The winner of this encounter will all but decide who will go through as group winners. Manchester City hold a slender one point advantage over the Serie A champions going into matchday five and know a win will ensure they are guaranteed an easier draw in the first round of the knockout stages. However, their form in Europe suggests this is anything but a foregone conclusion and Manuel Pellegrini will be delighted to come away with a point and their advantage intact.
Juventus, who were losing finalists in the competition last season, are still looking to overcome their disastrous start to the campaign and are slowly but surely edging their way back to the kind of performances that won them their fourth straight Scudetto six months ago. Massimiliano Allegri’s side have lost just once in their last 10 competitive matches and haven’t tasted defeat on home soil in Europe in 15 games. This will be a huge test of City’s resolve, particularly after they were hammered 4-1 at home by Liverpool at the weekend, but who dominates the combined XI when factoring in league and Champions League ratings.
Unsurprisingly, Juventus’ dire start to the season means there is only room for three players in the XI and Leonardo Bonucci only finds a place at the heart of the defence because of injury ruling City captain Vincent Kompany out of the clash.
Despite languishing nine points off league leaders Inter and having already lost more games this season (4) than they did across the whole of the last campaign (3), Paul Pogba (7.40) is the highest rated player among both sets of players to have featured in at least 10 appearances this season.
The France international started the campaign slowly, but his performances have picked up over the last month and he is now returning to the kind of levels that courted him with moves to Barcelona and City over the summer.
In fact, Pogba is among the top 10 most successful dribblers from those that have attempted at least 50 across Europe’s top five leagues and the Champions League this season (60.5%).
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in terms of actual skill, sagna is below lischteinner. Otamendi is not as good as bonnuci or barzagli. Buffon is way better than hart.
Kolarov has been poor so far in my book.