Juventus Slight Favourites for Europa League Bout with Man City

Manchester City will put aside the turmoil and controversy from the past few days for their final Europa League group fixture against Juventus.

The Manchester club are unbeaten in all competitions since the 30th October when they lost to Wolves, but with a mixture of dressing-room unrest and squad rotation, that run could come to an abrupt end.

Want-away striker Carlos Tevez will be one of the many faces left at home, fresh after the revelation he handed in a transfer request on Sunday. His agent Kia Joorabchian claims he would have played if picked. City’s other striker absentees include Mario Balotelli, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz, meaning Jo is the only striker to travel to Turin.

Fringe players Joleon Lescott, Micah Richards, Adam Johnson and Shay Given will all be hoping to feature in the starting 11, in a bid to impress manager Roberto Mancini during the Christmas fixture pile-up. With an important league game against Everton on Monday, Mancini will be hoping for no injuries and a confidence boosting win to finish the group off.

The Blues are joined by Polish team Lech Poznan in the knockout stages of the competition, with Juventus and Salzburg both missing out on qualifying. Blues boss Mancini is undeterred in his determination to finish 1st.

“It is important to win this game because we want to top the group,” the Italian stated earlier this week. “We prefer not to meet the teams who come from the Champions League.”

“It is also important for the players because we have a lot of matches coming up and we will need everyone.”

Juventus, with a fierce home crowd behind them, are 6/4 favourites to win the match, will odds as low as 9/1 for a 2-1 win. City on the other hand are 9/5 to collect the three points, with Adam Johnson 3/1 to score during the match.

Bet Highlight

For City fans, a Jo goal in a 1-1 draw is 25/1, whereas fans of ‘la Vecchia Signora’ may prefer a Quagliarella goal under that same scoreline, which is 18/1.