Juventus – Nantes

The match in Turin will be tense and without many goals

This season's Europa League 1/16 final line-up compares favourably with previous editions. Along with Barcelona and a number of other notable clubs from the Champions League, Juventus have moved here, immediately becoming the fourth contender for the title. Bookmakers are now taking bets on the Turin side winning the gold medal at odds of 13.0. While in the Champions League, the Italian club finished utterly inglorious, managing to lose five out of six matches during the group stage, including a 0-2 loss to Maccabi Haifa. Nantes have no appetite to win a European trophy. It is important for this team to secure their position in Ligue 1, where they are now seven points from the relegation zone. The bookmakers have identified the home side as the clear favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.35 to win. Juventus are sure to go into the Europa League play-offs at full throttle. The legendary club were recently stripped of 15 Serie A points by the Italian Football Federation. This has pushed the Turin side out of the Champions League zone into the middle of the table, and it is unlikely that they will be able to reach the European cup competitions through the championship. Their only chance of qualifying for next season's Champions League is to win the current Europa League competition. Juventus have been reeling in recent weeks. The team's fortunes have been characterised by glorious victories to devastating defeats. At the same time, if in some games everything goes according to Allegri's plans, Juve tend to be very pragmatic, regardless of the opponent's name and status. Nantes barely made it through to the Europa League play-offs, having had to beat Karabakh and Olympiacos in the last two rounds of the group stage. To be fair, the Canaries have improved in the last two months. Nantes have not conceded a goal in seven successive games since the season resumed in December. And in the ten official meetings since then, Nantes have lost only to Marseille. Obviously, the Canaries will rely on a solid defensive performance in Turin. We anticipate a low-scoring match.