Juventus vs Manchester City Preview

Champions League League Phase GW6

For all the criticism behind the new league format for the Champions League, we head into the sixth match day with Juventus, PSG, Atletico Madrid, Milan, Real Madrid, Man City, and Arsenal all outside of the top eight spots for qualification. All facing potentially an extra play-off match. Both teams must pick up a win this evening if they want to have a chance of getting into those spots and avoiding the extra match. Draws will only keep them rooted in midtable.

Previous Results:

• Manchester City have not won their last two matches in the Champions League, losing to Sporting CP (4-1) and drawing against Feyenoord (3-3). They now sit 17th in the league table, two points off the top eight automatic qualification spots.

• Juventus have not won their last three matches in the Champions League, drawing against Aston Villa (0-0), Lille (1-1), and losing to VfB Stuttgart (0-1). They sit 19th in the league table, also two points off the top eight automatic qualification spots.

Notable Injuries:

• Manchester City are without Rodri, Bobb, Ake, Akanji, and Stones. Phil Foden and Mateo Kovacic are back on the squad but are unlikely to play for significant minutes.

• Juventus are without Bremer and Cabal. Cambiaso, McKennie, and Luiz are all back in contention.

Interesting Juventus Stats:

• Juventus sit 6th in Serie A after fifteen matches, having won six, drawn nine, and lost none. Drawing their last three in the league against Bologna (2-2), Lecce (1-1), and Milan (0-0). Only conceding ten goals.

• Juventus are one of three teams to have not lost a single league match this season, the other two being PSG and Bayern Munich.

• No team in Europe’s Top Five Leagues has conceded fewer goals than Juventus (10).

• No player has made more blocks than Pierre Kalulu (16) in the Champions League this season. The French defender also leads the team for passes completed, the 3rd most touches behind Andrea Cambiaso and Manuel Locatelli.

Juventus have brought in one of the most promising young managers of the last couple of years Thiago Motta, off the back of his work with Bologna, and getting them into the Champions League. Did a lot of work in the summer to move on older players, six 29+ year-olds were sold. Injury-prone players moved on like Federico Chiesa. In came many young exciting players across the team.

Teun Koopmeiners comes in from Atalanta after winning the Europa League and scoring 12 goals in Serie A. Michele Di Gregorio has been thought of as one of the best keepers in Serie A for a few years now playing for Monza but now he’s been allowed to step up. Clever and capable of distributing the ball well, playing over the opposition press. His strength however lies in his shot-stopping abilities with his quick reflexes. Collecting crosses is not his strength so expect City to target that similar to how they did against Crystal Palace.

Francisco Conceição showed for Portugal in Euro 2024 he’s one of the most exciting young wingers in the world. Douglas Luiz has been one of the top midfielders in the Premier League for the last couple of years with Aston Villa but it’s not gone well for him so far at Juventus. Kephren Thuram was long linked to Liverpool as part of their midfield rebuild. Nico Gonzalez scored 12 league goals for Fiorentina last season but has struggled for minutes and fitness since making the move.

Kenan Yıldız (19) is a very promising left winger, showed that in Euro 2024 along with Arda Guler. Excellent finish from him in the goal above. With 3 goals and 2 assists in Serie A this season, he plays a key role in progressing the team down the left side. Able to beat full-backs and get into the box or cross. Not by any stretch the finished article but absolutely can be a match-winner. Especially when up against Kyle Walker or Rico Lewis at RB.

Danilo (33) is towards the end of his career, played for City two seasons before going the other way for Joao Cancelo. When people talk about what Rodri can provide on the ball, especially at controlling the tempo of a football match, that’s what Locatelli provides Juventus.

Final Predictions

Given how defensively resolute Juventus has proven to be, that they’ve struggled to score goals, and Manchester City has not been taking enough chances out of what they’ve created, It’s going to come down to which team takes their chances.

During the five-game losing run Manchester City created more than 2.0xG every single match, I can trust them to create chances for their attacking players. Just like I can expect them to give Juventus some quality chances to score themselves. It’s whether Haaland takes the chance like he got in the first few minutes against Crystal Palace, or Savinho takes his. There was enough resolve in that draw, and fight towards the end pushing for the winner to be confident the team moving in the right direction, the trouble is whether they can consistently field the players to support that.

Ones to Watch: 

Andrea Cambiaso (24) would be a suggestion to replace Kyle Walker at right-back long term given how good he is on the ball, inverting into midfield, and being a reliable defender. It looked like he might miss the match after picking up an injury last weekend but Cambiaso is back in training.

No player has played more minutes for Juventus this season than Cambiaso (1,184). Only Yildiz (54) has more progressive carries than Cambiaso (52). Second for progressive passes (61), second for key passes (21), provided the most passes (19) and crosses (6) into the penalty area, second most long passes completed (61), and most carries into the final third. Alongside Locatelli in midfield, Cambiaso helps make everything in the team tick.

Jeremy Doku (22) is not able to complete 3 games a week according to Guardiola so I’d expect that after not starting against Crystal Palace Jeremy Doku will come in against Juventus. Especially off the back of his refreshing performance against Nottingham Forest.

Predicted Lineup:

Predicted Score: Juventus 1-2 Manchester City