Douglas Luiz and Dusan Vlahovic are available for Juventus.Douglas Luiz and Dusan Vlahovic are available for Juventus.
Douglas Luiz and Dusan Vlahovic are available for Juventus. | Getty Images
The latest from both camps ahead of this crucial Champions League fixture.
Wednesday’s Champions League clash in Turn pits together two former European champions who have struggled with the competition’s new format.
The campaign had started promisingly for City, who sat third after three games, but the subsequent defeat at Sporting Lisbon and late capitulation in the 3-3 draw against Feyenoord has derailed the 2023 winners’ hopes of gaining an automatic qualification spot.
It’s likely City will need to take maximum points from the remaining games against Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge, which is far from an easy task. It’s also not helped by the fact City’s squad is being stretched to its limits. Seven players missed the trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday, with Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku only fit enough to make late cameos off the bench.
“The solution is give me players back and to do it. But it's not possible right now and I think it isn't going to happen for a long time,” was Guardiola’s glum assessment when asked about the team’s form. “ The doctors and physios especially are working incredible this season like I've never seen before. The reality is I will have few players to rotate in this type of period.”
City’s injury record has also resulted in a downturn of domestic form and the Premier League champions have won just once in the last six league games. The reasons behind the team’s slump are endless, but this current version of City is the weakest since Guardiola’s inaugural season in charge at the Etihad.
It’s why there’s little hope that City can recapture their form in the coming months and claim a top-eight finish in the Champions League. They sit 17th at present and will probably secure a play-off place, which will add another two games to the calendar for this beleaguered group of players.
There are similarities between City’s plight and that of Juventus. The most successful national team in the last decade, but their stock is certainly on the wane.
In fact, Juve’s decline has been much more pronounced and drawn out. No title in four years and the club haven’t made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League since 2018/19. The current team is a shadow of Massimiliano Allegri’s great sides during the 2010s.
The Italian coach was even reinstated in 2021 to try and reinvigorate the team, but one Coppa Italia success in three years is a long way off the standards he set during his first term in Turin.
Now it’s Thiago Motta who has been tasked with leading the club that Guardiola claimed are ‘the most important in Italy’. His start has been mixed and there’s a sense that he will need time to turn things around.
That’s the view at least of ex-Juve legend Fabio Cannavaro, who admitted the team are 'a bit behind’ their Serie A rivals and are starting again ‘from scratch’. A glance through the list of departures in recent years underlines how many big characters need to be replaced. Federico Chiesa, Alex Sandro, Wojciech Szczesny and Adrien Rabiot left last summer, while in the previous two years Juan Cuadrado, Angel Di Maria, Leonardo Bonucci, Matthijs de Ligt, Giorgio Chiellini, Douglas Costa and Paulo Dybala moved on.
City can relate with a squad that has gone stale and is in need of a refresh, but the scale of change at Juve has been more pronounced. And like Guardiola, injuries haven’t helped Motta. Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik have been long-term absentees, while Nico Gonzalez and Andrea Cambiaso are also missing for the clash on Wednesday.
However, Juve were boosted by returns of Douglas Luiz and Weston McKennie to training earlier this week and Dusan Vlahovic made his comeback at the weekend. Motta will hope the returning players result in an upturn of form - that’s despite the 36-time Italian champions yet to lose a Serie A game this season.
Draws have been the issue, though, with nine from 15 in the league, and 11 from 20 in all competitions. A 0-0 draw at Villa Park in the last Champions League game underlined their issues, not least because Juve could only name a bench of six and the starting XI was devoid of high-profile stars.
That’s where the team are at, and yet they have the same record from five Champions League games as City. That’s telling.
Last week the two teams were paired together in the expanded 2025 Club World Cup and is an indication of their stature in global football. But for now, these troubled titans are in desperate need of a win in Wednesday’s fixture, while defeat could all but end any hopes of automatic qualification.
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