Predictions Champions League - RB Leipzig vs Juventus

Champions League - RB Leipzig vs Juventus
Match Time: 03-10-2024 02:00 Thursday (GMT+7)
Football Livescore | Match Prediction & Tips
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Faced with a particularly tough run of league-phase fixtures, Leipzig were keen to take at least one point from their first game - perhaps the toughest of all, away to Atletico Madrid at the Metropolitano.

In addition to facing Serie A heavyweights Juventus and Inter Milan, Die Roten Bullen must also meet Liverpool and Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon, plus Premier League high-flyers Aston Villa.

However, despite taking an early lead through Benjamin Sesko, they were hauled level before half time in the Spanish capital, before conceding a 90th-minute goal that inflicted an increasingly rare loss.

That 2-1 reverse remains Leipzig's sole setback in 19 games across all competitions, having bounced back by taking four points from two subsequent league matches.

Most recently, they thumped Augsburg 4-0 last weekend to move into third place in the standings, continuing a club-record run without Bundesliga defeat.

Sesko bagged an early brace to get things started at the Red Bull Arena, boosting confidence in the camp before his club's first Champions League meeting with Italian opposition.

Amid an impressive start to his reign in Turin, Juventus coach Thiago Motta steered his side to success on their Champions League comeback - a potentially tricky fixture against Eredivisie champions PSV.

Highlighting a changing of the guard under new management, 19-year-old Kenan Yildiz scored a brilliant opener in the Bianconeri's 3-1 victory, as Motta named Juve's youngest-ever lineup in the competition, with an average age of 25 years and 149 days.

Yildiz also became their youngest Champions League scorer, with the only minor blot being the concession of a stoppage-time goal that remains the only one they have conceded all season.

Undefeated in seven games so far, Juventus followed a strange streak of three goalless draws in Serie A by beating Genoa 3-0 at the weekend, with Dusan Vlahovic striking twice in a stellar second-half display at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

While several big-money signings are yet to truly find their rhythm, Juve are now well-placed to improve a dismal recent record on the road - at least in continental competition.

The two-time European champions have lost four of their last five Champions League away matches, including each of the last three - their longest such run for a decade.

Motta is now looking to end that sequence and become the third Juventus manager to win his first two games in UEFA's elite competition, following in the footsteps of two greats: Marcello Lippi in 1995 and Fabio Capello nine years later.

Prediction:  RB Leipzig 1-0 Juventus