Champions League resumes on Wednesday, so Juventus will be back in the competition where they had the most success in so far, as they cruised during the group stage. If it was not for a late two-goal comeback by Atletico Madrid back in the first game, they would have prevailed in each of the six matches in the group stage.
Finishing in first position allowed them to land a fairly cosy match-up with Lyon in the round of 16, an opponent they have familiarity with, since they have faced them four times in recent years, winning in three occasions. The French club is also not having a particular great season as they are in 7th position in Ligue 1 and do not boast a particularly good record at home.
The Old Lady will look to confirm their progresses on road after a dropping two matches recently, versus Lazio and Verona: they have partly bounced back by equalizing in San Siro with Milan and then by defeating SPAL on Saturday, in their best away performance in a while even though the result was still narrow.
Coach Maurizio Sarri switched to 4-3-3 once Douglas Costa was able to play consistently and confirmed it even once the Brazilian went down with yet another injury, advancing Juan Cuadrado to the trident with promising results, as he has scored and assisted once in the last two matches. Mattia De Sciglio and Danilo instead have been shaky filling in at fullback, but it looks like the coach is going to give some continuity to the tactic and privilege the offensive phase. Paulo Dybala also provided good responses as false-nine in Ferrara, hitting the post with a sweet shot and in general engineering most of the offense.
Cristiano Ronaldo has found the target in 14 consecutive appearances, including two Coppa Italia bouts and one UCL one.
The Old Lady have to deal with a pair of injuries: Miralem Pjanic is dealing with muscle fatigue, Gonzalo Higuain with back pain. The midfielder seems further along in his recovery and has more chances to play, also El Pipa probably would not have featured from the start anyway. Differently from previous months, Juventus have no need to rush the Bosnian international back because Rodrigo Bentancur has been serviceable in that position and, more importantly, Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot have both started to fare well, so they would be able to field a quality midfield even without him. Rabiot will battle it out with Blaise Matuidi to get the nod on the left side.
The other doubts in the lineup concerns the middle of the defence, where during the weekend Giorgio Chiellini started for the first time since tearing his ACL in January. The coach admitted that the decision will go down to the wire: he would take Matthijs De Ligt spot in the XI.
Probable lineups:
Lyon: 4-2-3-1 Lopes; Tete, Andersen, Denayer, Marçal; Tousart, Mendes; Traore, Aouar, Terrier; Dembele.
Juventus: 4-3-3 Szczesny; Danilo, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro; Ramsey, Bentancur, Rabiot; Cuadrado, Dybala, Ronaldo.
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