Juventus is faced with a lot of uncertainties in the early stages of the 2024–25 season. Many changes that were made caused the prediction of how the club would perform in the opening matches.
Juventus went into a thrilling battle on Tuesday with PSV Eindhoven in their first game in this season’s Champions League. This match marks the club’s first game in the competition in 22 months following a 2022–23 group stage and a European ban last season.
As the team made a lot of changes with players who did not possess much experience, it was not clear how they would respond.
Juventus included four of its players who had never featured in the Champions League in its squad, with three who have no European experience. It is only Weston McKennie who has played 24 times and others with less than 16 appearances in the squad. Thiago Motta managed his first European game on the touchline.
Motta also made two changes from the weekend, where he later switched to a report 4-3-3. McKennie had his first start with Locatelli and Koopmeiners in midfield, and Michele Di Gregorio returned in goal.
PSV Eindhoven manager Peter Bosz used a similar formation of 4-3-3, as he missed important players like Hirving Lozano. PSV first had the early possession, but Juventus did not wait much to take the possession from PSV, with Yildiz and McKennie scoring a 2-0 lead before the halftime whistle was blown.
Gonzalez scored the goal that led to the 3-1 victory in the second half, despite PSV’s late consolation goal.
