Socrates 10028 Joined: 04-Apr-2006 142370 messaggi Inviato 2 ore fa (modificato) Conceicao: Juventus ‘stronger’ than Roma and Como, ‘Every team wants Bernardo’ Francisco Conceicao believes that Juventus are ‘stronger’ than Roma and Como as the three sides look set to do battle over one spot in the Serie A top four, and says that ‘every team’ would want to have his compatriot Bernardo Silva in their side: ‘He’s a great player’. Conceicao sat down in front of the media for the pre-match press conference ahead of Juventus’s upcoming Serie A match away against Udinese. Head coach Luciano Spalletti has made a habit of sending one of his senior players in to do the Serie A pre-match press conferences in recent weeks. ............ The month of February was one to forget for Juventus, who slipped to defeats against Atalanta, Inter, Galatasaray and Como across the Coppa Italia, Serie A and Champions League. The defeats against Como and Galatasaray in the cups have ended any hopes of silverware for the Old Lady this season, and those against Inter and Como have made a top-four finish considerably more of a challenge. ............ “I think that the strength of the group is the basis for everything we do. We’ve shown that many times in the past,” Conceicao told the media during his pre-match press conference on Friday. “During the week, we work on becoming stronger and we all have to improve individually, and that’s what we’ve done. We work on all the details that the coach wants to improve. “We’re playing very well at the moment, but we have even more potential to show. Now we have to win to achieve our goals.” On the upcoming opposition, Conceicao added: “Udinese are a strong team and even more so at home. We know that they’re particularly strong up front and strong in general, but we go to Udine wanting to win.” ............ “I know Bernardo Silva very well and he’s a great player,” said Conceicao. “Every team would like to have Bernardo in their side.” “All teams are stronger when all the players are fit,” said Conceica. “Dusan is very strong and is missing from our team at the moment. He’s getting better and better and we hope that he comes back well from his injury.” And on Spalletti, he said: “The coach has brought us a lot of things. We play well, we have the quality to do even better and prove it. You can see that the team plays with happiness, and plays well. We try to dominate the game and all the players like that, particularly those up front. We create a lot of chances but we have to do more and continue working hard to try and win in every game.” Conceicao was also asked which of Juventus, Roma or Como he feels are the most likely to finish the 2025-26 season in the Serie A top four. “I’d say Juve, I don’t care about which of the others make it. I care that we are there and that’s what we’re working for. “We know we have the quality to stay (in the Champions League). We have to work hard and win the game tomorrow. We have to stay in the Champions League, we have the quality to do it. “For me, we’re stronger, but we have to show it. We have to win to stay up there and we have to prove ourselves.” . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/conceicao-juventus-stronger-than-roma-and-como/ Modificato 2 ore fa da Socrates Condividi questo messaggio Link di questo messaggio Condividi su altri siti
Socrates 10028 Joined: 04-Apr-2006 142370 messaggi Inviato 2 ore fa Round 29: Udinese vs. Juventus match preview For the first time, Juventus had a good weekend in Serie A a few days ago. Not just because they won their first league fixture since the first day of February, but also because they won and got a little bit of help from an unlikely source when things were looking like they were going to remain status quo after the first weekend of March. And now as we work our way to mid-March and the first international break of 2026, Juventus has the chance to get even more help — and that is because those two teams directly in front of them will be lining up against one another a little less than 24 hours after the Bianconeri take the field in Udine. Juventus are currently in sixth place entering the weekend. The catch is that they are just a point off Roma in fourth place. And Roma is just ahead of fifth-place Como only because of goal differential. That means with a Juventus win against Udinese on Saturday night a draw between Roma and Como all of 24 hours later and Luciano Spalletti’s squad is back in the driver’s seat with less than 10 league games to go in the 2025-26 season. It’s easy to write it all down on paper and imagine how good things can happen, but Juventus are in another position to win and then get some more help from some “friends” later on in the weekend. That is if they take care of their own business, of course. ............ But to do so against a Udinese team that they’ve already beaten twice this season. You know what they say about trying to beat the same team three times in one season … Ah, we won’t all into a bunch of clichés here, but those two games were both in Turin. This one, as you can probably figure out, will be at the Friuli — a place where Udinese has just five wins in 14 games so far this season. But as Roma can tell you, just because you see Udinese is very much mid-table both when playing on their home field and on the whole this season, that doesn’t mean it’s a simple three points to take back home. And guess who has just as many wins in Serie A since the start of February? Yeah, that’s the team that Juventus will be lining up against on Saturday night. That’s more to do with how Juve’s played over these past few weeks rather than Udinese being some kind of force domestically since the last time these two teams met in the opening rounds of the Spalletti era in Turin. ............ Udinese has the potential to be a trap game regardless of Juventus having an entire week to rest up, get healthy-ish and prepare for one opponent rather than having the UCL Round of 16 dominating their thoughts. (If only, right?) Juve have dominated this matchup in recent years. They’ve won their last two visits to Udine by a combined score of 5-0. It’s the kind of game that can either be another step in what we all hope is the right direction heading into late March. Or it can be Juventus frustrating the hell out of us yet again since the beginning of February. If Juventus can win in Udine and make it back-to-back victories for the first time in nearly two months, then they will hopefully get to enjoy their Sunday and watch Roma and Como square off. Put the pressure on those in front of you — that’s all we can ask right now. And you do that by winning. TEAM NEWS Even though Spalletti didn’t hold a pre-match press conference on Friday, the big team news to come out of Continassa ahead of the team leaving for Udine is that Dusan Vlahovic will not be called up as he works his way back from adductor surgery. There is a good chance, as of this writing, that there a striker making a return from injury and being included in the traveling squad. That’s right — it’s Arek Milik, who could very well be part of the squad for Saturday night’s game. ............ Mattia Perin is expected to keep his starting spot in goal for Juventus in place of Michele Di Gregorio. Perin has started the last three games in all competitions, with Spalletti suggesting last week that he still has faith in both of his keepers regardless of all the outside noise that may be taking place. Weston McKennie is once again a yellow card away from having to serve a one-game suspension. (Considering the big games that are awaiting Juventus after the international break, maybe he could get it out of the way now? Just an idea, not a suggestion. Or maybe it is.) JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH Starboy. Not just because we could do that literally every single time I sit down to write one of these pieces. But because Spalletti has given the Italian plenty of reasons to speculate when it comes to the setup he might go with thanks to his moves during the second half of last weekend’s win over Pisa. So, we ask the question a lot of people are probably asking (and one they couldn’t ask Lucio himself considering he didn’t have a pre-match press conference): Will Kenan Yildiz play as a false 9 or his usual spot on the left wing? ............ But the very fact that nobody knows for sure where Yildiz is playing probably means the door is at least somewhat open to Spalletti playing Yildiz as a false 9 from the start. We remember the last time that happened a few months back and things didn’t exactly go all that well. (Even if Yildiz did score in that game to at least give his team a chance at picking up some points against the reigning Serie A champions.) ............ The thing is, what Yildiz was able to do playing in a free-roaming kind of role like he did last weekend is at least an interesting thing for Spalletti to consider. It likely gets him closer to goal even though he could very well find less space to operate against a compact defense like Udinese could very well be. There’s some good in that, but there’s also some not-so-good as well. It’s really what Spalletti has to consider when deciding where to play Yildiz on Saturday night. There’s also this to consider: Are Juventus a better team with Yildiz up front as a false 9 or sticking with David in the starting lineup in his usual spot? These days, it’s hard to really know — and that’s a big part of the problem. MATCH INFO When: Saturday, March 14, 2026. Where: Bluenergy Stadium, Udine, Italy. Official kickoff time: 8:45 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 7:45 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 3:45 p.m. Eastern time, 2:45 p.m. Central time, 12:45 p.m. Pacific time. 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Socrates 10028 Joined: 04-Apr-2006 142370 messaggi Inviato 2 ore fa (modificato) Serie A: Udinese vs. Juventus – Probable line-ups Juventus will have to do without Dusan Vlahovic for another week as Luciano Spalletti and his team prepare to take on Udinese away from home in Serie A on Saturday evening. ............ Spalletti’s side are locked in a battle for one of the positions in the top four, and currently find themselves in sixth place on 50 points, one shy of fourth position ahead of Saturday’s fixtures. ............ There had been hopes earlier this week that Vlahovic would be able to feature for the Old Lady after missing almost four months of action with an adductor injury. The Serbian has been in training last week, but it was confirmed on Friday that he would not be risked and is therefore not part of the matchday squad. Mattia Perin is expected to keep hold of his place between the sticks, with Michele Di Gregorio still out of favour after a series of disappointing displays across this season. Only Inter’s Lautaro Martinez has scored more goals in Serie A this season than Udinese striker Keinan Davis, who sits in joint-second in the league’s goalscoring charts along with an impressive list of names: Kenan Yildiz, Rafael Leao, Nico Paz, Rasmus Hojlund and Anastasios Douvikas, all of whom have nine so far. Davis is expected to start alongside Nicolo Zaniolo in attack on Saturday. Kick-off is due at 19.45 GMT. Udinese vs. Juventus: Probable line-ups Udinese (3-5-2): Okoye; Kristensen, Kabasele, Mlacic; Ezihibue, Piotrowski, Karlstrom, Atta, Kamara; Davis, Zaniolo. Juventus (4-2-3-1): Perin; Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly, Cambiaso; Locatelli, Thuram; Conceicao, McKennie, Boga; Yildiz. ............ . Read more -> https://football-italia.net/serie-a-udinese-juventus-probable-line-ups/ Modificato 2 ore fa da Socrates Condividi questo messaggio Link di questo messaggio Condividi su altri siti
