A 2 match winning streak for Juventus has kept them at the top of Serie A, but now they’ll turn their attention toward the Champions League for a match in Lyon.
Juve has been fighting to stay at the top of the league, with Lazio and Inter Milan both keeping pressure on them. However, it’s this competition that is actually considered most important by many Juventus fans. It has been over 2 decades since they’ve won a Champions League and fans are anxious for them to bring that dry spell to an end. The next step in their pursuit of this elusive trophy is a match at Lyon in the round of 16.
Success has been much more elusive for Lyon this season than it has been for Juve. They are currently in 7th place in Ligue 1 and barely held off Benfica and Zenit St Petersburg to even make it this far in the Champions League. Their only success this season has come in reaching the final of their league cup, where they’ll take on PSG in early April. Lyon is one of the weakest squads left in the Champions League at this point and a win over Juventus would certainly be their most impressive moment so far this year.
Juventus is getting closer to full strength at this point in the season. With Sami Khedira, Federico Bernardeschi, Mattia De Sciglio, and Gonzalo Higuain all recently returning from injuries, that just leaves Merih Demiral and Douglas Costa unavailable. Juventus will likely continue to rely on the 4-3-3 formation they’ve been using recently.
GK: Wojciech Szczesny
No surprises here. Wojciech Szczesny has been fantastic throughout the season in spite of the fact he has repeatedly been robbed of clean sheets he deserves by mistakes from the players in front of him. That was once again the case over the weekend as the only goal he allowed was a SPAL penalty. He has been the choice for every meaning full match this season and that should remain the case in this one even with Gianluigi Buffon still around as an option.