JUVE GOT TO HANDLE THE PRESSURE

Tuchel’s men are not underdogs this time

JUVENTUS v CHELSEA Champions League: 8pm

FROM JOHN CROSS in Turin

THE last time a Champions League-winning Chelsea boss played at Juventus it ended in the sack.

Roberto Di Matteo (right) was axed less than 24 hours after their 3-0 defeat in Turin in November 2012, just six months after he won the trophy.

Nine years on, Thomas Tuchel will know you can never rest on your laurels at Stamford Bridge, but he is on solid ground despite the Blues’ 1-0 defeat to title rivals Manchester City on Saturday.

Tuchel led Chelsea to their second Champions League trophy in May, when they thrived with the underdog tag and grew stronger as the competition went on.

Now they are undoubtedly more of a scalp this season, the challenge is bigger. Yet Tuchel insists his players must not get weighed down by increased levels of expectation.

“The expectation… it’s hard to be seen as underdogs when you’ve just won the title,” he said.

“But we came from a role not as favourites last season and got better with every match and grew confidence with every match.

“Maybe we were seen as contenders very late in the competition. That can sometimes help. Now it is easy to make us favourites.

“We have the experience that it gets a higher value to play against us. There’s a higher motivation to play against us. We have to accept this. It’s our fault.

We have won this competition, after all.

“We like this role, to come a bit from being an outsider. I don’t think we are favourites but we’ve shown people what we are capable of.“We

have to make ourselves free from these expectations and that these expectations do not become our expectations.”

Chelsea’s belief and confidence grew through the rounds last season after Tuchel took charge in January and yet much of their focus has been on the Premier League title this time. The defeat to Pep Guardiola’s champions on Saturday was their first real setback this season and suddenly their air of invincibility has been stripped away. But they also face a Juve trying to rebuild in boss Max Allegri’s second spell. But in a postCristiano Ronaldo era at the club, they are stranded in mid-table on Serie A after an indifferent start. Tuchel (above) added: “Time will tell. But I think it’s not a secret any team without Ronaldo will, in some parts of the game, not be the same. He is one of the greatest, as he proves every game. They lost a big champion, a big point of reference and a big personality.

“But you can be a big team and a strong team without Cristiano.

“They have a lot of talent, a very experienced coach, they’re a proud club who are used to winning, with a mentality for winning.

“This is my first time against Juventus. We face hard competitors and this is what we like.

“They are so experienced and such a big club with such experience in the Champions League –they will enjoy the different competition.” While Chelsea beat Zenit St Petersburg 1-0 in their Group H opener, Juve won 3-0 away at Malmo.

Tuchel said: “They’ve had some troubles with their results in Serie A, but they were very convincing in the Champions League. Sometimes if players are missing… it’s also the same for us.”

Having conquered Europe in his first season, maybe domestic success is at the forefront of Tuchel’s mind.

But, as Di Matteo discovered, Chelsea is a unique club where even the biggest trophies do not offer any long-term guarantees.

MATCH FACTS

This will be the fifth meeting between Juventus and Chelsea in the Champions League, with both teams recording one win each in the previous four (D2). Juve won their most recent meeting in the competition, recording a 3-0 home victory in the group stage in 2012-13.

Juventus have won 11 of their last 12 group stage matches, losing the other 0-2 against Barcelona in October 2020. They’ve kept seven clean sheets and their last three were 3-0 wins, against Dynamo Kiev, Barcelona and Malmo.

Since the start of last season, Chelsea have only conceded four goals in 14 CL games (W10 D3 L1), keeping 10 clean sheets and never conceding more than once in a game. The 10 clean sheets have been

kept by goalkeeper Edouard

Mendy in 13 appearances, the second quickest a goalkeeper has ever reached 10 clean sheets, behind only Keylor Navas (11 games).

Juve have won seven European Cup/Champions League matches against the reigning champions, with only Real Madrid ever winning more (11). They have won four of their five home games against the holders, though lost most recently in April 2018 against Real Madrid, a 3-0 defeat.

The Blues have only lost three of their last 32 group stage matches (W20 D9). Manager Thomas Tuchel has a 68 percent win ratio in the group stage (P25 W17 D5 L3) – the third best of anyone to manage 20 or more games in the stage, behind Josef Heynckes (73 percent) and Pep Guardiola (71 percent).

Juventus lost their last CL match against an English team, beaten at home by Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. They haven’t lost consecutive matches against English opponents in the competition since a run of four games between October 2002 and April 2005, while they have never lost consecutive home matches against English sides.

Chelsea have lost each of their last four away games against Italian opposition in this competition, with each defeat coming against a different side – Inter in 2009-10, Napoli in 2011-12, Juventus in 2012-13 and Roma in 2017-18.

Juve keeper Wojciech Szczesny has kept clean sheets in his two home games against Chelsea in all competitions, both with Arsenal in 2012 & 2013.

In his other four games against them he has conceded 13 goals.

Alvaro Morata – who scored 24 goals in 72 appearances for Chelsea in all competitions – has scored three goals in four CL appearances against the reigning champions, netting twice against Real Madrid in 2014-15 and once against Liverpool in 2019-20. Only one player has scored against the holders in three different seasons: Didier Drogba in 2004-05 (vs Porto) and 2006-07 & 2011-12 (vs Barcelona).

Romelu Lukaku scored on his Champions League debut for Chelsea, having also done so for Manchester United, becoming only the second player to score in his first appearance in the competition for two English clubs, after Mario Balotelli for Man City and Liverpool. The only two players to score in their first two CL games for Chelsea are Didier Drogba and Michy Batshuayi.