Juventus desperately need a win to ease the pressure on under-fire manager Claudio Ranieri and kick-start their faltering season as Real Madrid come to town in the Champions League.
The clash against the most successful team in European football could not have come at a worse time for struggling Juve who have not won in five matches in all competitions, despite playing a succession of small teams including Catania, Palermo and even BATE Borisov of Belarus.
Juventus have publicly backed their coach but there is no doubt that the Old Lady of Turin’s hierarchy will not be satisfied with their current lowly standing in the Serie A.
And while they begun their Champions League campaign with a fortunate but positive 1-0 victory over Uefa Cup holders Zenit St Petersburg, the draw at debutants BATE exposed Juve’s weaknesses.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Napoli has hit confidence but Ranieri is defiant.
“Of course a defeat such as this weighs heavy with regards to the Champions League, but we have to keep working hard,” he said after the Napoli match. “We made mistakes in a very physical game. We took the lead and needed to control the match but we didn’t manage it.
“Do I feel safe? Of course I am. This is not a crisis, we’re going through a sticky patch but we’re not talking about a crisis.
“It’s clear we’re lacking consistency, we played in bursts in both the first half and second, we don’t have the same fluidity as last season.”
This is not the team that once boasted Zinedine Zidane and both Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved in their prime. Del Piero and Nedved are both still donning the black and white shirts but neither is the player he was five years ago.
Both are surrounded by the kind of mediocrity that would have been unheard of before the match-fixing scandal that saw them relegated to Serie B and lose top stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira and Gianluca Zambrotta.
Cannavaro will be making his first return to Turin since jumping ship following the scandal and while Juve are trying to build themselves back up, Cannavaro has never taken a step backwards.
He led Italy to the World Cup crown in the summer of 2006 and followed that up with two Spanish La Liga titles with Real, who have again started this campaign in fine form, winning their opening two Champions League matches and five of their first seven league games.
While Juve were going down to Napoli, Real were winning the Madrid derby against Atletico 2-1, thanks to a penalty deep into injury time from Gonzalo Higuain.
It has left the Madrid players feeling confident, although they are not taking Juve lightly.
“It will be difficult. Juve are a great team and they want to do well in the Champions League,” Dutch midfielder Royston Drenthe said.
“They went through a tough patch so they want to regain prominence.”
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