Following last week's bore draw with AC Milan, Juve have a three-point lead in the race for Champions League qualification; meanwhile, Verona are staring relegation straight in the face.

Match preview

Juventus can almost reach out and touch their seat at Europe's top table, having taken advantage of recent slips from fellow contenders Como and Roma to establish a lead in the race for fourth place.

Yet, with four rounds remaining, just eight points separate five teams behind champions-elect Inter Milan, so it could go right down to the wire.

As a result, Juve must take advantage of a relatively easy run-in, as they will face Lecce, Fiorentina and city rivals Torino - who they have dominated for several decades - after tackling Verona.

Luciano Spalletti's side have certainly hit form at the right time, winning five of their last seven league fixtures while conceding just one goal; last week's 0-0 draw at San Siro also made it nine games unbeaten across all competitions.

After shutting out Milan, the Bianconeri have kept four consecutive clean sheets, and since Spalletti's transformative arrival in November, they have faced the fewest shots on target in Serie A.

Now set to host one of the league's least effective attacks, Juventus have also lost just one their last 21 top-flight matches on home turf.

Furthermore, the Turin club have won six of the last eight league meetings with Verona, while racking up a 13-3 aggregate scoreline.

Though they fought all the way to the final whistle, last week's goalless draw with Lecce virtually condemned Verona to dropping out of Italy's top flight.

Leaving themselves with just four games to overturn a 10-point deficit, Hellas would be mathematically relegated by defeat on Sunday evening - if it even gets that far.

Whatever happens at the Allianz Stadium, a win for Lecce on Friday or Cremonese on Monday would confirm the Scaligeri's 10th demotion to Serie B.

A fixture in the top tier for the past eight years, they have been surviving by the skin of their teeth for several seasons, and interim coach Paolo Sammarco will steer the ship as it finally sinks.

His team have picked up a single point from their last six games - scoring just one goal in the process - and only two clubs have suffered more defeats across Europe's top five leagues this term.

As Verona have yet to win away to Juventus in Serie A, losing 29 of 34 previous meetings, history suggests they will be put out of their misery this weekend.

Juventus Serie A form:

W D W W W D

Hellas Verona Serie A form:

L L L L L D

Team News

Only Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik are ruled out for Juventus, as attacking stars Dusan Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz are set to be passed fit for duty on Sunday evening.

The latter - who has posted 16 goal involvements this season - has been hampered by an ongoing knee problem, restricting the Turkey international to cameo roles in his last two outings.

Over the past two campaigns, Juve's win-rate drops by 36% and they average 0.6 fewer goals per game when Yildiz does not start, but such fitness struggles could see Jeremie Boga fill in again.

Meanwhile, Verona's top scorer Gift Orban has failed to find the net since January, and he was dropped after an ugly altercation with a supporter last month.

Therefore, Sammarco will probably pair Kieron Bowie with either Tomas Suslov or Amin Sarr; fellow forward Daniel Mosquera has undergone season-ending knee surgery.

Hellas are also missing long-term absentee Suat Serdar, plus Armel Bella-Kotchap, Daniel Oyegoke and Cheikh Niasse, while Nicolas Valentini must serve a suspension.

Juventus possible starting lineup:

Di Gregorio; Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso; Thuram, Locatelli; Conceicao, McKennie, Boga; David

Hellas Verona possible starting lineup:

Montipo; Edmundsson, Nelsson, Frese; Belghali, Akpa Akpro, Gagliardini, Bernede, Bradaric; Suslov; Bowie