Projected Juventus lineup for Champions League clash with Valencia
By John Vaccaro
Juventus starts their chase for their first Champions League title since 1996 in Valencia on Wednesday.
The two teams come into the match heading in completely opposite directions. Valencia’s year started well, drawing Atletico Madrid at home in their opener. However, in the 3 matches since they have only earned 2 points against 3 squads that aren’t quite at Atletico’s level. This is a far cry from their performance last season where they finished 4th and earned this Champion’s League place.
On the other hand, things couldn’t be going much better for Juventus right now. Although fans would’ve had you believe differently for most of the season, Juventus has yet to face a challenge they couldn’t overcome. They have won all 4 of their matches so far this season, including defeating a Lazio side that will compete in the Europa league this season and a Sassuolo team that sat in second place going into the international break.
Juve will need to stay hot to come away with a win at Valencia. To do this it looks like they will be using a 4-3-3 formation. Paulo Dybala is injured and has been in incredibly poor form early in the season, which should rule out the 4-2-3-1 as a possibility. They are also missing Mattia De Sciglio and Andrea Barzagli for the match, but won’t be missing any of the starters we would usually see in the 4-3-3. This is truly the start of the season for Juventus as they have made it clear that their goal for the year is a Champions League title.