Maurizio Sarri’s Juventus are unbeaten across all competitions this season and have been in good form. Consequently, they find themselves at the top of their group in the UEFA Champions League with as many as four points to their name after two matches.
They first managed a draw against Atletico Madrid and then went on to defeat Bayer Leverkusen. They won their sixth consecutive match when they beat Bologna in the previous weekend and would look forward to make it seven when they lock horns with Lokomotiv Moscow on Tuesday at the Juventus Stadium.
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Lokomotiv Moscow, meanwhile, are placed third at the points tally in Group D of the UEFA Champions League and have three points from two matches. They started their Champions League campaign with a win against Bayer and then were defeated by Atletico Madrid earlier in the month. However, post that defeat Yuri Semin’s side have managed to come back on winning track and would try their best to win against the Italian giants Juve.
Juventus vs Lokomotiv Moscow: Match Details
Date: October 22, 2019.
Time: 12:30 AM IST (October 23).
Venue: Juventus Stadium.
Juventus vs Lokomotiv Moscow: Team News
Juventus
As far as Juventus are concerned, they will still have to compete without the services of defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Mattia De Sciglio while star players Douglas Costa and Marko Pjaca will also not be available for the match. Meanwhile, Emre Can is also reportedly not eligible to be playing for the competition.
Gianluigi Buffon is expected to be replaced by Wojciech Szczesny who has regained fitness and could be back in the team.
Lokomotiv Moscow
On the other side of the spectrum, Lokomotiv Moscow are also facing a number of injury concerns. Their main striker Fedor Smolov is set to miss out, along with Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Jefferson Farfan, Maciej Rybus and Anton Miranchuk. The manager is thus expected to switch to a 4-1-4-1 formation in order to strengthen their midfield against a quality position like Juventus.
All eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo as he has slowly started gaining momentum after a relatively slow start to the season. Despite a spirited Lokomotiv Moscow against them, Juve will start as favourites to win the game and collect three points without any hiccups.
Juventus vs Lokomotiv Moscow: Probable Starting XI
Juventus: Szczesny; Cuadrado, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro, Matuidi, Pjanic, Khedira; Ronaldo, Higuain, Bernardeschi.
Lokomotiv Moscow: Guilherme; Ignatyev, Howedes, Corluka, Rybus; Mario, Krychowiak, Murilo, Barinov, Zhemaletdinov; Smolov.
