Europa League betting tips: Juventus seek first-leg dominance against Sporting
Adrien Rabiot
Juventus and Sporting clash in Turin on Thursday night in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final, and Tipstrr football pundit Sergiu Baltuta has been assessing their prospects.
If we look at their current standings in Serie A and Primeira Liga we could argue that winning this competition represents both teams' best route to Champions League football next season.
Juve come into this game off the back of a 2-1 defeat at Lazio last weekend, a result that leaves them eight points behind the top four, with nine games remaining.
That indicates quite a recovery since their 15-point deduction in January, but with games running out the games against Sporting take on even more significance..
Max Allegri will therefore be hoping for a similar response to his team's 1-0 reversal against Roma in March, after which they bounced straight back to brush past Freiburg to reach this stage of the Europa League.
Since suffering a defeat at the hands of Maritimo at the beginning of the year, Ruben Amorim's Sporting team has lost just twice more, both against FC Porto, once in the League Cup final and once in the league, and they come into this tie undefeated in 11 outings.
The Lions from Lisbon are still trying to recover from a poor autumn, when they failed to qualify from a modest-looking Champions League group that included Tottenham Hotspur, Eintracht Frankfurt and Marseille.
In the Primeira Liga SCP are only fourth, five points behind the third-placed Braga, who occupy the final Champions League spot.
They will fancy their chances of seeing off the Italian giants, after eliminating Arsenal on penalties after sharing two draws in the previous round.
Juventus won their last three Europa League games without conceding, and the last time they managed more than three straight wins with clean sheets in Europe was in the 2016/17 season, when they reached the final of the Champions League.
