Juventus vs Freiburg

Juventus and Freiburg are set to trade tackles in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie at the Allianz Stadium.

Juventus strolled to a 4-1 aggregate win over Nantes in the opening Europa League knockout round, courtesy of a scintillating 3-0 second-leg win in France. Inspired by the club’s biggest-margin triumph in the competition and an impressive run of 15 unbeaten matches across their last 16 Europa League outings (W6, D9), ‘I Bianconeri’ are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 1-0 Serie A defeat to Roma at the weekend. Even though that result knocked Juventus down from a seven-game undefeated run in all competitions (W6, D1), the Italians can draw confidence from a flawless home record from 13 Europa League home games (W6, D7). Adding to this sentiment, Massimiliano Allegri’s men haven’t lost any of their last four competitive home fixtures (W3, D1).

On the other hand, Freiburg finished top of Europa League Group G without losing a match (W4, D2) while boasting an eye-catching +10 goal difference (GF:13, GA:3). Impressively, they won two of their three away games in this season’s group stages by 3+ goals ‘to nil,’ suggesting they could upset the odds in Turin. As one of only three sides to have gone unbeaten in all six Europa League group-stage outings this term, ‘Breisgau-Brasilianer’ should be confident about their prospects on their first-ever visit to Italy. Additionally, only Real Sociedad (2) conceded fewer goals than Freiburg in this season’s tournament, while Christian Streich’s men have kept three consecutive clean sheets on their travels in the build-up to this trip (W2, D1).