Juventus will have to play host to Barcelona tonight without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who can’t seem to shake off the Coronavirus despite showing no symptoms.
This will be the fourth Juve fixture that the Portuguese has been forced to miss since testing as positive for the virus as confirmed by James Horncastle amongst many other outlets, with the forward unfortunately ruled out of tonight’s big game..
He will be joined by both Giorgio Chiellini and Matthijs de Ligt on the sidelines, with both confirmed as out, although late checks are needed to assess the probability of centre-back Leo Bonucci’s involvement.
Andrea Pirlo also confirmed that Paulo Dybala is a little jaded after playing the full 90 minutes at the weekend, his first full fixture since returning from injury.
“Chiellini and de Ligt are definitely out of tomorrow’s game, however we’ll evaluate Bonucci’s condition. Dybala is a bit tired, but that’s normal after his first match as a starter, but he still has some time to recover,” he told his pre-match conference (as translated by Juventus official website).
This will leave leave us a little light in defence, but fingers crossed that Bonucci will be passed as fit.
Predicted XI:
Szczesny
Danilo Demiral Bonucci/Frabotta
Arthur Rabiot
Kulusevski Ramsey Chiesa
Morata Dybala
This team should have no problems scoring goals this evening, but my worry is that if Bonucci is to miss out, we may have to field two full-backs either side of Demiral against Lionel Messi..
Does Frabotta offer enough defensively to fill the role?
Patrick
