Europa League - Match Preview: Juventus versus Lech Poznan
Juventus and Lech Poznan take on each other in one of the opening encounters of the Europa League for the 2010/2011 season. Some might say this is a mismatch, as no one has heard a lot about Lech Poznan while Juventus is a big name in club football. No one
will give Lech Poznan a chance to win this match considering they are up against European giants Juventus.
It is clearly a David versus Goliath scenario at the moment. Juventus have a history which spans over 60 years in European football. Even current UEFA President Michel Platini played for Juventus. Platini’s childhood fan and perhaps the greatest French player
to have ever lived Zinedine Zidane played for Juventus in the late 1990’s before making his high profile move to Real Madrid.
In the 2000’s, two of the best players ever to grace the sport of football, Pavel Nedved and Edgar Davids, played for Juventus - the club is more affectionately known as Juve by their fans.
Recently, such glory days have come to a halt. Juventus finished seventh in the 2009-2010 Serie A season - a finish which is not at all characteristic of them but then again after getting relegated in 2006 before the World Cup for their involvement in some
match-fixing scandals in the Italian football league, Juventus have seen a downfall which can easily be compared to the fall of the Roman Empire in historical terms.
They do however retain some of their old stars. Del Piero still features prominently for the Italian giants and one of the best goalkeepers in the world Luigi Buffon still plays for the Bianconeri. They also have an upcoming defender in the shape of Giorgio
Chiellini and in the summer transfer window they bought Milos Krasic from CSKA Moscow and secured the services of Alberto Aquilani, albeit on loan from English giants Liverpool.
In their domestic league so far, Juventus still have to gather their first win of the season as they lost away to Bari in their Serie A opening encounter and then drew against Sampdoria on their home ground in Turin.
For a club that is as famous as Juventus, there will be no better way to win back support than to get their Europa League journey off to a flying start against Lech Poznan. However, Del Piero, one of the club’s longest serving players has come back and played
down his team’s chances to win this year’s Europa League.
He spoke in the team’s pre-match press conference and said that there are many high class teams in this season’s Europa League in the shape of Liverpool and Manchester City from England. Therefore it was not at all easy for a team like Juventus to go all
the way.
Little is expected of Lech Poznan in this year’s Europa League. They are by far the underdogs of their group which includes Manchester City, Juventus and Salzburg. However, Poznan were at one stage on course to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, that
was before they lost in the third qualification round of UEFA’s top European competition to Sparta Prague.
Sergei Krivet, who plays in central midfield for Poznan was humble before his team’s match against Juventus. He spoke to the media and said that Juventus might underestimate Poznan as a footballing side and therefore Lech will have a great chance to pull
off a surprise result.
Krivet said that he was aware that his team were the outsiders in this group but he assured the fans that the Polish league champions will try to make it to the next round of the Europa League. Anything but a win for Juventus will be a massive upset as far
as this tie was concerned. However, Del Neri’s side will be under a lot of pressure after losing their first two league matches. Winning against Poznan with a good margin will do Juventus a lot of good for the rest of their club football campaign.
Tags: