FC Barcelona (1st, 15 points) vs Juventus FC (2nd, 12 points)
Competition / Round: UEFA Champions League 2020-21, Group G, Matchday 6
Barcelona departures and doubts: Ansu Fati, Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Ousmane Dembélé, Samuel Umtiti (out)
Juventus Outs & Doubts: Merih Demiral, Giorgio Chiellini (out), Gianluigi Buffon (doubtful)
Date and Time: Tuesday, December 8, 2020, 9:00 p.m. M. CET / WAT (Barcelona and Nigeria), 8 p. M. GMT (UK), 3 p. M. ET, 12 p. M. PT (USA)
Venue of events: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Tobias Stieler (GER)
VAR: Bastian Dankert (GER)
How to watch on television: TUDN (US), BT Sport ESPN (UK), SONY TEN 2 (India), Canal + Sport 3 (Nigeria), Movistar Champions League (Spain, others
How to broadcast: FuboTV (US), BT Sport Live (UK), Movistar + (Spain), DAZN (Canada), others
Following a disappointing defeat to Cádiz at the weekend, Barcelona are back in action in the Champions League hosting Juventus for the group stage final at the world’s largest stadium.
After three good wins in a row, Barça proved against Cádiz that we simply shouldn’t expect any consistency from this team. Cádiz were a Top 6 team coming into that game, so this was a great game for Barça, and as they have done in all the big games this season, Barça were terrible.
The attack was uninspired, the defense gave up too much space and Ronald Koeman made poor lineup and substitution decisions. The only great game that Barça have won this season has been outside Juventus, but La Vieja was full of injuries on defense and Cristiano Ronaldo did not play.
On Tuesday, Ronaldo and the best defenders are back and Juve have not lost a match since losing to Barcelona in October. Andrea Pirlo is doing well in his debut as a manager and Juve will bring their game A to the Camp Nou because they have a real chance of winning Group G.
For that to happen, they need to win by two goals starting at 3-1. A 2-0 loss still favors Barça due to some tricky math, but there’s a good chance Juve will leave Catalonia as Group G winners.
Barça have to take a step forward in a great game, something they haven’t done all season. Everybody will see this as Messi vs Ronaldo, but personally I am much more interested in seeing the 11 players and more importantly the coach outdo himself and work hard to show that they are good enough to beat the greats.
I’d say let’s dance, but I’m worried this team might not even be able to crawl right now.
POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS
Barcelona (4-4-2): Net; Dest, Araujo, Lenglet, Alba; Trincão, Pjanic, De Jong, Pedri; Messi, Griezmann
Juventus (4-4-2): Szczesny; Square, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro; Chiesa, Arthur, McKennie, Ramsey; Morata, Ronaldo
PREDICTION
Although his career at Madrid conditioned me not to like him, I respect Cristiano Ronaldo a lot and I hope a great night from him. Barça lose because they are terrible in the games that matter, but the group continues to win: 3-2 Juve.
