UEFA Champions League 2019 has stepped into its quarter-final first leg stages on Tuesday with Liverpool claiming a 2-0 win over FC Porto at the Anfield while in the other match-up Manchester City faced a 1-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur at the latter’s new stadium.
On Wednesday, there will be two clashes – Manchester United vs FC Barcelona at the Old Trafford and Ajax vs Juventus at the Johan Cruijff Arena.
Juventus coach Massimilliano Allegri has confirmed that the star striker Cristiano Ronaldo has been passed fit to play against Ajax on Wednesday which will boost-up the club. The 34-year-old was rested by the Turin club after his sensational hat-trick against Atletico Madrid in the last round of the Champions League on March 12, but picked up a thigh strain while on international duty with Portugal last month.
While Ajax will be high on confidence as they had thrashed Real Madrid 4-1 away to reach the quarter-finals 5-3 on aggregate having finished second in Group E behind Bayern Munich who they held 1-1 in Munich before a 3-3 draw in Amsterdam.
Juventus won the Champions League round-of-16 with a Cristiano Ronaldo hattrick in Turin after being down 2-0 in the first leg against Atletico Madrid.
Head to head:
- Juventus and Ajax have played a total number of 12 games against each other, out of which, Juventus have won 6 games, drawn 4 games which left Ajax with 2 wins.
- Matches played in Amsterdam Arena are 6 in which, Ajax win – 1, Juventus win – 3.
- Matches played in Juventus Stadium are 4 in which, Juventus win – 2, Ajax win – 0.
- Matches played at neutral venue are 2 in which, Ajax win – 1, Juventus win – 1.
- Juventus have scored 15 goals against Ajax while the latter have scored 9 goals against the Italian giants.
Team News:
Ajax:
On Wednesday, only Hassane Bande (calf) is unavailable due to injury, while Noussair Mazraoui is a major absentee for Ajax due to a one-match suspension owing to an accumulation of yellow cards.
Probable Lineup (4-3-3): Andre Onana; Joel Veltman, Matthijs de Ligt, Daley Blind, Nicolas Tagliafico; Donny van de Beek, Frenkie de Jong, Lasse Schone; Hakim Ziyech, Dusan Tadic, David Neres
Juventus:
Although its confirmed that Cristiano Ronaldo is playing but Giorgio Chiellini has picked up a calf injury in training, which will sideline him for at least the first leg, if not next week’s fixture at the Allianz Stadium.
Probable Lineup (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczesny; Joao Cancelo, Leonardo Bonucci, Daniele Rugani, Alex Sandro; Sami Khedira, Miralem Pjanic, Blaise Matuidi; Federico Bernardeschi, Mario Mandzukic, Cristiano Ronaldo
UEFA Champions League 2019, Quarter-Final first leg: Manchester United vs Barcelona preview
