In Turin, the appointment of Thiago Motta in the summer of 2024 did not pay off. He was replaced by spring, and Tudor managed to secure fourth place in Serie A. But by autumn, he himself could not fix the ongoing streak of bad results, and ultimately Spalletti took over as head coach.
The experienced manager quickly improved the situation. In Lisbon last season, they only managed to win the League Cup, finishing behind Sporting. They took their revenge in the summer’s Super Cup, but after a bright start, setbacks began in September.
As a result, Mourinho became the new coach, but even with him, there were enough failures – currently, they are also trailing Porto in the Primeira. They were knocked out of the League Cup by Braga.
Back in the Champions League, the Italians started poorly, drawing against Borussia, Villarreal, and Sporting. They even lost to Real Madrid – 0-1 in Madrid. But under Spalletti, things improved, though their opponents were Bodo/Glimt and Pafos, both debutants whom they managed to beat.
The Portuguese team began the tournament with a lackluster 2-3 loss to Qarabag – this led to the managerial change. Under Mourinho, the misfortunes continued: they lost to Chelsea, Newcastle, and Bayer, not scoring a single goal. But in the last couple of rounds, they pulled themselves together and beat both Ajax and even Napoli – both times by 2-0.
Juventus have won twice in a row in the Champions League
The club scores 2.0 goals per game here, conceding 1.67
Benfica have won their last two matches
The team scores 1.1 goals per game, conceding 0.8.
Juventus (probable line-up): Di Gregorio – Bremer, Kalulu, Koopmeiners – Cambiaso, Yildiz, Miretti, K. Thuram, Locatelli, McKennie – David
Benfica (probable line-up): Trubin – Dahl, Otamendi, Tomas Araujo, Dedic – Silva, Rios, Sudakov, Barreiro, Aursnes – Pavlidis.
Surprisingly, in seven European encounters, the Italian giant has won only once, losing five times, including a defeat just a year ago.
