Juventus returns to European action against Nantes
By Nick Belotto
Juventus is back in action today in the Europa League.
After stringing together a 3 game-winning streak, Juventus will play Nantes in the second-tier European competition.
Juventus crashed out of the champions league during the group stage which set the groundwork for this matchup. Nantes started the year in the Europa League but shouldn’t present that much of a problem for Juve.
Nantes is also riding a 3 game-winning streak, but their level of competition has been much weaker than Juve’s. The French side doesn’t have one singular player who invites fear in their opponents either. Juventus is generally pretty strong in defense and the Bianconeri should be able to keep Nantes from scoring.
Nantes may be at a weaker level of competition, but Juventus needs to be careful as their track record against weaker opponents is poor.
Juventus has struggled against weaker competition this year. They lost to Monza a few weeks ago and to teams like Maccabi Haifa in the group stage of the Champions League. If Juventus wants to secure a victory, they will need to make sure that they play aggressively up top. They also need to not play down to their opponent.
The attacking trio of Dusan Vlahovic, Federico Chiesa, and Angel Di Mari, should be strong enough to put up a goal or two against the French side. Gleison Bremer, Danilo, Juan Cuadrado, and Alex Sandro should be more than capable of shutting down an already-mentioned weak Nantes attack.
Overall, this should be a pretty solid win for Juventus. This could boost their European resume after getting knocked out of the Champions League. I can’t imagine a Nantes victory here, even if the French side is at home.
Prediction: Juventus 2 Nantes 0