Predicted Juventus lineup vs AC Milan: Italian football returns with Coppa Italia Semifinal
By John Vaccaro
The return of Juventus is finally here.
On Friday, Juventus will play their first match in a little over 3 months when they take on AC Milan in the second leg of the Coppa Italia Semifinal. Juventus was fortunate to leave Milan with a 1-1 draw in the first leg, needing a stoppage-time penalty to equalize against a 10-man Milan side.
We have no way to know what this matchup will look like, though, with absolutely no indication of either team’s current form. All we know is that this will be a battle between Serie A’s 1st and 7th place squads with a spot in the Coppa Italia final on the line.
Juventus should be as close to full strength as they have been all season, with only Merit Demiral still missing due to injury and no injuries to deal. That should allow them to use the 4-3-3 formation that Maurizio Sarri has been favoring lately.
GK: Wojciech Szczesny
Before the hiatus, Wojciech Szczesny was one of Juve’s most reliable players. Match after match, he was making incredible saves to protect Juve’s results. It’s impossible to tell if he’ll return in the same for, but those performances make it easy to predict that he’ll be getting the start on Friday. I’ve seen some people saying that Gianluigi Buffon is going to get the start and that would’ve made sense before the hiatus because he’s started every other Coppa Italia match. However, Juve should be starting as many of their usuals as possible in this match to get back into form to finish out the Serie A season and Champions League, which means Szczesny should get the start here.