After both clubs suffered defeats on match day one this is
an early must win game for both clubs, more so for Juventus given that this is
their first home fixture of the group stage. The last time Juventus hosted Olmpiacos
was during the 2014 – 2015 season on a rain soaked night in Turin. Juventus
would need to come back from a 2-1 deficit to have any hopes of progression,
and in the space of two minutes Juventus would do just that to win 3-2, thanks
to goals from Andrea Pirlo and Paul Pogba.
This fixture could not come at a worse time for Olympiacos with
the firing of their coach Besnik Hasi just two days prior to facing Juventus. Both
sides go into this fixture with a local derby behind them, but with two very
different results. Juventus defeated Torino 4-0 and in truth it could have been
more, had it not been for the heroics of Torino goalkeeper Sirigu. Olypiacos on
the other hand let a 2-0 lead slip and lost their derby 3-2 against AEK Athens.
Juventus will need to be cautious of Olympiacos & what I
call the “new manager” syndrome. We have all seen it before in football, a club
plays poorly fires the current manager and suddenly play like a completely
different side under a new head coach. The previous meeting should also serve
as a warning not to take this match likely. Anything but 3 points and Juventus
will quickly be playing for a second-place finish and not competing with
Barcelona to win the group. This is something Juventus will want to avoid after
finding themselves eliminated by Bayern Munich in the last 16 stage when they
last finished second in the group stage (2015 – 2016).
The main decision for Allegri to make will be who to have up
front for Juventus. Higuain has been out of form and out of sorts so far this
season and found himself on the bench against Torino, with Mandzukic starting
in his natural position as striker. Although Mandzukic didn’t get himself on
the score sheet for the 4-0 victory, the Croatian put in a good enough performance
that could see him start as striker once again for the Olypiacos game.
In their last 19 home games in the champions league Juventus
are yet to taste defeat and on Wednesday night fans expectation will be for that trend to continue with the first 3 points of the campaign registered come the
end of match day two.
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