Ileana Sanchez
Dailysports's expert
Juventus
Sporting CP
On April 13, Allianz Stadium (Turin) will host the first leg of the 1/4 finals of the Europa League, in which Juventus will compete with Sporting Lisbon. The battle will start at 21:00 CET.
Juventus
The team is in danger of being relegated in the current season for the unsportsmanlike “sins”, which have happened during Agnelli’s leadership. At the same time, it looks more than worthy, and, even with a 15-point penalty, there is an opportunity to break into the next cycle of the Champions League through the Serie A, finishing there in the top 4 (moreover, there is also the Coppa Italia way, where the first semi-final match with Inter has resulted in a 1-1 draw). The battle of the previous round in the Calcio against Lazio brought a defeat. However, Massimiliano Allegri publicly said, even earlier, that he wants to win in the Europa League – then, no one will take away a ticket to the main continental tournament (although the relations with UEFA have been already ruined by the giant from Turin), and, that is logical, one more trophy will be taken. Moving towards the desired goal, “the Old Signora” has already overcome Nantes and Freiburg.
Sporting Lisbon
The club won the league title in 2021 that had been for the first time since 2002. Nevertheless, it was not possible to stay at the top. First, “the Lions” lost one step, and, nowadays, the project from the capital has clearly lagged behind both its neighbour, Benfica, and Porto. Speaking about the Champions League, they took only the third place in the group, as Juventus did, when playing at the quartet stage in the autumn. And the Portuguese club has made a lot of surprises in the Europa League. It is reasonable to mention that at first there was a difficult struggle with Midtjylland, with which the team reached a home draw and, then, defeated the opponent with a 4-0 score in Denmark. The next step brought a sensation – there happened a success in the battle with Arsenal. After a 2-2 equality at the home arena, Rúben Amorim’s wards, having conceded first in the match with “the Gunners” in London, were able to come back into the game by means of Goncalves’ kick almost from the middle of the field, and win the penalty shoot-out against the English grandee.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
The opponents played at the group stage of the Champions League in 2017. Juventus was stronger in that confrontation: a home 2-1 victory and an away 1-1 draw.
Predictions
Bookmakers do not expect sensations and we totally agree with them – thus, it is reasonable to bet on the victory of experienced Italians at their home arena (odds – 1.83).
