5′ Juve turn over possession high up the pitch. Kulusevski delays playing in Ronaldo and the attack breaks down with Ramsey misplacing a pass on the edge of the box.
3′ Vulic whips a deep free-kick into the box and it is flicked into the air. It could have been an awkward one for Buffon but the experienced keeper gets two hands to the ball, taking out an opposition player in the process.
1′ KICK-OFF! Serie A’s bottom side Crotone get us up and running in Turin! Can the visitors pull off a huge upset by picking up just a fourth league win of the campaign?
Both sets of players are out on the field at the Allianz Stadium and kick-off is now just a few moments away. Reigning champions Juventus need a victory to close the gap on leaders Inter; Crotone need points to climb off the foot of the table.
Juventus are unbeaten in their five Serie A meetings against Crotone, though they have drawn the last two matches, including a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture four months ago. Only once have Crotone avoided defeat in three successive league games against a single opponent – Chievo Verona between 2016 and 2017 (three matches).
Crotone also show three alterations from their last match – a 2-1 loss against Sassuolo eight days ago – as Magallan, Molina and Vulic come in for Zanellato, Petriccione and Koffi Djidji. The visitors are expected to shape up in a 3-5-2 formation once again.
Pirlo has made three changes to Juve’s starting line-up on the back of the defeat to Porto. Veteran goalkeeper Buffon replaces Szczesny for his fifth league start of the season, while Demiral and Ramsey come in for Giorgio Chiellini and Adrien Rabiot, who are not part of the matchday squad.
Subs: Giovanni D’Aprile, Luca Marrone, Andrea Rispoli, Luca Cigarini, Marco Festa, Denis Dragus, Gian Marco Crespi, Simy Nwankwo, Emmanuel Riviere, Jacopo Petriccione, Niccolo Zanellato, Eduardo Henrique.
CROTONE XI (3-5-2): Alex Cordaz (c); Lisandro Magallan, Vladimir Golemic, Sebastiano Luperto; Pedro Pereira, Salvatore Molina, Junior Messias, Milos Vulic, Arkadiusz Reca; Samuel Di Carmine, Adam Ounas.
Subs: Gianluca Frabotta, Carlo Pinsoglio, Wojciech Szczesny, Federico Bernardeschi, Nicolo Fagioli, Daouda Peeters, Radu Dragusin, Alessandro Di Pardo.
JUVENTUS XI (4-4-2): Gianluigi Buffon (c); Danilo, Merih Demiral, Matthijs de Ligt, Alex Sandro; Federico Chiesa, Rodrigo Bentancur, Aaron Ramsey, Weston McKennie; Dejan Kulusevski, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Crotone have lost four league games in a row, conceding 11 goals in that run and scoring just twice. Giovanni Stroppa’s charges are bottom of the table, eight points adrift of safety with this game in hand to play.
Juventus lost 1-0 to Napoli last time out in the league and are now 11 points adrift of Inter, albeit with two games in hand to play on the leaders. Andrea Pirlo’s men also went down 2-1 to Porto in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie last week, so a big response is required here.
Hello and welcome to our live text coverage of the Serie A meeting between Juventus and Crotone at the Allianz Stadium.
