Barcelona vs Juventus – UEFA Champions League – Preview

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Sreya

Barcelona vs Juventus – Barcelona hosts Juventus at the El Camp Nou on 19th April, Wednesday in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie.

Juventus had taken a 3-0 lead in the first leg held at Turin and Barcelona need to come up with yet another miraculous second leg performance akin to their Round of 16 performance against Paris Saint-Germain to make it through to the semi-finals.

Bayern Munich’s performance last night and the match official’s erroneous decisions would however leave the Serie A club worried about the tumultuous nature of the competition.

Team News

Aleix Vidal and Rafinha are sidelined through injuries for the hosts while Marko Pjaca is injured for the visitors.

Barcelona Possible Starting Lineup: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Samuel Umiti, Gerard Pique, Jeremy Mathieu, Sergi Roberto, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar.

Juventus Possible Starting Lineup: Gianluigi Buffon, Dani Alves, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Miralem Pjanic, Sami Khedira, Juan Cuadrado, Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic, Gonzalo Higuain.

“We have to create a collective crazy atmosphere. The key will be to clinical in front of goal. Our goal is to score five goals. Many results at home and the recent comeback against PSG are statistics that invite optimism. If we score the first goal, Camp Nou will get the second and the third will come by itself.”

– Luis Enrique, Barcelona.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Barcelona vs Juventus H2H Stats, the last four meetings between these two clubs resulted in two wins for Juventus, one win for Barcelona and a solitary draw.

Juventus have kept a clean sheet in seven of their last nine matches in the UEFA Champions League, winning the last five games on trot in this competition. However, there have been over 2.5 goals scored in 8 of Barcelona’s last nine games in this competition.

It should be a closely contested affair and Barcelona are likely to win 3-1, but Juventus are the favorites to progress to the semi-finals.