Juventus are hunting their third straight win to kick off the Champions League league phase as they take on Stuttgart in Turin on Tuesday night.
Thiago Motta’s Juve have been defined by their vintage defensive resilience at the start of the new manager’s tenure, and they produced an impressively controlled display at the weekend to edge past ten-man Lazio 1-0 in Serie A.
Motta’s side have remarkably conceded just once in eight league games this season, with much of the chaos involving Juve arriving in the Champions League. After easing past PSV on Matchday 1, the Italians overcame plenty of adversity to defeat RB Leipzig 3-2 away from home last time out.
Stuttgart haven’t been quite as productive at the start of the new season, and their defensive frailties reared their ugly head at the weekend as they were trounced 4-0 by Bayern Munich. Sebastian Hoeness’ side sit tenth in the Bundesliga having drawn three of their seven games, and they currently rank 25th in the league phase table having claimed just one point from a possible six.
Here is 90min’s guide to Juventus vs Stuttgart in the Champions League.
Juventus vs Stuttgart H2H record
This is the first competitive fixture between Juventus and Stuttgart.
Current form (all competitions)
How to watch Juventus vs Stuttgart on TV and live stream
Juventus team news
Michele Di Gregorio serves his one-match suspension on Tuesday night after he saw red in Juve’s dramatic Matchday 2 victory at RB Leipzig. However, the hosts have an able deputy in Mattia Perin ready to step in between the sticks.
Gleison Bremer tore his ACL before the break and is out for the season, so Pierre Kalulu should play the bulk of his minutes at centre-back moving forward. Andrea Cambiaso could start at right-back on Tuesday.
Nicolas Gonzalez, Teun Koopmeiners and Weston McKennie are all likely to miss out.
Juventus predicted lineup vs Stuttgart
Juventus predicted lineup vs Stuttgart (4-3-3): Perin; Cambiaso, Gatti, Kalulu, Cabal; Locatelli, Luiz, Fagioli; Conceicao, Vlahovic, Yildiz.
Stuttgart team news
Stuttgart, like their hosts, are battered and bruised on the injury front.
Those currently sidelined includes Chris Fuhrich, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Justin Diehl, Leonidas Stergiou and Nikolas Nartey.
Enzo Millot is the star of this Stuttgart side in attack, but Deniz Undav has also been prolific since he joined the club. Undav scored on Matchday 1 away at Real Madrid.
Stuttgart predicted lineup vs Juventus
Stuttgart predicted lineup vs Juventus (4-2-3-1): Nubel; Stenzel, Rouault, Chabot, Mittelstadt; Karazor, Stiller; Millot, Undav, Leweling; Demirovic.
Juventus vs Stuttgart score prediction
Motta’s Juventus squad currently looks a little thin due to several injuries, and there’s no doubting that this team has gears to move through in the final third. Their football has so far been efficient and attritional, but the stability Motta has supplied has been ever so impressive.
The hosts are not capable of blowing teams out of the water, but they will exploit the gaping voids in Stuttgart’s defensive structure. Bundesliga sides tend to struggle in transition, and the visitors will commit bodies forward in possession – as well as to their press – in a bid to overwhelm their Italian hosts.
Stuttgart could give this injury-hit Juve team one of two things to think about, but they’ll ultimately be outfoxed by the Serie A side on Tuesday.
