Atletico Madrid vs Juventus Preview

Juventus and Atletico Madrid meet here in this early season cracker in the Champions League.  Both sides met in the Round of 16 of the competition last season with Juventus edging past Diego Simeone’s side on aggregate..

Juve was kept at bay for much of the first leg until Atletico delivered a huge blow with two late goals to settle the first leg.  The Italians had Cristiano Ronaldo to thank for their second leg win as the Portuguese star put on a show and scored all three goals to lead Juventus to the quarterfinals.

A lot of changes have occurred on both sides with Juventus now being managed by the more expressive Maurizio Sarri while Atletico has had to rebuild their squad having lost star men like Antoine Griezmann.

Atletico come into this game 2nd in the La Liga table.  They lost their 100 percent record at the weekend after suffering a shock 2-0 defeat at Real Sociedad and while that result won’t have done their confidence a world of good, they always seem to get the result they need when they play at home.

Maurizio Sarri’s reign hasn’t exactly started well in Italy and the likes of Napoli and Inter Milan feel they can end Juve’s supremacy now that Max Allegri is gone.

The Old Ladies are currently 3rd in the Italian league table and were fortunate to have escaped with a draw against Fiorentina at the weekend.

All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo as he looks to win his first UCL outside of Spain and England.

Bookmakers have priced Atletico up as slight favourites to come out on top in this game however the odds are close and Juventus are priced up competitively.

Goal markets point to a tight game as under 2.5 goals is trading odds-on prior to kick-off while Cristiano Ronaldo is favourite to score the opening goal of the game.