Race against time
Juve desperate to get Dybala fit for Lyon decider
the verge of a new five-year deal with Juve, a remarkable turnaround from what at one point seemed a nearcertain departure to England.
Now the Italian champions are feverishly trying to help the Argentine recover from a thigh injury picked up the night they won their ninth straight Scudetto in the hope he can start against Lyon on Saturday (3am Malaysian time).
Last week coach Maurizio Sarri said that Dybala’s “recovery process is going well”, but admitted he wasn’t sure when Dybala would return to action.
However Italian media reported yesterday that there is some optimism that he will be back in time to play some part the clash at the Allianz Stadium.
Juve trail the Ligue 1 side following their 1-0 defeat in France six months ago.
Despite winning the league with two matches to spare, their form at the end of the campaign has raised concerns that they might not make the final eight tournament in Lisbon later this month.
“We’ve switched off in the last few matches, now we need to turn it back on again for Lyon,” Sarri said. “Getting all the switches reconnected won’t come automatically.”
His players may be tired but they will certainly have more match fitness than Lyon, whose shootout loss to PSG following a goalless draw was their first match since early March.
“It’s true that a team playing every three days will be tired and have injuries but the fact that Juventus have won something before allows them to recover,” Lyon coach Rudi Garcia said in an interview in Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport.
“To play 120 minutes against that PSG attack without conceding is a good sign. And it’s not like we spent the whole game in our area – we had the same possession and took more shots than them”.
Former Roma coach Garcia told the Gazzetta that he is aiming for a similar display in Turin, saying that “we’re not going to defend the whole match”.
“We need to find a way to score a goal, if that happens it will be difficult to knock us out,” he said. – AFP
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer