New Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti has his first win at the club under his belt and now he has his best attacking player back on the training field ahead of a big European fixture.
Juventus have received a huge boost ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League matchup against Sporting CP in Turin — the return of Kenan Yildiz to training with the group. The young Turkish attacker has been dealing with a minor knee issue over the last couple of weeks, and it is something that had him miss out on Spalletti’s
debut as Juventus manager over the weekend against Cremonese. But Yildiz returned to training with the group during Sunday’s session and was there again on Monday as the squad was training in front of the assumed Italian media on matchday eve.
The other new injury absence that missed the win over Cremonese, defender Lloyd Kelly, is still a doubt to face Sporting on Tuesday night. That could very well mean that Spalletti goes with Teun Koopmeiners as one of the defenders in the back three again just as he surprisingly did in the Cremonese win.
How Yildiz is used by Spalletti still remains to be seen. As of this writing, Juve’s new manager has not held his pre-match press conference, one where he will surely be asked about Yildiz and his comeback from missing Saturday night’s win. Will Yildiz go straight back into the starting lineup after missing his first game of the 2025-26 season over the weekend? Or, out of a bit of precaution considering just how important he is to this team, will Spalletti play it a little safe with Yildiz and have him come off the bench against Sporting?
We know just how important this fixture that marks the midway point of the UCL league phase is. Juventus enter Matchday 4 in 25th play and out of the play-off spots entirely, sitting on just two points in three games in Europe this season. Juventus need a win to both get their Champions League campaign back on track a little bit and simply just to continue to build some positive momentum again following Igor Tudor’s firing a week ago.
The return of Yildiz — be it from the opening whistle or at some point in the second half against Sporting — should be the big development and energy boost this team needs to try and get a result on Tuesday night. Plus, it will be our first look at how Spalletti might be thinking of using Yildiz and the unique skillset the 20-year-old No. 10 has.
