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In the match preview I quoted Giampiero Boniperti to start things off. In the game thread, I'm going to quote somebody else.
"When you get punched in the mouth, you gotta get up and punch them right back."
Juventus were punched in the mouth in Lisbon and the 2-1 scoreline is a sign of that. They didn't necessarily play poorly in the first leg, yet it's safe to say that they could have come back to Turin on level terms rather than needing a win to make it to the Europa League final.
And tonight is the night to do that.
Match Preview
Match Preview
Ninety minutes — or maybe more if we're "lucky" — is all that's left for Juventus to try and flip the current 2-1 deficit on aggregate into their favor. It's clearly not out of the realm of possibilities, especially since the second leg is in Turin and Juve are rather good in front of their home crowd.
The hope is that they're a little better than good against Benfica.
#Conte: "The word 'fear' isn't part of our vocabulary. We know we deserve to be in a European semi, it's an exciting moment." #JuveBenfica
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) April 30, 2014
That's what Juventus will need against the Portuguese champions tonight. They need a win. They need goals. They need to make sure Benfica doesn't get an away goal and completely ruin the opportunity to turn the Europa League final a home game for Juventus.
What will it be, gents?
All we do now is hope that a couple hours from now Juventus will be celebrating another home game rather than getting eliminated from the Europa League while sitting on the door step of the final.
Starting lineups for both Juventus and Benfica will be announced RIGHT HERE when they become available. If you were hoping that Simone Padoin would get the start, maybe you should fire up your XBOX and play a little FIFA 14. But hopefully it's after the game, don't want to miss the chance to see Juve make it to a cup final, right?
UPDATE: LINEUPS ARE IN!
Juventus XI (3-5-2): Buffon; Caceres, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Pirlo, Pogba, Asamoah; Tevez, Llorente
Juventus bench: Storari, Barzagli, Marchisio, Padoin, Vucinic, Giovinco, Osvaldo
Benfica XI (4-2-3-1): Oblak; Maxi Pereira, Luisao, Garay, Siqueira; Ruben Amorim, Perez; L Markovic, Rodrigo, Gaitan; Lima
Benfica bench: Artur, Jardel, Andre Almeida, Sulejmani, Ivan Cavaleiro, Oscar Cardozo, Salvio
