Juventus vs Bayern Munich preview: Familiar foes renew acquaintances
Juventus will take on Bayern Munich in its first International Champions Cup tie Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Wednesday evening. This will be the first pre-season game for the Bianconeri, while die Roten will be taking place in its second summer game after beating PSG comfortably 3-1.
The Bianconeri, who only just started pre-season training, made huge waves earlier this month by securing the mammoth signing of none other than Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s still a huge shock that the Portuguese superstar will be no longer playing for Real Madrid, but Serie A now has one of the top two players in its ranks. Indeed, it’s a huge statement for Juventus, who have been desperate to win the Champions League for the past two decades, and a bigger one for the Italian top flight, which has lagged behind LaLiga and the Premier League for a while.
That means that fans obsessed with the Messi vs. Ronaldo debate will have to find something else to do this season. In the meantime, Juventus will certainly have a lot more new supporters thanks to Ronaldo’s signing. However, fans will have to wait longer to see him in action. In fact, the 33-year-old five-time Ballon d’Or winner will not be featuring in a Bianconeri kit until next month. Additional absentees for Juventus include Brazil’s Douglas Costa, Argentina’s Paulo Dybala and Gonzalo Higuain, France’s World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi, Colombia’s Juan Cuadrado, and Croatia’s Mario Mandzukic, who was part of the Vatreni squad who finished as runners-up in Russia.
Juventus, however, isn’t the only side missing notable players. Bayern will be missing pretty much its entire German core. Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Leon Goretzka, Niklas Sule, Sebastian Rudy and Joshua Kimmich are all still on break after Germany’s poor World Cup showing, although this crop could feature for die Roten at some point during the team’s United States tour.
France’s Corentin Tolisso is another who won’t feature, as are James Rodriguez and Robert Lewandowski – the latter of whom had a very disappointing World Cup by his high standards.
Bayern does enjoy the head to head record in this contest – all of which have been in the Champions League. Die Roten has won five of its past ten meetings, losing just three. Will Juventus be able to overcome that frustrating head to head record against a depleted Bayern side?
