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Manchester United-Juventus preview: Mandzukic out, Dybala plays with CR7 - live

Manchester United-Juventus preview: Mandzukic out, Dybala plays with CR7 - live

  • Emanuele Giulianelli @EmaGiulianelli
Tonight at 9 pm at Italian (8 pm in the UK) Manchester United and Juventus will play for the day 3 of the Champions League group H. Cristiano Ronaldo will come back to Old Trafford and, as we have reported in the Paper talk, the main attentions of the media are focused on him.

Tuttosport reports the plans of Massimiliano Allegri to replace the injured Mandzukic in the starting XI: “Mandzukic will miss? He would not have played anyway, so he took my mind off" has told Juventus manager in an interview with Sky. Maybe Allegri’s words are only pre-tactical, but what’s sure is that Juventus won’t have their more important tactical weapon, the Croatian forward who’s able to use his skill as a winger or to fight in the box to serve assists to Cristiano.

Who will replace Mandzukic?
It seems clear that the place of Mario will be taken by Paulo Dybala, who will have the task to create spaces for Ronaldo and to take advantage from the witnesses of Manchester United limits. Red Devils’ defenders are skilled on aerial game, but not so able to play with the ball on their feet: Dybala could give Juventus the solution to play in the tight spaces and to put down the ball, in order to create more chances, especially with counter-attack.

Who will play in the Juventus XI?
Massimiliano Allegri, as reported on Tuttosport, has given some clues about the possible solutions adopted in Juventus starting XI to face Mourinho’s side: “Cuadrado can also play as half-winger. We will play with 4 behind. In midfield we will have to be numerically equal to them. Bernardeschi is an important young player who will be the future of the world and Italian football. I don’t know if Barzagli can be a full-back tomorrow”.

Manchester United-Juventus: possible line-ups
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw; Matic, Pogba; Rashford, Mata, Martial; Lukaku.

Juventus (4-3-3): Szczesny, Cancelo, Bonucci, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Bentacur, Pjanic, Matuidi; Dybala, Ronaldo, Bernardeschi.

Follow all the latest updates here and click on the gallery for the latest social media activity of Man Utd and Juve ahead of the game