Europa League: Juventus vs Sporting Lisbon! Two flaws making it hard for Juventus to beat the Portuguese top-flight team?

Today, let's start with the Europa League match: Juventus vs Sporting Lisbon!

The Serie A powerhouse faces the Portuguese fourth-placed team, with almost twice the value gap, and Allegri is a highly experienced coach who reached the Champions League final twice in three years.

Everything appears logical, yet I wonder: why does Juventus have such a poor record against Portuguese clubs?

I don’t doubt Juventus’s strength; they are fielding their full squad today and have strong motivation for the Europa League.

However, Juventus’s record against Portuguese teams is quite poor,A fact: in their last six matches against Portuguese teams, they have never beaten the expected stats, zero times.

In this group stage, they were defeated twice by Benfica;

In 2021 round of 16, they were eliminated by Porto;

In 2017 against Sporting Lisbon, although they had one win and one draw, it still fell short of fans’ expectations;

For such a globally renowned club, this kind of record against Portuguese teams is clearly unusual.

Juventus has two main issues that Allegri has yet to solve.

First, the defenders lack strong ball-playing ability, making it difficult to play out from the back against teams pressing aggressively.

In their home game against Benfica, they were repeatedly forced into hurried clearances, losing possession and allowing high pressing counterattacks, which easily led to goals against them.

Sporting’s PPDA is 8.2, second highest in Portugal and very close to Benfica’s. Will Juventus repeat the chaos they had against Benfica?

The second problem is that their defenders are relatively slow and struggle against opponents who are agile and skilled in quick passing and penetrating runs.

A fact: this season Juventus played 12 Serie A games against the top 5 possession teams, with a record of 4 wins, 4 draws, and 4 losses. Only Inter, who are underperforming, did slightly better; Juventus struggled against the rest and were even beaten twice by Monza in the league.

These nimble, possession-based teams consistently bypass their rigid defense to create scoring chances.

Teams like Benfica, who dominate possession, find Juventus’s defense quite easy to handle.

So what about Sporting, the second-best possession team in Portugal, close to Benfica?

When Sporting played Arsenal away, they showed excellent short passing and penetrating skills, which Arsenal failed to contain.

Sporting resembles Inter: they won the league in 2021, finished second in 2022, and this season, seeing the title out of reach, their league form has declined with players lacking motivation.

However, this has saved them energy, allowing them to perform well in cup competitions.

Juventus, on the other hand, is competing for a top-four league finish, the Italian Cup semifinals, and the Europa League, which is highly demanding and may prevent them from being at full strength.

Although there is a big gap in reputation and market value between the two sides, considering tactical matchups and physical condition, is this really as straightforward as it seems?

Can Sporting satisfy their traveling fans? What do you think? I’m hoping they at least avoid defeat!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still provide written analysis this evening. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. Let’s “watch and understand the game” together, don’t miss it!

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