Juventus’ first two fixtures at the Club World Cup were rather resounding successes. No matter what kind of caveats you attach to them, they were wins and wins with big goal totals attached to them. Their third and final group stage game was quite a resounding success as well, but for the team that lined up against Juventus.
That resounding 5-2 loss to Manchester City meant that Juve finished second in Group G. With it came a matchup that we could all telegraph 24 hours before it became official — a meeting with Real Madrid in the Club World Cup Round of 16. That means if Juventus want to extend their stay at the tournament at least one round longer and advance to the quarterfinals, then they will have to do so against one of the favorites to win the whole damn thing.
That comes after getting steamrolled by one of the other favorites to win the tournament.
This time, though, Juve don’t have the guarantee of another game beyond the one they’re about to play. They’re either going to surprise plenty of us with a massive rebound following the loss to City or see their run at the Club World Cup come to an end and summer vacations quickly get booked as they’re on their way back to Italy.
What happens on Tuesday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CEST kickoff) is something that will either be one of the lasting memories of Juve’s stay at the Club World Cup or even another reminder of just what this club is lacking compared to the current heavyweights in the sport.
Facing another big club that is in the midst of plenty of changes, what is there to look for as Juventus get set to face Real Madrid? Here are a few things amongst what is probably many.
Will Igor Tudor resting some of his best players actually prove to be worth it?
In theory, better players coming back into the starting lineup should mean good things.
The keyword there being “should.”
Because sometimes — or maybe more often than not over the last few years — with this Juventus, it’s hard to really know what you’re going to get from game to game.
Randal Kolo Muani coming back in for Dusan Vlahovic is an upgrade. Kenan Yildiz playing from the start is never not a bad thing or anything close to it. Same goes for Francisco Conceição stepping in for Teun Koopmeiners to reunite the three-man attack that powered Juve to nine goals in their first two CWC games. (Yes, it was against inferior competition, I know.)
These are good things, and they are all players who were rested against Manchester City last week with the knockout stages in mind. They haven’t had to play a heavy amount of minutes in the heat and humidity for the better part of the last week, and should be as rested as they can be at this stage of the extended 2024-25 season entering the meeting with Real Madrid.
Tudor took the gamble to rest players against Man City. It played out about as poorly as we could have imagined when it comes to how things went on the field. Maybe those who rested will be feeling plenty rested when facing Real Madrid, but that’s something we won’t know until things actually are underway.
Can Juve bounce back and actually give Real Madrid a run for their money?
Short answer: I really have no idea.
We know Juventus’ defense was going to be far from full strength — and that’s before Federico Gatti suddenly came down with the flu and didn’t train on Monday. (So, for all of you Daniele Rugani hive members, get ready to see your guy once again in Juventus colors.) That doesn’t exactly bode well against a team that has some of the best attacking talent in the world, does it?
Maybe it’s the performance against Man City clouding all of my judgement, but it’s hard to enter a meeting with Real Madrid with any sort of huge confidence from an outsider’s view. Yes, Juventus did what they needed to do against Al Ain and Wydad Casablanca, but the matchup against City was the first true test of Tudor’s squad at the Club World Cup.
Annnnnnnnnnd ... it wasn’t good.
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It basically resembled my first crack at trying to pass biology in college.
You can probably guess that it wasn’t the only time I took Biology 101 in my life.
Juventus are undoubtedly the underdog entering Tuesday afternoon’s meeting in Miami Gardens. It’s easy to figure that out even if you didn’t watch both group stage finales. But knowing what kind of performance Juve put out there the last time they were on the field, it’s not exactly encouraging to think that they can hang with another one of the European giants.
The new look of Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid
The major difference between the newness of Man City and the newness of Real Madrid feels like it comes down to this: As much as the former has brought in plenty of new talent, there’s still Pep. The latter, though? They’ve brought in some new, high-profile talent and they’ve got a brand new manager who has been on the job for all of about six weeks.
Real Madrid were one of the most notable names to use the pre-Club World Cup transfer window to add to their squad and give new manager Xabi Alonso a couple of important pieces to work with going into the tournament. Hell, they even paid a cool €10 million to Liverpool so that they could get Trent Alexander-Arnold in early to work with his new club.
All of this was to try and allow Alonso as much time as he could to work with his new team, with the Club World Cup being the first testing ground for his new squad.
So far, Real have seen positives under their new manager. The most notable switch came in their own group stage finale, a 3-0 win over RB Salzburg, where they shifted into Alonso’s preferred tactical setup with a three-man backline. That is how he built Bayer Leverkusen into a Bundesliga-winning side, and one of his key things to establish early at Real Madrid.
This is what our friends over at Managing Madrid said when Alonso was first hired:
His Leverkusen team is one of abstraction and discipline. Nominally a 3-4-2-1, the formation is a scaffolding—a temporary suggestion. In the first phase of buildup, it may stretch into a 3-2-5; in possession, a 4-3-3 emerges with asymmetric full-backs. When defending deep, the whole system tucks into a tight 5-4-1. Transitions are seamless, guided less by shape and more by spatial awareness.
Just like with Pep Guardiola’s new-look Man City, Juventus will now see this new-look Real Madrid side in its earliest of stages. Let’s just hope things go a little better this time around as compared to Juve’s first game in the Florida heat a few days ago.
That Dean Huijsen fella facing his former club for the first time
Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I know, I know. But it’s kinda hard to avoid talking about one of Real Madrid’s big summer signings without remembering that he was still a Juventus player this time last year.
Ah, what could have been. What could have been indeed.
Real Madrid CF v CF Pachuca: Group H - FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Photo by Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid via Getty Images
But now Huijsen, who turned 20 years old in April, will be lining up against the club in which he made his senior-level debut for the first time since signing with Bournemouth last summer. Since that move to England, Huijsen’s stock has only continued to soar, with Real Madrid finding no issue with activating his €50 million release clause the. first chance they could get.
And seeing Huijsen, still just a few short weeks into his Real Madrid career, line up against Juventus less than a full calendar year after they sold him ... that’s a tough one.
As Juventus field a far from full-strength defense against Real Madrid, there will be the reminder of what could have been every single time Huijsen is on the ball or trying to slow down his good pal Kenan Yildiz or one of Juve’s other attacking players. It’s going to be salt in the wound and an up close and personal reminder of Cristiano Giuntoli parting ways with the Next Gen program’s biggest gem not named Yildiz.
Yildiz and Huijsen have proven over the last 12 months that they’ve got the talent to be building blocks for any club. They were once at the same club, not not anymore. So now Juve will get the reminder of what could have been on Tuesday — and only add to the instances of frustration because Juve sold Huijsen for what already looks like a paltry fee.