Champions League Team news and prediction: Juventus vs Barcelona
The biggest game of the 2020/21 Champions League campaign so far pits Juventus against Barcelona, two giants of European football struggling for identify after sweeping changes made in the summer.
Juventus sacked Maurizio Sarri and replaced him with former midfielder Andrea Pirlo, while Barcelona sacked Quique Setien and appointed former centre-back Ronald Koeman. Two appointments driven by emotion rather than the best candidates available and each have found the going tough so far this season.
In the build up to tonight's meeting between the two, we have all your need-to-know match information, including team news, probable XIs and where you can catch their mouth-watering contest on television.
When is kick off?
Wednesday 28th October, 20:00 GMT
Where is the match?
Allianz Stadium, Turin
Where can I watch it?
BT Sport 3
Gameweek One
Juventus broke a run of three straight draws in Serie A with a 2-0 win away to Dynamo Kyiv in their first Champions League game of the season. Alvaro Morata scored both goals for the Old Lady in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo in a hard fought contest in Ukraine.
Barcelona had it relatively easy compared to Juventus, kickstarting their Champions League campaign with a 5-1 win over Hungarian side Ferencvaros. It wasn't a squeaky clean performance from the Spanish side, as Gerard Pique gave away a second half penalty and earned himself a daft red card. Nevertheless, the goals were shared out with five different players.
Team News
The big news is Cristiano Ronaldo will miss out on a reunion with Lionel Messi after failing to supply a negative COVID-19 test 24 hours into the build up to this match. Ronaldo has already missed five games for Juventus after initially testing positive two weeks ago. Ronaldo isn't Juventus' only concern, with Pirlo set to be without a number of key defenders. Giorgio Chiellini, Alex Sandro and Matthijs de Ligt are all missing for the home side, which is less than ideal in order to stop Lionel Messi. Arthur, signed from Barcelona, hasn't hit the ground running for his new side and could be benched here.
Barcelona at least have Messi to call on but they also have their own problems. In addition to a suspended Pique, star goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen is still sidelined for the away side and now Philippe Coutinho is missing after picking up a thigh injury over the weekend. Ronald Koeman is really down to the bare bones of his squad after selling off so many players in the summer. Miralem Pjanic, signed from Juventus in the summer, is not yet match fit and may not start against his old club.
Probable XIs:
Juventus (3412): Szczesny; Demiral, Bonucci, Danilo; Cuadrado, Bentancur, Rabiot, Kulusevski; Ramsey; Morata, Dybala
Barcelona (4231): Neto; Dest, Araujo, Lenglet, Alba; Busquets, De Jong; Griezmann, Pedri, Fati; Messi
Key Battle: Dejan Kulusevski vs Ansu Fati
Fans hoping to see Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi will be understandably disappointed but the former's absence at least puts the spotlight on two up-and-coming talents hoping to eventually fill the void of the aforementioned duo.
For Juventus, Dejan Kulusevski has perhaps featured more regularly than expected when they signed him from Atalanta, while Ansu Fati is arguably already outperforming Messi at Barcelona this season.
Kulusevski, who may be asked to play a wing-back role on Wednesday night, has started the campaign with two goals in four league appearances, averaging 2.5 key passes pg and 2.3 dribbles pg.
Fati, meanwhile, has performed even better. The 17-year-old has five goals and one assist across six league and European outings this season. Both starlets have scored from half of their attempts.
Prediction: Juventus 1-0 Barcelona
