Familiar foes prepare to clash: Atletico v Juve
Italian football’s biggest side are back in Champions League action when they travel to Madrid to take on Atletico on Tuesday. Can Cristiano Ronaldo help Juve to victory? Have a read of our preview here:
Now or never for the Old Lady
Let’s put it bluntly. Juventus are not spending close to €300 million on wages this season just to stroll to another domestic league title. They have serious ambitions to win big in Europe and will be going all-in to win in the Champions League this season.
It has, unsurprisingly, been an unbeaten start to the Serie A season for the Old Lady but a draw in the last match against Fiorentina led to a lot of frustration from some sections of the media. The opening three games have seen Juve win two games by a single goal margin and draw 0-0 in Florence. They will almost certainly cruise to another Scudetto but in Atletico, they face a completely different opponent.
The Madrid side are seasoned campaigners in Europe and will be more than tough. Juve are without experienced captain Giorgios Chiellini and will need to be far more clinical than they were at the weekend.
Despite Maurizio Sarri’s side being unable to find a winner against Vincenzo Montella’s Viola, they have still shown how emphatic they can be in front of goal. Against Napoli, they hit the net four-times to win a seven-goal thriller by a single strike.
In that game, Higuain and Ronaldo were both on the scoresheet and their experience will be needed to get past the talented Spanish outfit. The Bianconeri have excellent depth which they will need. They play Inter Milan in October before facing AC Milan, who were in action against Verona this weekend, in November and they will require that depth to be successful in what could be a busy season.
Also in this group are Bayer Leverkusen and Lokomotiv Moscow neither of which will be pushovers, though you do feel Juve and Atletico would expect to finish in the top two places.
Simeone’s men suffer first defeat
Atletico have had a very typical season thus far. Three straight wins to give their fans hope that they could be a real contender, followed by a reality check at the weekend as they crashed against Real Sociedad.
They also saw goalkeeper Jan Oblak pick up an injury which would be ideal for Juve but certainly not so for Diego Simeone’s outfit.
Atletico Madrid v Juventus betting tip
With so many talented attacking players on display, it is really hard to see this game finishing without goals. Juve’s defence looks the better so far but they were breached three times against Napoli last month and so are not infallible. That is why we are backing both teams to score at odds of 15/13, a decent shout indeed.
Post bet chat James's Tips:
With the game finishing 2-2 this one was a nice little winner