My pals, we’re out to see if current historical past might very properly find yourself repeating itself.
Let me set all of it up with this: Three days after Juventus’ wild 4-4 draw in opposition to Inter Milan final October, the Bianconeri had a midweek fixture to shortly shift their focus to. It wasn’t in opposition to anyone actually of be aware, with a struggling Parma facet making their approach to the Allianz Stadium for some midweek enjoyable — or what we thought could possibly be enjoyable contemplating how a lot they’d not been enjoying properly on the time.
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Juventus ended up dropping factors, and it turned out to be one of many 100s of attracts that the crew recorded final season.
So now, we quick ahead again to the current time during which Juventus are coming off a wild win over Inter on the weekend. The midweek matchup during which they shortly shift their focus to isn’t in opposition to a possible relegation battler. As a substitute, it’s their Champions League opener in opposition to Borussia Dortmund, a crew they had been enjoying in opposition to in a summertime pleasant only a month in the past. Tuesday night time’s matchup on the Stadium will see Juventus look to maintain this early-season success going, with Dortmund being checked out as simply as a lot of a check proper out of the gate in Europe as PSV Eindhoven was a yr in the past.
(In fact, we hope this would be the solely time Juventus play Dortmund within the Champions League this season if we’re utilizing the PSV thread as a comp for issues. Until it’s in, like, the UCL semifinal or one thing. Then it’s OK.)
As we head into the second yr of the Champions League utilizing the league section format, it’s now extra of a standard data simply how unstable issues may be if a consequence or two don’t go your approach. We will all bear in mind simply how necessary the stay desk grew to become throughout Juve’s final couple of league section fixtures contemplating issues had been altering a lot over the course of the 90 minutes on the sector. And even with that large win over PSV to begin issues out within the league section final season, it’s not prefer it ended up being an indication of issues to return when the seventh and eighth league section fixtures arrived and Juve had been towards the underside of golf equipment who had been despatched into the play-off spherical.
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If that first expertise within the league section taught us something, it’s most likely this: simply try to get into the highest eight as a lot as potential. Keep away from the play-off spherical. Simply don’t even danger your whole European future for the season coming all the way down to 180 minutes and added two extra video games onto an already busy schedule as we method the late-winter portion of the season.
In fact, on the subject of Juventus enjoying Borussia Dortmund, the very fact they simply performed a pleasant in opposition to each other on Aug. 10 is an attention-grabbing subplot to all of this. How a lot can you are taking out of it and apply to this matchup? I don’t actually know. It’s a pleasant compared to the primary Champions League fixture of the season, which comes with its personal distinctive little bit of depth. In order a lot as we will say Juventus performed properly in stated pleasant — which they did on high of merely getting the win —
Dortmund, to their credit score, have performed pretty properly the final couple of weeks after opening their Bundesliga slate with a 3-3 draw in opposition to St. Pauli during which they blew a 3-1 lead within the last 5 minutes. Like Juve, Dortmund presently sit in second place domestically, with — shocker — Bayern Munich already setting the tempo out entrance.
Juventus and Dortmund final performed a aggressive fixture in 2015 when to get the ball rolling and assist the Bianconeri proceed their march towards the Champions League last.
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For Juventus, going from the emotional curler coaster of Saturday’s win over Inter to now ramping all of it again up for the Champions League opener is kind of the distinctive scenario. The fear, as you would possibly anticipate, is for some kind of bodily and/or emotional letdown contemplating what occurred simply a few days in the past. However on the subject of how Juve supervisor Igor Tudor is feeling about issues popping out of the victorious weekend within the Derby d’Italia, that is how he’s viewing issues as he stated throughout his pre-match press convention on Monday:
“I had two principal takeaways in opposition to Inter. We performed in opposition to the strongest crew in Serie A when it comes to squad potential and we gained with out enjoying at our greatest. This second level ought to make us mirror on our true worth and what we might and may have carried out higher. We had been additionally lacking some necessary gamers for numerous causes, together with worldwide commitments and accidents.”
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Most of those self same gamers who had been out injured in opposition to Inter will miss the Dortmund fixture, so Tudor will just about have the identical squad accessible to him that he did over the weekend. But when he’s feeling like Juventus can beat an excellent crew like Inter and nonetheless not be near their finest, then it’s an indication about how he’s feeling relating to his squad’s general potential. And similar to in opposition to Inter, dealing with Dortmund are going to be one other good measuring keep on with see simply the place Tudor’s squad is at on the subject of this level of the season.
