Serie A champions Juventus can secure qualification from UEFA Champions League Group D with two games to spare, all they need is a win at RZD Arena in Moscow against Lokomotiv in Wednesday's match. The Bianconeri had a tough task against Lokomotiv in the reverse fixture two weeks ago, the Russian side was leading 1-0 at the break and then Paulo Dybala scored twice in the space of three minutes to put Juventus ahead. The two sides have also met in the UEFA Cup back in 1993, and at that time Juventus won 3-0 in Turin and 1-0 in Moscow.
Lokomotiv Moscow started their UEFA Champions League campaign with a great 2-1 victory at Bayer Leverkusen, that result is what keeps them in third place at the moment. After that they lost 2-0 at home against Atletico Madrid and 2-1 in Turin, but they are just four points behind the two group favourites. Now they are going through a rather rough patch, after the defeat at Juventus they lost 3-0 against Spartak Moscow in the Russian League and then drew 1-1 at Ufa last week. Jefferson Farfan, Boris Rotenberg and Luka Djordjevic are injured, while Anton Miranchuk and Fedor Smolov will have to pass late fitness tests.
Juventus can qualify with two games to spare and that would be a big relief for them considering the packed schedule and the intense competition they have in Serie A. At the moment they are tied on 7 points with Atletico Madrid at the top of the group table. They are still unbeaten in all competitions this season, that's 14 matches without defeat and just three draws. Last weekend the Bianconeri secured a 1-0 victory in the derby against Torino, with Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt scoring the decisive goal. Juan Cuadrado is suspended for this match, while Giorgio Chiellini, Marko Pjaca and Mattia Perrin are injured.
Probable line-ups:
Lokomotiv: Guilherme - Cerqueira, Corluka, Howedes - Ignatjev, Barinov, Krychowiak, J. Mario, Rybus - Eder, Miranchuk
Juventus: Szczesny - Danilo, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro - Bentancur, Pjanic, Khedira - Bernardeschi - Higuain, Ronaldo
My prediction:
Juventus are not in their best form but they are still snatching the wins, I expect them to sneak another 2-1 victory here.
Here are the odds for the match at NetBet:
Lokomotiv win - 5.95
Draw - 3.95
Juventus win - 1.61
