In the evening, the second semi-final of the UEFA Champions League will take place, where Turin's "Juventus" club, showing the best defense in the tournament, will clash with one of the most attacking teams, "Monaco".
"Monaco" - "Juventus" Tournament: UEFA Champions League Stadium: "Stade Louis" (Monaco) Referee: Mateu Lahoz (Spain) Date and time: 2017-05-03, 21:45
This is a clash of completely different styles of teams. "Juventus" is one of the most experienced teams in the Old Continent, with football veterans such as Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, and Dani Alves in their lineup. On the other hand, unexpectedly returning to prominence this season, "Monaco" cannot boast of experience, but the young Leonardo Jardim team is hungry for victories.
Sporting form Both teams are in good form. Over the weekend, both teams had different performances locally, but the focus of the footballers was already on the upcoming Champions League semi-final.
Leading in the French championship, "Monaco" defeated "Toulouse" 3-1. Goals from Kamil Glik, Thomas Lemar, and Kylian Mbappe secured victory for the finalists of the 2004 Champions League.
In the last five matches, "Monaco" achieved four wins and suffered one defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in the French League Cup. Jardim's team scored 10 goals in all these matches, but also conceded quite a few - nine. Of course, this number could have been avoided, but the match against PSG gave a chance to players who were less involved in the team's previous games.
On the other hand, Turin's "Juventus" celebrated victories three times in the last five matches and settled for two draws. In the last matches, the "Old Lady" dropped points in the Italian league - drawing with "Atalanta" on Friday with a score of 2-2.
Atalanta was the only team that managed to break Juventus' defense in the last five matches. Massimiliano Allegri's players had not conceded a single goal until then, but in the last five matches, they scored 11 goals against their opponents' goal.
The path to the semi-finals Both "Monaco" and "Juventus" reached the Champions League quarterfinals by finishing first in their groups. Monaco left behind Leverkusen's "Bayer," London's "Tottenham," and Moscow's CSKA, while Juventus triumphed over Sevilla, Lyon, and Zagreb's Dinamo.
In the quarter-finals, Monaco faced a match against Manchester City. Jardim's players lost the first match at the Etihad Stadium 5-3 but then won in front of their fans with a score of 3-1, opening the doors to the next stage.
In the quarter-finals, Monaco faced Dortmund's "Borussia" club. Monaco defeated the "yellow-blacks" in both matches and advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 6-3.
Juventus started their journey to the semi-finals against Porto. In the quarter-finals, the Italian champions beat Porto with a total score of 3-0, and in the quarter-finals, they faced one of the most challenging opponents - Barcelona. However, M. Allegri's students dealt with the Catalans in the first match - defeating them 3-0 and then holding them to a goalless draw in the second leg.
Interestingly, Juventus has not conceded a goal in the Champions League for the last five consecutive matches. Both in the quarter-finals and in the previous round, "Bianconeri" did not need to retrieve the ball from their own net.
Team news Monaco will continue to play without Gabriel Boschilia and Guido Carrillo, and it is not known if Djibril Sidibe and Tiemoue Bakayoko are ready for the match. However, there is little doubt about the latter - he should appear in the starting lineup.
In these matches, Juventus also failed to avoid losses - due to disqualification, the player Sami Khedira will be missing from the starting lineup in the first leg of the semi-final. Due to injuries, M. Allegri will not have Marko Pjaca and Daniele Rugani in his squad.
Predicted starting lineups: "Monaco": Subasic; Mendy, Jemerson, Glik, Touré; Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Bakayoko, Lemar; Mbappé, Falcao. "Juventus": Buffon; Dani Alves, Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Pjanic, Marchisio; Cuadrado, Dybala, Mandzukic; Higuain.
Interesting facts "Monaco" and "Juventus" met in the Champions League semi-final in the 1997-98 season. "La Vecchia Signora" won with an aggregate score of 6-4 against the French team.
This will be the fourth Champions League semi-final for Monaco in the club's history. The last time they reached this stage was in 2004 when they were defeated by London's Chelsea.
Monaco will have to put in a lot of effort in the first leg, as away matches in the semi-finals don't bode well for the French club according to history - defeats to Milan and Juventus, and draws with Chelsea.
For Juventus, this will only be the second semi-final since 2003. The last time they played at this stage was in the 2014-15 season when they defeated Real Madrid with an aggregate score of 3-2.
Juventus has not lost an away match to French clubs in Europe for eight consecutive matches. The last time Juventus lost to Bordeaux in the group stage in 2009, and since then, they have achieved four victories and played two draws against French teams.
