Champions League: Real Madrid vs Juventus preview

Oct 23, 2013
Champions League: Real Madrid vs Juventus preview
Italian champions Juventus are still looking for their first Champions League win of the season when they travel to Real Madrid on Wednesday. The three points would keep the Italian giants in second position in Group B but Real Madrid are also looking to secure the three points and cement their place at the top of the group table. Antonio Conte's men have been held to 1-1 and 2-2 draws against Copenhagen and Galatasaray and their morale should be pretty low after succumbing to a disappointing 4-2 loss at Fiorentina last weekend. Conte hopes his side can respond to that defeat and denied claims that they were focusing on Madrid before the match against Fiorentina. "We lost a game that we dominated for 70 minutes. We were home and dry and had more than one opportunity to score the third goal," Conte said after the match. "I don't think our focus was already on Real Madrid, otherwise we would have got our overall approach wrong." Juventus will miss defender Stephan Lichtsteiner and midfielder Simone Pepe due to recent injuries while strikers Mirko Vucinic and Fabio Quagliarella are also set to miss out. Real Madrid have won both of their Champions League fixtures this season, thrashing Galatasaray 6-1 before hammering Copenhagen 4-0. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored no less than five goals in those two matches, making him the competition's leading scorer. The Portuguese ace was top scorer last season with 12 goals and his 56 career goals in the competition see him fourth in the all-time scorers' list. World-record signing Gareth Bale should be ready for the match as he returned from a thigh injury in last weekend's 2-0 win over Malaga. Midfielder Xabi Alonso has returned to training following a broken foot but he probably won't play so soon. Here are the odds for this clash of giants at Bet365: Real Madrid win - 4/7 Draw - 10/3 Juventus win - 21/4
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