MAN CITY v Juventus: Preview – BOATENG to make Debut?
29 Sep
Not many games have the potential to overshadow a victory over Chelsea, but this fixture, where former European champions Juventus travel to Manchester to face City, quite possibly does. The visit of a side who have twice been conquerors, and five times runners-up, of the Champions League should not be taken lightly, so in a sense, this is the perfect fixture for the Blues, who recorded a sensational win over Chelsea and now must retain the standard set in that game.
City’s Europa League campaign got off to a comfortable start, a 2-0 victory away to FC Salzburg providing a satisfactory opening to the group stage. Our Italian counterparts could only manage a draw, albeit a highly entertaining one, against Polish side Lech Poznan, but by no means must we take their visit lightly. My good friend Roberto Mancini must, and surely already has done, make the players aware of the need to finish in first position in the group, thus, on paper, guaranteeing an easier tie in the next round.
With regards to team selection, our manager is boosted by the availability of German international Jerome Boateng, who has recovered from the humiliation of being injured by an aeroplane drinks trolley, and is pushing for a start. He may not be able to play for the whole 90 minutes, and Mancini may opt to rest him for the weekend trip to Newcastle, but it’s a huge bonus for the Blues that he is ready to return. If he is kept on the bench, Dedryck Boyata will continue in the right-back slot, although Joleon Lescott may come into the side, with Pablo Zabaleta shifting across the backline.
Otherwise, I’d expect it to be the same side which performed so heroically against Chelsea, a match which should inspire confidence into the team. Our team, as has been pointed out by many esteemed football pundits, is set up perfectly for European football and the slower tempo that it is played at. Our three midfield enforcers, Barry, De Jong and Yaya Touré are there to contain, whilst the creative David Silva (or David Villa in Alan Shearer’s case) will thrive on the extra time and space he is given.
Hart
Boateng K. Touré Kompany Zabaleta
Y. Touré de Jong Barry
Silva Milner
Tévez
Subs: Given, Boyata, Lescott, Vieira, A. Johnson, Jo, Adebayor
Juventus themselves have a number of superb world-class players, including Brazilian midfield maestro Felipe Melo, the one time City target Giorgio Chiellini and the vastly experienced Alessandro Del Piero, whose distinguished career has seen him represent Juventus over 450 times, Italy 91 and win 34 trophies! Add to that the world’s best goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and the dangerous Miloš Krasić, and they are a team to be feared. Although that worry is cancelled out by the presence of Liverpool reject Alberto Aquilani and a pair of former Arsenal players, Alex Manninger and Armand Traoré.
Key Battle
Carlos Tévez v Miloš Krasić
Both of these two strikers warmed up for this tie with important goals at the weekend, the City captain notching the winner against Chelsea, whilst the Serbian forward was in sparkling form as he scored a hattrick. Both are crucially important players for their side, and the result of this match may rest on who has the more productive game.
Referee: Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez – The experienced Spanish referee has been a regular at this level for a number of years. His hobbies include playing chess, listening to music and reading. Let’s hope that he has a Knight to remember!
Prediction: MAN CITY 2 - 1 Juventus - Expect City to come out of the blocks quickly, but Juventus have enough quality to withstand this early bombardment. City’s extra quality to prevail in the end though, with goals scored by Carlos Tévez, David Silva and Miloš Krasić.
Appauling pun to do with the referee, a knight to remember – shocking. I notice a catalogue of errors in this I am afraid Steven, however, not as major as that of the aforementioned Alan Shearer, that was terrible, as I noticed on Match of the Day.
I was starting to think that life at uni was meaning you were forced to rush these blogs, leading to mistakes like ‘gauranteeing’, ‘themselve’ and in the starting XI, meaning there were 2 right backs, Zabaleta just ahead of Boateng, and 1/2 an M playing left wing midfield, although I presume you mean Milner. As I have said, I was getting worried that the stress of uni life meant you had started to rush these things, but then I noticed you had gone to the impressive lengths of spelling the Juventus & Serbia right winger ‘Milos Krasic’ with all the appropriate accents, including an upside down roofjob (circumflex) on the s (How crazy the Serbian language is!! (if there is a Serbian language)).
I then realised that, of course, all your time and effort goes into the blog, and these are just rare errors that were pure mistakes. In terms of the preview, very impressive, and I think it should be noted that the amount of time I have spent analizing this shows I have nothing to do and am bored to tears at home, and need uni to start, as it does next Monday!!!!
Regarding the prediction, I cannot see City winning. I can see the talent cancelling each other out, and a 0-0 draw being the result, however, as you will know, I have predicted 2-2 in order to try and get more points with scorers.
come on you city it will be a blue moon i have every belief in the city as part of the song says we are the boys who never give in
I think it’s an appalling spelling of the word appalling in Browny’s comment, but there we go…
After reading this preview you’ve inspired me to change my prediction Sven, I’ll now have that Krasic to score as well… Of course if points were available for a correct team 0 score I might not, but I’ll play the system if I have to…
I’m going to stop moaning now! Nice preview, although I think we’ll have to play differently to how we did against Chelsea in this game – less getting stuck in, more getting Silva on the ball!
Thanks for the comments everyone. Browny, what do yo umean by I’ve got two right backs and only half a Milner. On my screen, the team layout is perfect, with Zabaleta at left back and Milner on the left wing. What does it look like for you?
And that should be the type of comment you leave every week!!