Look ahead to the round of 16 at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup with our Real Madrid vs Juventus prediction and preview.
Real Madrid vs Juventus Stats: The Key Insights
Real Madrid are favourites to go through, winning inside 90 minutes in 47.1% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000 pre-match simulations.
This will be the first competitive meeting between these two sides since their 2017-18 Champions League quarter-final.
No team overperformed their expected goals by more in the group stage than Juventus (11 goals from 5.5 xG).
It’s a tie big enough for a UEFA Champions League final, which indeed it was in 2017, but Real Madrid and Juventus meet for only the second time since that game in Cardiff in the last 16 of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Madrid bested Juve 4-1 in that 2017 Champions League final, before also advancing 4-3 on aggregate when the two teams met in the quarter-finals the following season.
This will be the 22nd competitive meeting between Real Madrid and Juventus, but the first in a tournament other than the European Cup/ Champions League. Madrid have a narrow edge, with 10 wins to Juve’s nine (D2), and the Spanish giants have won five of the nine knockout-round ties between the sides.
Juventus had the highest shot conversion rate of any team in the Club World Cup group stage (37%), scoring 11 goals from 30 shots. They also had the biggest positive differential between their goals scored and expected goals (+5.5 – 11 goals scored from 5.5 xG), showing how efficient they were in front of goal.
Juve come into the game off the back of a chastening 5-2 defeat to Manchester City in their final group game in the United States, though, which was just the second time in the last 30 years the Old Lady have conceded five goals in a match (5-1 vs Napoli in January 2023).
Igor Tudor’s men faced 11 shots on target against Man City, the most they’ve allowed in a match in almost five years (11 vs Sassuolo in July 2020). They will want to be much sturdier at the back against the attacking riches of Xabi Alonso’s side.
Real Madrid remain undefeated in the tournament, having drawn one and won two of their three group games, outscoring their opponents 7-2 despite having 11 fewer shots (39-50) and having two fewer shots on target than their opponents (14-16) over those three games vs Al-Hilal, Pachuca and Salzburg.
For all the star quality on show, both teams have had a youngster leading the charge for them in the Club World Cup to this point, with Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz (3 goals, 1 assist) and Real Madrid’s Gonzalo García (2 goals, 1 assist) the only two players to contribute to at least one goal in all three group-stage matches.
Another young player has made a positive impression for Real Madrid in recently-signed defender Dean Huijsen. The former Juventus and Bournemouth centre-back made 46 line-breaking passes in the group stage, the most by any Madrid player and the third-most by a defender in the 2025 Club World Cup.
Dean Huijsen line breaking passes CWC 2025-26
Kylian Mbappé may return for Madrid after a bout of gastroenteritis kept him out of the group stage, while Raul Asencio is available again after his one-game suspension against Salzburg.
Juventus will be without defender Nicolò Savona, who came off with an ankle injury in the defeat to Man City.
The winner of this game will face either Borussia Dortmund or Monterrey in the quarter-finals, before potentially meeting Manchester City or Inter in the semis. The Club World Cup, much like the temperatures in the stadiums, is heating up.
Real Madrid vs Juventus Prediction
Real Madrid v Juventus Opta match prediction CWC
The Opta supercomputer has Real Madrid as favourites to advance, with Alonso’s side victorious inside 90 minutes in 47.1% of the latest 10,000 simulations.
Juventus dumped Los Blancos out in 90 minutes in 27.5% of sims, while the remaining 25.4% went to extra-time.
With extra-time and penalties taken into consideration, Madrid went through 63.4% of the time in total. Juve’s probability of reaching the quarter-finals is 36.6%.
Real Madrid vs Juventus Squads
Real Madrid
Thibaut Courtois, Andriy Lunin, Fran González, Sergio Mestre, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, David Alaba, Lucas Vázquez, Fran García, Antonio Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy, Dean Huijsen, Youssef Enríquez, Jacobo Ramón, Diego Aguado, Raúl Asencio, Jesús Fortea, Jude Bellingham, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, Federico Valverde, Luka Modric, Arda Güler, Dani Ceballos, Chema Andres, Víctor Muñoz, Mario Martin, Vinícius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé, Rodrygo, Endrick, Gonzalo García, Brahim Díaz.
Head Coach: Xabi Alonso
Juventus
Alberto Costa, Bremer, Federico Gatti, Manuel Locatelli, Lloyd Kelly, Francisco Conceição, Teun Koopmeiners, Dusan Vlahovic, Kenan Yildiz, Nicolás González, Arkadiusz Milik, Pierre Kalulu, Weston McKennie, Vasilije Adžić, Filip Kostić, Khéphren Thuram, Randal Kolo Muani, Timothy Weah, Carlo Pinsoglio, Daniele Rugani, Douglas Luiz, Andrea Cambiaso, Michele Di Gregorio, Lorenzo Anghelè, Nicolò Savona, Giovanni Daffara, Jonas Rouhi, Javier Gil, Augusto Owusu, Alessandro Pietrelli, Samuel Mbangula, Nicolò Cudrig, Tommaso Mancini, Stefano Turco, Giovanni Garofani.
Head Coach: Igor Tudor
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both sides.
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