Gazza Martinez
Established Member
FFS. That was the first thing I said once I saw the draw. Juve are the archetypal bane of our football. They're brilliant at isolating attackers, forcing them into culdesacs, breaking you down, and hitting you on the break.
Cesc must play, which means the formation we played against Madrid is a must. Vieira has to be pressed by Hleb/Reyes/Freddie whenever he has the ball. Henry will probably struggle to hold the ball up against Cannavaro and Thuram, and ideally you'd want to play two strikers against this Juventus side, but I don't think we can sacrfice it at the expense of the extra midfielder. Juve also won't make anywhere near as many defensive errors as Real, and their midfielders are very efficient with possession when coming out of defense, they won't gift us the ball like Gravesen and Baptista did on countless occassions.
The Werder Bremen matches give me a bit more confidence, as does Nedved being suspended, but Juve are masters of nicking an away goal and rolling over the top of you in Turin. Its going to be very tough...
Cesc must play, which means the formation we played against Madrid is a must. Vieira has to be pressed by Hleb/Reyes/Freddie whenever he has the ball. Henry will probably struggle to hold the ball up against Cannavaro and Thuram, and ideally you'd want to play two strikers against this Juventus side, but I don't think we can sacrfice it at the expense of the extra midfielder. Juve also won't make anywhere near as many defensive errors as Real, and their midfielders are very efficient with possession when coming out of defense, they won't gift us the ball like Gravesen and Baptista did on countless occassions.
The Werder Bremen matches give me a bit more confidence, as does Nedved being suspended, but Juve are masters of nicking an away goal and rolling over the top of you in Turin. Its going to be very tough...