Juventus host Bayern Munich in round 1/16 of Champions League.
After their relegation in Serie B in year 2006 and couple of turbulent seasons after returning to Serie A, Antonio Conte led Juventus to league title in season 2011/12. From that point Bianconeri have won four Championships in a row proving they are the best Italian club in modern football. In spite of their dominance at Apenini peninsula the Old Lady couldn’t make significant breakthrough in Europe right until previous season.
Massimilliano Allegri’s players led by “The Architteto”, Andrea Pirlo, played a phenomenal season winning Serie A and Italian Cup and making it all the way to the Champion League finals where they lost against Barcelona. On the road to the final they played some great games, especially against mighty Real Madrid in the semifinal where, by the common opinion, they outplayed Los Blancos in three out of four halftimes.
This season in serie A they started a little slow but they found their way to the top of the table with 15 wins in a row, including winning against biggest rivals Napoli two rounds ago. This weekend Juve’s streak ended with goalless draw against Bologna, but that’s understandable. Although Allegri claimed his players would be maximally focused on Bologna it was probably hard to them not to think about Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich in Germany are in similar situation as Juventus in Italy. Bavarians won Bundesliga title in each of the last three seasons, looking good to win the fourth one with eight points ahead of Borussia Dortmund. Unlike Juve, Bavarians have been pretty consistent in Champions League in the last decade.
In the last six season Bayern Munich found themselves five times in the last four, playing two finals and winning Champions League in 2012/13 against Jurgen Klopp’s dream team from Dortmund. Even though no one can remember when was the last time Bavarians lost in Bundesliga they are atypically struggling in the last few games. For the weekend they were losing against Darmstadt 98 until 49th minute when Thomas Muller did this:
Like two true giants of European football Juventus and Bayern met eight times so far, all of them being in Champions League. Juve’s last victory against happened in group stage of CL in season 2005/06. Last three matches Bayern won supremely scoring eight and conceding only one goal.
Match Facts
- Juventus have made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2005/06.
- Juventus scored only six goals in this season’s group stages, the lowest total among the 16 teams that made it to the knockout campaign.
- Juventus have lost only two of their last 34 home games in the Champions League (W22 D10). Both of those defeats were against Bayern Munich.
- Bayern Munich were the top scorers in this season’s group stages alongside Real Madrid, netting 19 goals.
- Robert Lewandowski has scored 30 Champions League goals since his debut in 2011/12. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (60) and Lionel Messi (43) have been more prolific over the same period.
- Philipp Lahm’s next Champions League game will be his 100th in the competition.
Team News
Former Bayern striker Mario Mandzukic and scorer of the first goal in CL final 2012/13 is doubtful for Juve with Giorgio Chiellini and Alex Sandro also likely to miss the game.
Pep Guardiola for sure can’t count on Javi Martinez, Jerome Boateng and Holger Badstuber while Mehdi Behnatia could return from his injury.
Predicted Lineups
Juventus: Buffon; Lichesteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Evra; Cuadrado, Khedira, Marchisio, Pogba; Dybala, Morata
Bayern Munich: Neuer; Lahm, Kimmich, Alaba, Bernat; Vidal, Thiago; Robben, Muller, Costa; Lewandowski
