After their electrifying 2–0 Champions League win against Premier League giants Manchester City this past Wednesday night, [Juventus](https://www.blackwhitereadallover.com) now shift their attention to Serie A, where they’re set to face relegation-threatened Venezia, who currently sit at the bottom of the league table.
Despite the glaring contrasts between the club’s two most recent opponents — last year’s Premier League winners and Serie A’s 20th-place team — Juve managerThiago Motta insisted that it’s business as usual and emphasized that Saturday night’s opponents, despite their losing record, are worthy of respect and arduous preparation.
Indeed, amid the excitement born from their win against Manchester City, Motta asserted that the game ahead is always the most important, especially considering Juventus’ unfortunate tendency this year to drop points against smaller sides.
“Wednesday’s match against Manchester City was a good game, resulting in a victory that we deserved and that we were looking for in the Champions League,” Motta said. “But that challenge is part of the past, now our attention turns to Venezia who are a tough and combative team. The team is doing well in all respects, both physically and in terms of mood. We are focused on the next game, our approach to matches is always the same, we have the same respect for all opponents. We want to go into the game and do our best, reading the game well and taking our chances efficiently.”
What is more, Motta asserted that “Venezia are a team that always tries to play good football. They have caused problems for many opponents with their play but have not gotten the results. They play good football and have a very experienced coach. We have to be very careful as always and put our game plan into practice. The players know what we need from them tomorrow. We have to start the match with the highest level of intensity to get a result.”
Regarding the squad, Motta was asked about some of the heroes from Wednesday’s game against Manchester City, including Teun Koopmeiners and the two goal scorers, Weston McKennie and Dusan Vlahovic.
According to Motta, “Koopmeiners is a key player for us. I like to watch his body language, which is fantastic, his mental approach to games is excellent. He’s a great player and it’s hard to take someone like him off the field for so many reasons. McKennie can play from the start: I am lucky to have players with different characteristics who give me different alternatives. Weston, with the qualities he has, needs to get into the box to score more, he has the technical and physical ability to break into space in the final third and finish chances. Dusan did very well on Wednesday, especially in the second half. I’m happy for him, for his performance and the goal. Tomorrow as a team we have another opportunity to put in another great performance.”
Finally, Motta also provided an update on the squad’s extensive injury list.
“Tomorrow there will be no (Jonas) Rouhi in addition to (Gleison) Bremer, (Juan) Cabal, (Arkadiusz) Milik and (Andrea) Cambiaso who are not yet fit to play,” Motta said.
However, Nico Gonzalez, who lit up the wing at the start of the season but has been out injured since the Oct. 2 win over RB Leipzig, is “back in the squad, and we are all happy about that, he has been working hard with our staff to be available again,” Motta added.