Al Ain – Juventus

Juventus should be coming off a convincing win over their rival

Manchester City of England are the clear favourites for Group G of the Club World Cup. The second team from Europe, Juventus of Turin, is chosen as the main contender for the second play-off spot, while Morocco's Vidad and Emirates' Al Ain are considered underdogs in the fight for the top two positions. That said, everything looks obvious in this quartet only at first glance. The Italian club will play in the Club World Cup as the eighth best available team in the UEFA coefficient rankings over four years. Previously, the Turin team did not become a participant in the Club World Cup, and the current season has been spent in coach dismissals and other irritants that affect the situation on the football field directly. In this regard, to consider Juventus as unqualified favourites to face Al Ain and Vidad would be too rash a decision. The Emirati club will take part in the EFC as the winner of the 2023/2024 AFC Champions League. The Arabian team has already appeared in the 2018 World Club Championship. Then Al Ain made a splash in the tournament, managing to make it to the final through three rounds of playoffs, where they lost to the great Real Madrid. Bookmakers have identified the Italian team as the favourite for the upcoming clash, offering odds of 1.34 on their victory. Al Ain last became UAE champions in the 2021/2022 season. Two subsequent championships the club finished in the top 3, but the last draw of the national league finished in fifth position. Such statistics did not prevent the Emirati team from winning the Asian Champions League last year, beating Japan's Yokohama. Last season, Al Ain not only failed to represent the country honourably in the continental championship, but also embarrassed themselves by finishing in last place in the Western part of the general stage with two points after eight rounds. Juventus have not been doing too well this season either. The team managed to take a position in the Champions League zone only at the end of the last round of Serie A, and in the current draw of Europe's elite tournament, they crashed out at the early stage of the play-offs. Juventus are hardly ready to score 4-5 goals in the first round of the group stage.