Odds makers slightly favour Messina here in this southern Italian derby, but I'm not sure why?  Perhaps they think because Messina are the home team and Cagliari are on the road, where they are terrible, Messina deserves to be favoured?  In all probability, Cagliari will have a lot of supporters and most likely, because of the fact that it is a derby, Cagliari's lack of road wins should be thrown out the window.  Messina have played 2 of their last 3 games at home yet, have only scored once in those 3 games.  In fact, in their last 6 games they have only scored more than once one time.  In their 10 home games this season they have only scored 9 times and it will get tougher as they play a Cagliari team that allows the 4th least shot attempts on goal in Serie A.  Cagliari lack an offensive game for sure but defensively they are very underrated.  Last time out they played in Rome and tied Lazio 1-1.  The game prior they shutout Siena 1-0 and even going back 3 games ago they lost on the road 3-2 to Inter.  Scoring 2 against Inter is no easy task especially on the road.  I see Cagliari playing their usual tight defensive game and looking to score on the counter.  All, in all I also expect a low scoring games something like 0-1, 1-1.

I'm going to take my chances here and call for this game to stay under 2.5 goals.  In their first meeting this season Juventus at home beat Ascoli 2-1.  Let's remember that was Ascoli's 3rd Serie A game, and they have come along decently since then.  In their last 5 games Ascoli have only allowed 3 goals, and 2 of those games came on the road against Roma, and Milan.  In both of those games they lost 1-0, while being outplayed by Milan, but not by Roma.  Juventus played a tough midweek Coppa Italia game against Roma and came away with a hard fought win.  Chances are they might be a little off in this one, after all, its sometimes tough to get up for teams like Ascoli.  Juventus have a great defensive game and allow the least shot attempts in Serie A, but offensively they attempt the 4th most.  Last week, to my surprise Juventus somewhat struggled to only score 2 against a pathetic Empoli, and the week prior they drew Chievo 1-1 on the road.  Even going back one more week, they only beat Reggina 1-0 at home.  Chances are Juventus will win here and probably end up with a clean sheet.  Having said that, I cannot see them scoring more than 2 goals.

I'm going to go against the books here too, as I think they have it all wrong and we are going to see a high scoring game.  Perhaps something like 3-2 might be wrong, but everything points to a high scoring affair.  Both of these teams have Swiss cheese defences, with Parma allowing a league high 38 goals and Empoli allowing the 2nd most goals with 37.  In fact, Empoli have allowed 13 goals in their last 5 games (2 against Juventus, 1 Udinese, 3 Ascoli, 3 Messina and 4 Inter).  Parma have not won on the road in forever and they have allowed 10 goals in their last 5 games (1 against Chievo, 4 Palermo, 1 Lazio, 4 Milan, and you get the picture).  Empoli have a very good attacker by the name of Tavano, who believe it or not is one of the top scorers in Serie A.  Many big Serie A clubs are looking at him and since Empoli will most likely end up in Serie B, Tavano is always looking to showcase himself.  Tavano has had big games against good Serie A teams and I look for him to find the net at least once here today.