Juventus vs Monaco. UEFA Champions League Semi-Final.
Juventus StadiumAttendance40,244.
Tuesday 9 May 2017 19:57, UK
Juventus will look to finish the job and secure a place in the Champions League final for the second time in three years when Monaco visit on Tuesday.
The Italians hold a 2-0 advantage from their semi-final first leg at the Stade Louis II and are strong favourites to advance.
Juve head coach Massimiliano Allegri rested several key players for their 1-1 draw against Torino at the weekend but they struggled at times despite playing with a numerical advantage for more than half an hour.
The Bianconeri needed a stoppage-time equaliser from substitute Gonzalo Higuain to secure a point and missed the chance to extend their league record to 34 straight home wins.
They will again look to Higuain to lead their attack on Tuesday, especially after the Argentina forward scored both goals in the first leg.
Higuain hadn't previously scored in a Champions League knockout match since 2013.
Monaco, who beat Nancy 3-0 on Saturday, are bidding to become the first team to overturn a 2-0 first-leg home defeat in the Champions League knockout stages.
Juventus have no new injury concerns and Sami Khedira is available again after missing the first leg through suspension.
The German will compete for a midfield spot with Claudio Marchisio and Miralem Pjanic, with the duo both starting in France last week.
For Monaco, they still have a doubt over left-back Benjamin Mendy, who missed the first leg and the weekend win at Nancy.
This is the second time these sides have met in a Champions League semi-final, Juventus securing their passage to the final with a 6-4 aggregate victory 19 years ago before losing to Real Madrid in the final (1997/98).
Monaco have reached the Champions League semis for the fourth time after 1993/94, 1997/98 and 2003/04. No other French team has made the last four more than once.
Juventus, alongside Real Madrid, are the only unbeaten team in this season's Champions League (W8 D3).
Juventus are also unbeaten in their last 18 Champions League home games (W11 D7), their longest-ever run without a defeat in the competition on home soil. Bayern Munich are the last team to beat them, back in April 2013 (2-0).
Juventus haven't conceded a goal for 621 minutes, the current longest run in the competition. Six consecutive clean sheets constitute their new record in the competition. Sevilla's Nico Pareja was the last player to find the Turin nets, back in November.
Neither of the two goals conceded by Juventus in this season's Champions League have come from open play (11 games).
Monaco have only won two of their 11 away games in the Champions League knockout stages (D2 L7), and have also never kept a clean sheet in those 11 outings.
Falcao and Kylian Mbappe have scored 10 of Monaco's last 16 Champions League goals. In the first leg, Mbappe failed to find the net for the first time after having started a game in the competition.
Juventus' experienced defence obviously controlled Monaco's attack beautifully in the first leg, as they did with Barcelona's attack for 180 minutes in the previous round.
I think we'll see another thoroughly professional performance from the Old Lady's backline and they'll be ready for whatever their visitors' talented attack can throw at them.
Monaco will come out and look to attack from the start and Juve will just be patient and have the quality to hurt their visitors on the counter-attack.
Gonzalo Higuain hasn't been that prolific in the Champions League this season but he's been on fire in Serie A and I'd expect him to send Juve cruising through to the final.
Charlie predicts: 2-1 and Higuain to score first - 18/1 with Sky Bet
Allegri's men were cut from 13/8 to 11/10 to lift the trophy on the back of last week's 2-0 triumph while their visitors are out to 50/1 in the outright betting.
Higuain is the 11/4 first goalscorer favourite and is enhanced from 4/1 to 7/1 to bag a brace in Sky Bet's Price Boosts, while Falcao is rated Monaco's main threat at 6/1 to net first.
