Barcelona meets Juventus in the Soccer Champions Tour through the United States. The two great teams, former European champions and the powerhouses of their countries, collide at the Santa Clara Stadium in California. Barca had a solid previous year, taking the La Liga honors and getting back into the elite echelon of European football. Juventus still struggles to reach its previous heights, and the Old Lady had a pretty turbulent campaign, filled with off-court issues.
Preview
Barcelona (-110) made certain changes, with the veterans who were a part of their golden generation, Busquets and Jordi Alba, leaving the team. This is the final breakup with the team that their current head coach, Xavi, led on the field in the previous decade.
The new Blaugrana is a completely different squad with a different mentality. They are not interested in winning with beauty and playing appealing football, but only in the result. The key of the unit is the back line, and Barcelona had the best defense in the history of La Liga during the previous campaign.
Xavi and the boys played only one friendly event, which was against Vissel Kobe, a retirement farewell for Xavi’s partner in the midfield, Andres Iniesta. The Spanish chams easily defeated the Japanese counterparts, 0-2.
Juventus (+295) experienced a nasty season, which saw them going up and down the Serie A standings because of the ridiculous behavior of the football association that first fined Juve with a points deduction, then returned those points before taking them away again in the final rounds of the campaign.
If it wasn’t for such an amateur approach, Juventus would play in the Champions League, and things would be much different. In the current situation, this unit needs to even think about selling Dusan Vlahovic, which would seriously deteriorate their quality.
Juve didn’t play any preseason games; this will be their first one. They don’t have too many changes on the roster, and the only notable names that left Turin are Angel Di Maria and Juan Cuadrado.
Latest News
There aren’t any injured players on either team. Barcelona’s players are ready to play, and the current squad will probably be the one that starts the season.
On the other side, there are uncertainties about Vlahovic and Pogba, who has some offers from the Middle East.
Head to Head
Barca and Juve played two friendlies over the past couple of summers, with the one in 2021 ending 3-0 for Barca, and last year’s 2-2. In 2016, we saw them in the UEFA Champions League finals, and Barca won back then, 3-1.
The year after, Juve responded by eliminating the Blaugrana in the quarterfinals, 3-0 in Turin and 0-0 in Barca.
Prediction
Barcelona is a better and more formidable team. The team is at a very high tactical level, with Xavi awarding a specific role to each player. On the other side, Juve is a bit looser, without the needed power in the midfield, where they seem pretty mediocre. That’s why we give Barca an edge here, and predict its victory.
Pick: Barcelona -110
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
Twitter:
Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
Leave a Reply