Juventus open the chase of a third straight title late on Saturday away to their bete noire Sampdoria, who inflicted two of the Serie A champions' five defeats last season.
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The Turin side are widely considered the favourites, having beefed up their attack with new signings Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente while keeping unchanged a defence that conceded 24 goals from 38 league games.
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"We are still hungry and want to keep winning to write the history of Juventus," wrote Mirko Vucinic on his website as he begins his third season in Turin and seems set to keep his place upfront next to Tevez.
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The Bianconeri last week secured the Italian Super Cup through a 4-0 crushing of Lazio and go with confidence into the season under Antonio Conte, a former Juve midfielder who began a successful coaching career in 2005.
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Critics say that Conte's iron discipline will wear the team out in the long run and look at Napoli and Fiorentina as the fiercest contenders of the Turin side.
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Napoli have new coach Rafael Benitez at the helm and replaced Uruguay's Edinson Cavani, last season's top scorer with 29 goals from the 34 games he played, with Gonzalo Higuain, an Argentine international from Real Madrid.
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Bologna are Napoli's guests late Sunday, when Cagliari v Atalanta, Lazio v Udinese, Livorno v Roma, Parma v Chievo and Torino v Sassuolo are scheduled after Inter Milan and Genoa meet in the late afternoon.
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AC Milan play the first game of the weekend Saturday at Verona, the league's newcomers alongside Sassuolo, who play their first top-flight season, and Livorno.
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The Rossoneri were partly convincing as they drew 1-1 Tuesday at PSV Eindhoven and look to secure qualification to the group phase of Champions League in Wednesday's return leg.
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Europa League qualification games on Thursday await Udinese, meeting Slovan Liberec, and Fiorentina, who tackle Grasshoppers and will close the Serie A round of games Monday at home to Catania.
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The Purples have strengthened their attack with ex- Bayern Munich Mario Gomez and Giuseppe Rossi, but could see Adem Ljajic leave in the closing days of the transfer window.
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Coach Vincenzo Montella begins his second season in Florence after a good fourth place and this week renewed his contract until 2017.
Juventus FC is always considered favourite in SerieA cos they've shown so much quality in that competition! Good one....