Matchday two of the Champions League takes Barça on a trip to Turin, Italy for one of the classic fixtures in European football. A mighty clash awaits between two teams that have won 21 league titles between them since the turn of the century, and who have faced each other in some classic encounters in recent years.
Juve kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win at Dynamo Kyiv, both goals coming from Spaniard Alvaro Morata, but draw 1-1 in their last league game against Crotone.
Barça go into this one following an impressive 5-1 victory over Ferencváros in their first game in the competition, but also after being beaten 3-1 at home by Real Madrid in El Clásico.
Form Guide
Juventus may be unbeaten in Serie A, but they haven’t got off to a storming start in 2020/21, and in their last two games have been held to 1-1 draws by Crotone and Hellas Verona – a late header from Dejan Kulusevski saving a point in the latter. After five games, they’re fifth and four points adrift of leaders AC Milan.
Barcelona lost their unbeaten to Getafe on their matchday four, losing by a goal courtesy of a penalty, they also lost their crunch Elclassico clash at home by three goals to one to their bitter rivals Real Madrid, which leaves them at eleventh place on the log after five matches having two outstanding matches.
Head to head
Barça and Juventus know all about each other, and in 13 previous meetings in European competition, the record is four wins for Barça, five for the Italians, and four draws. The most memorable of those games was obviously the Champions League Final in 2015, which Barça won 3-1 in Berlin. Juve got their revenge two years later by winning in the quarter-finals. The teams also crossed paths in the group stage two seasons ago.
1970/71 UEFA Cup Second Round
Juventus won 4-2 on aggregate
1985/86 European Cup Quarter Final
Barça won 2-1 on aggregate
1990/91 Cup Winners’ Cup Semi Final
Barça won 3-2 on aggregate
2002/03 Champions League Quarter Final
Juventus won 3-2 on aggregate
2014/15 Champions League Final
Barça won 3-1
2016/17 Champions League Quarter Final
Juventus won 3-0 on aggregate
2017/18 Champions League Group Stage
Barça 3-0 Juventus / Juventus 0-0 Barça
The Champions League highlights of FC Barcelona v Juventus
Team News
In addition to Ter Stegen and Samuel Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho is now also missing from the Barça squad with a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, after being red-carded against Ferencváros, Gerard Piqué is suspended for this one.
For Juventus, all eyes are on Cristiano Ronaldo, who has tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss the game unless a test 24 hours before the game shows that he has recovered and is free to play the game. Otherwise, it’s in defense where Juve is most struggling, with Giorgio Chiellini and Matthijs de Ligt having joined Alex Sandro in the treatment room.
Possible Line-up
Juventus; 4-4-1-1
Szczesny; Cuadrado – Demiral – Bonucci – Danilo; Chiesa – Arthur – Rabiot – Ramsey; Kulusevski; Morata
Barcelona; 4-2-3-1
Neto – Alba – Lenglet – Araujo – Dest ; De jong – Busquet; Fati – Pedri – Griezmann; Messi
Did you know?
Current Juve manager Andrea Pirlo’s final game as a player was the 3-1 defeat to Barça in the 2015 Champions League Final.
Juve have only lost four of their last 42 home fixtures in Europe, but three of those have come in the last ten games.
Barça was unbeaten in the group stage in the last three editions, and have only lost one of their last 17 away games in this round. But they have only won 6 of their last 17 away games in the Champions League as a whole, and have never won a competitive match at the home of Juventus.