Familiar faces as Atletico Madrid prepare to entertain Juventus

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, September 30, 2014
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There will be two familiar faces when Juventus visit Atletico Madrid's Vicente Calderon Stadium in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Former Athletic Club Bilbao striker, Fernando Llorente and former Real Madrid forward, Alvaro Morata both hope to be in the Juventus starting line up along with Argentinean striker Carlos Tevez and will pose a significant threat to the Atletico defense.

Morata scored his first goal since joining Juventus from Real over the summer, while Llorente no doubt harbors hopes of avenging the 3-0 defeat his former club suffered in the Europa League final in 2012.

Juventus travel to Madrid after an unbeaten start to the season and the Italian Champions will provide a big test for Atletico, who need to take all three points after being well-beaten in their debut group game away to Olympiacos a fortnight ago.

That 3-2 defeat in Greece means a further setback for Atletico will begin to seriously complicate their qualification for the knockout stage, but the good news for the Spanish side is that the return of Simeone to the dugout following suspension seems to work its magic at the weekend as they overturned an in-form Sevilla 4-0.

Simeone was also missing from the dugout in Greece and there is no doubt his presence on the touchline helps get that little bit extra from his squad.

The Atletico coach could opt to bring Italian, Alessandro Cerci into his side, but will probably opt to maintain his faith with Miguel Angel Moya in goal after giving an unfortunate debut to Jan Oblac against Olympiacos. Oblac was helpless to detain any of the goals he conceded, but the defense seemed to lack the understanding with the former Benfica keeper that they had developed with Moya.

Meanwhile Mario Mandzukic will once again don his face mask to protect his broken nose and lead an attack which is also likely to include French striker Antoine Griezmann. Endit

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