Italian champions Juventus travel to AS Monaco on Wednesday with a decent advantage in the bag from the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie. Last week the Serie A leaders defeated the French side 1-0 thanks to a penalty kick goal from Arturo Vidal. The two sides have already met over two legs in the semi-finals of the competition in 1998, Juventus prevailed that time despite losing 3-2 in France.
Monaco are the surprise of this season's Champions League, they haven't been in the competition in nine years and they were not expected to reach the last eight. They have pulled off an even bigger surprise in 2004 when they have reached the final. However, it wasn't a dominant campaign from Monaco. They have been rather fortunate to end up in a group with Benfica as top seeds but they did produce a strong performance in the first leg to knock out Arsenal in the previous round. Monaco will be without their two best central midfielders, Geoffrey Kondogbia and Jeremy Toulalan.
Juventus have not reached the Champions League semi-finals since 2003, that time they reached the final but were defeated by AC Milan. They don't have to worry about the domestic league title at this point as they hold a comfortable lead over their rivals with seven games left in the season. They have won eight of their last nine matches in all competitions, the only setback was a shocking defeat at bottom-of-the-table side Parma. Juve will be without some important players though, Paul Pogba, Kwadwo Asamoah, Romulo and Martin Caceres are all out of contention.
Probable line-ups:
Monaco: Subasic - Toure, Abdennour, Wallace, Kurzawa - Fabinho, Moutinho, Silva - Ferreira Carrasco, Matheus Carvalho - Berbatov
Juventus: Buffon - Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Evra - Pereya, Pirlo, Marchisio - Vidal - Tevez, Morata
My prediction: Juventus to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Monaco win - 3.40 Draw - 3.25 Juventus win - 2.38
timidi 8 years ago
Juventus came here to defend and they are success in their plans. They didn't score but they didn't concede a goal neither and they can be happy with this draw. In semi finals they play against Real Madrid and I think that Juve don't have quality to play against Real Madrid. I think that they will lose both games but it...
Juventus came here to defend and they are success in their plans. They didn't score but they didn't concede a goal neither and they can be happy with this draw. In semi finals they play against Real Madrid and I think that Juve don't have quality to play against Real Madrid. I think that they will lose both games but it is nice to see Juventus in this stage of Champions League after all this years.
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rikimartin4444_115925 8 years ago
Well, this was disappointing match. Juventus came to play defensive, not to concede goal, and they did that. This was easy job for them, with great players in defensive line such as Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli. But, Morata and Tevez should play better and score at least one. On the other side, Monaco tried do score,...
Well, this was disappointing match. Juventus came to play defensive, not to concede goal, and they did that. This was easy job for them, with great players in defensive line such as Chiellini, Bonucci and Barzagli. But, Morata and Tevez should play better and score at least one. On the other side, Monaco tried do score, but they are limited in offensive.
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Johnajax 8 years ago
My prediction was correct 0-0 boring draw :) Juventus showed us again that they know how to play on result. They had only one goal - not concede goal :) and they success. Now in semi finals we have four great teams, big clubs and I can't wait until tomorrow to find out who will play against who in semi finals but I think...
My prediction was correct 0-0 boring draw :) Juventus showed us again that they know how to play on result. They had only one goal - not concede goal :) and they success. Now in semi finals we have four great teams, big clubs and I can't wait until tomorrow to find out who will play against who in semi finals but I think that Juventus is the weaker than any other team and they won't be in the final.
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h34dhunt3r 8 years ago
This game should be tense aswell as derby in Madrid. Monaco is know for well organized diffence, and they will have to attack. Considering that Juventus is playing without Paul Pogba who is their defensive midfilder, we can expect Monaco to score. Question is - will italians do it aswell? Everyone is saying that this match...
This game should be tense aswell as derby in Madrid. Monaco is know for well organized diffence, and they will have to attack. Considering that Juventus is playing without Paul Pogba who is their defensive midfilder, we can expect Monaco to score. Question is - will italians do it aswell? Everyone is saying that this match is gonna be goalless, or one goal at most. I've betted 2:1 correct result, first half draw and away team scores goal. My predictions: - Result: 2:1 for Monaco, with them leading both times; - Man of the match: Geoffrey Kondogbia
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Johnajax 8 years ago
Here I expect match with small number of goals or maybe no goals at all. Both teams are better in defense than in offense and Juventus is closer to the semi-finals. They have advantage 1-0 from the first match and they have a lot of experience and quality to save that advantage and go in the next round. My prediction here...
Here I expect match with small number of goals or maybe no goals at all. Both teams are better in defense than in offense and Juventus is closer to the semi-finals. They have advantage 1-0 from the first match and they have a lot of experience and quality to save that advantage and go in the next round. My prediction here is boring draw 0-0
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kruno1414 8 years ago
Just like a match beetwen Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid this is a tough one . But Monaco needs to score and they were the one that were focused on defence all season long , so when they start searching for a goal i hope for some football to see :) Juventus will god trough i say .
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seculla 8 years ago
Juventus won in Turin with only 1:0 and they had many chances to win with more goal difference. It will be very tough match for both sides, but I must say that Juventus is in way better position than Monaco. Monaco must score and that means that they can't play their defensive strategy that they are playing. It will be...
Juventus won in Turin with only 1:0 and they had many chances to win with more goal difference. It will be very tough match for both sides, but I must say that Juventus is in way better position than Monaco. Monaco must score and that means that they can't play their defensive strategy that they are playing. It will be tough but interesting match. I expect Juve to go in semi finals. Forza Juve! Fino All Fine !
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rikimartin4444_115925 8 years ago
This will be tight match. Monaco need to win, but also they have keep clean sheet. They will play strong in defense and last 15 minutes can attack with all players. On the other side, Juventus need to score and they are most likely reach to next round. Tevez is in great shape and he will be the biggest threat. All in all,...
This will be tight match. Monaco need to win, but also they have keep clean sheet. They will play strong in defense and last 15 minutes can attack with all players. On the other side, Juventus need to score and they are most likely reach to next round. Tevez is in great shape and he will be the biggest threat. All in all, this will be match with under 2.5 goals. My prediction is 1-0 win for Monaco, and extra time to be played.
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sharpe 8 years ago
1-0 can be a small but also can be a huge advantage in the European tournaments. Definitely Juventus are the favourites to go trough in the next round from this clash and I don't expect a surprise from that one. Monaco all ready eliminated Arsenal in the previous round but I don't think they will have the strength to do...
1-0 can be a small but also can be a huge advantage in the European tournaments. Definitely Juventus are the favourites to go trough in the next round from this clash and I don't expect a surprise from that one. Monaco all ready eliminated Arsenal in the previous round but I don't think they will have the strength to do it again.
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