Champions League Italy — 23 October 2012

Italian champions Juventus visit Danish champions Nordsjaelland tonight in the Champions League.

The Bianconeri have drawn their opening two games of their Champions League campaign and they really need a victory against the Danish minnows.

Quality

Juventus are no doubt a quality outfit and they showed that last season by winning the Serie A title. The likes of general Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio make up a top quality midfield.

Then there are forwards Sebastian Giovinco and Mirko Vucinic who have the talent and the energy to cause any defence in Europe trouble.

Qualify

The Italian giants were favourites with Chelsea to qualify for the knockout stages from the group along with English table toppers Chelsea. However, Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk are a big danger to the two teams from the more high-profile leagues.

Shakhtar have already earned a draw with Juventus in this year’s Champions League campaign and have already picked up four points from their campaign. I am still expecting Juventus to qualify from the group, but they will have to beat the group whipping boys, as the Danes just don’t have the same quality of the other teams in the group.

Challengers

After their performance in last season’s Serie A campaign expectations have raised for this seasons Champions League campaign. The Bianconeri are a good team, but they currently have to be considered dark horses for the competition.

Juventus will probably pull off some notable results in their Champions League campaign, but I don’t think they currently have enough firepower to win the competition outright. Juve boss Antonio Conte identified the need for a new striker in the summer.

Unfortunately the Old Lady was unable to bring in a top quality striker and it’s a shame because a top quality striker would have rounded the team off quite nicely. For now though everybody connected with the club will be expecting a good result in Denmark tonight.

Are Juventus realistic challengers for the Champions League?

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David Nugent

David is a 29 year-old football fan and journalist, who is passionate about the beautiful game. He is a lifelong supporter of Premier League Everton and likes nothing better than a healthy discussion about the world's favourite sport.

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