Photo courtesy of Galatasaray’s official Facebook page
Galatasaray will be visiting Juventus in their second UCL group stage match just a game after being destroyed by Real Madrid by a score of 6-1 on home ground. The game was not as ugly in the first half, but the deficit was always going to be there as the Turkish side botched their few chances and decided not to show up defensively.
Judging by that score line, this is a game that will have to be won in order to bounce back, even though it is on the road against the reigning Italian Serie A champions.
The good news is this: There has been a coaching change from Fatih Terim to Roberto Mancini who is Italian and can bring a breath of fresh air to the team. He does instill a boring type of soccer, if you will, but he is quite successful at earning close victories. The key is to score first and early, then play very carefully on defense and then look for more on the counter.
Also, he is expected to field a slightly different group of 11 players as some who have been riding the bench will get their chance — an example is Aydin Yilmaz, who is a tricky attacking midfielder.
The starters may look like this: Muslera, Eboue, Semih, Chedjou, Riera, Bruma, Sneijder, Aydin, Melo, Selcuk and Drogba.
Will fielding this group guarantee a victory in Italy against arguably their very best team? Absolutely not, but it is definitely worth a shot with a coach who knows how to keep his team disciplined throughout the 90.
