Manchester City should see off Juventus
Manchester City must fancy their chances of beating Juventus in the second round of Europa League group matches.
The Turin giants have enjoyed a start to the season that could be best described as stuttering and failed to overcome Lech Poznan last time out. They even found themselves 2-0 down to the Polish minnows at one point before coming back to draw 3-3.
Their league form hasn't been great either, a victory at the weekend at home to Cagliari was a welcome boost, but they've already lost at home to Palermo, been defeated away by lowly Bari and could only draw with underperforming Sampdoria.
Part of the reason for this could be the mass summer clearout the club held. Established stars like David Trezeguet, Diego, Fabio Cannavaro and Mauro Camoranesi all departed the Stadio Olimpico di Torino.
Though they have signed solid replacements, including Man City target Milos Krasic, Liverpool flop Alberto Aquilani and Fabio Quagliarella, the new additions have yet to gel. Add to this the fact that goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is still sidelined with same injury that kept him out of most of the World Cup and you see that Juventus are not in fantastic shape and that's why they're given odds of [5.6] to beat the Citizens.
City on the other hand will be full of confidence after ending Chelsea's winning streak at the weekend and, although they're still without Mario Balotelli and Aleksandar Kolarov, they have nearly all of their big guns to call on.
Carlos Tevez is on fire, David Silva has begun to show his class and Yaya Toure is looking like the player fans thought they were getting. Strongly backed to claim to victory, City are ranked at [1.74] to win and at [3.1] to do so without conceding.
A defeat for either side will be far from the end of the world though. Both are overwhelming favourites to go through to the knockout stages, with City given odds of [1.03] to qualify and Juventus marked at [1.14] to do the same.
Manchester City v Juventus
Kick-off: 8.05pm
Live on Five
Think Juventus could cause an upset? Or will the hosts carry their Premier League form into the Europa League?
Published: 30 Sep 2010
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