Making for a frustrating start to 2026, both sides were held to a 1-1 draw by Serie A<\/strong><\/a> strugglers last time out.<\/p>\n Aiming to start a new year as they finished the last, resurgent\u00a0Juventus\u00a0sought their fifth straight win when welcoming Lecce\u00a0to Turin on Saturday evening – but they ultimately came up short.<\/p>\n Following three consecutive league victories – plus another in Europe – Juve coach Luciano Spalletti<\/a> was even open to discussing a Scudetto challenge, while their visitors from down south were merely fighting for survival.<\/p>\n However, the hosts conceded a goal against the run of play in first-half stoppage time, before Weston McKennie<\/a>\u2019s first Serie A strike of the season hauled them level just after the break.<\/p>\n Jonathan David<\/a> – who had hit the woodwork with an early header – then clipped a weak penalty straight at Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone; finally, Kenan Yildiz struck the post and Lois Openda blazed over.<\/p>\n While Spalletti, whose initial contract expires at the end of this season, has led the Bianconeri\u2019s recent revival – posting seven wins from eight to end 2025 – his talk of a title push appears to be wishful.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, his side will aim to avoid losing more ground to their top-four rivals, with several clubs still chasing Champions League places.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Recent history suggests Juventus will not have an easy ride, though, as Sassuolo have actually won both of the last two meetings in Reggio Emilia.<\/p>\n Before spending one season in Italy\u2019s second tier, they memorably beat Juve 1-0 and then 4-2 in the space of six months, with current stars Domenico Berardi<\/a>, Andrea Pinamonti and Armand Lauriente all getting on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n After bouncing straight back as Serie B champions, the newly promoted Neroverdi have impressed throughout their comeback campaign, even establishing themselves as outsiders for European qualification.<\/p>\n However, progress has recently been stalled by a pair of 1-1 draws against Emilian rivals: after picking up a commendable point in Bologna, Fabio Grosso<\/a>\u2019s men failed to retain a lead at the weekend.<\/p>\n Kristian Thorstvedt<\/a>\u2019s glancing header put them in front against Parma, but they soon conceded an equaliser; Josh Doig then clipped the post during an open second half, but Aro Muric also made several saves just to preserve one point.<\/p>\n That left Sassuolo 10th in the\u00a0Serie A standings<\/a><\/strong>, though their sole victory since the November international break remains a 3-1 win over crisis club Fiorentina.<\/p>\n Sassuolo Serie A form:<\/p>\n L W D L D D<\/p>\n Juventus Serie A form:<\/p>\n W L W W W D<\/p>\n Juventus form (all competitions):<\/p>\n L W W W W D<\/p>\n \u00a9 Imago \/ Marco Canoniero<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Since arriving in Turin, Spalletti has sprung plenty of surprises – both in terms of setup and selection – so it remains to be seen whether Juventus make changes.<\/p>\n After his calamitous spot-kick against Lecce, David could make way for Openda, with last term\u2019s top scorer Dusan Vlahovic<\/a> still on the treatment table.<\/p>\n Juve are also missing injured centre-backs Daniele Rugani and Federico Gatti<\/a>, but utility man Teun Koopmeiners offers an additional option in defence.<\/p>\n Woyo Coulibaly<\/a> will miss out for Sassuolo: currently away at the Africa Cup of Nations, he was sent off before 10-man Mali beat Tunisia in the last 16.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Italy winger Berardi is alongside Cristian Volpato, Yeferson Paz, Daniel Boloca and Filippo Romagna on the hosts\u2019 injury list.<\/p>\n Juve youth graduate Tarik Muharemovic<\/a> leads the Neroverdi\u2019s defence, while Pinamonti spearheads their attack; however, all four of the latter\u2019s league goals have been scored away from home.<\/p>\n Sassuolo possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n Muric; Walukiewicz, Idzes, Muharemovic, Cande; Thorstvedt, Matic, Kone; Fadera, Pinamonti, Lauriente<\/p>\n Juventus possible starting lineup:<\/strong><\/p>\n Di Gregorio; Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly; McKennie, Locatelli, Thuram, Cambiaso; Concecicao, Yildiz; Openda<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Having beaten Lazio and Atalanta – and drawn 2-2 with AC Milan – Sassuolo have already proven they can compete.<\/p>\n While their form has tailed off in recent weeks, Juve are improving – but the brittle Bianconeri still have obvious flaws.<\/p>\n For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0\n<\/p><\/div>\n After letting two points slip through their grasp at the weekend, Juventus will seek an immediate response when they visit mid-table Sassuolo on Tuesday. Making for a frustrating start to 2026, both sides were held to a 1-1 draw by Serie A strugglers last time out. Match preview Aiming to start a new year as … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Preview-Sassuolo-vs-Juventus-prediction-team-news-lineups.net2Fuploads2F20252F122Fimago1070238358.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16005,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16003\/revisions\/16005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMatch preview<\/h2>\n
\nTeam News<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/uploads\/2025\/11\/juventus-forwards-dusan-vlahov.webp\")
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\n![](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/20\/33\/sm-words-green-background.png\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWe say: Sassuolo 1-1 Juventus<\/h2>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"