It is five days before Juventus faces Sampdoria in their next league game, however, Claudio Ranieri is already thinking that his team might lose the game.

The former Leicester City boss has seen his side struggle with consistency this season, but they have won their last two matches against Udinese and Parma.

Next up for them would be Juventus, but Ranieri isn’t expecting them to earn a third consecutive win.

He said that his team would be facing a Juve team that is on an excellent run of form and also has good players in their ranks.

They may have beaten Parma, but he says they were sloppy in defending against their opponents in the first half, and they cannot allow Juve to have that many shots when both teams meet.

He told Sky Sports Italia via Football Italia:“Juventus are coming up, we know they are in an excellent period of form and have incredible players, so we could well lose, but we have to try and play our game.

“What we cannot do is what we did this evening in the first half, when we allowed Parma too many shots on goal.”

After Milan and Inter slipped up in the last game week, Juve will have to remain focused and keep winning games if they are serious about returning to the top of the league table.