Juventus travel to Germany as they’re set to face Bundesliga side Freiburg in the second leg of Europa League’s last 16.
The Bianconeri won the first leg 1-0 in Turin thanks to a header from Angel Di Maria and they can get through with a win or a draw.
This upper hand is backed by numbers as Juventus have progressed from each of their last nine major European knockout ties when they’ve won the first leg.
On top of that, they have won their only Europa League away game of this season when they’ve beaten Nantes 3-0 in the playoff with Di Maria scoring a hat-trick.
On the other side of it, Freiburg have never lost the second leg of a major European knockout tie.
Results from their last five matches in all competitions:
Freiburg:
W L D D W
Juventus:
W W L W W
Team News:
Angel Di Maria is back. El Fideo, who has scored four goals in three Europa League matches, is not fully fit after a minor muscle injury but coach Massimiliano Allegri has stated that the Argentinian could be useful from the bench.
Federico Chiesa too has overcome his knee injury and he’s back but like Di Maria, he’ll be starting from the bench.
The lone striker will be Dusan Vlahovic, who has not scored in his last six appereances across all competitions included the last Serie A game against Sampdoria where he missed a penalty.
Fabio Miretti is likely to start the game next to him with Moise Kean initially on the bench.
Leonardo Bonucci will be missing the match after a knock on his fabula during the match against Sampdoria.
Federico Gatti is the main candidate to replace him in the back-three alongside Danilo and Bremer as Alex Sandro is till out injured.
Predicted XIs
Freiburg (3-4-2-1): Flekken; Kubler, Ginter, Lienhart; Gunter, Eggestein, Hofler, Doan; Holer, Grifo; Gregoritsch.
Juventus (3-5-1-1): Szczesny; Gatti, Bremer, Danilo; Cuadrado, Fagioli, Locatelli, Rabiot, Kostic; Miretti; Vlahovic.
Andrea Agostinelli I GIFN
