Maybe the fact that their European lives is on the line will snap them out of that trend. It sure would be nice. TEAM NEWS Paul Pogba is out injured. Allegri said that Pogba trained partially with the team on Wednesday and will take things day by day with the Frenchman, who has still yet to make his official season debut.

It just so happened the Europa League final was in Turin that season, so the last Europa League game to be played at Juve’s crown jewel of a stadium didn’t even involve Juve. (Gotta love those quirky nuggets! ) Getting one step further than that and playing for the Europa League trophy is very much the obvious end goal of this season since things and targets have drastically changed over the last few weeks. To even have the chance, though, Juventus needs to get past a very average-at-best Nantes side that, on paper, the Bianconeri should beat nearly every single time. The problem is, we know how this Juventus team has played down to the level of its competition the last few years, especially this season.

But it’s not like there’s a lot of history between these two clubs to go off of entering Thursday night’s matchup in Turin. Juventus and Nantes haven’t played one another since 1996 when silver fox Fabrizio Ravanelli was running wild, Alessandro Del Piero’s sideburns were looking their mid-90s best and the barrel chest of Angelo Peruzzi was manning the gloves in goal for the Bianconeri. It’s been a decade since anything associated with the Europa League hit the Allianz Stadium turf, with Antonio Conte’s Juventus side playing in the tournament after crashing out of the Champions League group stage in the 2013-14 season. Juventus was ousted in the semifinals by Benfica.

If you are to look at the form guide in all competitions for both teams, it looks rather similar. Like, exactly, similar. See the last five games: W-W-W-D-L. Told you it was exactly the same. The difference, of course, is what kind of competition that each team has been facing. And it’s not like Juve has been playing a whole lot of heavy hitters of late — especially so since the blowout loss to Napoli in January. Juventus manager Max Allegri drove home the point during Wednesday’s pre-match press conference that his team’s Champions League exit “has left us with a bitter taste in our mouths. ” Little did we know what was going to happen at the club between that day and where we are now, with a season drastically changed by what happened off the field last month. No matter what, though, Juve enter the first leg of this Europa League playoff round tie on Thursday night as the favorite to go through.

Juventus vs Nantes live stream, score and H2H - scoreaxis.com

Live: Juventus v Nantes | Europa League | BT Sport

Juventus vs FC Nantes live score, H2H and lineups | Sofascore

Arek Milik is out injured. Fabio Miretti is out injured. Kaio Jorge is out injured. Leonardo Bonucci has returned to training and is expected to be available off the bench against Nantes. Bonucci has not appeared in a game since Juve’s 1-0 win over Hellas Verona on Oct. 11. Juan Cuadrado was back training with the squad on Wednesday after missing Sunday’s game against Fiorentina with the flu. That said, Allegri noted that Cuadrado is still not 100 percent.

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