Identical to in opposition to Inter, we’re about to search out some issues out about this crew. And for the primary time this season, we’re going to see what they’re able to on brief relaxation after an extremely emotional win, too.
TEAM NEWS
Simply as was the case over the weekend, Francisco Conceição gained’t be accessible as a consequence of muscle fatigue that precipitated him to return from worldwide responsibility with Portugal early.
As he stated at his introductory press convention final week, Deadline Day signing Edon Zhegorva continues to be working towards full health and gained’t be prepared till after the weekend journey to Hellas Verona on the earliest.
Fabio Miretti can also be doubt as he continues to work his approach again from the harm he suffered in preseason.
Each Conceição and Miretti didn’t coaching with the group on Monday.
To the shock of no one, Arek Milik — who hasn’t performed because the last sport of the 2023-24 season — was not included in Juventus’ Champions League squad for the league section.
Regardless that this isn’t Serie A and his two-game suspension is now over, it’s secure to say that Andrea Cambiaso will likely be properly rested as he seemingly retakes his spot within the beginning lineup on Tuesday night time. That is additionally to function a reminder that Cambiaso scored each objectives in opposition to Dortmund in .
When requested in regards to the morale of the squad popping out of the large win over Inter on the weekend, Tudor stated: “The squad is doing properly in each respect.”
A pleasant little tidbit coming into this one: Tudor will change into solely the fourth individual to each play for after which handle Juvenrtus within the Champions League, becoming a member of an inventory that features Ciro Ferrara, Antonio Conte and most just lately Andrea Pirlo.
This would be the first sport within the Champions League that Tudor will coach because the group stage in 2022 when he was supervisor at Marseille. They solely gained two of their six fixtures, shedding the opposite 4 and ending backside of a gaggle that additionally included Tottenham, Sporting and Eintracht Frankfurt.
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JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Coming off an enormous win over Inter, there’s loads of instructions we will go together with this. The vibes are good, there’s a constructive vitality coming from this crew and clearly you’re going to get loads of good performers once you begin the season with three straight wins and an emotional Derby d’Italia victory.
So what about any individual who was an important participant within the late-game comeback? , the man who was only a few ft away from the place his older brother scored the go-ahead purpose after which celebrated like no different a bit of over 5 minutes later when he scored to tie issues up? Yeah, that man. I like that man. Let’s focus on him.
Khephren Thuram is Juventus’ most proficient midfielder. I don’t assume there’s an argument for any individual else. No offense to Manuel Locatelli, however you have a look at Thuram and really feel like he can solely get higher from his present kind is — and that’s an attractive thought for the longer term relating to a participant who clearly loves the place he’s at. (And so does his style icon father, who did a factor or two in Turin throughout his enjoying profession.)
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So, with that stated, it’s simple to assume that Juventus want Thuram at his finest in the event that they wish to win these large fixtures throughout the Champions League league section. To date this season, he’s been quite good, too.
Thuram presently leads Serie A in tackles. He’s received probably the most profitable dribbles on the Juventus roster by any individual not named Kenan Yildiz. His game-tying purpose in opposition to Inter offered Juventus with the jolt of vitality they wanted to get the late-game comeback really going simply when it seemed like they may not get factors.
Plus, he’s simply actually freakin’ cool.
We’re seeing Yildiz take the step as much as start the season. That might very properly be the case for Thuram if he continues this fashion. And there’s no higher approach to show that than in an enormous Champions League fixture during which Juventus must maintain the great occasions going.
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MATCH INFO
When: Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025.
The place: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 9 p.m. native time in Italy and throughout Europe, 8 p.m. in the UK, 3 p.m. Jap time, 2 p.m. Central time, 12 p.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Tv: TUDN USA, UniMas (United States): TLN (Canada); TNT Sports activities 2 (United Kingdom); Sky Sport 4K (Italy).
On-line/Streaming: , Amazon Prime Video, Univision NOW, TUDN.com, TUDN app (United States); DAZN Canada; Amazon Prime Video (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); NOW TV (Italy).
Different stay viewing choices may be discovered , and as all the time, you can too observe together with us stay and all of the silly issues we are saying . In case you haven’t already, on Black & White & Learn All Over, and be a part of within the dialogue beneath.