Juventus are all of seven games into their 2025-26 Serie A season, but their first trip to the Italian capital of the new campaign feels a little more tenuous than things probably should be at this point
of the year.
Why’s that?
Well, it really is pretty simple: Juventus are in the midst of a winless run of form that we haven’t seen at the club in quite a while. It’s not just one or two managers ago, either. It’s a run of form that hasn’t seen the Bianconeri not win any of their last seven games that we haven’t seen from Juventus in the last 16 years — a span of time that goes all the way back to even before Antonio Conte showed back up in Turin and turned things into the beginnings of a decade of domestic dominance.
So maybe it’s a little ironic that the next club up on the schedule is managed by the last guy to win the Serie A title at Juventus. Maybe it’s a little bit cruel as well considering the current state of Juventus and how they’ve gone from starting strong with three straight wins to not winning a game in six weeks.
Either way, Juventus head to the Italian capital to face a Lazio side on Sunday night that hasn’t exactly began the season all that well in Maurizio Sarri’s return to the club. Juventus sit in seventh place — a clear sign that the three straight wins under Igor Tudor to begin the season feel like ages ago. Lazio, in an even worse standing, are 12th and have only won one of their last five fixtures. It’s a meeting that not so long ago was a battle for a Champions League spot.
Now, though, as Tudor may or may not be fighting for his job, it’s a matchup between two clubs who are just trying to get something going in the right direction after poor early-season runs of form.
During his pre-match press conference on Saturday, Tudor said that “the feelings after Madrid are largely positive” despite the 1-0 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League, a defeat that saw Juve drop to 25th in the league phase table. If the UCL league phase were to have ended this week, Juve wouldn’t even be in one of the 16 play-off spots, instead watching the rest of the competition from home.
It’s just the latest chapter in this seven-game run that has seen things go south in a hurry. And now we wait to see if Juventus can actually get a win and put an end to it this weekend or see it stretch on for another few days before their first midweek Serie A action of the season.
Of course, any further limping ahead in this current state won’t help Tudor’s case that he can get things turned around and back in the right direction. In a way, he’s trying to do something that he already did during the springtime when things were such a mess following the firing of Thiago Motta. This time around, though, Tudor has try and fix the problems that he’s been a part in creating rather than simplifying things after somebody else created the mess.
And they will be trying to do it against a Lazio side that have recorded back-to-back draws in two very different kinds of ways. The first came in the form of a 3-3 draw with a previously struggling Torino side that only happened because of a PK in the … checks notes … 102nd minute. A week later, Lazio played to a scoreless draw with Atalanta, a squad that has suddenly hit the skids a lot like Juve has results-wise.
It’s hard to say where this Lazio team is compared to Juventus to begin Sarri 2.0. They didn’t have any sort of transfer campaign this summer thanks to a transfer ban. They’re reportedly dealing with plenty of financial issues, and on the field they’re not playing well on any sort of consistent basis.
Then again, it’s not like the current state of Juventus is much better. Tudor needs a win for the sake of his job security. Juve need the win for the sake of their confidence. And their standing in the table, of course. It’s weird to think that Juve could actually be just three points off the Serie A lead if they do beat Lazio on Sunday night
The catch is that they have to beat Lazio. And winning is something Juventus hasn’t done at all the last month and a half, so let’s see how all of that goes at the Olimpico.
TEAM NEWS
- Gleison Bremer remains out injured following meniscus surgery.
- Juan Cabal remains out injured due to his hamstring injured suffered against Villarreal earlier this month.
- Carlo Pinsoglio remains out injured after suffered a medium-to-high grade calf strain earlier this month. (Although, like on Wednesday against Real Madrid, Pinsoglio will still likely make the trip with the team because that’s just the kind of guy that he is.)
- Arek Milik remains out injured indefinity.
- Tudor mentioned at his pre-match press conference that Kenan Yildiz is dealing with a minor knee issue. As of this writing, though, most of the predicted lineups still include Yildiz in Juventus’ starting XI against Lazio.
- Tudor also said that Juve are continuing to be cautious when it comes to ramping up Edon Zhegrova’s workload following his lengthy injury absence at the beginning of the year with Lille. He is currently dealing with a groin issue, according to Tudor, and can’t push it too much or else it will come back and force him to miss even more time. Zhegrova likely has just 20 or 30 minutes in him right now, Tudor added.
- Two players from the Juve Next Gen squad have been included in the traveling squad to Rome: goalkeeper Matteo Fuscaldo and center back Pedro Felipe.
JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Juventus have played two games since they returned from the international break. They have failed to score in both of those games, adding to a run of poor form in which a team that scored a combined eight goals against Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund suddenly can’t consistently find the back of the net.
So while it feels like a complete guessing game in terms of who is starting at the front of Tudor’s 3-4-2-1, the supporting two playmakers seems a little more certain.
Let’s just go ahead and talk about one of the guys who will likely be starting in one of those supporting two places behind either Dusan Vlahovic or Jonathan David (or even Loïs Openda?).
When he’s on form, Francisco Conceição can make a difference for Juventus. The thing is, Conceição being on full form has been something that hasn’t always been present for a Juventus side that has scored all of four goals since their 4-4 draw with Dortmund six weeks ago.
That’s not a good number to carry into any sort of fixture. But that’s especially true when you’re trying to turn things around amidst a terrible run of results, a seven-game winless streak that has seen Juve fail to score in the last three outings — which have been a draw against old buddy Max Allegri and AC Milan as well as losses to Como and Real Madrid.
So where does Conceição fit into all of this?
Well, I think it’s simple: Juve gets the good and dangerous version of Conceição, then the chances of them actually scoring a goal or two actually increases. It seems hard to believe with how Tudor’s squad is playing at the moment, but it is true. The more chance creation there is, the more goals you actually can try and score. It doesn’t matter if it’s Conceição setting things up or doing the scoring himself, he has shown he can do both.
They just need Good Chico to actually show up at the Olimpico.
Hopefully that happens so that somebody by the name of Kenan Yildiz doesn’t have to shoulder all of that. Juventus need somebody other than their young and extremely talented No. 10 to do something in the attacking third so that the opposing defense can try like hell to mark Yildiz out of the game and Juve have no other place to go for goal creation. Conceição can do it — it’s just a matter of actually going out and doing so.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025.
Where: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, 2:45 p.m. Central time, 12:45 p.m. Pacific time.
(Please note that the fall time change goes into effect in Italy on Sunday, thus having kickoff be an hour later than usual Sunday night fixtures in certain areas of the world like the United States.)
HOW TO WATCH
Television: Fox Deportes (United States); TLN (Canada); TNT Sports 1 (United Kingdom).
Online/Streaming: Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video, Fox One, Fox Sports app, foxsports.com (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada; Amazon Prime Video; Fubo Sports Network Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.
