Juventus met Benfica at the Allianz Stadium in Turin for a decisive UEFA Champions League fixture for I Bianconeri, since their qualification to the knockout rounds was directly linked to their success in this match.
Juventus succeeded in winning convincingly despite some errors and weaknesses that can be fixed over time.
The 2-0 win will surely boost the teams performance and give them more confidence in their ability to deliver better results during what’s left of the season.
On the other hand, Benfica tried to disturb Juventus as much as possible and were extremely dangerous thanks to their out-of-possession work, especially their high pressing, which aimed to push Juventus into committing errors.
They were relatively successful in doing so, but lacked the quality to penalise Juventus for their errors.
Benfica will need to improve their attacking solutions, final passing, and finishing in order to exploit their effective high pressing and be able to beat teams like Juventus.
In this tactical analysis, we explore why Juventus suffered during the first half due to Benfica’s high pressing and why they were not as good as needed from an attacking perspective.
The analysis will also look at the tactical tweaks made by Luciano Spalletti during the second half and their impact on the team’s attacking performance.
Juventus Vs Benfica Lineups & Formations
Spalletti started the match in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Michele Di Gregorio as the goalkeeper and Lloyd Kelly and Bremer as centre-backs.
He used both Pierre Kalulu and Andrea Cambiaso as full-backs, with both Manuel Locatelli and Khéphren Thuram as central midfielders.
Up front, Juventus used Weston McKennie out of position as a right winger, Kenan Yıldız as a left winger, and Fabio Miretti as an advanced playmaker behind the striker Jonathan David, before subbing Francisco Conceição in the spot of McKennie and moving the latter as an advanced midfielder instead of Miretti.
On the other hand, José Mourinho started this match in the 4-2-3-1 formation, with Anatoliy Trubin as goalkeeper, Amar Dedić as right-back, Tomás Araújo and Nicolás Otamendi as centre-backs, and Samuel Dahl as left-back.
In midfield, Fredrik Aursnes and Leandro Barreiro were used as central midfielders, while both Andreas Schjelderup and Gianluca Prestianni played as wingers.
The attack also included Georgiy Sudakov as an advanced playmaker behind the striker Vangelis Pavlidis.
[Juventus Vs Benfica [2–0] – Champions League 2025/2026: Impact Of Benfica High Pressing On Juventus Build-Up And Spalletti In-Game Attacking Changes – Tactical Analysis](https://totalfootballanalysis.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Juventus-Vs-Benfica-2–0-–-Champions-League-20252026-Impact-Of-Benfica-High-Pressing-On-Juventus-Build-Up-And-Spalletti-In-Game-Attacking-Changes-–-Tactical-Analysis-1.png)
Juventus Vs Benfica Lineups
Juventus Dealing With High Pressure & Luciano Spalletti Tactical Tweaks
Juventus started the match with a clear ambition to attack and score early to secure a potential win, but they faced a very organised Benfica, high pressing that prevented them from building from the back with ease and made their attacks slower and more difficult to create.
It is also true that Juventus often succeeded in overcoming Benficas high pressing; however, they could have conceded goals on a number of occasions when they committed crucial mistakes in their own half, which enabled Benfica to make high recoveries and therefore counterattacks.
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