Juventus welcome Benfica to the Allianz Stadium this evening in the final Champions League game of the first phase and this is the side that Thiago Motta has announced.
Both of tonight’s teams will be likely through to the playoff stage, it would take a unique set of results for Juve to make the top eight or Benfica to drop out of the top 24 and miss out on the knockout stages so you could be forgiven for thinking that both sides will be just going through the motions.
However, for different reasons, both participants will be going for the win simply because it is better to be safe than sorry for Benfica and there is always that very slim hope for Juventus to get into the top eight.
Because both Juventus and Benfica will be looking for the win you would expect them to play out an open and attacking game but by the same token, both will be loathe to actually lose so a cagey start to the game is expected which will then probably open up when a goal is scored.
Either way, it is going to be a good game between two decent teams, let us know in the comments below what you think about the side Motta has selected and what your predicted score is.
